Optimist - much thanks for answering my question and
ouch, that's not the answer I wanted, but never mind.
Both are very important frankly...

Stockbunny

Although modern PCs are very reliable it will let you down at some stage. There is also the not insignificant chance that you will be burgled and the lesser possibility of your house burning down. So you need to have contingency plans. The problem is they will all cost you money.

Although you can't boot WinXP from a floppy you can use the installation CD to boot to a command prompt that you can use to try to repair the system if you are knowledgeable enough but it is unlikely to be able to cope with major problems and will give you no access to your programs.

The installation CD can also be used to try to repair Windows. This is essentially a new install but retains most of your settings and programs. It may not keep service packs and windows updates, which will have to be reinstalled.

If the repair does not work you would have to do a fresh installation. This would not overwrite your data but you would have to reinstall all service packs, programs and updates.

All of these solutions may well take several hours to sort so you really need a second system.

The cheapest way is to fit a second hard disk in your computer change the boot device in the BIOS and install a second copy of WinXP on that disk and backup your data to the second disk. You will then be able to use the alternate O/S in the event of disk failure.

A better way would be to have a second PC networked to the first and back your data up to this. You could also consider putting a networked computer which need not be a high spec) in the safety of your attic and using that to copy your data to.

I hope this gives you some ideas to start with.

Stockbunny, just to expand a bit on the above in a slightly different manner.

The important thing is your data however deciding what is data is not easy, its easy enough for things like word documents and excel spreadsheets but gets harder with things like emails and stock history data. It is worth spending some time finding out where all your data is held and setting up a strategy to safeguard it. I do this by copying it to anopther machine on my home network and making periodic copies to CD-ROM's. I also copy some important files onto a server that contains my web pages and which is provided by my ISP.

I do not use XP because I am not happy with the registration requirements and the fact that I frequently reinstall my PC software, I use Windows 2000 which I believe is still the best Operating System in the windows family. I also use Ghost which enable me to make an exact copy of my hard disk and which can be reinstalled with a floppy disk boot (which can be from a windows 98 floppy, in fact a w98 floppy is an essential PC tool in my view)

For a home user in the worst case following the loss of a hard disk or PC you may well be faced with several hours work to recover but your data is the most valuable.

Ensure that you have all you installation disks available and keep a record of what you have installed. If you have to do a complete install, install the Operating System fisrt and enable your Web connection, then do a full update to apply all OS patches from Microsoft (Windows Update), this should ensure that you dont have any bad security holes on your new installation. Then install any virus and firewall software you have, when this is all OK reinstall your apps and check that they work. You may have to download some updates for your apps which is why its worth keeping a note of what you installed and when, I tend to check each app for updates each time I do a reinstall but thats because I am lazy. Whne you have the OS and all your apps running you can restore your data, as I said above this is easy for word/excel but can be harder for the rest.

This probably does not make you feel any happier but it is worth knowing what to do in an emergency when things have gone badly wrong, its not as hard as it sounds and you will find people here happy to help if you ever have to do it.

On last thing, someone mentioned above keeping a completly different PC as a backup, if you can afford it its well worth doing but I also recomment that you keep a modem available so that you can connect to the internet if you lose your connection (assuming you have Broadband) its amazing how dependent we are on internet connections and having a dial up connection for emergency use is very valuable not just if youe BB goes down but also for looking for help when you have a major problem, the web is a fantastic place for technical assistance 24 hours a day. I keep a dial up account (pay as you go) with Viorgin Net and Tiscali for this sort of emergency.

Spaceman

Thanks for that very good post.

Regarding Norton Ghost, is it possible to make a bootable backup of a partial system (i.e. The windows, program files directories etc)?

On the topic of "Backup", has anyone got any tips about using a web site on the Internet for this instead of using CDs, Zip discs, a second hard drive, a second computer up in the attic, etc.?

Or even two Internet sites?

Just as you can access your e-mails in an Internet cafe through accessing your ISP (Onetel, give me this facility as did NTL, who I used prior to them), well, wouldn't it be better to have all your data continually available to you no matter what machine you are using and no matter where you are?

I suppose access to the "Programme" used to process the data is the problem with this?

Perhaps what we all really need to own is the screen(s), keyboard and a modem but with the computer, and all its hardware problems too, out there somewhere else in the great beyond?

