B
Bob Harris
A couple of cautions:
GHOST is fundamentally an old DOS program (although one
that I like very much). The first version claiming
compatibility with XP is 2002. I have used it and it
works under XP.
But, versions 2002 and earlier can NOT write to NTFS
partitions, because DOS can not see NTFS without special
drivers. Thus, if you plan to write from one internal
hard drive partition to another, be sure that the target
partition is FAT32. The source partition can be NTFS,
since GHOST will bindly copy ones and zeros from any disk
whose file system it can not read. Unfortunately, that
can make for very large images, since the whole partition
is copied, including any free space.
GHOST 2003 can handle NTFS much better than 2002.
Further, GHOST 2003 can write directly to external USB and
firewire disks. A disk that can be detatched from your
computer is better in case of virus attack or electrical
surge than one that is inside your computer.
GHOST can also directly write to CD (not to DVD), but I
have never tried that option. Instead, I write to disk
about once a week, then copy the images to CD about once a
month or so. GHOST has a very nice option to
create "spans" of user defined size. I chose 640 Meg.
Its default is 2 Gig, the old FAT16 limit for a single
file.
One caution about GHOST 2003: In theory it can initiate a
backup/restore from the windows desktop, automatically
reboot, then do its work in DOS, then retruen to the
desktop. However, in pracice that interface is buggy. In
fact Symnatec offers a downoad to repair boot sectors
corrupted by a failed GHOST backup run. Do NOT use this
interace in GHOST 2003. Stick to the floppy disk version
of GHOST for backup/recovery. The windows interface still
can be used to create recovery floppies, and to extract
single files from images. By the way, use MS-DOS, not PC-
DOS. You have to provide MS-DOS, since copywrites prevent
Symnatec from giving it to you. However, XP will happily
create a boot floppy that is really a windows ME DOS disk
(i.e., MS-DOS).
Note: GHOST is NOT yet validated for use with RAID and/or
serial ATA hard drives and/or dynamic disks. If you have
plain IDE disks, it will work fine. If you have hardware
RAID or serial ATA it might work, but you are on your own,
Symantec will not support you. As it happens, the floppy
disk interace of GHOST 2002 and 2003 both work for me with
serial ATA on a hrdware RAID controller.
Note: With respect to USB and firewire, GHOST 2003
usually can only see disks attached ot the FIRST
controller of each type. So, if you have USB on the
motherboard plus USB on an add-in card, only the one on
the motherboard will be seen. Definitely experiment to
see what GHOST can see BEFORE you need to do a recovery.
My experiene has been that if GHOST displays the drive and
its images (when run in DOS mode form floppy), then you
can use that as a recovery source. Likewise, if GHOST can
display the partition you wish to recover (in DOS mode
from floppy), then it will work.
GHOST is fundamentally an old DOS program (although one
that I like very much). The first version claiming
compatibility with XP is 2002. I have used it and it
works under XP.
But, versions 2002 and earlier can NOT write to NTFS
partitions, because DOS can not see NTFS without special
drivers. Thus, if you plan to write from one internal
hard drive partition to another, be sure that the target
partition is FAT32. The source partition can be NTFS,
since GHOST will bindly copy ones and zeros from any disk
whose file system it can not read. Unfortunately, that
can make for very large images, since the whole partition
is copied, including any free space.
GHOST 2003 can handle NTFS much better than 2002.
Further, GHOST 2003 can write directly to external USB and
firewire disks. A disk that can be detatched from your
computer is better in case of virus attack or electrical
surge than one that is inside your computer.
GHOST can also directly write to CD (not to DVD), but I
have never tried that option. Instead, I write to disk
about once a week, then copy the images to CD about once a
month or so. GHOST has a very nice option to
create "spans" of user defined size. I chose 640 Meg.
Its default is 2 Gig, the old FAT16 limit for a single
file.
One caution about GHOST 2003: In theory it can initiate a
backup/restore from the windows desktop, automatically
reboot, then do its work in DOS, then retruen to the
desktop. However, in pracice that interface is buggy. In
fact Symnatec offers a downoad to repair boot sectors
corrupted by a failed GHOST backup run. Do NOT use this
interace in GHOST 2003. Stick to the floppy disk version
of GHOST for backup/recovery. The windows interface still
can be used to create recovery floppies, and to extract
single files from images. By the way, use MS-DOS, not PC-
DOS. You have to provide MS-DOS, since copywrites prevent
Symnatec from giving it to you. However, XP will happily
create a boot floppy that is really a windows ME DOS disk
(i.e., MS-DOS).
Note: GHOST is NOT yet validated for use with RAID and/or
serial ATA hard drives and/or dynamic disks. If you have
plain IDE disks, it will work fine. If you have hardware
RAID or serial ATA it might work, but you are on your own,
Symantec will not support you. As it happens, the floppy
disk interace of GHOST 2002 and 2003 both work for me with
serial ATA on a hrdware RAID controller.
Note: With respect to USB and firewire, GHOST 2003
usually can only see disks attached ot the FIRST
controller of each type. So, if you have USB on the
motherboard plus USB on an add-in card, only the one on
the motherboard will be seen. Definitely experiment to
see what GHOST can see BEFORE you need to do a recovery.
My experiene has been that if GHOST displays the drive and
its images (when run in DOS mode form floppy), then you
can use that as a recovery source. Likewise, if GHOST can
display the partition you wish to recover (in DOS mode
from floppy), then it will work.