Drive images

[Guest]

I've been wondering which software to use for keeping an image. I
have Ghost 2003, Acronis True Image v8, and Paragon Drive Backup v7. I
don't want to have images with different formats.

True Image will clone to an entire hard drive but not to a partition.
It only writes to DVD's that are re-writable using InCD (or similar)

Paragon writes directly to any sort od DVD, but it doesn't clone at
all.

Ghost clones to a partition (nice one) but does it write to an
ordinary DVD?

It would be helpful to agree one format that would do everything.

Colin

 

[M and D]

The current version of Ghost is Ghost 10. The current version of True Image is TI 9. Both are significant improvements over previous versions. Don't know anything about Drive Backup. Personally, I prefer Ghost 10. It's a big improvement over Ghost 2003. Of course, nobody pays full price for Norton products -- my copy of Ghost was $10. Had I been willing to wait a few months (for tax season) I could have had it for zero.

Steven

 

[Anna]

I've been wondering which software to use for keeping an image. I
have Ghost 2003, Acronis True Image v8, and Paragon Drive Backup v7. I
don't want to have images with different formats.

True Image will clone to an entire hard drive but not to a partition.
It only writes to DVD's that are re-writable using InCD (or similar)

Paragon writes directly to any sort od DVD, but it doesn't clone at
all.

Ghost clones to a partition (nice one) but does it write to an
ordinary DVD?

It would be helpful to agree one format that would do everything.

Colin

The current version of Ghost is Ghost 10. The current version of True Image
is TI 9. Both are significant improvements over previous versions. Don't
know anything about Drive Backup. Personally, I prefer Ghost 10. It's a big
improvement over Ghost 2003. Of course, nobody pays full price for Norton
products -- my copy of Ghost was $10. Had I been willing to wait a few
months (for tax season) I could have had it for zero.
Steven


Colin:
Do you have any interest in *directly* cloning the contents of one HD to
another HD (internal or external) rather than creating "disk images" on
DVDs? If you do, the Ghost 2003 program is an excellent program to undertake
that process in an XP environment. If you're interested I can provide
step-by-step instructions for doing so.
Anna

 

[Guest]

The current version of Ghost is Ghost 10. The current version of True Image
is TI 9. Both are significant improvements over previous versions. Don't
know anything about Drive Backup. Personally, I prefer Ghost 10. It's a big
improvement over Ghost 2003. Of course, nobody pays full price for Norton
products -- my copy of Ghost was $10. Had I been willing to wait a few
months (for tax season) I could have had it for zero.
Steven


Colin:
Do you have any interest in *directly* cloning the contents of one HD to
another HD (internal or external) rather than creating "disk images" on
DVDs? If you do, the Ghost 2003 program is an excellent program to undertake
that process in an XP environment. If you're interested I can provide
step-by-step instructions for doing so.
Anna

Hi

I'm retired so I do a lot od helping out for friends and enjoy the
challenge. My network has been rock solid for about 3 years so I
really need broken computers to keep my hand in.

I do like to clone from a small old drive to a big new one, but with
Acronis (my usual app) I have to introduced partitions afterwards
because it destroys everything else on the disk including previously
installed partitions. I understand that Ghost 2003 doesn't do that.

I like to separate out O/S and apps from all data so I have a 10Gb
partition for that usually and then several other partitions to keep
things "on shelves".

Imaging is strictly for purposes of restoration in an emergency.

Ghost 2003 is newly acquired (from your posting) and I haven't used it
since 2001. I used 2001 extensively but I always had a grudge about
it because it never obeyed the command line switches and that's why I
bought it. I might switch to it if it does everything rather than have
an Acronis image for cloning and a Paragon image for restoring and
burning on to a DVD.

Colin

 

[Anna]

Hi
I'm retired so I do a lot od helping out for friends and enjoy the
challenge. My network has been rock solid for about 3 years so I
really need broken computers to keep my hand in.

I do like to clone from a small old drive to a big new one, but with
Acronis (my usual app) I have to introduced partitions afterwards
because it destroys everything else on the disk including previously
installed partitions. I understand that Ghost 2003 doesn't do that.

I like to separate out O/S and apps from all data so I have a 10Gb
partition for that usually and then several other partitions to keep
things "on shelves".

Imaging is strictly for purposes of restoration in an emergency.

Ghost 2003 is newly acquired (from your posting) and I haven't used it
since 2001. I used 2001 extensively but I always had a grudge about
it because it never obeyed the command line switches and that's why I
bought it. I might switch to it if it does everything rather than have
an Acronis image for cloning and a Paragon image for restoring and
burning on to a DVD.

Colin

Colin:
Since you have Ghost 2003 there's really no reason not to use it for basic
disk-to-disk cloning purposes. Ghost 2001 is woefully inadequate in an XP
environment. And if you do use Ghost 2003, make sure you're using the latest
(and presumably final) "build", Ghost 2003.793. As I'm sure you know, you
can obtain that update if you need it through Symantec's LiveUpdate feature
in the Ghost program.

As you also probably know from my postings re the Ghost 2003 program, I
ordinarily use a bootable Ghost floppy disk (or Ghost bootable CD) to
perform the cloning operation. I find the use of this media simple to employ
and its portability aspects are another plus for me. But, of course, there's
no reason why a user cannot use the Ghost GUI in this process should he or
she desire.

We've no problem with the Acronis True Image in terms of carrying out basic
disk-to-disk cloning. Based on our experience with the version 8 edition, it
does the job and does it effectively. We've run into some problems with that
program involving a system that has a mix of PATA & SATA drives but it's a
relatively minor issue.

I assume you've come across a number of my postings that contain
step-by-step instructions for using the Ghost 2003 program involving the
*direct* disk-to-disk cloning process. By all means, if you have an interest
in this process, give it a try.
Anna