Is Ghost 2003 missing some of my files?

[Aloke Prasad]

I have a 39 gig drive partitioned into C: (with OS and applications) and D:
(with swap file). CHKDSK on each shows:

For C (with a 131,072 KB swap file on it)
====
30716248 KB total disk space.
8499604 KB in 33376 files.
10244 KB in 2754 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
122680 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
22083720 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
7679062 total allocation units on disk.
5520930 allocation units available on disk.

For D: (with a 4,096,000 KB swap file on it)
====
5421905 KB total disk space.
4096084 KB in 31 files.
24 KB in 23 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
30181 KB in use by the system.
29168 KB occupied by the log file.
1295616 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
1355476 total allocation units on disk.
323904 allocation units available on disk.

That adds up to approx 8.5 GB of files that Ghost should back up (it skips
swap files).

However, when I image this drive (to an external USB hard drive), without
compression, the size of image files add up to only 6.18 GB (6,489,272 KB).

Why is Ghost 2003 missing more than 2 GB of files?

I used Ghost Explorer to check contents of a few directories, all files seem
to be there. It is difficult to compare contents because Ghost Explorer
does not provide a "total file" count on it's status bar..

 

[Tom Graham]

I would bet that since Ghost places all files into a
single file all the empty space at the end of each file
is not copied. Files on a fat32 or ntfs reserve space in
fixed size chunks. If a file is smaller than the chunk
then the directory reserves the chunk and it contains
empty space. If the file is larger then more chunks are
assigned to it. Notice in your printout the following
statement: "4096 bytes in each allocation unit" If one
file is only ONE byte, it still requires 4096 bytes to
store it.

 

[Aloke Prasad]

I don't think 25% of my disk is used up in file slack.. 2GB out of 8 GB
used?

 

[Sarge]

That adds up to approx 8.5 GB of files that Ghost should back up (it
skips swap files).

Have you accounted for the other files Ghost skips? From the manual:


When Norton Ghost creates image files or clones, it does not include
hibernation and swap files. These files are valid only for one Windows
session, and when they are included in an image file, they make it
significantly larger. Norton Ghost implements file skipping differently
for each type of file system.

FAT file systems: Files are not included on the image file or destination
disk.

NTFS file systems: A file with the same name is created on the image file
or destination disk, but the contents of the file are not copied.

The following files are skipped on all file systems:

386Spart.par
Amizvsus.pmf
Dos data.sf
Ghost.dta
Hiberfil.sys
Hibrn8.dat
Hybern8
Navsysl.dat
Navsysr.dat
Pagefile.sys
Pm_hiber.bin
Save2dsk.bin
Saveto.dsk
Spart.par
Swapper.dat
Toshiber.dat
Virtpart.dat
Win386.swp

 

[Alex Nichol]

That adds up to approx 8.5 GB of files that Ghost should back up (it skips
swap files).

However, when I image this drive (to an external USB hard drive), without
compression, the size of image files add up to only 6.18 GB (6,489,272 KB).

Why is Ghost 2003 missing more than 2 GB of files?

I don't use Ghost, as I don't care for imaging that is file based. But
if it is omitting swap files, it seems quite likely it is also omitting
restore points. have Folder Options - View set to show Hidden files,
and *not* Hide Protected mode ones and check on the System Volume
Information folder (which is where they are held) and see if they are
being included. By default restore can use up to 12% of a disk, so up
to 3.5 GB on your C drive

 

[Aloke Prasad]

Thanks. I think you got it! I have a 2 GB hibernation file. That would
explain the "missing" data.

I saw the entries in Ghost Explorer and thought that Ghost had actually
copied the file instead of adding a placeholder entry in the image file ...

 

[Aloke Prasad]

Ghost 2003 now has a sector based imaging too (they call it "forensic"
image).

Anyway, I have Windows Explorer options to show hidden files and not hide
protected files or extensions.

Still, I cannot look in the System Volume Information folder. I get a msg
"C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied". This
is from an account with Admin privileges. Properties of this directory
shows zero bytes used (even though I'm using system restore feature).

Why isn't Explorer able to look in this directory?
--
Aloke
----
to reply by e-mail remove 123 and change invalid to com


I don't use Ghost, as I don't care for imaging that is file based. But
if it is omitting swap files, it seems quite likely it is also omitting
restore points. have Folder Options - View set to show Hidden files,
and *not* Hide Protected mode ones and check on the System Volume
Information folder (which is where they are held) and see if they are
being included. By default restore can use up to 12% of a disk, so up
to 3.5 GB on your C drive

 

[Sarge]

Anyway, I have Windows Explorer options to show hidden files and not
hide protected files or extensions.

Still, I cannot look in the System Volume Information folder. I get a
msg "C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is
denied". This is from an account with Admin privileges. Properties
of this directory shows zero bytes used (even though I'm using system
restore feature).

Why isn't Explorer able to look in this directory?

Right-click the System Volume Information folder. Select Properties. Select
Security tab. Under "group or user names" add your user name and give it
full control. You'll now have access to the folder.

If you don't see a Security tab go to the menu bar in Windows Explorer,
select Tools, Folder Options, View and deselect "Use simple file sharing."