Cloning a WinXP 40 GB drive to multiple 40 GB partitions of an external hard disc, possibly using Gh

[barman]

I have a 40GB internal hard disc (bootable C in my WinXP Professional
laptop, as well as a second 40GB internal disc (D:; both discs are
NTFS). I am thinking of acquiring a several hundred GB USB2 external
hard disc, perhaps 320 GB. What I'd like to do is partition the
external drive into something like (all NTFS):

E: 40GB
F: 40GB
G: 40GB
H: 40GB
I: remaining space, 160GB

and then clone C: to E: and D: to F:. After a few weeks, I'd like to
clone C: to G: and D: to H:. A few weeks later, I'd like to rotate
back to C:->E: and D:->F:. I'd like to use the I: drive for non-backup
purposes. I have Norton Ghost 8.0, and have several questions.

* Ghost will only clone disc to disc, right? Can I do what I want to do
with Ghost? The documentation is not clear - and I am concerned that
Ghost requires the source machine to have a Ghost partition. Is there a
tutorial or documentation available to show how to easily use Ghost to
do what I want to?

* Are there other approaches? I know that Acronis True can make images,
but the images it creates are just that, and aren't clones. I'd like
to have the security to know that if my primary hard disc crashes, I
can mark my most recent backup as bootable, bring it up, and use it -
or reformat the primary and then clone back from the backup. I also
like the fact that the clone has an accessible file system that I could
potentially incrementally backup to and from which I could retrieve
historical versions of files.

Thanks!

Dilip

 

[Jerry]

Others will correct me if I'm wrong but, if I remember comments others have
made in these newsgroups, cloning the operating system to an external drive
won't work because Windows will not boot from an external drive.

 

[Anna]

I have a 40GB internal hard disc (bootable C in my WinXP Professional
laptop, as well as a second 40GB internal disc (D:; both discs are
NTFS). I am thinking of acquiring a several hundred GB USB2 external
hard disc, perhaps 320 GB. What I'd like to do is partition the
external drive into something like (all NTFS):

E: 40GB
F: 40GB
G: 40GB
H: 40GB
I: remaining space, 160GB

and then clone C: to E: and D: to F:. After a few weeks, I'd like to
clone C: to G: and D: to H:. A few weeks later, I'd like to rotate
back to C:->E: and D:->F:. I'd like to use the I: drive for non-backup
purposes. I have Norton Ghost 8.0, and have several questions.

* Ghost will only clone disc to disc, right? Can I do what I want to do
with Ghost? The documentation is not clear - and I am concerned that
Ghost requires the source machine to have a Ghost partition. Is there a
tutorial or documentation available to show how to easily use Ghost to
do what I want to?

* Are there other approaches? I know that Acronis True can make images,
but the images it creates are just that, and aren't clones. I'd like
to have the security to know that if my primary hard disc crashes, I
can mark my most recent backup as bootable, bring it up, and use it -
or reformat the primary and then clone back from the backup. I also
like the fact that the clone has an accessible file system that I could
potentially incrementally backup to and from which I could retrieve
historical versions of files.

Thanks!

Dilip

Dilip:
And just what are you going to do with that I: partition?? (Just joking...)
Actually I don't *really* want to know why you want to undertake this rather
complicated scenario, but to answer your question...

But before doing so, let me say that it's been a long time since I've worked
with the Ghost 8.0 version, so the information I'm providing is based on
Ghost 2003. I vaguely recall that there *were* problems with Ghost 8.0
involving the cloning of NTFS partitions, but I'm really not sure about
that.

I usually work with a Ghost bootable floppy disk (or Ghost bootable CD) that
one can easily create using the Ghost program. I prefer the simplicity and
portability aspects of this approach rather than working with Ghost in a
Windows GUI environment.

Using Ghost 2003, in addition to disk-to-disk cloning, you can *directly*
clone the contents of a partition on one drive to a partition on another
drive. BTW, this is a rather serious limitation of the Acronis program you
mention. That program does not have the capability of *directly* cloning
individual partitions (of a multi-partitioned drive) from one drive to
another drive. While the ATI program can *directly* clone the contents of
one drive to another drive (you're incorrect in saying they aren't clones --
they most certainly are), it does not have Ghost's capability involving the
cloning of individual partitions along the lines I have described. Naturally
you can get around this by creating & copying disk (partition) images but
it's a much more awkward and lengthy process than *directly* cloning the
contents of individual partitions as you can do with Ghost.

So it would seem that the Ghost program might be more suitable for your
special needs. If you want more detailed information concerning the
specifics of the Ghost 2003 cloning process, please so indicate in a
subsequent post.
Anna

 

[Gary]

Ghost will do it. The only thing ghost won't do is copy onto a drive that
is in use...like your C: Drive. You'd have to boot to a disk (possibly the
ghost disk itself) to copy an image to the C: drive.

If the purpose were to have multiple backups (kinda mimicking rotation of
tape backups) I'd probably just copy the partition to an image on the large
partition. You can name the imagine whatever you want. What I've done is
named it the date I took it. This way you don't have to keep all those
partitions, just use one big partition on the external drive and create the
ghost images on there. They are just files..which ghost can read. I
believe if you have ghost installed, you can even backup the system without
a boot disk. When I look at my Norton Ghost 2003, I have an option to
"Backup your computer to a Ghost image file." I haven't done it..but I'm
sure it'd work.

As for the other response...I rarely have any issues with NTFS partitions.
However, I am usually doing it using the ghost disk, booting up the computer
with it. My Iomega external hard drive actually came with ghost. I do it
all the time.

Gary

 

[barman]

Thanks for the detailed answer, Anna. The I: partition will just be an
additional data disc for me (since you asked ).

The Symantec site claims that "Symantec Ghost 8.x, Norton Ghost 9.0,
and Norton Ghost 2003 can save image files directly to NTFS partitions"
but some other versions are cited as having problems as you mentioned,
Anna. I should be fine with 8.0 then (hopefully!).

I would do as you say, and boot from a Ghost bootable CD. You mentioned
that "you can *directly* clone the contents of a partition on one drive
to a partition on another drive" - so would Ghost be able to take the
entire primary hard disc with a single partition C: and clone it to one
of the partitions in the external hard disc without affecting the other
partitions? I am confused because I thought Ghost can only clone
disc->disc or partition->partition, but it would appear that I need to
clone disc->partition.

BTW, when you say that ATI won't make a clone, I thought that ATI would
build an image. In order to recreate the disc, ATI would have to take
the image and build a disc, no? Thanks!

Dilip

 

[barman]

That sounds like a smarter strategy - I'd just lose the security of
knowing I have a stand-alone Ghost-independent intact hard disc.
Roughly what kind of compression might I expect - say I have a 40GB
drive with 10GB free - would an image take up significantly less than
30GB? Thanks, Gary!

 

[barman]

Yes, that may be true, and I apologize for not realizing that and being
more clear. In the case of a system crash, I should be able (I hope!)
to boot from a Ghost bootable disc, and Ghost the appropriate backup
partition E:- or G: -> C: (and F: or H: -> D then reboot and have my
system back as of its last image backup. Thanks, Jerry. --Dilip

 

[Lil' Dave]

Are your intents to clone or image as noted in your reply here below?

No answer is appropriate until you decide what you're going to do and let
that be known.

You don't need all those partitions for image files, just different folders
under one partition to save images for different times of week or month.
Folders would have an appropriate names to discern the difference.

Clones just need empty space, not pre-made partitions.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Is your Bios going to recognize that large of a drive?

The remaining space will be < 140 GB.