Want to burn DVD's of my entire system...

pc7wizard

All,

I replaced my old blown system with a used AMD system, it came with a 40 GB HD that has M$ XP-Pro installed, with SP2. Cool

I have a DVD burner and want to image the whole drive C:, so that I don't lose anything to a bad HD. Sad

I need recommendations on the Image SW to use on a Win XP Pro HD. Very Happy

I want to do this before installing any more applications...then I can do another when I have the rest of the SW installed.

Create a baseline... Cool

Any ideas??? Which package should I use? Ghost is the best for FAT32, but this is a NTFS system.

Thanks for all the suggestions in advance...it sure is nice to have a home PC again!!!! Laughing

All I have yet to do is install the router for the Internet, and I'll be armed and dangerous again!!! Cool

Cheers!

Werebo · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject:

Although I haven't tried it, Acronis TrueImage is reputed to be extremely good. V.8 is, apparently, free and there's a thread about it in the 'Bargain Hunters' here. Wink

pc7wizard

Thanks Werebo,

I forgot about that link, so I went to the site and signed up AGAIN...we'll see if I get a product to test!!! I'll let you know...

Cheers! Cool

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

Mr Wizard,

Ghost 2003 is still your best bet. Very Happy

It doesn't give a hoot whether your HD is in FAT-32 or NTFS mode.
It was designed to work with all popular HD formats.

If you have a floppy drive in that PC , you can run Ghost 2003 from a floppy and burn a DVD and Ghost will copy the floppy disk to the DVD, thus making it bootable, just like the floppy is.

Ghost NEVER needs to be loaded onto your HD.
That's wasteful of HD space and completely redundant,
and pretty useless when your HD just squalled, balled and died. Crying or Very sad

I'd suggest doing a very thorough cleanup of your HD to minimize the number of files going into your backup.
Windows own "Disk Cleanup" is a good place to start.

For a personal computer, NTFS is not required.
Windows XP runs like a scalded dog on a FAT-32 formatted drive.

Ghost offers two levels of compression. I use FAST compression when making my Image file to a backup hard drive (where space is no problem) and HIGH compression when making my Image file to a DVD or Flash Drive, where you want to use the very minimum space.

Try Ghost 2003, I think you'll love it as much as I do.
You'll want to use the "Disk to Image" option, to assure that if you ever have to do a restore to a new HD, the disk will be bootable.

"Partition to Image" does not copy all the boot sector and is not good to use when a restore to a new HD will be needed.

Drop me a PM if you have any questions about Ghost.

The Doctor

goretsky

Hello,

I have had good results using Acronis True Image to back up computers running various operating systems. The personal version comes on a self-booting CD and is fairly easy to use.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

AD · Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 53

Yeah, Ghost or Acronis, I've tried both and they do a competent job. Restore your whole system in the time it takes to run the disc set.

Creating an O/S only baseline is a good idea, all updated and defragged, but you might want to consider putting your fav Browser, maill app and a good AV program/firewall in there too, so if you ever need to do a fresh install you are basically Net ready right from the start. (minus the inevitable updates of course) They don't take up much extra room.

I consider that a 'basic install' then as you said do another with all your software installed and tweaked, using more discs of course. That's what I've done to prepare for the worst.

catlady13 · Joined: Jun 29, 2004 Posts: 16

HI , it's been so long since I used Ghost that I can't remember which disk I am supposed to use in the floppy. IS it a windows 98 boot disk? I want to make a self booting DVD of my system. Thank you very much,
Linda

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

If you have Ghost 2003 installed on your HD, there is a routine to make your Ghost boot floppy. I think they use FreeDos for the OS on the floppy.

I found that I liked Windows ME-DOS much better, so that's what I've been using for OH SO Long. I'd never install Ghost on a hard drive.
It's useless there, when the drive crashes.

Ghost.exe should be on your boot disk, regardless of the OS on the disk.
It doesn't hurt to have mouse.com on there too, and loaded from the Autoexec.bat file.

