Creating a Ghost image on CD

[Dubber Dan]

How do I go about creating a images of various HDD's on CD using Ghost? Is it possible to do this over a network?

[Kimbo]

Don't know how much this will apply to your needs, but just for informational purposes I'll post. Maybe at least some of it will help. ;)

I'm using Norton Ghost 2001, but the basic procedure is probably very similar in newer versions. The 2001 version would not run from XP so I had to run it from 98SE. Luckily I dual boot for exactly that reason. :D 2001 works with 98, NT4 and 2K.

To image my HD partitions to CDs I started the Ghost Boot Disk Wizard to create a boot floppy. The Ghost Boot Disk Wizard had 3 types of boot disks to choose from:
-CDR/RW
-USB Peer-to-Peer
-LPT or TCP/IP.
To backup to CDs I chose the option for CDR/RW support. This put Ghost on the floppy with generic CDROM drivers so it can be run in PC DOS mode. I booted to the floppy and chose Partition -> Image when Ghost opened. I selected the HD partition I wanted to backup as the source and my CDROM drive as the destination and chose a name for the image file. After choosing desired compression type (choices I think were none, fast or high) and also electing to write the boot floppy files to the CD, Ghost indicated it would take 4 CDs to back up the partition and proceeded with burning the image file to CDs.

To restore the image I don't need the boot floppy anymore - booting to the CD now accomplishes the same thing since the floppy files were written there. When Ghost opens I choose Image -> Partition to restore from my CDs.

As for doing over a network, my Ghost readme.txt file states:

-Multicasting is not available.
-Images cannot be saved to or restored from network drives.
-The -BATCH and -SURE switches are not functional.
-No console services
Because of the above limitations, Norton Ghost 2001 is not suitable for rolling out multiple PCs or hard drives. If you want to roll out multiple PCs or hard drives, you will need to obtain Symantec Ghost Enterprise Edition to get those features.
Maybe newer versions of Ghost have network capability without resorting to Enterprise Edition. Hopefully others here know more than I do about that. :)

If your machines use different hardware and operating systems I would guess each would need its own image. However, with network support you could at least store those images on the server instead of having multiple CDs for each PC. The company I retired from 2 1/2 years ago used Enterprise Edition to clone HDs because we leased large numbers of workstations that were identical in hardware, and since we only used one OS all could use the same image file. We stored that image file on a network drive and booted individual workstations to a Ghost floppy with network support, then pointed to the network image file.

Kimbo

[Sylvander]

That was a really good, practical, everyday explanation of the steps involved in using Ghost! ;)

I'm trying to figure out what to suggest to my son for backing up his new PC.
It has WinXP, no floppy, and perhaps a DVD-/+RW.
I suggested he might get a HDD in a caddy for backup.

Have you any idea how he should use Ghost to backup to CD/DVD/HDD?

[Kimbo]

Thanks for the kind words! :)

I actually now use my new DVD+/-RW for backups so I won't have so many CDs. I have 2 internal HDs - one with 2 partitions to dual-boot 98SE and XP Pro, and the other with 3 logical partitions for storage, backups, and a small one for swap files (all partitions FAT32). The plan was to use the second hard drive for storing backup images but I couldn't figure out how to get Ghost to see that drive, maybe because there is no primary partition on it. The version I have, Ghost 2001, runs from DOS, but I know newer versions run from Windows. I could create the boot disks in Windows but had to do the actual backups in DOS. Of the options I was given, and since Ghost didn't "see" my second HD and I don't have another computer for the USB, LPT or TCP/IP connections, burning the images was my only choice.

Using the DVD+/-RW, I can now backup each partition to a single DVD instead of 4 CDs. I deliberately created smaller partitions on my drives so I could keep the images manageable and speed up restores, but if your son's PC has 1 large partition Ghost will prompt for additional CDs/DVDs as necessary. The CDR/RW boot disk I mentioned in my previous post worked perfectly and recognized my both my CD and DVD burners with no other software required.

I did some research and downloaded manuals for newer versions of Ghost and found that 2002 is very similar to my 2001 version. The boot disk wizard appears to be identical and I couldn't find any option for creating a bootable CD instead of a boot floppy. Once you boot from the floppy you can burn the boot files to CD, but that won't help your son who has no floppy drive.

Ghost 2003 looks like a better option as it says no boot disk is needed and it uses the Windows interface. If you click on the More Details button on the Ghost 2003 Product Page (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/) you'll see all the options for backing up to HDs, burnable media and removable drives. Your idea of a HD in a caddy or even an external USB HD looks like a great way for your son to do his backups if he gets Ghost 2003, and it's not very expensive if bought as a stand-alone (not as part of Norton SystemWorks). You might want to download and take a look at these Ghost 2003 Manuals (http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/ghost/ghost_2003_info_man.html) for more detailed info.

Hope this helps. ;)
Kimbo

[Sylvander]

Great help.

You may be able to answer a question that hovers unanswered in my mind:

1. Does Ghost [and its kind] backup, in an image, the total content of a partition including [this is the important bit] all the deleted files on the drive?
So that having restored an image, the user could then recover some of the deleted files?
This is not something I'd want to do; I don't think so anyway.

I use “Simple Backup”.
So far as I know, it only backs up the files that have not been deleted.
It does not backup the deleted files.

[pave_spectre]

Some backup programs do copy deleted data as well, but everything I have read, doesnt indicate that Norton Ghost is one of them.
It seems to read the actual data and file system tables, which means it can have problems with non-windows file systems, as I found out trying to image a Linux ext3 disk.

Other programs such as g4u (ghost 4 unix), make a bit-for-bit image of the drive, making them file-system independent, but that also means any data you dont want will be copied, and that even if apparent used space is quite small the final image including deleted items can become quite large. These types of programs are more useful for making a single image once a clean computer has been setup to satisfaction, rather than for taking regular snapshots.

[Kimbo]

AFAIK, Ghost images only the files that are actually useable and occupying legitimate space on the partition. If there were deleted items in the Recycle Bin, I'm not sure they are copied because they don't show up under Recycled in Windows Explorer, at least not on my PC. In my mind they are no longer legitimate files but are just "bookmarked" for retrieval. Maybe other Ghost users here who have imaged a partition with files in the Recycle Bin can answer that question for both of us, as I'd be curious to know too. I can't answer from personal experience because I always empty the Recycle Bin and defrag before making my backups - I'm such a neat freak! ;)

Now, if you're talking about recovering deleted files from the hard drive, I would say not likely. For example, my XP partition is 10GB, but only 3GB is used. When I do the Ghost image, only 3GB is backed up, so that tells me Ghost is only backing up my actual files. The unused space on the partition is ignored. If deleted files are scattered within the unused space I don't think they would be copied and therefore couldn't be recovered.

pave_spectre - guess our posts qualify as a tie! :D

[Sylvander]

That's good news to me.

I've recently began using a nice little program names "Eraser", which has made me think more about this.
It has made me aware that the so-called "empty" space on the HDD is, in reality, most likely FULL of all of the files that have ever been on the HDD, then "deleted".
Files upon files upon files.
Each layer written on top of the previous.
Layer upon layer like a desktop covered in layer upon layer of A4 sheets of paper.
None of it visible, but there nevertheless.
I really wouldn't want to back up all that trash.

Eraser overwrites all of that [up to 35 times or more, or less, as the user chooses] with special patterns of zeros and ones, so all the traces of the previous files are irrecoverable.
It even overwrites the unused space in the final cluster of every file.
With a little more difficulty, you can use it to erase the contents of the swap file.