Looking for forum re Norton Ghost

Can anyone here recommend a good forum (usenet-based or otherwise)
where a post on using Norton Ghost would be on topic and where people
would likely be knowledgeable about this application?

"Tom_OM" <dontspamme@nojunkmail.com> wrote in message
 news:dhr271l2fibr8tsns8dv5rikcg3gnqdipn@
4ax.com...
> Can anyone here recommend a good forum (usenet-based or otherwise)
> where a post on using Norton Ghost would be on topic and where people
> would likely be knowledgeable about this application?

Dunno, what's your question, a few people here have used it.

Michael

"Tom_OM" <dontspamme@nojunkmail.com> wrote in message
 news:dhr271l2fibr8tsns8dv5rikcg3gnqdipn@
4ax.com...
> Can anyone here recommend a good forum (usenet-based or otherwise)
> where a post on using Norton Ghost would be on topic and where people
> would likely be knowledgeable about this application?

You could do a Google for "Norton Ghost" at http://groups-beta.google.com
and see which groups pop up most frequent.  comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
seems to be a frequent Ghost one.  A web Google shows that
[url]http://www.gstogo.com[/url] has forums for Ghost.

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 11:25:13 +1000, "Michael C"
<mculley@NOSPAMoptushome.com.au> wrote:

>"Tom_OM" <dontspamme@nojunkmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dhr271l2fibr8tsns8dv5rikcg3gnqdipn@
4ax.com... 
>
>Dunno, what's your question, a few people here have used it.
>
>Michael

Here's what I posted on the forum I did find (and unfortunately after
several days have not seen any responses).  I will try that google
groups seach idea too -- excellent idea.

Here are my questions:

I've been successfully using Norton Ghost 9.0 and am loving it thus
far. My computer is highly customized. Every time it anything has
gotten out of whack or unsbable, I've had to spend a ton of time
either troubleshooting it or reinstalling everything. The latter
literally took ws because of how extensively I customize numerous
apps.

I did a complete system restore and installed and customized all the
important apps I use, then made a Ghost image to DVDs. When I needed
to restore the image, I booted to the Norton floppy boot disks I made,
then ran Ghost/DOS to restore everything. The results were great --
saved me a lot of time. However, it was a little tedious having to
keep removing DVDs and putting in the next one. My original plan of
putting the Ghost image on my external hard drive didn't work out. I
couldn't get Ghost/DOS to see that drive.

I'm considering a couple possibilities:
1. Using Partition Magic create a logical drive just for holding my
Ghost images and then restore from there.
2. Puchase and install a second internal   drive for holding the Ghost
images.
3. Troubleshoot the problem with Ghost seeing the external hard drive.

With these options, can I just copy over the Ghost image I have on the
8 DVDs and then restore just like before except not having to swap out
DVDs? Or would I need to create another Ghost image?

Also, someone told me with a second hard drive it should be the same
size as my current hard drive, 250 gig, if I want to keep the Ghost
image on it. However, the Ghost image that I have now and works only
takes up 8 DVDs, which is less than 40 gig. Is he right or wrong?

Which of these three options is the best solution from the standpoint
of ease of use. Number 2 is the only one that will cost me any money,
but I don't care about that. I can afford it and am only concerned
about choosing the best option, the one in which it is easiest for me
to just set Norton/DOS to re-imaging my hard drive and then leave it
alone until it's done.

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

See my answers inside your questions:


> I'm considering a couple possibilities:
> 1. Using Partition Magic create a logical drive just for holding my
> Ghost images and then restore from there.

Works great.

> 2. Puchase and install a second internal   drive for holding the Ghost
> images.

Works great.

> 3. Troubleshoot the problem with Ghost seeing the external hard drive.

You may have to tweak the Ghost boot to include Firewire or USB support.
Have not tried it myself though....

> With these options, can I just copy over the Ghost image I have on the
> 8 DVDs and then restore just like before except not having to swap out
> DVDs? Or would I need to create another Ghost image?

Yes, you can just copy all your DVDs to the new partition and restore them
back to the original partition. Should be no problem.

> Also, someone told me with a second hard drive it should be the same
> size as my current hard drive, 250 gig, if I want to keep the Ghost
> image on it. However, the Ghost image that I have now and works only
> takes up 8 DVDs, which is less than 40 gig. Is he right or wrong?

