Need information on Norton Ghost 9.0

[batham]

Hey guys,

I need some info on Norton Ghost 9.0

Basically what I want is this or will do this.......

I have a 40 GB hard disk where I have installed Windows XP with SP2 and
all the updates and will put all the necessary software like office
2003, Norton antivirus and bla bla bla I might need.

Can I take an image of this hard disk and save it on a DVD or something
and then can I restore the entire DVD on the same hard disk or any
other hard disk (this is important to restore the image to another hard
disk).

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what should I use for my case.

Thank you in advance
shailendra

 

[David Candy]

What do you mean another hard disk? A replacement one? If so the program might do it (it's fairly crap program) - it will try. Could give you my copy - I don't use it (it's a bit old). I snapped my last norton full CD in half. That's what I think of Norton.

 

[batham]

well I want to know which software is best to take a DISK image and
restore it on any hard disk. Is there even a software like this which
exists ?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "David Candy" <.>

| What do you mean another hard disk? A replacement one? If so the program might do it (it's
| fairly crap program) - it will try. Could give you my copy - I don't use it (it's a bit
| old). I snapped my last norton full CD in half. That's what I think of Norton.
|

Ghost 9.0 includes Norton Ghost 2003 build 793. It is far from crap.

Ghost is the only Symantec product I swear by and not swear at.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "batham" <[email protected]>

| well I want to know which software is best to take a DISK image and
| restore it on any hard disk. Is there even a software like this which
| exists ?

Yes... Norton Ghost 9.0 or 2003 and Acronis TruImage.

 

[David Candy]

And I snap their CDs in half.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "David Candy" <.>

| And I snap their CDs in half.
|
| --
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/_comment/001075.html

Watch out -- polycarbonates snap with sharp shards !

 

[batham]

so is Acronis True Image better than Ghost, I just want the process to
be smooth and not waste time in installing all the operating system and
extra software again.

Do they have a demo version, like try before you buy ?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "batham" <[email protected]>

| so is Acronis True Image better than Ghost, I just want the process to
| be smooth and not waste time in installing all the operating system and
| extra software again.
|
| Do they have a demo version, like try before you buy ?

I haven't used Acronis. But, I have heard *good* things about it.

 

[Fred]

Hey guys,

I need some info on Norton Ghost 9.0

Basically what I want is this or will do this.......

I have a 40 GB hard disk where I have installed Windows XP with SP2 and
all the updates and will put all the necessary software like office
2003, Norton antivirus and bla bla bla I might need.

Can I take an image of this hard disk and save it on a DVD or something
and then can I restore the entire DVD on the same hard disk or any
other hard disk (this is important to restore the image to another hard
disk).

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what should I use for my case.

Thank you in advance
shailendra

I use Ghost 2003 and boot and run it from a floppy. It will create images
to cd or dvd or another hard drive. I used to do that religiously but have
now started to just do a disk to disk copy. I use removeable hard drives
and I can stick a blank drive in as a slave and make a clone of my 60gb boot
disk (around 17gb used) in around 15 minutes. Much quicker than imaging.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I have a 40 GB hard disk where I have installed
Windows XP with SP2 and all the updates and
will put all the necessary software like office
2003, Norton antivirus and bla bla bla I might need.

Can I take an image of this hard disk and save it
on a DVD or something and then can I restore the
entire DVD on the same hard disk or any other
hard disk (this is important to restore the image
to another hard disk).

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what should
I use for my case.

The easiest thing to do is to make a clone now of
your WinXP partition on a spare hard drive (they've
gotten cheap). A clone is a bootable image, the
exact copy of the OS partition's contents including
its boot sector. If your main HD fails, you can pop
in the spare HD and boot it up. You don't even need
Ghost for to make the clone. Casper XP will clone
nicely, and you can use the free trial version from the
webpage at www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ .

Just remember to NOT have the "parent" OS visible
to the clone when you boot up the clone for the first
time or the clone will forever be dependent on the
presence of the "parent" OS. Otherwise, both HDs
can be connected and visible to each other, and the
running OS will just view the other partition as a
file structure with files accessible to it.

*TimDaniels*

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

If you were to take a formal poll of those perusing this newsgroup; I would
bet that 95% would recommend Norton Ghost 9. It is very configurable, and
is superior to the Arconis product, which is just not as robust, although it
is a good piece of software also.

Ghost can be used to create an exact clone of a drive, which is what I think
you are asking.

As with any product, you will find a few users who have had less than
satisfactory experiences with it; however if one is willing to take the time
to learn a little about its' options, Ghost is a stable, reliable and
dependable product.

Bobby

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
What do you mean another hard disk? A replacement one? If so the program
might do it (it's fairly crap program) - it will try. Could give you my
copy - I don't use it (it's a bit old). I snapped my last norton full CD in
half. That's what I think of Norton.

 

[Alpha]

If you were to take a formal poll of those perusing this newsgroup; I
would bet that 95% would recommend Norton Ghost 9. It is very
configurable, and is superior to the Arconis product, which is just not as
robust, although it is a good piece of software also.

Nonsense. I tried Ghost 9 and it completely corrupted my system on the
restore (fortunately Amazon gave me a refund). Acronis works beautifully,
particularly for cloning (a requirement mentioned). However, I note that
some have had problems with Acronis.

Simple. Try before you buy.

