Alternative to Norton Ghost?

[Allan Gould]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Norton Ghost? I do a little work
for the local Museum (charity) and am trying to help them with their
computer. They haven't got a huge amount of money and Ghost doesn't
come cheap. At present, they have no backup system in place.

I use Ghost myself and like the way the backup can be done from a floppy
booting into PC-DOS. I have always felt that backups should be
done with the 'system' brought to its lowest level so that there is
absolutely no problem with read/write conflicts. I also have a feeling
that if you need to do a full reinstall from a backup, having to put the
operating system back on (e.g. Windows) because you've done the backup
from within that operating system (e.g. Windows) is self-defeating.

So, any recommendations for a (cheap?) alternative to Norton Ghost, and
possibly one offering backup from bootable floppy, and possibly even one
that will backup to DVD?

A google of groups & the web has found:
- http://www.xxcopy.com/
- http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm
- Acronis TrueImage
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
- Powerquest (bought by Norton)
none of which seem to fit the bill?

TIA

Allan

 

[Rod Speed]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Norton Ghost?

One obvious alternative is True Image.

BUT its actually much more expensive than the cheapest legal ghost.

I do a little work for the local Museum (charity) and am
trying to help them with their computer. They haven't got
a huge amount of money and Ghost doesn't come cheap.

It does actually, dirt cheap if you get it as part
of SystemWorks Pro 2003 off ebay, peanuts.

Got to be Pro, its not included in standard SystemWorks 2003.

Thats not the latest version of ghost, but its dirt cheap.

At present, they have no backup system in place.

You dont say what OS, the NT/2K/XP family come with a decent backup app.

I use Ghost myself and like the way the backup can
be done from a floppy booting into PC-DOS. I have
always felt that backups should be done with the
'system' brought to its lowest level so that there
is absolutely no problem with read/write conflicts.

In that case you dont need the latest ghost
9 anyway, it does it at the Win level.

Doing it at the Win level has a number of advantages tho,
any device that is visible at the Win level can be used for
the image file and backup to a drive on the other side of
the lan is MUCH easier to setup at the Win level.

I also have a feeling that if you need to do a full reinstall
from a backup, having to put the operating system back
on (e.g. Windows) because you've done the backup from
within that operating system (e.g. Windows) is self-defeating.

You dont have to do that with either of the most popular
imaging apps. They both have a bootable CD that restores
the system partition, no need to restore Win first.

So, any recommendations for a (cheap?) alternative to Norton Ghost,

See above.

and possibly one offering backup from bootable floppy,

Ghost and True Image allow that.

and possibly even one that will backup to DVD?

Both allow that too.

A google of groups & the web has found:
- http://www.xxcopy.com/

Thats pretty crude in comparison and isnt a true
complete backup so if the system drive dies,
you cant just boot the CD or floppy and restore.

- http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/index.htm

Dunno anything about that.

- Acronis TrueImage
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

That fits fine. It actually a bootable version of linux on the bootable CD.

No cheaper than Ghost tho and much more expensive than the cheapest ghost.

- Powerquest (bought by Norton)

Thats basically what ghost 9 is now, the powerquest product.

none of which seem to fit the bill?

ghost 9 doesnt if you want to be able to image outside Win.
It wont image from the bootable CD, only restore.

True Image will tho.

 

[J. Clarke]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Norton Ghost? I do a little work
for the local Museum (charity) and am trying to help them with their
computer. They haven't got a huge amount of money and Ghost doesn't
come cheap. At present, they have no backup system in place.

I use Ghost myself and like the way the backup can be done from a floppy
booting into PC-DOS. I have always felt that backups should be
done with the 'system' brought to its lowest level so that there is
absolutely no problem with read/write conflicts. I also have a feeling
that if you need to do a full reinstall from a backup, having to put the
operating system back on (e.g. Windows) because you've done the backup
from within that operating system (e.g. Windows) is self-defeating.

If they're running XP or Server 2K3 you might want to take a look at BartPE
<http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/>.

Also, I have no idea if their products are any good but

 

[admiral_victory]

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 22:37:43 +0000, Allan Gould

I notice none of the responders have mentioned Drive Image - I use
D.I.2002 and haven't had problems.


B.N.

 

[Thomas Wendell]

That's because it doesn't exist anymore, as Symantec bought PowerQuest in
2003....
Ghost 9.0 is actually ~ a mix of DI2002 and V2i.......


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[Neil Maxwell]

One obvious alternative is True Image.

BUT its actually much more expensive than the cheapest legal ghost.

At $50, it's definitely more expensive than the cheap bundled Ghost
versions, but it's still not very expensive in the grand scheme of
things. When I look at the amount of time and trouble it's saved me,
I consider it quite a bargain, and I'm a cheapskate.

I did buy the Systemworks bundle with Ghost 8.0 for something like
$15, used it a few times, and put it away. Money down the drain for
me, but others like it just fine, of course.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

That's because it doesn't exist anymore, as Symantec bought
PowerQuest in 2003....
Ghost 9.0 is actually ~ a mix of DI2002 and V2i.......

Ghost 9.0 is virtually Drive Image 7.0x, the last version by
PowerQuest that was written to run under Windows XP and
which requires MS's Framework.net to work.

*TimRDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

At $50, it's definitely more expensive than the cheap bundled Ghost
versions, but it's still not very expensive in the grand scheme of
things. When I look at the amount of time and trouble it's saved me,
I consider it quite a bargain, and I'm a cheapskate.

Sure, but an operation like that can have other ideas on that.

I did buy the Systemworks bundle with Ghost 8.0 for something like $15,

Its currently available buy now for $3.80, less than a tenth of the cost of TI.

used it a few times, and put it away. Money down
the drain for me, but others like it just fine, of course.

It would do what he wants fine.

 

[admiral_victory]

That's because it doesn't exist anymore, as Symantec bought PowerQuest in
2003....
Ghost 9.0 is actually ~ a mix of DI2002 and V2i.......

Thanks - I didn't know that .

B.N.

 

[Roger Blake]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Norton Ghost? I do a little work

You could always boot up a Linux diskette or CD and use "dd" to make a
block-for-block image to another drive. Or if you don't need NTFS support,
the free program "parted" may do the trick:

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html