How to Clone a Hard Drive in XP
If you've set up Windows XP exactly the way you want it, why not back up your setup? Cloning your hard drive is a great way to ensure you can quickly get your setup back in case of viral infection or hard-drive error. And it's easy to set up with completely free software. Don't reinstall Windows and all your programs if something goes wrong---simply restore your system to the time you last cloned your drive.
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Instructions
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Download Clonezilla (free download, see Resources). The download will come in the form of an ISO, a form of virtual CD that is easily burned to disc.
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Burn the ISO to disc. If you don't have a program to do this within XP, try ISO Recorder (free download, see Resources.) Once this program is installed, burning an ISO to CD is as easy as right-clicking the ISO and then clicking "Burn Image to Disc."
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Boot from the CD. Keep the CD in your disc drive and reboot; in most instances, this will happen automatically. If it doesn't, you need to enter the computer's boot menu and boot from the CD. Follow the on-screen instructions immediately after turning the computer on to enter the boot menu; frequently this is done by pressing F2. If there are no on-screen instructions, consult your computer's documentation.
Clonezilla will then boot from the CD.
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Select in what way you are cloning the drive. You can create a clone directly by selecting "Device-Device," or you can create a backup image of a given drive by selecting "Device-image." Note that working directly from device to device will overwrite all data on the device you write to.
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Select where you will store the cloned disk. You can create the cloned disk on a network drive, on an external hard drive or on a secondary hard drive in your computer. If you're not sure what you're doing, an empty external hard drive is probably your simplest bet. Your clone will be created after you make this decision.
Congratulations; you've made a backup copy of your Windows XP partition.
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