 

[Alpha]

Nonsense. I tried Ghost 9 and it completely corrupted my system on the
restore (fortunately Amazon gave me a refund). Acronis works beautifully,
particularly for cloning (a requirement mentioned). However, I note that
some have had problems with Acronis.

Simple. Try before you buy.

PS

Drive Image 2002 is without a question the most robust image backup program
ever released. Too bad it was ruined by Norton.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Drive Image 2002 is without a question the most
robust image backup program ever released.
Too bad it was ruined by Norton.

Actually, PowerQuest ruined it when they came out
with Drive Image 7.0 - which Symantec subsequently
took over when they bought out PowerQuest - and
which was then renamed Norton Ghost 9.0 .

*TimDaniels*

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

Nonsense. I tried Ghost 9 and it completely corrupted my system on the
restore (fortunately Amazon gave me a refund). Acronis works beautifully,
particularly for cloning (a requirement mentioned). However, I note that
some have had problems with Acronis.

Simple. Try before you buy.

You'll notice I stated 95%. You obviously fall into the other 5%. That
does not make it a bad product. For whatever reason(s), your computer had
an issue with it. That does not mean that the
vast majority of users still find it a valuable tool.

Bobby

 

[Timothy Daniels]

If you were to take a formal poll of those perusing this
newsgroup; I would bet that 95% would recommend
Norton Ghost 9. It is very configurable, and is superior
to the Acronis product, which is just not as robust,
although it is a good piece of software also.

Ghost can be used to create an exact clone of a drive,
which is what I think you are asking.

One difference between Ghost 9.0 and True Image 8.0
is that Ghost can take a single partition from among
several on the source HD, and clone it among several on
the destination HD. True Image is not as selective -
it takes the entire contents of the source HD and makes
its clone the entire contents of the destination drive.
That's the same thing if all you're doing is moving to a
larger drive. But if you are putting several (or many) clones
of your OS partition onto a 2nd HD for backup, you can't
do it with True Image. (Note that a "clone" is a BOOTABLE
image of an OS's partition - boot sector, loader and all - not
just a file that contains an image of the OS.)

While both Ghost and True Image can do lots of other things,
like incremental backups, scheduled backups, backups to
optical media, etc., if all you want to do is make a clone of
a single partition and put it among other partitions on a
2nd HD, use Casper XP. It does that very well, and it can
be downloaded for a 30-day free trial from:
www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ . I use Casper XP
to put multiple copies of my current WinXP Pro OS onto
a backup HD that I keep on a removeable tray, all I have to
do if the main HD fails is to slide in the backup HD and
restart and select which partition (i.e. which archived OS)
that I want to use from the boot menu that ntldr takes from
the boot.ini file.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Alpha]

Correct.

Actually, PowerQuest ruined it when they came out
with Drive Image 7.0 - which Symantec subsequently
took over when they bought out PowerQuest - and
which was then renamed Norton Ghost 9.0 .

*TimDaniels*

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "batham" <[email protected]>

| Guys,
|
| Thanks for your reply. My questions are still not answered.
|
| What I want.
|
| I have a single computer 3.2 Ghz, 1 GB ram.
| I have 4 hard disk with 2 partitions.
|
| Is it possible for me to load XP with SP2 and all the updates and all
| the software, then take a image for the whole hard disk onto a DVD or
| some media and dump all of it to the other hard disk..... of course I
| will switch the main hard disk and put the other hard disks
|
| In the end will I have the exact replica of the operating system on all
| the hard disk, without installing it again on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th hard
| disk.
|
| I want to know if someone did this, I am least interested in taking
| backups, I just want a initial backup or image of my hard disk.
|
| Thanks,
| Shailendra Batham

Yes. Ghost will do that.
You can image a multi-partitioned hard disk to a Ghost image file. You can then restore the
Ghost image to another hard disk.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Thanks for your reply. My questions are still not answered.

What I want.

I have a single computer 3.2 Ghz, 1 GB ram.
I have 4 hard disk with 2 partitions.

Is it possible for me to load XP with SP2 and all the updates and all
the software, then take a image for the whole hard disk onto a DVD or
some media and dump all of it to the other hard disk..... of course I
will switch the main hard disk and put the other hard disks

In the end will I have the exact replica of the operating system on all
the hard disk, without installing it again on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th hard
disk.

I want to know if someone did this, I am least interested in taking
backups, I just want a initial backup or image of my hard disk.

You can use the free downloadable version of Casper XP,
available at: www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ .
Just use the copy disk function. Since you have 2 partitions
on the drive, you have to specify which partition to copy,
and then you specify where to put it on the 2nd drive -
in an already existing partition or in unallocated space on
that drive. The image made is directly bootable - called a
"clone". You can do this for all the other 3 drives.

Just remember that when you boot up a clone for ist 1st
time, have the "parent" OS invisible to it - most easily done
by unplugging or removing the "parent" drive. Thereafter,
the "parent" can be seen by the clone when the clone boots,
and the "parent" will be seen as just another "Local Disk"
by the Disk Management utility and you can drag 'n drop
files between the 2 drives.

If you know how to adjust the C:\boot.ini file, you can
multiboot any of the clones from the "parent" drive when
you start the system up. This is called "multi-booting",
and it could be the subject of another dozen threads.

Post again if you have further questins.

*TimDaniels*