Not if you ghost the image.
that is the key. if none of the data resides on the C partition then
is it a piece of cake to ghost the system back.
But, you see, you'd never wish to ghost only the system back. If the system
is unstable, you'd System Restore, boot to Last Good, restore yesterday's
registry backup you made with ERUNT, run an sfc, or, in the worst case,
repair reinstall.
What backups really anticipate is the inevitable day when your hard drive
fails. This is the situation to which Bruce refers below.
On that day, YOU can ghost your system (C
back to your new hard drive,
true. Trouble is, you had perversely moved your programs to
D:\Applications and--worst of all--your data to E:\Data, both of which no
longer exist. In this case, a ghosted system image would be so much worse
than an install--because, as Bruce says, its registry would be filled with
orphans--that it would be useless.
On the other hand, if all the programs and all the data reside on C: as
well, then it's just as much a piece of cake to ghost the entire system
back *with all the programs and all the data* intact. Perfect.
Otherwise, you need an image of the entire drive containing the multiple
partitions, or you need images of each partition (simultaneous would be
optimal) to be restored to new partitions.
You CAN needlessly complicate things, but WHY?
at worst you have to
reinstall a few apps since the last ghosting.
No. At worst your hard drive has failed and you'd have to reinstall
everything including the OS, since your little image of Drive C: is now
useless. The company database is gone, the wedding pics are gone, maybe
even your job and your marriage as well
.
Call it a disaster.
the apps will ususlly
retain any configurations so you won't have to go thru all that
either.
Configurations can change dynamically, so you can't stay in synch. And then
there's the question of where each configuration resides, exactly, which
would have to be determined (if at all) for each particular app AND for
each user account.
WHAT a waste of time.
Some data will have to be backed up off the C partition
because some programmers make life difficult.
From the C partition is where data is most easily and conveniently backed
up and nothing could be simpler than doing so.
If you can image C: without its program files and data, then--in *exactly*
the same way, without the need of a single additional keystroke--you can
image C: *with* its programs and data. And that way you can restore it ALL
perfectly when the time comes.
To make backups difficult (and restores potentially impossible), you'd have
to go to some real effort. You'd have to create separate partitions and
then continually force bits of programs to reside on some and data on
others and not even know for sure what bits remain on the C: partition.
Make a royal mess, in other words.
Some wise programmers also created the convenient Documents and Settings
directory for user data where it can also be separately backed up as
desired with the greatest of ease by simple copying.
Rather than programmers, it's clearly the hobbyists who, for reasons known
only to themselves, make their own lives difficult by moving stuff off the
C partition.
