I am using XP and have a CD RW but have never made a backup. XP gives an option of backing up "system state", its about a 350mb file. Is that the best way to do a backup? I can't find how to make a boot disk- floppy either I have my important files copied to another HD but what is the best way to back up or create a bootable cd or floppy in case my puter gets sick?
Norton Ghost will make a all-inclusive backup image of your HD or partition (including all your personal files, O/S files, etc). This way, if you have HD problems, you can just install a new HD, put in the Ghost CDs you created of your HD and it should be like almost nothing ever happened (however, you will lose any information you may have saved to your HD since you lasted "ghosted" your disk so you need to backup fairly often). Not sure on the boot disk for XP, but for older versions, it was Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs->Start Up Disk (tab at the top of the window).
Not sure on the boot disk for XP, but for older versions, it was Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs->Start Up Disk (tab at the top of the window). win 2k and xp use a self booting cd. if you need another option you can use a win 98 boot disk to start it up.