Do I need Partition Magic or Drive Image ?

[Bob]

I have a newly built system with win2K on it. I need to clone it and
create an exact copy so that I don't have to spend a couple of days
setting up a couple of duplicates.

Problem - I made the C: drive an NTFS partition and I discovered
that I can't use the older version of Drive Image Pro that I have (v3)
to work on an NTFS drive since NTFS does not mount from a DOS boot and
Drive Image will not create an image file from a partition with no
drive letter assigned (I tried). My Partition Magic version is v4 and
that will not convert an NTFS partition to FAT32 (Which DI Pro could
work with) so that is out.

Solution? Should I buy PM v8, convert the NTFS drive to FAT32, and
then use DI Pro 3 to image it ? Or should/can I just buy DI 8(?)
and clone NTFS partitions with it?

Ideally I would like to be able to do what I did with FAT/FAT32
partitions. That is, make an occasional backup copy of the system
in case it gets trashed or too dirty. So I am leaning towards
Drive Image. But, will DI do what I need?

Thanks,

 

[Lil' Dave]

Do whatever. I would purchase DI ***7.0*** for what the results you're
expecting. Use DI 2002 that comes with it instead.
http://www.symantec.com/driveimage/
Dave

 

[Robert Barr]

I don't understand why Ghost wouldn't handle this nicely for you. Maybe
I'm missing something (not being sarcastic; legit question...).

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a newly built system with win2K on it. I need to
clone it and create an exact copy so that I don't have to
spend a couple of days setting up a couple of duplicates.

Problem - I made the C: drive an NTFS partition and I discovered
that I can't use the older version of Drive Image Pro that I have (v3)
to work on an NTFS drive since NTFS does not mount from a DOS
boot and Drive Image will not create an image file from a partition
with no drive letter assigned (I tried). My Partition Magic version
is v4 and that will not convert an NTFS partition to FAT32
(Which DI Pro could work with) so that is out.

Solution? Should I buy PM v8, convert the NTFS
drive to FAT32, and then use DI Pro 3 to image it ?

I wouldnt go that route myself.

Or should/can I just buy DI 8(?)
and clone NTFS partitions with it?

Yes.

Or get Ghost as part of SystemWorks Pro
2003 for much less money and use that.

Ideally I would like to be able to do what I did with FAT/FAT32
partitions. That is, make an occasional backup copy of the
system in case it gets trashed or too dirty. So I am leaning
towards Drive Image. But, will DI do what I need?

7 or 8 will do the job fine.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Bob wrote:
So I am leaning towards Drive Image. But,
will DI do what I need?

7 or 8 will do the job fine.

Where does one get version 8 of Drive Image?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Where does one get version 8 of Drive Image?

Whoops, typo. That should have been 6 and 7

 

[Bob]

Thanks for all the help boys. I actually ended up buying Paragon Hard
Disk Manager. I bought it for a couple of reasons... first, I didn't
have to make a decision on whether I needed a partitioning product or
an imaging/copying product, I got both for just $52. Second, I
absolutely despise the unfeeling corporate, small company gobbling,
bug ridden producing, poor customer supporting company called
Symantec. While I though DI was great (I had a tech lic. for it
and used it extensively), I really hate to support Symantec at all.
No doubt they'll have DI and PM FUBAR in a year or two - if they
keep them at all. I suspect they just wanted to eliminate the
competition. I bought DI back when they were the upstart company
against (Norton's purchase of) Ghost, now I've moved on to the
next upstart product

So far, so good. PHDM has done the job. You do have to deal with a
little broken english in the help, but all around it's a nice product
set. Certainly it's better than the older version of PM that I had
which was a positive annoyance to work with (although I haven't tried
later versions of PM). The imaging is nice in that you can run it
on a system disk out of win2K although it does need a restart to load
in a "command" mode and get to the system disk (I suppose they all
need that with WinNT/2K/XP). DI also had some annoying habits when
reloading and having existing partitions - this product seems better
at that (again noting that I didn't have the latest version of DI,
it might be better).

