Ghost 2003 - FYI to new users

[unclepeteDEL]

I believe it was here that someone (I don't recall a name or have the post
stored) suggested Ghost 2003 as a simple, reliable backup and restore
application. I purchased it and for the info of other new XP users I have
a slightly different take on it.

While searching the internet for help using it I stumbled across a number
of reviews which were quite in agreement with each other. They said it is
best tried by the very patient very experienced professional if there was
a chance of making it work and then not terribly reliable. Not having had
it long I can't speak for the reliability, but while not a very patient
very professional I am _very_ glad I didn't spend much on it. As a new XP
user, if my copy just vanished into thin air I wouldn't spend fifty cents
to replace the thing.

The word "esoteric" is a bare beginning, and if your laptop doesn't have a
floppy drive it is simply not an option in the event of a failed system,
as it requires floppies to build a boot CD.

JimL

--

 

[Merlin]

I believe it was here that someone (I don't recall a name or have the post
stored) suggested Ghost 2003 as a simple, reliable backup and restore
application. I purchased it and for the info of other new XP users I have
a slightly different take on it.

While searching the internet for help using it I stumbled across a number
of reviews which were quite in agreement with each other. They said it is
best tried by the very patient very experienced professional if there was
a chance of making it work and then not terribly reliable. Not having had
it long I can't speak for the reliability, but while not a very patient
very professional I am _very_ glad I didn't spend much on it. As a new XP
user, if my copy just vanished into thin air I wouldn't spend fifty cents
to replace the thing.

The word "esoteric" is a bare beginning, and if your laptop doesn't have a
floppy drive it is simply not an option in the event of a failed system,
as it requires floppies to build a boot CD.

JimL

May I suggest you try Acronis True Image Home 10. They have a 30 day trial
available for download..
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

[Sharon F]

I believe it was here that someone (I don't recall a name or have the post
stored) suggested Ghost 2003 as a simple, reliable backup and restore
application. I purchased it and for the info of other new XP users I have
a slightly different take on it.

While searching the internet for help using it I stumbled across a number
of reviews which were quite in agreement with each other. They said it is
best tried by the very patient very experienced professional if there was
a chance of making it work and then not terribly reliable. Not having had
it long I can't speak for the reliability, but while not a very patient
very professional I am _very_ glad I didn't spend much on it. As a new XP
user, if my copy just vanished into thin air I wouldn't spend fifty cents
to replace the thing.

The word "esoteric" is a bare beginning, and if your laptop doesn't have a
floppy drive it is simply not an option in the event of a failed system,
as it requires floppies to build a boot CD.

JimL

I've never tried Ghost (I shy away from any Symantec software) but did try
and purchase Image for Windows by Terabyte Unlimited. While it worked well
for me, I had to drag out a hard copy of "restore" directions whenever I
wanted to restore an image. Not a terrible thing but the interface is not
terribly intuitive making the "cheat sheet" necessary. *Very good support*
from this company and via forums they will walk you through any mess you
get yourself into.

The next program I tried was True Image by Acronis. Very good interface.
Easy to use, easy to setup and easy to restore. Support is minimal but the
program has worked well and reliably for me during the two years I've owned
and used it.

Take advantage of software trials. Try each program on your system. Make
sure your CD or DVD writer is recognized by the software. Choose the one
that you like best.

Obviously, my overall preference for "ease of use" is True Image but I
still mention Image of Windows due to their excellent support.

 

[unclepeteDEL]

In <[email protected]>, on 02/05/07
at 09:54 AM, Sharon F <[email protected]> said:

I've never tried Ghost (I shy away from any Symantec software) but did
try and purchase Image for Windows by Terabyte Unlimited. While it worked
well for me, I had to drag out a hard copy of "restore" directions
whenever I wanted to restore an image. Not a terrible thing but the
interface is not terribly intuitive making the "cheat sheet" necessary.
*Very good support* from this company and via forums they will walk you
through any mess you get yourself into.

The next program I tried was True Image by Acronis. Very good interface.
Easy to use, easy to setup and easy to restore. Support is minimal but
the program has worked well and reliably for me during the two years I've
owned and used it.

Take advantage of software trials. Try each program on your system. Make
sure your CD or DVD writer is recognized by the software. Choose the one
that you like best.

Obviously, my overall preference for "ease of use" is True Image but I
still mention Image of Windows due to their excellent support.

Thanks

JimL

--

 

[unclepeteDEL]

In <#[email protected]>, on 02/05/07
at 10:03 AM, "Merlin" <[email protected]> said:

May I suggest you try Acronis True Image Home 10. They have a 30 day trial
available for download..
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

OK, two of you have recommended Acronis so far. Question: Obviously it does a copy/clone of your drive, as many things do. I did it with DFSee last night. And it will copy all kinds of things for you. Will it do an incremental update of changes at the push of a button or the arrival of a scheduled time, once you've saved a copy of the entire system?

