Norton Ghost query.........

[jimbo]

Anyone prompt me on how to make a restore xp floppy using
Norton Ghost please ?

It looks pretty confusing to me !

Many thanks

Jim

 

[Jerry]

Which version of Ghost?

 

[Jerry]

Silly me, has to be 2003 or there is NO restore floppy for v9. If you have
Ghost 2003 installed, it should have a very good tutorial that tells step by
step how to make the floppy.

Here is basically how it is done:
Go to Start à All Programs à Nortons Ghost à Ghost

In the left panel, click the "Norton Ghost Utilities". Then, in the right
panel click the "Norton Ghost Boot Wizard".

"Standard Ghost Boot Disk" is already selected, click "Next".

Here I chose the defaults for making the Boot Disk. Once you have made the
selections, click "Next" to continue.

Make sure the PC-dos option is selected, then click "Next".

Keep the default path to the Ghost Program file, click "Next".

The A-drive is the default and one disc will be created, click "Next".

At the Review Screen, if all the data is correct, place a floppy into the
A-drive and click "Next".

On the popup, click "Start"

At the warning message, click "OK".

When formatting is complete, click "OK", then click "Close".

The appropriate files will be written to the disc. When the boot disc has
been created, click "Finish". This disc can be used to start the computer
in the DOS mode.

Exit Norton's Ghost.

Leave the floppy in the drive and restart the computer..

At the introductory screen, click "OK".

To initiate an image check, point to "Local", then "Check", then click
"Image File".

At the top, select the location of the image file in the dropdown menu, and
click the image file.

Click "Yes" to continue with the integrity check.

When the operation is complete, click "Continue".

Eject the floppy and the CD/DVD and restart the computer. If the disc
passed the integrity check you can be confident that the image disc can be
used to restore the computer.

 

[jimbo]

2003

Jim

Which version of Ghost?

 

[jimbo]

OK,

Thanks very much Jerry - I shall give it a go.
And Hopefully I never have to use the disk !

Jim

 

[Bob Harris]

A bit more info on GHOST 2003:

1. On my PC it created TWO floppies, not one like on previous versions of
GHOST.
2. GHOST 2003 can (in theory) be run from a virtual partition, instead of
from a floppy set. That never worked for me, and the Symantec support
website is filled with complaints about users who tried it and it left their
PC unbootable. Symantec eventually issued a stand-alone fix that works from
a boot floppy. In summary, stick with the floppies, GHOST works very well
from those.
3. It is possible to make a bootable CD from a single floppy. Either Easy
CD Creator or Nero will do this. In the case of a two-floppy set, you need
to "play" a little with the floppies to disconnect them. That is, to make
the first floppy boot, and then manually transfer control to the second
floppy. If you can get that to work, then you can make a bootable CD from
the first floppy, with the entire contents of the second floppy also added
to the CD (added to the list of files before the burn process begins; you
can burn only once). However, when run, the first floppy will appear as A:,
but the second floppy contents will appear as a higher drive letter,
whatever DOS use for the CD drive.
4. GHOST 2003 claims support for USB and firewire. In practice it can be
touchy about mixed USB 1.1 and 2.0, and about self-powered vs AC-powered
exteranl drives, and about exactly which USB (or firewire) port is used (if
you have more than one of either).
5. It is best to create backup images by partition, not by disk, even if
there is only one partition on the disk. The reason is that a partition
image can more easily be restored to a different disk, in case you upgrade,
or in case the disk crashes and is replaced. Further, the GHOST explorer
option, run from within XP, which can restore one file or directory tree
does not always work on disk images, but does work on partition images.
6. Run CHKDSK on the partition, before making an image. If GHOST detects
any inconsistencies with the file system it will stop and offer to let you
continue. I would never trust an image after receiving such warning. The
format of the command is CHKDSK C: /F. Then, reboot. Non-system disks may
not require the reboot.
7. The GHOST manual, a PDF file, on the CD or a fre download from Symantec,
is pretty good for simple things. When in doubt, take any defaults
offerred.

 

[jimbo]

Thanks BOB

I do not pretend to understand all this info-
But I will print and try to digest it !

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Jerry]

I find doing all my work with ghost 2003 in dos rather than windows is the
way to go. It has saved me a number of times. I do have my HD partitioned
and save the ghost image(s) to a partition not to be ghosted. This makes it
very easy to use.

The one issue I do have with ghost is burning the images to CDs. Normally
my C-drives takes 5-6 CDs and I never could get a full set of good images.
By going to DVD, I can overcome this because the whole image goes on one DVD
disk.

It may be possible to get a good image on CDs by using the split image
options working out of windows. It is not a hard process, but I just never
tried it.

I really do like and use ghost religiously. I normally make new images
about every two weeks. It only takes about 20 minutes to image and check my
C and D drives.

 

[Peter Wilkins]

The one issue I do have with ghost is burning the images to CDs. Normally
my C-drives takes 5-6 CDs and I never could get a full set of good images.
By going to DVD, I can overcome this because the whole image goes on oneDVD
disk.

It may be possible to get a good image on CDs by using the split image
options working out of windows. It is not a hard process, but I just never
tried it.

If you image to CD's OR DVD's from DOS (or via Windows with an
automatic reboot to DOS via batch file), Ghost 2003 automatically sets
the size and span parameters so that it fills the disks and moves on
to the next one, automatically naming each file. DO NOT manually set
the size or spanning options when imaging to CD or DVD - it can stuff
it up. If you have been doing that, try again without those settings,
and it should work. It does for me.

I have been imaging to CD's for years, changed to DVD's when I got up
to 12 CD's, and never had a problem except once with a faulty CD -
just one faulty CD/DVD stuffs the whole backup. Once I got up to 5
DVD's I have now given it away and image to an external 300G Firewire
HDD. Much quicker! Oh, I do still keep a master set image on DVD as
well, updated whenever I have a major change, and I do automatic
incremental backups using Dantz retrospect too, but I am paranoid!

I really do like and use ghost religiously. I normally make new images
about every two weeks. It only takes about 20 minutes to image and check my
C and D drives.

Mine takes much longer, unfortunately, but my laptop HDD/controller is
pretty slow as is the DVD burner - the firewire is much faster!!!