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks for all the help boys. I actually ended up buying Paragon Hard
Disk Manager. I bought it for a couple of reasons... first, I didn't
have to make a decision on whether I needed a partitioning product or
an imaging/copying product, I got both for just $52. Second, I
absolutely despise the unfeeling corporate, small company gobbling,
bug ridden producing, poor customer supporting company called
Symantec. While I though DI was great (I had a tech lic. for it
and used it extensively), I really hate to support Symantec at all.
No doubt they'll have DI and PM FUBAR in a year or two - if they
keep them at all. I suspect they just wanted to eliminate the
competition. I bought DI back when they were the upstart company
against (Norton's purchase of) Ghost, now I've moved on to the
next upstart product

Have you got a symantec doll you stick pins in ? |-)

So far, so good. PHDM has done the job. You do have to deal with a
little broken english in the help, but all around it's a nice product
set. Certainly it's better than the older version of PM that I had
which was a positive annoyance to work with (although I haven't tried
later versions of PM). The imaging is nice in that you can run it
on a system disk out of win2K although it does need a restart to load
in a "command" mode and get to the system disk (I suppose they all
need that with WinNT/2K/XP).

Nope, Acronis TrueImage and V2i Protector dont.

V2i Protector will run in the background during normal ops too.

DI also had some annoying habits when
reloading and having existing partitions

Not sure what you mean there.

 

[kenward]

Thanks for all the help boys. I actually ended up buying Paragon Hard
Disk Manager. I bought it for a couple of reasons... first, I didn't
have to make a decision on whether I needed a partitioning product or
an imaging/copying product, I got both for just $52. Second, I
absolutely despise the unfeeling corporate, small company gobbling,
bug ridden producing, poor customer supporting company called
Symantec. While I though DI was great (I had a tech lic. for it
and used it extensively), I really hate to support Symantec at all.

-----End Quoted (and cut) Message-----

Hooray.

I was recently in the same boat, looking for a similar product.
Because Symantec has screwed up two the software packages I used to
rely on -- FileManager and WinFax -- I refused to get their disk
stuff.

I ended up buying Casper XP.

http://www.fssdev.com/support/

Simple and cheap. If it does what you want.

MK


_______________________________________________________________________
Michael Kenward Words for sale

 

[Bob]

Have you got a symantec doll you stick pins in ? |-)

I should get one. I always thought that smirking, arms crossed, Peter
Norton face on the Norton Utilities package captured his company
attitude and philosophy fairly well.

Nope, Acronis TrueImage and V2i Protector dont.

Really ? I'll have to check them out.

V2i Protector will run in the background during normal ops too.


Not sure what you mean there.

Umm, AFAIR, I couldn't "restore" and image to a disk that did not have
an existing partition. You had to partition the (new) disk first, then
do a restore to a specific partition.

 

[Rod Speed]

I should get one. I always thought that smirking, arms
crossed, Peter Norton face on the Norton Utilities package
captured his company attitude and philosophy fairly well.

|-)

I dont recall any crossed arms.

Umm, AFAIR, I couldn't "restore" and image to a disk that
did not have an existing partition. You had to partition the
(new) disk first, then do a restore to a specific partition.

Nope, you can restore to free space.

You would normally clone tho and the
target doesnt have to be partitiioned.

 

[Paul]

Best of luck with Paragon. I've had nothing but trouble with it. I have
never actually got it to work properly and the help and supporting 'manuals'
are translated from German into Gibberish. I wouldn't trust this product on
anything mission critical.

Paul

 

[John Turco]

Best of luck with Paragon. I've had nothing but trouble with it. I have
never actually got it to work properly and the help and supporting 'manuals'
are translated from German into Gibberish. I wouldn't trust this product on
anything mission critical.

Paul

<cut previous messages, for brevity>

Hello, Paul:

Was that "Low Gibberish," or "High Gibberish?" :-D


Cordially,
John Turco <[email protected]>