How Much Time will Ghost Save me, I Reistall my OS Alot ?

[Scottie]

I'm just wondering how much time will Ghost save me I have 2 PC's and Install the OS and everything about every 3 months ?

Is it hard to use ?

Do I need a floopy drive to use Ghost ?

[stiltman]

Tons of time...easy to use....from LAN, Floppy, CD/DVD, USB, Firewire

[rkr1958]

Is it hard to use ?

Do I need a floopy drive to use Ghost ?

I have Norton Ghost 2003 which I bought off of ebay for $20. It was easy to install, however, I couldn't get it to work from Windows 2000. But, I used Ghost to create a boot disk to run it from DOS. After that it was a piece of cake to use. However, the way I run it I do need a floppy.

[stiltman]

Is it hard to use ?

Do I need a floopy drive to use Ghost ?

I have Norton Ghost 2003 which I bought off of ebay for $20. It was easy to install, however, I couldn't get it to work from Windows 2000. But, I used Ghost to create a boot disk to run it from DOS. After that it was a piece of cake to use. However, the way I run it I do need a floppy.

Ghost has to have direct control over the HDD, it can't be run with in windows. However it will create an AT command that will start it up atnext bootup.

[Scottie]

So I will need a floopy drive ?

[Garibaldi]

There was a free program that did this too.... look at www.osnews.com, the article was on there yesterday.

[stiltman]

So I will need a floopy drive ?

No, you can use CD/DVD or what I said above

Hell, you could use a USB memory card if your BOIS supports it

[rkr1958]

Ghost has to have direct control over the HDD, it can't be run with in windows. However it will create an AT command that will start it up atnext bootup.

Sorry for being inexact ... this AT command, which I setup in Windows2000, at startup would hang ... so what I do now is use the boot disk w/Norton Ghost on it to create my image.

[dxj40c]

"Do you need a floppy?" is the question you are asking. Yes, to boot the computer to restore and install the ghost tools in MSDOS or PCDOS (what Norton uses).

The time? I backup about 6GB (it compresses to about 4GB) and if I backup to the slave/second drive it takes about 6 min to restore; from DVD, it takes about 36 minutes (less time than installing XP the old way).

I back up every two weeks. And I also have a 'special' configuration I restore for doing video and graphics (no Internet, no antivirus, no firewall, nothing that is unnecessary running in the background. I runs like a rocket. This alone makes makes Ghost priceless in my case.

[Scottie]

I don't have a floopy drive, but I have 2 portitions whould ghost work for me ?

I whould like it to be able to wipe my C: and install it there but without a floopy I don't see how this can work unless it can boot from a CD somehow ?

Can someone explain abit more to me, thanks ?

[stiltman]

"Do you need a floppy?" is the question you are asking. Yes, to boot the computer to restore and install the ghost tools in MSDOS or PCDOS (what Norton uses).

No you don't. You can boot from CD/DVD, USB memory if your BIOS lets you....I haven't booted from a floppy in a long time, and I do images all the time.

The time? I backup about 6GB (it compresses to about 4GB) and if I backup to the slave/second drive it takes about 6 min to restore; from DVD, it takes about 36 minutes (less time than installing XP the old way).

This all depends on the spead of your HDD and what is being compressed. It will vary greatly, but it will still be fater and easier that installing the OS from scratch

[Scottie]

what version do you use ?

I got a trail of it called Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition 7.0 I don't think this will let me do it the way I want to though.

is this the wrong one ?

Thanks for your Help !

[stiltman]

trail is kinda useless. The actual file you need on a bootable CD/DVD is "ghost.exe" and the corp version is about 650K in size. The consumer version is about 1mb.

I prefer the corp version anyway

[Scottie]

I think I picked the option to make a bootable CD and it seems to want a FLoopy Boot Disc to make it from ?

[stiltman]

you can also tell it to get it from a file if I'm not mistaken. In any event, just do a search on google or even this forum for bootable CD image

or look here http://62.253.162.19/hiren.thanki/bootcd.html?

[Scottie]

would backing up a Hard Drive with no compression make it restore faster ?

[jimmalenko]

Interesting...

This is something that I've wanted to get into for a while, but I don't really understand the process, so if anyone could spell it out a bit clearer for me, it'd be much appreciated ...

There's shitloads of info when doing a google search, but unfortunately it's a bit over-saturated and is not entirely clear to the newbie (me) trying to get his head around it IMO.

What I want to do:
Backup an entire partition to DVDRs, and make them bootable so whenever I need to restore, just insert the first DVD and power up and BOb's your cousin's father.

What I know/don't know (please correct me where I'm wrong):
As I understand it, When you first install Ghost, you then need to create a bootable floppy disk, which you boot off next time you restart your PC, which gets you to the ghost console. I'm reasonably familiar with the process of restoring an image, and I would assume that creating an image is basically the same, just a different menu option.