If your HD is formatted in NTFS, you can still boot up in DOS and run Ghost 2003 from a floppy. DOS can't see the HD, but Ghost will.

If you boot up from a boot floppy in A:, RUN Ghost and select to put your Ghost backup image file on a DVD, Ghost will ask you if you want to make the DVD bootable by copying A: to the DVD. Use HIGH compression to limit the number of DVD's needed to store the image.

Since I keep all my HD's in FAT-32 format, I can run cleanup batch files from my Ghost boot disk, to cleanup all the junk files from the C: drive, before actually running Ghost to do the backup. This saves a tremendous amount of space in my backup Image File. (about 3 gigs, on my PC).

This is the menu from my Ghost boot floppy:

1. Run Ghost to make a new image. (Windows XP Only)
This program will delete all temp files, cookies, histories, etc.
The Cleanup works only on a FAT-32 partition.

2. Run Ghost
This program runs Ghost alone, with NO cleanup being done.
Use this version to do Ghost Restores or Ghost image without cleanup.
You must use this option on any NTFS partition.

3. Run Ghost on Windows 98 or ME (del the Swapfile and all temp's, etc.)

4. Delete all Restore points (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partition only)

5. Delete Windows "Pagefile" (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partitions only)

6. Remove all the old Restore files in Windows ME.

Type in a number at the DOS Prompt and press ENTER.

*************************************
This simple boot floppy, allows me to back up any PC, from DOS to Windows Vista (32 bit).

Ghost rules!

The Doctor Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6325

Doc said:

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

Mom,
If you ever read me on Ghost.....you would never do a Partition to Partition backup.
That overwrites the second partition every time you do the backup.
And you can put NOTHING else on that partition.
That's Extremely wasteful of space to say the very least.
And, you'll never get more than one backup that way.
If the drive crashes, you've lost that backup anyway.

Partition to Image is fine for error recovery on just one drive.
Or to do a fabulous DEFRAG like I do.

I do a "Partition to Image" backup, followed immediately by an "Image to Partition Restore".
All data on C: is re-written in perfect order with NO spaces and NO fragmentation.
The entire operation takes less than 15 minutes on my system and my result is a HD that looks like this:

Error: image could not be loaded. Image is not available from server

Image URL: http://cxt_msp_shafl.members.atlantic.net/MyDrive.jpg

ALWAYS, use the "Partition to Image" format when backing up to a second partition or a second HD. (Use FAST compression.)

Now, when making a backup to DVD, you want to use the Disk to Image format..... with HIGH Compression, to save disk space.
That will record all the boot sector information and you will be able to restore to a brand new HD with NO problems in booting the new drive.

That technique comes directly from the guy who helped write Ghost, so many years ago. He's still moderating another forum. Wink

Cheers!
The Doctor Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6325

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

Mom,
You can do a Ghost backup any time you like.
Just clean up your HD first to minimize the amount of data going into the backup Image file.

If you have a DVD burner, then do the "Disk to Image" and save to your DVD. That will give you a great System Restore Disk in case of total HD failure.
The Restore Disk that come with Toshiba laptops, is made with Ghost. It sort of blew my mind the first time I used one of those Restore Disks and saw it running Ghost.

I never used the Disk to Image format and I did restore to a new drive, several times with just a Partition Image.

BUT.....and that's a really big BUT..... I always FDISK and format a new hard drive before using it for anything. That sets the HD up for FAT-32 operation. It also proofs the drive.
(that's the only format I use for all my HD's, except the one that runs Vista Ultimate)
That process takes care of setting up the partition info on the HD and my Partition Images have always installed with NO problems in booting.

But with a factory fresh HD, with no partition info saved to the HD, you'll need the "Disk to Image" format in your backup file for the new drive to boot up properly after the Restore.

I usually keep about six months of Partition to Image backups of C: on my Storage drive. With "Ghost Explorer" I can go back into any of those old images and recover any file that I may have since deleted.
Likewise, my Ghost backup DVD's, that go back several years, to my Windows 98 days. Any file I've had for the last 8 years is still there.

