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Backing up my entire 60GB harddrive onto CDs seems like an endless process. I am running Win XP and have Norton System Works which includes the Ghost program (I've never used it). Let's say I bought a second harddrive just for backup purposes and also installed XP. Here are my questions:

1. If I set the bios to boot up the old drive (master) as "HDD 0" can I assume it will just be automatic and boot to that drive each time?

2. If that is so, should I list "HDD 1" as 2nd in the boot order so I can call it up to copy to it, or should I exclude it?

Now for Ghost. I'm not really sure what to do. If I make a ghost copy of the master hdd and copy it to the 2nd hdd:

3. The backup includes the OS, so how does it work to back it up on top of another OS?

4. And each time I backup to HDD 1, will the new files simply overwrite the old ones?

5. Once I've made my ghost copy, how do I get to the backup drive so I can copy it?

6. I've heard Ghost will read an NTFS drive (which is what I prefer) but will only write to FAT 32. Therefore, the 2nd hdd would have to be a FAT drive. Is that correct?

I believe you need to use DOS to start Ghost:

7. Do you need DOS again to copy it to the backup drive?

8. XP doesn't have DOS. Do I use some kind of boot disk?

Sorry for the long post.

you don't use ghost to copy to another install of windows....ghost is a snapshot of whatever partition or entire hard drive you want...and that is stored as a single large (or multiple small) file(s). when you image a drive with the backup file it overwrites everything that exists on the target drive....so if you load a ghost image onto a drive with winXP...that winXP will be gone and whatever is on the image file will take its place.


more...

yes, you use a "ghost boot disk" to initiate a partition or hard drive dump (image). when you want to re-image a drive you also use the boot disk to load it. the cool thing is you can also do this over a network, so the target or source hard drives can be in separate pc's.

many companies (including mine) use a "multicast" server that stores all the workstation images and we load them as needed from wherever we want in the company. very slick.

Ghost is a DOS app and you must run it from DOS. I recommend you use a Win98 Startup disk instead of the bootable disk that the Ghost installer offers to make (the Ghost installer will use a generic version of DOS that doesn't work very well - a Win98 startup disk is much better).

Ghost is a single app called GHOSTPE.EXE located in the Ghost folder after you install Ghost. Copy that file to a floppy.

To run Ghost just boot from the 98 Startup disk and hit F5 to bypass the boot menu (unless you need to have access tot he CD, in which case allow the floppy to boot with DOS CD drivers).

Then place disk containing the Ghost app in the floppy drive and run it:

GHOSTPE.EXE


Yes, your Backup drive will need to be formatted as FAT32 - Ghost is a DOS app and DOS can't "see" NTFS partitions. Ghost can backup NTFS or even Linux partitions just fine, but it can only save an image to a FAT32 partition.

You should partition the new drive using the DOS FDISK utility instead of XP's Disk Manager if it's bigger than 30Gb. XP has an artificial FAT32 partition limit of 32Gb. Using FDISK there is not limitation. You can then format it from either DOS or WinXP.

When you image the drive, select "High Compression". Assuming you have a fast CPU, it will take a lot less time to backup the drive using compression than without. Also, with high compression you'll get a 2:1 compression factor - your backup drive will only need to be half the size of your main drive (so if your main drive is 60Gb, it'll easily image to a 30Gb drive).

You will never boot from the backup drive - you do not want to make it bootable. It will only be an empty FAT32 partition contain the image files (one .GHO file and several .GHS files).

To restore the drive from the image, you again boot with a Win98 starup disk, run Ghost from the DOS command line and select Restore from an Image. You will select the .GHO file as the image file.


Will Ghost overwrite any image files on the backup drive? Yes, but only if you use the same file name every time for the image.


A little more info on using Ghost in this thread:
http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/showthr ... ight=ghost

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, b-man. I guess I really misunderstood the way the program works. So does that mean if your hdd goes bad you kiss all your stuff data goodbye? Isn't there some way with some software to overcome that?

Now we're talking my language, But I'm missing a few points. How to I physically copy the compressed files that I made from my main harddrive to the secondary drive?

You said "As I've mentioned in another post, I use a batch file with the following command line to run Ghost which forces Ghost to split all images into 700 Mb files so they can be burned to CD later if I want:
ghost.exe -split=698 -auto."

Could you explain that in English, please :-). I don't know anything about command lines or even know where to find them.

And if the time ever comes (god forbid) to make use of the backed up data because my hdd died, do I then install windows on the backup drive and it will incorporate the data, or do I buy a new drive and restore the backed up data to that?

