Norton Ghost 2003

[Mac1]

Hi all
I have my hard drive partitioned into 3 partitions, I made a Ghost 2003 image of the XP partition, and save it to partition 3. everthing is ok and I can see all folders ect in Ghost Explorer. and also when I use the floppy boot disks.

my question is can I make one every week or two and will it just overwrite the first image,
or is it best to delete the first one and make a new one.

how do you do it? "ghost your hard drive I mean" ha-ha.

once I get my second hard drive I will ghost the whole XP drive to it. not just the xp partition.

I am also getting a DVD Rewriter so what would be best to use for the image. The second hard drive or the DVD-RW.

very interested to see what you say. I will go with the majority.

Mac

 

[ming]

It overwrites the old copy if you're using the same disc.
basically just open ghost and select the appropriate option for your backup, and the machine will restart in order to make the backup onto your disc.

Edit: There's no need to format your disc first.
Also, it should take 20mins approx. for a 5gb backup or restore.

 

[coathanger007]

Depends how much space your image takes. A second drive is larger that DVD-RW and can be used to store a large uncompressed image. If you have to use high compression, it will slow down imaging process and can be annoying if you're imaging weekly/fortnightly (and especially if you have to span over multiple DVD RWs). Also, re writing on a DVD RW will be much slower than on an average 7200rpm HDD.

If you do schedule ghost to backup weekly, you'd have to make sure the correct DVD RW is placed in the drive. Last thing you want is to overwrite the wrong DVD RW. I image monthly at best. You seem to want to backup more regularly. You may want to consider mirrorred RAID which is the best option if you do decide to buy an identical second drive and don't care so much about optimal drive speed. This takes the hassle out of periodic imaging as the drives are backups of each other with mirrorred volumes. From my knowledge, if one HDD fails, you can boot straight off the other without having to extract any image (Note, you'll have to confirm this yourself).

The only advantage I can see in DVD RW is portability. With removeable drives and easier removal of HDDs from cases these days, this isn't much of an advantage. Blu ray portable storage technology is on the horizon http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci810790,00.html But until then you've got my opinion !

 

[Mac1]

Thanks

Hi
Just to say thanks to Ming and Coathanger007 for your comments, you have just told me all I want to know, the second hard drive is going to be my choice, so I can see it in Ghost Explorer.
As I am into Flight Simulator 2002/2004 and if, no when I butcher a plane or something I will be able to copy it back again from Ghost Explorer.

the RAID would be a good idea but I need my hard drive running as fast as possible for FS 2002/2004.

thanks again
mac

 

[coathanger007]

Not a problem. If you want speed then striped RAID is best though if you have enough memory then HDD will only effect loading times. Once loaded onto video and system memory, HDD won't really matter.

 

[eNuffSaid]

Hi,

Although this is not supported in Ghost 2003, you might want to take a look at Ghost's "multicast" from the Corporate Edition.

It will allow you to easily maintain a latest image of your clients without much ado.

Kind regards,
Willem Moolenaar

 

[coathanger007]

Wowsers. That was about as formal a response as you could get in this forum. You wouldn't happen to work for Symantec would you? A Symantec Tech Support guy browsing the forum?

 

[eNuffSaid]

LOL...

Not really tho. I just love Symantec's Ghost. Currently we are rolling out WinXP at our company (not Symantec) thru RIS. Its a pain in the ass, takes forever, and takes a lot of scripting.

If I had it my way, we'd be using Ghost!

Kind regards,
Willem Moolenaar

 

[coathanger007]

You'd be the first person on the forum that I know of who has given up his actual identity. Good on Ya. I was going to ask you why and when Ghost would support imaging of striped dynamic volumes - no one on this forum has been able to give me an answer to date. Oh well.

 

[eNuffSaid]

Hi Coathanger007,

You are right, my real life name *is* Willem Moolenaar. Frankly, I have nothing to hide, and the avatar *is* a picture of me.

I really don't work for Symantec, although I wouldn't mind I guess. I'll see if I can find more info on Ghosting a striped set of Hard disks.

I do know Ghost 8 should be released somewhere around November.

Kind regards,
Willem Moolenaar

 

[eNuffSaid]

Hi Coathanger007,

Sorry to bother you again... Are you aware of Ghost32.exe? It's an upgrade to Ghost 7.5 Enterprise edition, and it can be started under Windows, so no more bootflop.

Ghost compatibility with RAID:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...ost&dtype=corp&svy=&prev=&miniver=symghost_75

or do a search at there knowledge base for "raid" or "striped". It seems with a little luck you might be able to clone a RAID system. Otherwise wait for version 8.

With kind regards,
Willem Moolenaar

 

[coathanger007]

Thanks for the link. I've seen that article before. Actually, I've searched Symantec dry as the Sahara. Also emailed tech support. They won't be supporting imaging striped volumes in future versions. Very annoying. So I'll just sit and wait patiently hoping against all hope.