I've been in the process of backing up both my C and D drives for the last
couple of days using Norton's Ghost. At first, I tried backing up directly from
C to my H (USB external drive) but found it was incredibly slow. I ended up
creating the backup file of the C drive onto the D drive, which took about 1.5
hours... not too bad. It took several hours to copy the resulting backup file
from the D drive to the H drive but I finally got it done.

Time to tackle backing up the D drive, which is where all my video files, etc
reside. So I tried doing the same thing: I deleted the copy of the C drive off
the D drive, then had Norton's Ghost create a backup of the D drive on the C
drive. Got all that?

Now I'm copying the copy of the D drive to the H drive. I started last night
and it's still going on. The file is 68,880,512 kb according to Windows
Explorer. I note the file (of that size) on the C drive in Windows Explorer. I
also note the file (of the same size) on the H drive in Windows Explorer.

Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only about 2/3
of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost 20 hours
now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find there's a file
of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe to delete the progress
bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going on?



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

> I've been in the process of backing up both my C and D drives for the last
> couple of days using Norton's Ghost. At first, I tried backing up directly from
> C to my H (USB external drive) but found it was incredibly slow. I ended up
> creating the backup file of the C drive onto the D drive, which took about 1.5
> hours... not too bad. It took several hours to copy the resulting backup file
> from the D drive to the H drive but I finally got it done.
>
> Time to tackle backing up the D drive, which is where all my video files, etc
> reside. So I tried doing the same thing: I deleted the copy of the C drive off
> the D drive, then had Norton's Ghost create a backup of the D drive on the C
> drive. Got all that?
>
> Now I'm copying the copy of the D drive to the H drive. I started last night
> and it's still going on. The file is 68,880,512 kb according to Windows
> Explorer. I note the file (of that size) on the C drive in Windows Explorer. I
> also note the file (of the same size) on the H drive in Windows Explorer.
>
> Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only about 2/3
> of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost 20 hours
> now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find there's a file
> of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe to delete the progress
> bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going on?
>
>

There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
Drive H? Unlike data or information files, video files do not readily
compress although they need to pass through the compression stages
when using a backup or imaging application. If I interpolate the file
size properly, 68 GB represents a very large file and for a file type
with perhaps less than 5% compressibility, the file could need perhaps
60 GB more hard drive space just to process. And it will take time for
it to process if there is insufficient free space on the hard drive(s)
that are involved.

Sometimes, the best way to back up very large files is to copy them in
their native state directly to backup medium of adequate size. In fact,
the available backup media and supplies (viz., external USB/Fireware
HD's) are so plentiful, convenient and inexpensive that one does not
really need to use Ghost or TrueImage for backing up files unless a
sector-by-sector duplication is required, such as for a bootable system
partition or to maintain copy protection and user's rights, etc.

Ghostrider wrote:
>> Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only about
>> 2/3 of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost 20
>> hours now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find
>> there's a file of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe to
>> delete the progress bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going on?
>>
>>
>
> There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
> Drive H?


Drive C properties shows 149 GB with about 9 GB still free. Drive H is 298 GB
with about 81GB still free. Once I finally get this copied over to the H drive
and delete the source file on the C drive, it's be back to about 75% unused.

And I think I've answered my own question. I actually measured the progress
bar, then went back and measured it again a couple of hours later. It appears
to still be moving across the screen. What I don't understand is why does the H
drive already show the D drive backup file as existing and of the proper size?
Why wouldn't it just show the number of kb that's actually transferred?

So for the short term I'm going to let it continue.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" <mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Ghostrider wrote:
>>> Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only
>>> about
>>> 2/3 of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost
>>> 20
>>> hours now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find
>>> there's a file of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe
>>> to
>>> delete the progress bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going
>>> on?
>>>
>>>
>>
>> There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
>> Drive H?
>
>
> Drive C properties shows 149 GB with about 9 GB still free. Drive H is
> 298 GB with about 81GB still free. Once I finally get this copied over to
> the H drive and delete the source file on the C drive, it's be back to
> about 75% unused.
>
> And I think I've answered my own question. I actually measured the
> progress bar, then went back and measured it again a couple of hours
> later. It appears to still be moving across the screen. What I don't
> understand is why does the H drive already show the D drive backup file as
> existing and of the proper size? Why wouldn't it just show the number of
> kb that's actually transferred?
>
> So for the short term I'm going to let it continue.

> Mortimer Schnerd, RN
> mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

I agree with most of what Ghostrider said, but I want to add my 2 cents.
Video files are typically huge, not very compressible, and are orgainzed in
nicely named folders. Also, you typically only back them up once, because
they don't change. Using a package like Ghost is nice in that you can test
the validity of the backup at any time in the future. If you had an easy
way to perform that test and be able to restore, all without the use of the
Ghost software, and not have to mess with a 68 GB file, I think would be a
big plus.

Why not download DVDSig.exe from
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulif...ezip/freeware/.
Paste a copy of it in each of your movie folders.
Run DVDSig from each of those folders, one at a time, choosing SCAN. This
will read everything in that folder and its subfolders and make a list of
every non-zero-byte file and its associated MD5 checksum.
Copy each of those folders to H: drive
On H: drive, run DVDsig from each of the folders, one at a time, choosing
VERIFY. There should be no missing files and no incorrect checksums.

-Paul Randall

"Paul Randall" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Mortimer Schnerd, RN" <mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Ghostrider wrote:
>>>> Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only
>>>> about
>>>> 2/3 of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost
>>>> 20
>>>> hours now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find
>>>> there's a file of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe
>>>> to
>>>> delete the progress bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going
>>>> on?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
>>> Drive H?
>>
>>
>> Drive C properties shows 149 GB with about 9 GB still free. Drive H is
>> 298 GB with about 81GB still free. Once I finally get this copied over
>> to the H drive and delete the source file on the C drive, it's be back to
>> about 75% unused.
>>
>> And I think I've answered my own question. I actually measured the
>> progress bar, then went back and measured it again a couple of hours
>> later. It appears to still be moving across the screen. What I don't
>> understand is why does the H drive already show the D drive backup file
>> as existing and of the proper size? Why wouldn't it just show the number
>> of kb that's actually transferred?
>>
>> So for the short term I'm going to let it continue.
>
>> Mortimer Schnerd, RN
>> mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
>
> I agree with most of what Ghostrider said, but I want to add my 2 cents.
> Video files are typically huge, not very compressible, and are orgainzed
> in nicely named folders. Also, you typically only back them up once,
> because they don't change. Using a package like Ghost is nice in that you
> can test the validity of the backup at any time in the future. If you had
> an easy way to perform that test and be able to restore, all without the
> use of the Ghost software, and not have to mess with a 68 GB file, I think
> would be a big plus.
>
> Why not download DVDSig.exe from
> http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulif...ezip/freeware/.
> Paste a copy of it in each of your movie folders.
> Run DVDSig from each of those folders, one at a time, choosing SCAN. This
> will read everything in that folder and its subfolders and make a list of
> every non-zero-byte file and its associated MD5 checksum.
> Copy each of those folders to H: drive
> On H: drive, run DVDsig from each of the folders, one at a time, choosing
> VERIFY. There should be no missing files and no incorrect checksums.
>
> -Paul Randall
>

You should be using the export function of Ghost image explorer, not a
direct copy using windows explorer to copy an image file(s). If not, the
resulting image file(s) may be botched. Even though windows explorer will
show no errors upon completion of such a copy.
--
Noncompliant

Money don't wag the dog's tail.