You still don't understand.

FORGET WINDOWS. When you make a Ghost image (and in the process of doing this Ghost will ask you what drive to save the image files on, and you'll select the backup drive which might be any letter including C since none of your NTFS partitions have drive letters in DOS).

You don't need Windows to make the Ghost image, and you don't need Windows to restore it. You do it all from DOS.


If you make a Ghost image of your main drive, you will have a set of files that Ghost can use to make a PERFECT duplicate of all the data on your main drive. So if you lose your main drive, you can restore the image to a new drive and TADA you have everything exactly the way it was BUT only at the moment you made the last image.

Depending on how big your drive is, a full fdrive image can take a while. If your whole hard drive has less than say, 10Gb, then that won't be so bad (about 12 minutes to backup at high compression on fast modern drives with a fast CPU).


If you have a LOT of files then it's really very impractical to image the whole drive regularly. A lot better strategy is to keep ALL your data in a seperate partition and Ghost only that partition every week, or day (if need be). This will be a LOT smaller image file. It's only your data (documents, email folders, address books, etc) that change day-to-day. Most of the rest of the drive stays the same until you install a new app.

That's what I do. My 60Gb drive is partitioned as follows (yeah, I'm anal retentive):


I have a backup of the Win98 boot partition - it's 5 months old but that doesn't matter since it never changes. I don't use Win98, it's just the boot partition and I use 98 in an emergency only if Win2K fails.

I backup the Win2K partition once every month, or whenever I install a major piece of hardware or software. There's NOTHING in the 2K partition but 2K. All apps are installed in the apps partitions. Apps are backed up more rarely since if something happens, it's easy to re-install the few apps that may have been added later.

All Data is in it's own partition and ALL my data (I mean everything ) is in there. My data partition contains my relocated Documents folder (you can use TweakUI to relocate it anywhere), my Outlook address book and message folder files, my favorites, Quickbooks data files, and all my other data. The partition gets backed up as often as needed and it's only 1.2 Gb so it backs up fast and easily fits on a single CD when imaged using High compression.

Games are in their own partitions and except for backing up config and saved game files, I don't worry about backing them up. They're easily re-installed.

I carry the latest images in a CD valice in my brief case, along with a couple of CD-Rs containing the installation files for all the apps I use. In an emergency, I can restore Windows, my data and apps in a couple of hours on a new drive, or even on an entirely different rcomputer if need be. It's already saved my bacon a couple of times.

GhostExplorer (which comes with Ghost) can extract files from Ghost images so I can always access important files from my data backup in an emergency.

When you run ghost it prompts you for the information. What drive or partition you want to back up and then where you want to back it up too. It has handy drop down menus to select the drives for this. And when you go to restore a drive it is the same way. All the options are there for you all you have to do is point the way. Once you boot into ghost and see it, it becomes very simple.

Thanks all, it's beginning to clear. I'm going to purchase the 2nd drive and give it a shot. I hope you won't mind if I ask for help if needed along the way.

Think of it this way. Ghost will create a "snap shot" (this is the image files) of your drive onto the backup. You CAN'T use the 2nd drive - it does NOT contain a duplicate of your main drive, it only contains the "snap shot".

Later, if your main drive crashes, you can replace the drive and use Ghost (again, running it from DOS not from Windows) to use the "snap shot" to rebuild all your data onto the new drive (and the new drive can be a bigger drive - Ghost will adjust the partition size as needed). Once Ghost finishes this process, your new main drive will now boot like the old drive did. It will be an EXACT duplicate of the old drive at the moment you took the snap shot.

You NEVER have to install Windows. Ghost will restore the WHOLE original drive just as it was. Ready to be booted.


Forget the command line thing I mentioned in the other thread - you only need that if you want to chop up the image files into small enough chunks to fit onto CD-Rs.


You don't need to be a DOS expert to run Ghost from DOS. Just boot to DOS using a Win98 Starup disk then insert the floppy containing the ghost application and type GHOSTPE to run the Ghost application from DOS. Once ghost starts, it's a fairly user friendly program. You use the arrow and TAB keys to navigate the menus.


Many of use Ghost all the time - we'll all be glad to help you out. Feel free to post questions

PS: Don't waste your money on System Works unless you can get it for cheap. All you need is the latest version of Ghost (Ghost 2002 I believe is still the most recent).

Thank you, thank you. My old brain is finally beginning to process this.