Question:

Hi Tony. THANKS SO MUCH for all the great info!

I tried to follow the procedures to do a complete PC backup but 2 issues: 1) system can’t find the file wbadmin and 2) I want to do the backup to a specific directory of the external hard drive: is that ok?

Thanks!

Answer:

I can’t explain why your system can’t find the wbadmin tool–are you using Home Basic, perhaps? It might not be included in the home versions of Vista. Anyway, it should located in your C:\Windows\System32\ folder, so you might try browsing for it there.

Regarding storing a CompletePC backup in a different folder, I couldn’t find a way to do that. Sorry; I think you’re stuck with the default location.

For reference, here’s my original post on how to schedule a CompletePC backup.

Frank responded in a comment below:

Tony, I have Vista Premium, preinstalled on a Gateway PC. I checked the c:\windows\system32 folder and the file wbadmin is not there (I set Folders to show hidden and system files too).  On my second question, I want to install to a specific directory rather than have the backup wipe out what is on that external drive now.  Can that be done, assuming there is a way to run this.  Thanks!

Yep, that’s the problem–Vista Premium doesn’t have CompletePC backups. So, this won’t work for you. You can upgrade to Ultimate, though.

And for others who use CompletePC, it doesn’t overwrite any data on your external disk, it just adds a bunch of big files. You can’t change the folder.