I baught a cheap laptop - cannot find a support website

[Sitebee]

I recently purchased a second hand laptop computer, But All I got was the charger and the laptop itself, no recovery disks..
Its quite an old laptop at that.

E System 3088
40gb hdd
256mb ddr2
Via C7-M Processor
DVD/CD RW (no floppy drive)
OS - Win XP Pro SP3

Not sure on the complete specs as I cannot find a support website anywhere.


Anyways heres what I want to do, the laptop is fairly clean so far and not much crap installed on it. I want to make a complete system and files backup just in case the operating system needs to be re-installed with all current good working drivers.

So how would you recommend I go about doing this? Just remember no floppy drive....

I have read about a couple of methods so far but they require a floppy drive, 1 of them was ntbackup.exe (xp pro backup) and another was with this app - http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/ g4u - Hard disk Image Cloning.

I thought about a partition but I still want hard copy backups.

Could I be able recover a backup using network backup but then I guess I still would need the network adaptors drivers installed.


Any suggestion?

 

[iBrightDev]

shouldnt have bought a cheap laptop. on a serious note, you can just install norton ghost and make a bootable disk that will install everything exactly how it is now

 

[Sitebee]

Norton ghost is a paid app, are there any free alternatives?

 

[GlennBeforeTime]

Just an off topic reply;

How much did you pay for it?


On Topic;
So you dont have any discs with the laptop ? You can download a windows XP SP3 CD and use your product key on the bottom of your computer, that is legal.

 

[AdamJ]

How much did you pay for it?

I'd like to know that too... Personally, I would've said avoud 2nd hand laptop's at all costs, as you just don't know what's on them, the previous owner could've dumped a keylogger on it, or something dodgy, you never know.

But, I guess, http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml Try some of those

 

[Sitebee]

Thank for the suggestions guys, I paid £80 for the laptop.

Glenn, I have xp pro disk, Its the drivers im concerned about as I cannot find a support website, I think the company must have gone bust or something.

 

[GlennBeforeTime]

Thank for the suggestions guys, I paid £80 for the laptop.

Glenn, I have xp pro disk, Its the drivers im concerned about as I cannot find a support website, I think the company must have gone bust or something.

You should be able to get drivers for the individual hardware, in most cases, a computer as old as this 1, windows XP will have the required drivers, especially SP3.

So you should be fine, otherwise, locate the driver files on the computer and copy them to a flash drive, then use them again on the laptop once you've reloaded it

 

[~ServerPoint~]

Norton ghost is a paid app, are there any free alternatives?

If I were you I'd invest more in the security. That is very important.

 

[Sitebee]

I have found some of the drivers! Lan, Chipset and Sound on the machine in a folder, im uploading them to my msn skydrive.

 

[=dan=]

Check out DriverMax, it'll locate and update them, not sure if it will from boot.

 

[Conscript]

There are programs that let you extract the CD KEY of the OS and any installed software. Use that, get some original discs from friends, and reinstall using your licenses. Should be the best way.