Re: ghosting

From: David H. Lipman (DLipman~nospam~_at_Verizon.Net)
Date: 08/15/04 

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 18:38:10 -0400

Art:

You left out the concept of IMAGING. That is creating a compressed file or files (depending
upon the size of the source) on another media such as a hard disk. I erroneously stated
that Ghost 2003's DOS utility GHOST.EXE could not read/write to a NTFS partition. This is
true for *many* other versions of Ghost, but not the retail Ghost 2003. I'm not sure about
Enterprise Ghost v8, but I will try it on Monday.

If you are using a larger hard disk, it makes NO sense to downgrade to a smaller hard disk.
That's like decreasing the RAM in a PC. You add RAM to a PC or you use a larger hard disk.
What I will state is that it is better to image the drive than to clone the drive if the
destination drive is smaller than the source drive. For example, drive "C:" (which boots
the OS) is 60GB the destination drive is 40GB and is "D:". The objective is to image the
"C:" drive to the "D:" drive. This will create a 2GB GHO file and subsequent 2GB GHS files
until the entire "C:" drive is imaged. If the "C:" drive is using 20GB of space, you can
expect the resultant image to be 10~12GB (sum of GHO and GHS files). This way multiple
Ghost image backup-sets can be stored on the destination "D:" drive. Assuming the above,
one could expect three Ghost image backup-sets on the 40GB "D:" drive.

