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[bearrfoot]

I'm thinking to use a 32GB USB flash drive for total system backup. I know this won't work for most folks, but my total system uses under 20GB of hard drive. I'd like to use clone s/w like xxclone to clone my system onto the flashdrive, and hopefully be able to boot directly from that on any compatible computer. I have successfully done this on external hard drives. I'd like to do a backup to a flashdrive so I could toss it in the safety deposit box at the bank for emergency off-site backup (DVDs won't fit in the box)...!

Are there any holes in this idea...?

Thanks...!

[patrickmarshall]

The only thing to consider is that flash drives have a limited number of read/write operations. If your operating system is on the flash drive it could run into that limit.

[bearrfoot]

Thanks, Patrick. I assume the concern is with using the flashdrive as a routine operating system. That's not what I had in mind, but rather if I had to use it I would immediately re-clone it back to the hard drive in the computer.

One of the reasons I thought the flashdrive would be an ideal solution was your newspaper column, which discussed the relatively short lifetimes of writable CDs. I recall your opinion was that flashdrives would hold data many times longer.

[patrickmarshall]

Yes, if it was used routinely as an operating system it could be problem. Otherwise, you should be OK.

[bearrfoot]

Well, looks like I am out of Schlitz....

I bought a 32 GB flashdrive and was surprised to find it totally blank. All the smaller ones I have came with some security s/w on board. This is not a concern, just a surprise.

Anyhow in attempting to use XXCLONE, I discover it does not recognize the flashdrive as a disk drive at all. Does not see it. But I notice the flashdrive came formated as FAT32. My system is Win XP home premium SP3, with hard drive formatted as NTFS. Could this be the problem...? I attempted to reformat the flashdrive, but it appears to offer only the options of FAT32 or ex-FAT, which seems to be for 64GB or larger parts. Perhaps flashdrives do not allow NTFS format...? I am a hardware guy and quite over my head in these considerations....

Next question... is there any way at all to back up my entire system on anything? I have never found a way to back up an entire system on anything, even a hard drive, as it always chokes on "files in use", or something else that prevents the process from completing...! I am really looking to capture the entire system, with all the Windows updates, add-ons and apps, so I don't have to rebuild it if I have to recover from a crash. XXCLONE is actually the only thing I found that would do this, but apparently works only between hard disks... And it appears not even there when encryption is attempted... from my experience so far.

[patrickmarshall]

Ah, details. If I remember correctly, XP will only recognize flashdrives formatted FAT16 at boot time. That means a max of 2 megabytes.

[jaxn]

We use ximage all the time for this type of process. ImageX is the method MicroSoft uses to distribute software via a .wim (Windows Image Format) file.

I will post some instructions that are easier than they appear.

basic process:
1) setup a USB device to boot
2) put the WinPe environment on the USB
3) Boot from the USB
4) Append an image of your C: drive to the WIM on your USB

Your Done!

When you want to restore your image, Boot from USB and apply the image back.

Link to instructions:
http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/how- ... and-imagex

ImageX from MS.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 07842.aspx