drybones said:
"Anna"
Have a Floppy drive.
If I 'must' I shall purchase a external HD. That is if I knew just what to
purchase. <silly grin> as this old boy is not up to date with SATA and
External drives.
I "think" this machine is SATA though.
I had hoped to clone the primary drive and it's contents, some 45GB to the
secondary drive. Then add a second clone a week later. Upon the 3rd or 4th
week erase the first clone and replace it.
Hope this makes some sort of since. Did this with Drive Image and DVDs for
a very long time.
Thanks for your kind follow though.
drybones
drybones:
BTW, you have a very powerful machine - I know quite a few people who would
love to have something similar. Good luck with it.
Yes, your PC contains two SATA HDs. As long as you're not planning to use a
RAID configuration you could use the Ghost 2003 program (as I will describe)
to clone one of those drives - your day-to-day working HD - to the other
internal HD. On the other hand there would be an advantage to using an
external HD as the recipient of the clone in that since that device would be
disconnected from the system after receiving the cloned contents of your
internal HD, an additional safety factor re the backup is introduced.
Assuming this is a USB external HD, it would not be bootable but could be
used for restoration purposes by cloning back the contents of the external
HD to your internal HD. Also, that would free up your two internal HDs for a
RAID configuration should that be a route you wish to take. In a non-RAID
environment you could use one of your internal HDs as the recipient of the
clone and that drive *would* be bootable.
There is another downside should you decide to use your two internal HDs as
the source & destination disks. We generally recommend that following the
disk cloning operation the initial boot with the destination disk (the
recipient of the clone) be undertaken with *only* that drive connected,
i.e., the source disk should be temporarily disconnected during that
*initial* boot of the cloned drive. This is to prevent possible future boot
problems with the cloned HD. This problem is a potential one - it doesn't
always occur. And if you're not concerned with the "bootability" of the
cloned drive, i.e., you principal concern is that its cloned contents can be
used for restoration purposes - then it's of little or no importance. I
discuss this in a bit more detail later on.
So all-in-all it's generally best to use an external HD as the recipient of
the clone. It's a decision you will have to make. In any event I'll cover
both scenarios.
Before I get into the actual step-by-step instructions for using the Ghost
2003 program to directly clone the contents of one HD to another HD, let me
make the following points...
1. It (nearly) goes without saying, that in order for the cloning process to
be successful, both the source disk (the drive you're cloning from) and the
destination disk (the drive you're cloning to) must be non-defective and
properly connected/configured in your system.
2. The OS that you're cloning must be free from system files corruption. If
you clone garbage, garbage is what you'll get.
3. In using the Ghost 2003 program, our preference is to work with the Ghost
2003 bootable floppy disk (or on occasion the Ghost 2003 bootable CD). We
find that media simpler to use in comparison with the Ghost/Windows GUI and
we enjoy the portability aspects of using that media. But there's no reason
why you can't work within the Windows GUI should you prefer to do so.
4. Please understand that when you use this disk cloning process, *all*
existing data on the HD that will serve as the recipient of the clone will
be deleted. There is no need to "erase" (format) the destination disk prior
to the disk cloning operation.
And that's it. The precise steps to directly clone the contents from one HD
to another HD using the Ghost 2003 program are simple & effective.
Here are step-by-step instructions for creating a Ghost 2003 bootable floppy
disk and then using that floppy disk to clone the contents of your working
HD to another internal or external HD...
(You needn't be unduly concerned with using this DOS-based media with the
Ghost 2003 program. There are no complicated or exotic DOS commands that you
need to invoke. As a matter of fact, there are *no* DOS or DOS-like commands
to enter. The entire process is simple, straightforward, and quite
effective)
As I believe I mentioned earlier, it is *vital* that you work with the
latest version of the Ghost 2003 program. That's the Ghost 2003.793 build.
Should you have an earlier version of the Ghost 2003 program, you can use
Symantec's LiveUpdate feature available in the Ghost program to download &
automatically install that latest update. Note that the Ghost 2003 program
is included in the Ghost 9 and Ghost 10 retail packages and to the best of
my knowledge is the latest (final) version - Ghost 2003.793. So I believe
you have the latest version.
Symantec includes the Ghost 2003 program in their later versions indicating
that they do so because the 2003 version is designed for previous operating
systems, i.e., Win9x/Me. We have found, however, that for basic disk-to-disk
cloning, as described in these instructions, the 2003 version works just
fine in an XP environment. In our view it's simpler to use and just as
effective as the later versions.
So, here are step-by-step instructions for using the Ghost 2003 program
(using a Ghost 2003 bootable floppy disk or bootable CD) to directly clone
the contents of one HD to another HD...
Creating the bootable Ghost floppy disk:
1. Install the Ghost 2003 program on your computer. As indicated above,
make sure you're using the latest "build" - Ghost 2003.793. If not, use
Ghost's LiveUpdate feature to automatically download the latest version.
It's important that you be using this latest "build".
2. Insert a blank floppy disk (it need not be formatted) and access your
Ghost program.
3. Click on Ghost Utilities.
4. Click on Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.
5. Select Standard Ghost Boot Disk. A dialog box will appear.
a. Select the USB 2.0 Support option (assuming you have that
capability).
b. Select the Assign DOS drive letters option and click Next.
6. Select the Use PC-DOS option.
7. Complete the process following the screen prompts.
8. Remove floppy and label accordingly.
That's it. Now you have a Ghost bootable floppy disk which you can use to
undertake your cloning operations now and in the future. Now when you want
to clone the contents of one HD to another HD you simply insert the Ghost
bootable floppy disk in your floppy drive and boot up with both drives
connected.