Dave

"Art" <noonehere@longone.net> wrote in message news:u$pVUavgEHA.4092@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
| David:
|
| With respect to this issue, you are muddying up the waters in such a way as
| to make your argument practically incomprehensible. Norm is absolutely
| correct in his previous comments regarding Ghost's ability to successfully
| clone partitions/disks regardless of the file system employed by the
| operating system. It makes no difference whether you are cloning an NTFS
| partition to a disk containing a FAT32 partition. Similarly it makes no
| difference whether you are cloning a FAT32 partition to a disk that contains
| a NTFS file system. Simply stated, if you clone a FAT32 file system to a
| destination disk, then that's what you'll get. It's irrelevant what file
| system was formerly on the destination disk. And the same is true when
| cloning a NTFS file system to a destination disk. The destination disk will
| contain the cloned contents of that NTFS partition or disk. Again, it's
| irrelevant what file system previously or currently resided on the
| destination disk. To sum up - a clone is a clone is a clone. As simple as
| that.
|
| Perhaps to clarify this issue for other users who are contemplating using
| Symantec's Norton Ghost program (or similar cloning program) for the
| expressed purpose of creating a near fail-safe backup system, let me make
| the following points...
|
| 1. Using the Ghost floppy disk created in the Ghost program (and here, I
| might add, is where I agree with David that using the Ghost floppy is
| preferable to using the Ghost's Windows interface because of its simplicity
| and portability aspects), you can "clone" your day-to-day working hard drive
| to another hard drive or external storage device.
| 2. By cloning your hard drive to another drive you have, in effect, a
| bit-for-bit copy of your hard drive, including your operating system, your
| registry settings, your programs and applications, your data files - in
| short, everything that is on your hard drive. What better backup system can
| one employ?
| 3. The cloning process is straightforward, reasonably quick, and most
| important of all - effective. After booting up with the Ghost floppy, a few
| simple key clicks and the cloning process begins.
| 4. Your cloned internal hard drive is bootable and for all practical
| purposes is an exact copy of your working hard drive. Think of the
| extroardinary advantage of using this type of backup system in comparison to
| other backup systems.
| 5. It makes no difference what kinds of file systems are employed by the
| source disk (the disk you're cloning from) or the destination disk (the disk
| you're cloning to). If you clone your working hard drive containing the NTFS
| file system, then your destination disk will contain the identical system
| regardless of the file system it previously contained. And the same is true
| with respect to cloning a FAT32 file system. As I previously stated, a clone
| is a clone is a clone.
| 6. It makes no difference in the size (capacity) of your hard drives as long
| as the destination disk contains sufficent capacity to receive the clone. So
| if you're cloning a 120 GB drive that contains 30 GB of data to a 40 GB
| destination drive you have absolutely no problem in that situation.
|
| Art
|
| "Norm" <spam@nospam.com> wrote in message
| news:EXMTc.8255$PG2.1816397@twister.tampabay.rr.com...
| > Here is the proof from the Symantics website:
| > http://tinyurl.com/5qafg
| >
| > "David H. Lipman" <DLipman~nospam~@Verizon.Net> wrote in message
| > news:u77oARtgEHA.2984@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
| > While Ghost 2003, a win32 GUI, may read and see a Ghost image on a NTFS
| > disk, you will NOT
| > be able to do so if you boot from a Ghost Boot Disk which, as I stated,
| > boots either PC-DOS
| > or MS-DOS. GHOST.EXE found on a Ghost Boot Disk is a DOS program that can
| > NOT read NTFS.
| > If you were to use the TCP/IP peer-to-peer mode to transfer an image on a
| > NTFS disk, you
| > would NOT be able to. If you were to boot a
| > Ghost Boot Disk and image drive "C:" to a NTFS drive "D:" you would NOT be
| > able to see drive
| > "D:".
| >
| > The capabilities of Ghost is *best* exploited when booting from a Ghost
| Boot
| > Disk because
| > when you do so you are NOT running the OS from the hard disk and there are
| > no file handles
| > open and the image of the hard disk will be 100% intact and perfect.
| >
| > It is NOT a good idea to downsize an OS from a large to a smaller hard
| disk.
| > While it is
| > truly possible, it is an inane solution. I have *never* seen the
| situation
| > where one wants
| > to go to a smaller disk while there is always the situation where a higher
| > capacity drive is
| > required due to the fact one is running out of disk space.
| >
| > Please study the use of Ghost and all its capabilities. I have. I use
| > Ghost 2003
| > personally and I use Ghost Enterprise (v7~v8) professionally.
| >
| > As I have stated before:
| > Ghost is the only Symantec product I swear by and not swear at.
| >
| > BTW: I suggest the following URL to get the PDF files on the
| documentation
| > of the various
| > Ghost versions.
| > ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/manuals/
| >
| > Dave
| >
| >
| >
| >
| > "Norm" <spam@nospam.com> wrote in message
| > news:C8KTc.38572$wM.3778@twister.tampabay.rr.com...
| > | The file system on the disk that the image is on can be either FAT32 or
| > | NTFS. The Ghost 2003 application, when run from the Ghost Boot Disk,
| has
| > no
| > | problem at all in seeing an NTFS partition and the image that you put on
| > it.
| > | I also don't understand your comments about disk size. As long as the
| > | amount of data doesn't exceed the disk size I don't see any reason why
| > it's
| > | not a good idea to go from a 60gb to a 40gb, other than the obvious lose
| > of
| > | spare disk. If all you have is a spare 40gb, why not. The restored
| image
| > | will work just fine on the 40gb.
| > |
| > | "David H. Lipman" <DLipman~nospam~@Verizon.Net> wrote in message
| > | news:%23aeQDrsgEHA.3320@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
| > | That isn't really a question for a WinXP News Group, it is more apropos
| to
| > | ask in;
| > | symantec.customerservice.general
| > |
| > | However, I'll answer the query here.
| > |
| > | If you Ghost a 40GB hard disk with 20GB of data on it to a 60GB disk,
| you
| > | now have an exact
| > | copy of the OS with 40GB of free space on that 60GB drive.
| > |
| > | If you Ghost a 60GB hard disk with 20GB of data to a 40GB disk, you now
| > have
| > | an exact copy
| > | of the OS with 20GB of free space on that 40GB drive. However, this
| would
| > | not be a good
| > | idea. It is a Good idea to use Ghost in the "clone" mode to go from a
| > | smaller hard disk to
| > | a larger hard disk but not larger to smaller. It is far better to
| create
| > a
| > | Ghost image of
| > | the 60GB drive on the 40GB drive formatted in FAT32. Anytime that a
| Ghost
| > | image is created
| > | on a hard disk it is better to use FAT32 than NTFS such that if you boot
| > off
| > | a Ghost Book
| > | Disk (which is MS or PC-DOS) you will be able to access the drive with
| > said
| > | images.
| > |
| > | Dave
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > | " Komboloi" <Light@Elaaaaaaa.org> wrote in message
| > | news:10hunqeo32453d7@corp.supernews.com...
| > | | I was wondering, when you ghost do both drives have to be the same
| > | capacity?
| > | | For example, say my main drive is 200 gigs and my back-up is 160 gigs.
| > My
| > | | main drive is not over 160 gigs of data, I would imagine it's OK
| right?
| > | |
| > | |
| > | |
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
| >
| >
|
|
|

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