JimL

--

 

[Cooler Dude]

In <#[email protected]>, on 02/05/07
at 10:03 AM, "Merlin" <[email protected]> said:





OK, two of you have recommended Acronis so far. Question:
Obviously it does a copy/clone of your drive, as many things
do. I did it with DFSee last night. And it will copy all
kinds of things for you. Will it do an incremental update of
changes at the push of a button or the arrival of a scheduled
time, once you've saved a copy of the entire system?

JimL

Yes. Once you set up a task to do just that, you can run it
manually or schedule it to run automatically.

 

[Maincat]

How about Microsoft Backup?

In <[email protected]>, on 02/05/07
at 09:54 AM, Sharon F <[email protected]> said:








Thanks

JimL

 

[Sharon F]

How about Microsoft Backup?

Works okay for full computer backups on Pro but is clunky to use and
awkward to restore. NTBackup included with XP is better suited for smaller
jobs such as backing up a handful of specific data folders.

 

[inkleputDEL]

Yes. Once you set up a task to do just that, you can run it manually or
schedule it to run automatically.

I have to be very specific here. What do you mean by "set up a task."

Some backup systems depend on the archive attribute and some require you
to write a script. I suppose some use a combination of both. Where does
Acronis fit in? (Hint: I used to be technologically capable.)

JimL

--

 

[Cooler Dude]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

I have to be very specific here. What do you mean by "set up a
task."

Some backup systems depend on the archive attribute and some
require you to write a script. I suppose some use a
combination of both. Where does Acronis fit in? (Hint: I used
to be technologically capable.)

JimL

In Acronis, there is a section entitled "Tasks". Within this is
the option to create scheduled tasks using a setup wizard. The
opening screen of that reads.....

"This wizard will help you to build a new backup creation task by
selecting parameters for the backup archive. You will be able to
start the created task manually or schedule it for executing at
the specified time."

And it does what it says on the tin!

You select what partition/drive you want to backup and to where,
choose either a full backup or (subsequently) incremental backups
and either schedule the task(s) for automatic operation at your
chosen time or manually press the "Run" button.

I don't know the criteria it uses to select the files for the
incremental backups but I assume it reads the file archive
attribute, which I believe is how other methods work. What I do
know is it works, there's no "file in use" problems and it is a
whole lot easier than previous methods I've used.

 

[inkleputDEL]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

In Acronis, there is a section entitled "Tasks". Within this is the
option to create scheduled tasks using a setup wizard. The opening
screen of that reads.....

"This wizard will help you to build a new backup creation task by
selecting parameters for the backup archive. You will be able to start
the created task manually or schedule it for executing at the specified
time."

And it does what it says on the tin!

You select what partition/drive you want to backup and to where, choose
either a full backup or (subsequently) incremental backups and either
schedule the task(s) for automatic operation at your chosen time or
manually press the "Run" button.

I don't know the criteria it uses to select the files for the
incremental backups but I assume it reads the file archive attribute,
which I believe is how other methods work. What I do know is it works,
there's no "file in use" problems and it is a whole lot easier than
previous methods I've used.

Thanks


JimL

--

 

[Brian A.]

I believe it was here that someone (I don't recall a name or have the post
stored) suggested Ghost 2003 as a simple, reliable backup and restore
application. I purchased it and for the info of other new XP users I have
a slightly different take on it.

While searching the internet for help using it I stumbled across a number
of reviews which were quite in agreement with each other. They said it is
best tried by the very patient very experienced professional if there was
a chance of making it work and then not terribly reliable. Not having had
it long I can't speak for the reliability, but while not a very patient
very professional I am _very_ glad I didn't spend much on it. As a new XP
user, if my copy just vanished into thin air I wouldn't spend fifty cents
to replace the thing.

Ghost 2003 is not hard to use or learn on a stand-alone computer and is very
reliable, although it can be trying to a novice when used for network backup imaging.
Any help needed is provided in Ghost > Utilities > Users Guide and/or the book that
is supplied with it.

I use both Ghost and Acronis TrueImage and although Acronis may be slightly easier
to learn for the novice on a stand-alone machine, it's one of the biggest PITAs on
secured networks.

The word "esoteric" is a bare beginning, and if your laptop doesn't have a
floppy drive it is simply not an option in the event of a failed system,
as it requires floppies to build a boot CD.

Totally incorrect, one does not need a floppy drive or disk to create a Ghost boot
CD to backup/restore either a stand-alone or network computer. I have one that was
created to be able to access image files on a Sony VAIO that has no floppy drive.
All that is needed are a few MS-DOS files, the drives CD/DVD DOS ROM drivers,
ghost.exe, ghreboot.exe and burning software to burn the files to disk.

Another way would be to create a BartPE or Barts Bootable CD-ROM with ghost on it.

There are other ways to create CD-ROM boot disks without floppies as well.




--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Don Smith]

Pardon my coming in late, but I would like to know what size the backup
would be for 4G of data.

Thanks

 

[Cooler Dude]

Pardon my coming in late, but I would like to know what size
the backup would be for 4G of data.

