Hi,

is this something that can be done? Suppose I download a knoppix cd and boor from it and try to save my partitions to a cd-rw, would it be no problem to eg lay them back later or even copy them to another empty partition? Would it give problems for the boot loader (for the new partitions) or would it be a problem that win xp is in the ntfs system instead of fat?

You can back up windows with linux and put it back later on. It is very strait forward. Make a map and copy the whole thing in it, or make a compressed file.

I installed a winMe version loaded all the updates (but no drivers) and put the whole thing on an USB drive.
I did this because I had some trouble with some drivers. When thing went wrong, I deleted everything from windows (in Linux). Then I put everything back.
Remember if you heave installed grub you don't have to put the boot record back in place. (If you reinstall windows, it places its own boot record over the previous and then you need a rescue disk or a bootable cd to restore your grub mbr)

Works fine.

There is however a problem with NTFS. I thought the current versions of Linux can't read NTFS.

If you copy back windows files to windows from cd, they may have a read only status. So it would be the best to make a zip or something like that. Takes less space and no trouble with read only attributes.

I didn't back up Linux in this way. I back up only my files.

A home network also can help you to save things.

CloudBuilder

Bedankt voor je antwoord.

Done some searching on the ntfs part for knoppix and found this at their forum at www.knoppix.net:

'Even though knoppix can write to NTFS it can't do it reliably and can cause data lose.'

Maybe I will look for another live cd that handles that part better (for back up purposes I'm not going for less than the best available). Or next time I reinstall xp I can go with fat.

For manipulating NTFS, consider a Barts or "khauyeung" WinPE CD. Google for Barts PEBuilder and P2P search for "khauyeung". If you build a "khauyeung" CD it is assumed you have all the relevant licences and abide by the appropriate EULAs, etc. Barts stuff is totallty legit and unencumbered.
Linux is good for many things, but here a WinPE boot CD along with other tools may be your best bet.