Norton Ghost

[Joint Chiefs of Staff]

When using Norton Ghost to backup an OS drive do you guys notice a performance difference in the OS?

Nothing like a manual clean, fresh install so my question is does ghosting an OS drive feel the same way to you?

[Humboldt]

Depends on if it was a fresh and clean install which was ghosted, no?:p

[Joint Chiefs of Staff]

Originally posted by Humboldt
Depends on if it was a fresh and clean install which was ghosted, no?:p Guess I should have clarified this.

Yes

[CableDude]

Originally posted by Joint Chiefs of Staff
When using Norton Ghost to backup an OS drive do you guys notice a performance difference in the OS?

Nothing like a manual clean, fresh install so my question is does ghosting an OS drive feel the same way to you?


Never used it to back up, but to clone other machines.

[Humboldt]

lol.

My limited understanding is that since it's a clone of the original partition/drive, it should be mirror identical.

Having Ghost itself on there might muck things up a bit but I've never been able to tell a difference.

While discussing it, I do hate the way Ghost tries to hang out in the system bar the whole time...when it's the type of aplication that's not ging to get used that often.

[Joint Chiefs of Staff]

Thanks guys.

Well my thoughts are this. Why ghost an OS drive if you are going to manual load, setup and tweak the OS again? It takes me 5 hours of constant loading, fiddling with each program settings, updating and then tweaking the OS itself. Ghost it after a clean install, do your tweaking then if and when you lose a drive just reload the mirror image off of a backup drive (which I have) or from a CD-R/RW which I'm doing too to backup the backup drive. :p

Its just using NTI Backup the OS felt sluggish after mirroring my OS drive so I went and purchased Ghost a few weeks back. I'm reformatting and loading my PC and Notebook and giving it a whirl with Norton.

[Qwijib0]

Ghost is awesome. I have images of all my installs-- works fantastic :)

[Joint Chiefs of Staff]

Originally posted by Qwijib0
Ghost is awesome. I have images of all my installs-- works fantastic :) Thanks Q. You just reinforced what I've read up about the product.

[Humboldt]

Originally posted by Joint Chiefs of Staff


Why ghost an OS drive if you are going to manual load, setup and tweak the OS again? It takes me 5 hours of constant loading, fiddling with each program settings, updating and then tweaking the OS itself. .

You lost me. From your initial question it seemed you're comparing a fresh install with a ghosted version of a fresh install...and wondering if there's a difference.

NOW it seem that your balancing a ghosted fresh install with a ghosted fresh install + plus tweaking and loading of drivers, patches, applications, etc...

I agree it's easier to ghost the OS after it's where you want it...with a fresh install + whatever essential programs and drivers you need.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally posted by Joint Chiefs of Staff
[B]Thanks guys.

Well my thoughts are this. Why ghost an OS drive if you are going to manual load, setup and tweak the OS again? It takes me 5 hours of constant loading, fiddling with each program settings, updating and then tweaking the OS itself. B]

So simply make your Ghost image after you've installed the OS, drivers, tweaked the OS, installed your common apps, etc.

[TonyT]

When using Norton Ghost to backup an OS drive do you guys notice a performance difference in the OS?

To answer your question, NO. There is no difference in performance, it's identical.

While discussing it, I do hate the way Ghost tries to hang out in the system bar the whole time...when it's the type of aplication that's not ging to get used that often

In win2k & xp you can eliminate ghost from loading at startup via the reg or msconfig, as well as services applet.

In win98's ghost adds lines to the autoexec.bat file which can be deleted.

[Humboldt]

Originally posted by TonyT
.



In win2k & xp you can eliminate ghost from loading at startup via the reg or msconfig, as well as services applet.



Yes, but the fact that it puts itself there in the first place and that you have to take the time to msconfig...is annoying.

[TonyT]

Yes, but the fact that it puts itself there in the first place and that you have to take the time to msconfig...is annoying.

quut whining! Lost's of apps do that.