Thanks

It's not possible to give a definitive answer as it depends on
your data. Some types of files compress much more than others. You
would have to be extremely lucky to achieve 50% compression,
usually it will be a lot less than that. Allow for 4GB and you'll
hopefully be pleasantly surprised if it takes less space. ;-)

 

[inkleputDEL]

May I suggest you try Acronis True Image Home 10. They have a 30 day trial
available for download..
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Wow, thanks. That's so much easier to use than Ghost they aren't even in the same universe. A couple clicks and I had a boot CD. Original backup/restore setups more complicated, but the instructions are quite clear and simple. Coming from someone as easily confused as me, that's a mouthful.

JimL

--

 

[Jerry]

I may have been the one that suggested that Ghost 2003 was safe and reliable
way to create and restore images. I stand by that recommendation. I use it
constantly for WinXP Pro and have recently used it on Vista Ultimate.

I made the rescue floppy and use this work from DOS for creating and
restoring all images. I never use it out of Windows. If you only have a
Master hard drive and it is NOT partitioned, then it can be more difficult
as Ghost will NOT store images on the drive or partition being imaged.
Having a slave drive makes it considerably easier to be sure.

Once You boot from the rescue floppy, the interface is fairly simple, giving
the user precise and easy to understand prompts.

Having bought Ghost you may want to give it another try.

Good luck

 

[Brian A.]

I may have been the one that suggested that Ghost 2003 was safe and reliable way to
create and restore images. I stand by that recommendation. I use it constantly for
WinXP Pro and have recently used it on Vista Ultimate.

According to Symantec Ghost 10.0 and under are not compatible with any flavor of
Vista. If it worked for you, good deal. I'll have to test Ghost 2003, 9.0 and 10.0
on Vista Ultimate to see for myself if every aspect of them performs as they should.

I made the rescue floppy and use this work from DOS for creating and restoring all
images. I never use it out of Windows. If you only have a Master hard drive and
it is NOT partitioned, then it can be more difficult as Ghost will NOT store images
on the drive or partition being imaged. Having a slave drive makes it considerably
easier to be sure.

Why don't you set up the backup image while in Windows instead of booting to a
floppy? Since it can't run in Windows it boots to the DOS virtual partiton anyway,
creates the image and then reboots back into Windows. The floppy disk created really
only needs to be used in the event the machine won't boot to Windows, and it will
fail to get at the archives on a failed disk if a Ghost virtual partition wasn't
created. However, Ghost Explorer will run in Windows and you can add/extract files
to/from the image archive.

If only one hard drive is installed as a single volume and the machine isn't
networked, the only way to create a backup is to CD/DVDs.

Once You boot from the rescue floppy, the interface is fairly simple, giving the
user precise and easy to understand prompts.

It's not all that easy and simple to a new user if the drive(s) formatted as NTFS
and/or a wireless mouse is used and/or a USB keyboard/mouse are used. Some NTFS
systems refuse to use PC-DOS, then MS-DOS has to be used and if it's a networked
machine the user needs to find three files that Ghost doesn't provide. If the mouse
and keyboard both fail in DOS, then the user has to add the proper drivers to the
Ghost boot disk and configure the autoexec.bat and config.sys in order to get either
or both properly working.

Having bought Ghost you may want to give it another try.

Having been using it for years, no need to since I still use it to run
full/incremental scheduled backups on stand-alone and networked machines.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[George Mooth]

I too like Ghost 2003. I use it weekly on my XP Pro SP2 drive c:
I save to another HD. If I have a problem I just reinstall and things
are all back to normal. Every month or so I do a backup to a DVD
or 2 using Ghost 2003. That way it saves all my programs and
other info.

I made a rescue floppy too and boot from it to do the backups.

Geo.

 

[inkleputDEL]

In <[email protected]>, on 02/13/07
at 08:14 AM, "Jerry" <[email protected]> said:

If your system goes down it had better not be a new user with a modern
laptop, because Ghost 2003 requires a floppy drive. It has a feature that
purports to be a boot CD maker, but it demands either an ancient floppy to
make it or the expertise to to make your own boot CD tailored to fit and
use Ghost. Acronis? A couple clicks and you have your essential CD if
the worst happens on such a machine. And it's fast.

I made the rescue floppy and use this work from DOS for creating and
restoring all images. I never use it out of Windows. If you only have a
Master hard drive and it is NOT partitioned, then it can be more
difficult as Ghost will NOT store images on the drive or partition being
imaged. Having a slave drive makes it considerably easier to be sure.

Once You boot from the rescue floppy, the interface is fairly simple,
giving the user precise and easy to understand prompts.

Having bought Ghost you may want to give it another try.

Good luck

JimL

--

 

[Richter]

In <[email protected]>, on 02/13/07
at 08:14 AM, "Jerry" <[email protected]> said:

If your system goes down it had better not be a new user with a modern
laptop, because Ghost 2003 requires a floppy drive. It has a feature that
purports to be a boot CD maker, but it demands either an ancient floppy to
make it or the expertise to to make your own boot CD tailored to fit and
use Ghost. Acronis? A couple clicks and you have your essential CD if
the worst happens on such a machine. And it's fast.

Ghost doesn't require a floppy drive. You just have to do a backup to cd/dvd
and the files you need to boot is on the first cd/dvd.
Matt