My Questions:
1. I load Ghost onto My PC. I start it up, and get a wizard to create a boot disc. If my goal is to make bootable DVDRs, which option should I choose ?

2. I'm a bit confused about what you do when you want to make a new backup - do you boot off the floppy disk to get to the console every time, or is there a way to initiate the process from within windows ?

3. The same with restores - As I understand it, you just throw the DVDR in, and it boots to the console, and then from the console you facilitate the restore ?

A basic step-by-step would be much appreciated. I think I can work out how, so long as I know the order in which to do things. I'm REALLY out of my league here and would appreciate any push in the right direction

[stiltman]

Do you have a floppy drive?
Ghost uses IBMDOS by default not MS-DOS
What version of Ghost are you using ?

[jimmalenko]

Do you have a floppy drive?
Ghost uses IBMDOS by default not MS-DOS
What version of Ghost are you using ?

sorry, forgot what it's like to be a clueless newbie

Yep, have a floppy drive
Ghost 2003

[stiltman]

choose ghost utilities
choose boot disk wizard
choose floppy with CD/DVD support
create disk (use ghost IBMDOS)
leave disk in and reboot
choose ignore or yes to lable drives (i just cancel out of that screen everytime I do it manually)
(going by memory)
choose image
choose partition to image
select the HDD you want then the partition you want
select next (i think)
select your DVD as to where you want to save the image (it will auto name it for you)
choose high compression
choose yes to make DVD bootable
create image
after it's complete
choose image
choose verify
put in the 1st DVD created
choose the DVD
verify that it's a good image

Normally I do full disk backups and not just partitions

[jimmalenko]

You da man!

Thanks. Muchly appreciated

[stiltman]

You da man!

Only if it works

[jimmalenko]

You da man!

Only if it works

True. As I said, I'm fairly confident I can nut it out, I just needed a push in the right direction

Thanks again.

[stiltman]

just make damn sure you do a verify after you create the image!!!!!!

[enstg8er]

best guide to ghost i've come across........
http://ghost.radified.com/

good luck.

[greymalkin]

you can automate the whole process but get ready for switches 3 miles long I have a custom boot disk I made which then was imported to a bootable cd that loads ghost automatically and (after a warning screen) dumps the image to the HD. If you're wanting to do a full backup and the image will be larger than 4.7 you can use the switch -split=4500 to break the images up into 4500mb chunks.

I don't know why Anyone wouldn't use ghost. Sure windows doesn't take TOO terribly long to load but then you have to tweak it all and load all the programs..getting it all how you want it could take days. Then capturing and loading that image only takes minutes..

ghost is saving my butt as we speak. I have some OLD ibm laptops my sister was given (she is a teacher). She wanted to know if I could load them up. They don't have a usb port/cd-rom drive or network cards. I had to break into the first one to get the hard drive out since there wasn't a tray. Then use an adapter to connect it to my desktop and copy the windows/office setup files to the hard drive. Once i got it all setup I am now using ghost to copy the image of the loaded laptop to another laptop via laplink(parallel) cable. It takes a long time but I don't have to desecrate any laptops and It requires no interaction once it starts.

[Dr. DOS]

Is it hard to use ?

Do I need a floopy drive to use Ghost ?

I have Norton Ghost 2003 which I bought off of ebay for $20. It was easy to install, however, I couldn't get it to work from Windows 2000. But, I used Ghost to create a boot disk to run it from DOS. After that it was a piece of cake to use. However, the way I run it I do need a floppy.

Ghost has to have direct control over the HDD, it can't be run with in windows. However it will create an AT command that will start it up atnext bootup.

So.... If I use Ghost to backup to a Fwire or USB external HD how can I reinstall the image if the drive is only accessible via windows ... Would i have to install the OS ... then restore the image?

[stiltman]

No, Ghost supports USB and Firewire...Just create a bootdosk with the drivers and then you can ghost to USB or Firewire and also restore from them

[Dr. DOS]

Sorry for my stupidity stilt (never used GHost before).... but the ext fwire drive I have only came with Win Drivers (of course... when do you ever get DOS drivers these days) .... so how do I create a DOS boot disk (lets say with DOS or Win98 OS boot) load fwire drivers....then ghost and restore to a newly formatted drive....

[greymalkin]

Ghost provides the dos driver that will allow you to connect usb devices/etc. You Install Ghost in windows then you run through a boot disk wizard. You tell it what devices you are wanting to use with the ghost boot disk and it makes a boot disk with the appropriate drivers and entries into autoexec.bat and config.sys on the floppy. Dos drivers are kind of "generic" and work for a broad range of devices. You can use usb devices and burn cdrw's today even utilizing the buffer underrun feature. Dos is still alive and well :P