Hi,
I am running Windows XP Professional and I would like to backup the entire hard disk to another (new) hard disk in another caddy.
I have managed to find the 'Ntbackup.exe' command, and I want to backup the entire content to ann external USB drive.
My question is this......how do I re-instate the backup to my new drive ?
TIA !

Hi welcome to PCHF I use nortons ghost to do this it works prefectly you can even backup to dvd or cd and usb drives and it's a complete images. But with NT backup you backup the drive you want to store the data off and if you need it on another PC double click the backup file this will start the "backup or restore wizzard" it would be best to logon to the new PC as administrator and on the old one to.

Information here XP Backup Using NTBackup Backup or Restore Wizard

From the command prompt type ntbackup /? to see all of the appropiate commands.

Full list of commands here Microsoft Corporation why are you using ntbackup instead of the one in windows also depending on what you doing this for you might want to look at the XP transfer wizzard How to use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" in Windows XP

Thankyou for your replies.
Maybe I wasn't too clear.
I only have one PC, and one caddy slot within that PC (I can only connect one internal hard disk at a time).
I have two internal hard disks in two seperate caddies.
Internal disk 1 is set up with Windows XP and is working perfectly.
Internal disk 2 is new, in another caddy, and it is clean and I have formatted it.
I also have a big external USB hard disk connected to the PC.
What I would like to do, for backup purposes. is to completely copy disk 1 to disk 2, 'bouncing' the contents through the external USB hard disk.
I gather that I can copy Internal disk 1 to the external USB hard disk using the 'Ntbackup.exe' command.
That done, I then would like to replace that caddy with the Internal disk 2 caddy, and load from the external USB hard disk, back to Internal disk 2.
I was really asking what is involved in the final process, given that the new hard disk is formatted, but completely blank.
Also, are there any issues regarding re-activation of my Windows XP ??

Hi spliffy.

You do not need to copy from disk1 to USB disk to disk 2. Simply copy from disk 1 to disk 2, then swap drives and boot off of former disk 2.

The more important consideration is that you want to move the operating system, too. This can not be done by simply copying or backing up/restoring. You need to use a program that "clones" an entire hard drive to another one.

Hard Drive Cloning

You can "clone" the original hard drive to a new one if the original is still in good working order. It’s highly recommended to run chkdsk to repair any file system errors.
Right-click on the drive in Explorer and click Properties > Click on the Tools tab > In the Error-checking box click Check Now…

Chkdsk may inform you that it may have to run on the next system startup. Confirm the message and restart your system.

In general, cloning apps boot and run from their own CD and do not rely on Windows to be running. In fact, the OS must not be running in order for the cloning app to be able to access all the files that are normally locked. This will save your XP installation including the Registry, all programs, accounts and personal settings. I believe all these utilities can do this:

VCOM Partition Commander

Acronis Migrate Easy

Farstone DriveClone

Paragon Drive Backup

There are some freeware and shareware apps that claim to do cloning. If a cloning operation doesn't work, you can always wipe the destination frive and try again or try another cloning app. The only true test is to try to boot off of the cloned drive.

Thankyou for you reply.
It's getting clearer to me now.
Will go with Paragon.