G'day, If anyone is like me and totally confused on how to backup before installing XP2 I found the following page very helpful. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx?pf=true I have an OE backup program so that is taken care of and Microsoft says to backup critical information before installing XP2. I would like to do this regularly anyway, just in case, but I don't know how. Apparently XP comes with a backup utility but I couldn't find it. I have XP Home and am told that backup utility doesn't install automatically in this and that I need my XP CD to install it. Unfortunately we are in the middle of moving and I have packed it away into storage. Grrrrr Looks like I'll have to go digging through boxes now. Previously I was backing up my accounting program to CDR for my accountant and after several "duds" my accountant had to talk me through the process. I was doing it all wrong !!! I was supposed to "zip" the data before copying it to CDR. Now I have the dilemma of working out how to copy my FTM data to a CDR that will actually restore if I need it to. The "backup" option in FTM is completely different to my accounting program. I think I have finally worked out that I need to use the "custom directory" option in backing up FTM. Its all soooo technical <sigh> (I have FTM version 6) Also in all the "support" pages I have found they say something about NTFS system, which it seems I have. Is this somehow different? Any help appreciated Kerryn (Australia)