In fact, taking this a stage further, why not a site where you can also store your programmes too?

What really are the difficulties in having your GNI, E*Trade, CMC software, M/S Word, M/S Excel, OE6, etc, etc, on a single Internet web site and with much bigger computing power, instead of on your own machine?

Am I talking crap? Have I missed something?

Optimist, yes you can do that although I dont. I dont have access to my ghost docs at the moment as I am abroad but have a look on the Symantec web site I think thae manuals are there.

Docproc, your not talking crap but you are getting into the realms of thin client computing, this client is used by some large corporations but is to expensive for most home users, taking thin client a bit further you can have a very small PC with no programs on it at all all of them reside on a large server somewhere else, this may end up being viable fopr home use howevere I am suspicious that the cost will remain high. There is a problem with actually installing programs on a remote disk as the windows standard operating systems cant handle that without extensions. I use my demon web space to backup some critical files but web space on remote servers tends to be faiurly expensive, there are some companies that offer this i think one was/is called i-disk.

Doc

You can do this Microsoft do a system called Terminal Server which does exactly what you describe and works very well. There are also other systems.

One of the problems is internet band width. If all the processing was done remotely your terminal needs only to receive the video signal to your monitor, but a single monitor let alone four of them has four times the definition of your TV set. I know that most of it does not change very much and it can be compressed but you can get an idea of the problem.

Other problems include not being able to customise the remote system, the price is currently expensive and how would Microsoft and Intel keep selling us better and faster products!

As regards on line backup, Netstore used to do a good system for 20/month /PC. If this works properly it compares favourably with the cost of a second computer or tape drive. I'm not sure whether they still do this see www.netstore.net

Edit Spaceman beat me to it with most of this.

Can anyone help, I am trying to get on cityindex.com and I keep getting this
message

Noton internet security 2002
has blocked access to this restricted site.
Blocked categories: Gambling.
If you think this web site is incorrectly categorized visit
Symantec Internet security to report it

I have tied changing the category but it still comes back with the same reply

Thanks

TM

Seems pretty accurate to me, topman :-)

Seriously, sorry I don't know Norton, but there must be an option for it not to block gambling sites. Probably under the child protection section.

Thanks Kayak, :-)

TM

Thank you so much Optimist and Spaceman for your help and ideas.
Yes I do back-up my data including emails etc onto CD normally
but also floppy discs. A second PC whilst ideal at this stage is
not viable - finance and space limitations, but a second hard drive
may be an option. There is much in these posts for me to read and
digest and once again thanks the assistance is invaluable especially
when like me you are essentially a very small self-employed person!!

Topman.
You have to turn off (Disable) Norton to view site. Then refresh the Page. I have the same Prob with www.bizzaregardeningincidentswhilstnaked.com:-)

Or better still. Open Personal Firewall. Click on Configure. Then click Home Networking. Click on add. Type in The site you want to view. Click ok.You should now be able to view the site with Norton still on.
Ive just found this out! So ignore my initial Bollocks!
Iain

Stockbunny

I'm pleased to have been of help.

One point to bear in mind, the option of putting a computer in the loft need not be expensive. You can pick up early P2 machines very cheap and once set up it would not even need a monitor.

Ian, Thanks for your help I can only get access if I disable Norton. :-(

TM

Do the open firewall bit.Its in the Norton box when you click on the Norton Icon.
My powers of Explanation just get better all the time:-)
E-mail me internally if you want more assistance.

help,have bought an old windows 98 se as a back up it would appear the ports are closed, so unable to connect to broadband, l.l.

LL are you using a router? The problem is probably not ports but the internet connection settings on the w98 PC.

spaceman.no router at present,just trying to connect to broadband (bt)which comes up with no ports,l.l.

LL, OK I was assuming this related to TCP/IP ports but it may well be physical ports e.g. USB ports. It could be that the PC does not have a USB connection or an Ethernet card and the install software is looking for them?

So a few Q's :-

What sort of device is attached to the BT BB connection? is it a USB 'modem'?
Does the PC have a Ethernet card?
Does the PC have a USB connection?

You can get a USB card for very little same is true for an ethernet card so if this is the problem it should be pretty easy to sort.