He is wrong. As long as the second hard drive have room for your Ghost image
files it is sufficient.

> Which of these three options is the best solution from the standpoint
> of ease of use. Number 2 is the only one that will cost me any money,
> but I don't care about that. I can afford it and am only concerned
> about choosing the best option, the one in which it is easiest for me
> to just set Norton/DOS to re-imaging my hard drive and then leave it
> alone until it's done.

I would recommend option 2. In that way your backup is safe even if your
main hard drive fails. If you go for option 1 your backup will be gone
when/if your hard drive dies....

Best of luck!

Ed

<<Quote>>

> Also, someone told me with a second hard drive it should be the same
> size as my current hard drive, 250 gig, if I want to keep the Ghost
> image on it. However, the Ghost image that I have now and works only
> takes up 8 DVDs, which is less than 40 gig. Is he right or wrong?

He is wrong. As long as the second hard drive have room for your Ghost image
files it is sufficient.

<<end Quote>>


Would it be correct to say that the first advice given ( same drive size )
would have been applicable if the user was to "Clone" a complete drive (
including all partitions on the source drive ) to a second drive ?

I am also using Ghost 9.0 and create the image files onto a second partition
and then copy them to an external Drive for safe storage, always leaving the
latest image file on the second partition in case a restore is needed.

Regards
DaveO

---------------------------------------------------
"Ed" <abcdef@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOVJ9iJTFHA.2096@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
See my answers inside your questions:


> I'm considering a couple possibilities:
> 1. Using Partition Magic create a logical drive just for holding my
> Ghost images and then restore from there.

Works great.

> 2. Puchase and install a second internal   drive for holding the Ghost
> images.

Works great.

> 3. Troubleshoot the problem with Ghost seeing the external hard drive.

You may have to tweak the Ghost boot to include Firewire or USB support.
Have not tried it myself though....

> With these options, can I just copy over the Ghost image I have on the
> 8 DVDs and then restore just like before except not having to swap out
> DVDs? Or would I need to create another Ghost image?

Yes, you can just copy all your DVDs to the new partition and restore them
back to the original partition. Should be no problem.

> Also, someone told me with a second hard drive it should be the same
> size as my current hard drive, 250 gig, if I want to keep the Ghost
> image on it. However, the Ghost image that I have now and works only
> takes up 8 DVDs, which is less than 40 gig. Is he right or wrong?

He is wrong. As long as the second hard drive have room for your Ghost image
files it is sufficient.

> Which of these three options is the best solution from the standpoint
> of ease of use. Number 2 is the only one that will cost me any money,
> but I don't care about that. I can afford it and am only concerned
> about choosing the best option, the one in which it is easiest for me
> to just set Norton/DOS to re-imaging my hard drive and then leave it
> alone until it's done.

I would recommend option 2. In that way your backup is safe even if your
main hard drive fails. If you go for option 1 your backup will be gone
when/if your hard drive dies....

Best of luck!

Ed

Tom-

My recommendation would be to install a removable drive rack. You can make
it bootable and put the ghost app and your images on it. Keep it on a
separate IDE channel from your main bootable drive. When you need to restore
your drive, just pop the drive in the rack and go into the BIOS and change
your boot channel. Otherwise, just use the rack to hold a storage drive or
an application drive or whatever you want.

I use 2 removable racks and I have drives with multiple OS's on them. The
first drive on IDE1 is my primary boot device and the second drive is just
for applications and storage. I have a few boot drives with specifically
engineered XP environments for Gaming, Development, Graphics Design, etc. It
creates the most optimal environment without any extraneous garbage in the
registry to interfere with anything. It also makes it very easy to switch
between Linux/Windows environments on the same PC.

HTH

Matt

"Tom_OM" <dontspamme@nojunkmail.com> wrote in message
 news:dhr271l2fibr8tsns8dv5rikcg3gnqdipn@
4ax.com...
> Can anyone here recommend a good forum (usenet-based or otherwise)
> where a post on using Norton Ghost would be on topic and where people
> would likely be knowledgeable about this application?

Thanks for the help.  That's everything I need to know.  I'm going
with option #2.  The extra protection in case of main hard drive
failure seems worth buying and installing the drive.

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 10:52:09 +0200, "Ed" <abcdef@hotmail.com> wrote:

>See my answers inside your questions:
>
> 
>
>Works great.
> 
>
>Works great.
> 
>