ejn74

I just reloaded my Laptop. I want to ghost is so I don't have to spend losts of time tweaking it to my liking. I was wondering if I what is the best way so I don't have like 6 or 7 CD's to remeber where they went. it does not have a DVD burner in it only a CD Burner.

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Brad

Network drive or drive connected via USB

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kcnychief

You could also consider partitioning a small area of your laptop hard drive, and storing the image file there. This way it's always with you

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ejn74

I am not sure how to map drives. It is much different than just networking them I believe.

If I were to load it to a Ext usb drive I would have to keep it on that drive wouldn't I?

It would be nice if I could get it on to a DVD eventually.

KC. great Idea but it is only a 30gig drive to begin with and I need the space for music and pictures.

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kcnychief

Valid concern ejn, however I should mention that imaging programs do very high compression. And I would think you are only imaging your system from when it's setup, which would be probably around 4-6GB, depending on your configuration, which gets compressed to 2-3GB depending on your software of choice.

If space is of concern, and your drive is 30GB, you may want to get an external, USB 2.0 enclosure or Hard Drive. This way you can store your image, and additional photos and music as well

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ejn74

I have an ext drive. It is only a 40gig with about 9.5 gig free. It has the back ups of the music and pictures and other Imp files. I don't have extra money to spend right now for getting bigger drives.

I am planning to use Norton Ghost from Sys Works 2003 to make the ghost image.

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kcnychief

Ghost should be able to compress your current laptop config, to fit within the 9.5GB you have free on your external drive. Just be sure to use "High" Compression.

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Brad

The more I encounter it, the more it confirms it.


KCNY is a smart dude.

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ejn74

No Kidding!!! He is the Man!! ALL Hail the Chief!


If I do that I will have to make it that if I reload it, In order to use the image it would boot from the Ext drive correct? I have never done it this way before but I seem to reload that laptop once or twice a year (used by other more than me) and I want to simplify the process.

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kcnychief

Well, Yes and No.

If you really want to get creative, build a BartPE (www.nu2.nu) environment, which will allow you to run in a "mini Windows" so to speak, whereas you can run up to 6 simultanous processes. These include, but are not limited to, Norton Ghost. Since BartPE is built off of the XP i386 files, it has support for USB drives. All you'd have to do is fire up ghost, point to the USB drive as your source, and there you go. BartPE isn't as hard as it may look/sound, I could help you with plugins if needed.

Alternatively, you could try booting to the drive as well

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Brad

Is there any limit to the breadth of his knowledge?

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ejn74

would another method be to have a Ghost boot disk an the external drive hooked up?

I am more of a hardware type than a software person.


Oh and I'd rep you Kc but you know how the spread it around thing is.

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kcnychief

You could do that as well, as long as the disk has the ability to see the drive.

If you do it DOS-based, you'd have to include generic USB drivers. If you do a GUI operation, it shouldn't be an issue.

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ejn74

I think I may need to redo the ghost boot disk I can't remember if I loaded the Generic Usb drivers or not. I think I did......Hmmm..


I've wanted to give Bartpe a try as well. but don't have the time now.

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kcnychief

Well if it helps you sleep at night I could make a CD with those two functions, boot to BartPE and include Ghost, as long as we work out your licensing on the software

This way I could mail it to you, you have the CD to accomplish your task and then you could work on filling in the blanks - when you have the time

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ejn74

THanks for the offer KC but I think I will try to get the Ghost boot disk to go.

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kcnychief

Fair enough, good luck with it

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ejn74

Thank You. You really know your stuff. Reps to you when I can.

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ejn74

just an update. Storage problem is solved Picked up an external 250g drive.

can use the small one now for backing up comp. and ghost image.

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kcnychief

Glad it worked out mate

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