So Ghost has become as much a part of my computing experience as the OS itself. Wink

Cheers!
The Doctor Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6325

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

If you can afford the price of a DVD,,,,, make a new Backup Disk at least once a week.

The big question you should ask yourself is; "How much stuff am I prepared to loose in a HD Crash?"

That's what you need to ask yourself Rolling Eyes

Just having a DVD of the HD when you first set it up, is like NO backup at all.

If you use that DVD, you loose everything you've done on that PC since the day you did the backup DVD.
It's almost as bad as a Factory Restore DVD. Yukkkkkkk!!!

Gotta Go! Cheers Mates!
Doc Cool

mommabear · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 6325

In a way this thread has gotten a bit off track from the original question, but since it also talks about ways to use Ghost, it still might be a helpful conversation to readers learning about Ghost (including me.) So here goes and bear in mind it's 5:30 a.m. my time, and I'm barely into my second cup of coffee.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

OF COURSE!

Restoring the disk image rebuilds the master boot record on the HD.
Then the partition image can be restored without any problem. Just like you're doing for that really great "Defrag". Wink

YUP! That'll work!

I may be going back several months to an old backup myself.
XP has suffered miserably from my trying out first one program and then another. Then removing them and trying something else.

I won't go into the whole list here, but things are not working like they were a year ago when I first activated this new PC.

Like you said, I keep all my important stuff on a backup drive, away from C:.

I'll also keep a current Ghost Image, so that with Ghost Explorer I can extract any files from it that I may need. It's called, "Covering your rear".

Yes, I'm sure that the Wizard has solved his problem by now, but for posterity's sake, I think we should keep this thread going. Wink

Cheers mates!
The Doctor Cool

AD · Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 53

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

One thing we ALL need to remember is to do our routine maint. As I've have THAT catch more failing things than you can imagine, in plenty of time to do something about it BEFORE disaster struck.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

Amen, brother Tux!!!

I couldn't get thru a month without maintenance.
I'm constantly trying out new programs and then deleting them.
My registry is like Grand Central Station, with all the comings and goings.

I ran Easy Cleaner's "Remove Unnecessary Files" applet the other day and it removed 76 megabytes of junk. I actually run Easy Cleaner at least once a week. (The hard drive in my first PC was only 20 megabytes. Confused

)

I've said this many times before, but I run my XPCleanup.bat program from my Startup Folder on every boot. That helps to keep the junk level down to a manageable sum, without operator intervention. I do this for all my customers too. Wink

Like, forever, I've kept my HD's in FAT-32 mode, so when I boot up in DOS with my "Ghost 2003" boot disk, I can run a series of cleanup batch files to delete all the junk files, old restore points and my Pagefile, before doing the Backup. On my computer that lessens the amount of data going into my Ghost backup by about 3 gigabytes and allows me to still get my Ghost backup on a single DVD or a 6 Gig. Flash Drive, using Ghost's HIGH Compression mode.

With most of the other backup programs, out there, this is absolutely NOT possible. I tried Acronis T.I. once and found it seriously wanting, compared to Ghost.

Those who believe that Windows XP has to run on a NTFS drive, are just horribly mistaken.
XP runs like a scalded dog on a FAT-32 formatted drive.
If it didn't, I sure as heck wouldn't be using FAT-32.

I copied my Ghost 2003 boot floppy to a 64meg. Flash Drive and since there was so much unused space I added NTFS4DOS, so I can boot up a PC that's formatted in NTFS mode, then run NTFS4DOS and then be able to run my cleanup batch files to clean up the drive before running Ghost.

That's also very helpful if I want to get rid of things on an NTFS drive that Windows is trying to protect. I can delete any file on the HD from a simple DOS prompt.

There I go again......rambling on..... Rolling Eyes

Y'all have a nice day now, Y'hear?
The Doctor Cool