Anyway, I believe the reason it adds the lines to autoexec.bat is because of copyright protection/license agreements. If you use ghost on a box that it is not installed on, then you get a prompt about about the license when ghost first starts, but you don't get that alert if using ghost on a system that it's installed on.

They can't stop you from using ghost on any pc, but they can give that warning message.

Also, it's not necessary to have ghost installed to use it. Install it once, make your ghost floppys and then uninstall it. (I also keep a backup of the floppy contents on my hard drive)

(Humbolt, btw, gdlive.com was recently updated with new shows!)

[neo960]

Originally posted by TonyT
I also keep a backup of the floppy contents on my hard drive Since it is a boot floppy, is it enough just to unhide the system files and copy them? Or do I have to do anything special to copy the boot disk to a hard drive folder? I am asking because when we create the boot floppy we have to execute the special command "sys a:" to copy the system files to the floppy.

[Mark]

all this talk lately about norton ghost has me trying once again, maybe i can get it to work for me this time.

just reformated a box yesterday so am in the process of making a image right now to cd.

think i should get a copy of ghost 2003 so i can make an image to a ntfs partition, i have ghost 2002 right now, what advantage would there be to going to the newer version ?

i tried to make the image on the spare drive i have in there but it did not give me an option to save to the spare drive, ghost didn't even see the spare drive.

[TonyT]

Since it is a boot floppy, is it enough just to unhide the system files and copy them?

I always have 'show all files and show system files'.

Or do I have to do anything special to copy the boot disk to a hard drive folder? I am asking because when we create the boot floppy we have to execute the special command "sys a:" to copy the system files to the floppy.

Why? Just pop the floppy in the drive and use 2 explorer windows, drag+drop.

[neo960]

I just made my first restore from an image file! It was not necessary, but I wanted to see how it is done, and if it works. It worked flawlessly. It seems to remember the source partition, because it does not give any choices there. But it gives a choice when selecting a destination partition. It was a breeze.

Thanks to Tony, Norm, Snake and everyone else who helped me out here! :) :D

[TonyT]

Thanks Tony. I had installed ghost 2003 and created the ghost boot disk. I had to reinstall my OS today again. Do I have to reinstall ghost to continue using the ghost floppy? In other words, does ghost have to be installed and present on the hard drive for the floppy to work?

No.

[neo960]

Originally posted by TonyT
Why? Just pop the floppy in the drive and use 2 explorer windows, drag+drop. It does not work. I tried it but it does not boot. You have to use disk copy a: to a: for it to work.

[TonyT]

It does not work. I tried it but it does not boot. You have to use disk copy a: to a: for it to work.

Then you are not copying all of the files. You MUST have system set to show all files and to NOT hide system files.

There is nothing special about a boot disk except that it contains certain files, only files.

[neo960]

Originally posted by TonyT
You MUST have system set to show all files and to NOT hide system files.

I did that. Anyway I always keep system files and hidden files in plain view and unhidden.

Here is a list of the files I copied. Please let me know if anything is missing:

04/23/1999 10:22p 222,390 IO.SYS
10/28/2001 05:30a 9 MSDOS.SYS
04/23/1999 10:22p 93,890 COMMAND.COM
08/14/2002 03:03p 37,681 MOUSE.COM
06/19/2003 09:48p 79 AUTOEXEC.BAT
06/19/2003 09:48p 15 CONFIG.SYS
06/19/2003 09:48p <DIR> GHOST
06/19/2003 09:50p 24 MOUSE.INI
7 File(s) 354,088 bytes


With this floppy, at boot time I get the message "ntldr missing". Withj the normal ghost boot floppy it boots fine.

[Think]

Better product IMO:

PowerQuest V2i Protector 2.0 Desktop Edition (http://www.powerquest.com/v2i/protector/)

:)

[monty]

i have ghost 2002 right now, what advantage would there be to going to the newer version ?

With 2002 (and previous), you can't copy to an NTFS partition, only from one. Also, 2003 works fine with add-in controller cards, such as the Promise Ultra133 TX2 (2002 did not).

I always recommend setting the page file min and max sizes to 150% of system RAM and defragmenting prior to making an image.