After I had set up my new Lenovo (OS Windows Vista Business) last April I used Backup and Restore to backup the entire computer (7 DVDs). A couple of months later I had a major problem and had to reformat my pc back to its factory settings. After reformatting I tried to use the backup disks (thus avoiding having to do a lot of manual labour). Backup and Restore told me that it couldn't restore from my disks because I Hadn't made a backup!

That was months ago. I had no choice but to install everything manually. I would now like to make a new set of backup DVDs but would appreciate advice on how to get Backup and Restore to recognize them if I ever have to reformat the disk.

PS I have Lenovo Rescue and Recovery, but it apparently requires Norton AntiVirus which I have deleted.

Backups should be for your important data only!
For example the My Docs folder or whatever.

Backing up the entire system is a total waste of time.
Attempting to do this in your method does not write the correct registry values for your software all of which need to be reinstalled from the original disks to create the proper entries in the registry

Eyesee,

Thanks for your reply. My Lenovo came without any disks and I was told that I should do a complete backup ASAP. If I had to do a complete reformat of the hard disk I would not have the disk(s) necessary to re-install Vista.

It has been suggested elsewhere that when using Restore one only has to install the first DVD which automatically starts the restore process. I should add that attempts to restore my computer to a previous restore point have not worked...at the end of the restore process I am told that the restoration failed.

Although my experience with this is limited, it seems that an additional backup is not needed to restore your PC using the complete backup that you did earlier. Try these links for more instructions: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial144.html and http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial145.html