After creating the Ghost bootable floppy disk, you can create a Ghost
bootable CD from it using the Roxio or Nero CD burning programs, or most
other CD burning programs that allow you to create a bootable CD.
Unfortunately I know of no way to *directly* create this bootable CD from
the Ghost program (as you can do, for example, with the Acronis True Image
program).
Before undertaking the cloning operation ensure that the only storage
devices connected are the two HDs that will be involved in the cloning
process, i.e., your source and destination disks. Disconnect any flash
drives, ZIP drives, etc.
Here's how to perform the disk cloning operation...
1. With both drives connected, boot up with the Ghost bootable floppy (or
Ghost bootable CD). You'll get an initial screen that displays "License
agreement warning". Right-arrow (or tab) over to the "Continue without
marking drives" button and press Enter.
2. The "About Norton Ghost" screen appears. Click OK.
3. Right-arrow twice over to the "To Disk" button and press Enter.
4. The next screen will list both your drives - the Drive 1 (source disk)
and Drive 2 (destination disk). MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN Drive 1 IS INDEED
YOUR SOURCE DISK, I.E., THE DISK YOU'RE CLONING *FROM*!
Drive 1 will be highlighted. Press Enter.
5. The next screen will have Drive 2 (destination disk) highlighted. AGAIN,
ENSURE THAT Drive 2 IS YOUR DESTINATION DISK, I.E., THE DISK YOU'RE CLONING
*TO*! Press Enter.
6. The next screen is the "Destination Drive Details" window, and reflects
your ultimate destination disk, i.e., your current Drive 2. Press your Tab
key to highlight the OK button and press Enter.
7. The "Proceed with disk clone?" dialog box will open. Left-arrow over to
the Yes button and press Enter.
8. The cloning process will begin. The data transfer speed will vary
depending upon the speed of your processor and the HDs involved. On a medium
to high-powered system you should get transfer speeds ranging from 800
MB/min nearly 2.0 GB/min should you be cloning internal drives. It will be
considerably slower if you're cloning to a USB external HD.
9. After you get the "Clone Completed Successfully" message, left-arrow over
to the Continue button and press Enter.
10. Down-arrow to Quit and press Enter.
11. Click Yes at the "Are you sure you want to quit?" message.
12. Remove the Ghost floppy and shut down the computer.
13. Disconnect your source disk and boot up with the cloned drive. In most
cases (but not always), a Windows "Found New Hardware" message will appear
in the Desktop's Notification Area shortly followed by a "System Settings
Change"
message window informing you that new hardware has been found and asks "Do
you want to restart your computer now?" Click Yes for the reboot.
14. BTW, the reboot of the newly-cloned drive usually takes a longer time
than usual, so one must be patient. On rare occasions the system will fail
to reboot - the system will hang before reaching the Windows XP Welcome
screen. It's a rare occurrence, but you may experience it from time-to-time.
If that does occur, simply use the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys to reboot.
Assuming you've cloned the contents of your working drive to your second
internal drive, that second drive will be bootable (after disconnecting your
primary one, of course) as indicated above. You also have the option of
cloning your working drive to a USB external hard drive. In that case the
USBEHD is *not* bootable (at least we haven't been able to boot the XP OS
from a USBEHD), but you could clone the contents back to your internal drive
for restoration purposes should the need arise.
Just one other point I wish to emphasize with respect to the cloning
operation involving internal drives. Immediately following the cloning
operation and the shutdown of your machine, disconnect your source drive and
boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive (as indicated in step 13. above). DO NOT
BOOT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
There is a real possibility that doing so will cause future boot problems
with the cloned drive in that it will lose the C: drive letter assignment,
although it could be used for restoration purposes. Obviously there is no
problem in this area should a USBEHD be involved in the cloning process
since that device is not bootable in an XP environment.
I trust the above will be of use to you and others who might be thinking
about using the Ghost 2003 program for a routine backup system.
Anna
ADDENDUM:
Before closing, let me make a few related points re using Ghost 2003...
1. I stated earlier that we prefer using a Ghost bootable floppy disk (or
Ghost bootable CD) to carry out the disk-to-disk cloning operation as just a
matter of personal preference in comparison with using Ghost's GUI interface
that one can run from within Windows. Frankly, that's not entirely true. We
have found that running Ghost 2003 for disk-to-disk cloning operations is
not as reliable when using Ghost's GUI interface as compared with using the
Ghost bootable floppy disk or bootable CD as I have detailed above. In our
experience too many unexplained errors seem to crop up during the GUI
disk-cloning operation. On the other hand we know of many users who happily
use the Ghost 2003 program in a GUI environment. So we encourage users to
try it using both methods and decide for themselves. The process is somewhat
different from the one I've described, but it's fairly straightforward and
shouldn't pose any untoward problems.
2. Over the years we've come across many newsgroup postings and various
commentators' statements denigrating the Ghost 2003 program in the area of
basic direct disk-to-disk cloning operations. This has always puzzled us
since by & large we've found Ghost 2003 to be a most reliable program when
used the way we use it as I have described. While not flawless, it's been a
relatively rare instance in our experience where the Ghost program did not
function properly because of some defect in the program itself. Invariably,
we've traced user problems to the following:
a. Incorrectly connected/configured hard drives, including external devices.
b. User error in using the program, e.g., mistaken selection of
source/destination disks, selecting an incorrect option, etc.
c. Cloning the contents of a drive that had system files corruption -
garbage in, garbage out.
