Ghost is able to create an exact duplicate of a HDD or a HDD Partition, It is often used for the factory recovery functioms of PCs. I find it useful to create an image once all programs I want are installed as a base image should I have to Newk n start again or in the event of a HDD failure to save time getting back up n running.
If you have 2 or more identical PCs you could create an image of the first PC and use it for the others, this technique is used by PC Hire Companies.
It is also possible to copy a HDD Directly to another HDD when upgrading.
You will require a Ghost bootable Floppy, CD or USB, I personally would recomend Hirens Boot CD as it has a few different Ghost Boot Options and a host of other tools that are useful for PC troubleshooting.
The First thing to consider is where you will store your backup, Ghost can backup to CD/DVD, USB, HDD and Ethernet Master/Slave Setup or to a Network Share.
CD/DVD: If you have a Writer in the PC you are backing up, works well, speeds dependant on your Writer, How many disks will it take!
USB: I found this problamatic on earlier PCs with USB 1.1 and very slow, Works well with very good speeds if it works with your USB2 controller.
2nd HDD: Fastest Speeds, Not advised to create image on the same HDD you are backing up.
Master/Slave: 2 PC's, Master (PC your Cloning or Imaging) Slave (PC your creating as a Clone or Storing your Image backup) works very well, reasonable speeds.
Network Share: A linux server setup is prob best due to modern windows networking permissions, reasonable Speeds. Better for larger scale ghosting.
Basic Image Backup method:
1. Ensure you have set in your bios the first boot device to the correct device.
2. Boot to Ghost, (If you have used Hirens to Boot then goto Backup Tools > Norton Ghost and select your prefered boot option, Normal should be fine for standard ghosting)
3. When creating a Backup Image of a HDD select Local > Disk > To Image
4. Select Source HDD (HDD you wish to make a Backup of)
5. Select Location to store you Image (CD/DVD Drive, USB Drive etc)
6. You should now be asked if you wish to compress the image file (I tend to use fast, created image approx 50% commpression of used space on HDD)
7. Click Yes to proceed with image creation and wait for your image to be created.
Basic Image Restore Method:
1. As Above
2. As Above
3. When restoring a backup image of a HDD select Local > Disk > From Image
4. Select backup Image file (Image you want stamped to your HDD)
5. Select HDD for Stamping (If you have more than one HDD please ensure you choose the correct HDD)
6. You will now see Details of HDD to be stamped, Click OK once happy you chose the correct HDD. (Details will show Original HDD Size n New HDD size, typically if upgrading your HDD New size will be larger this is not a problem for Ghost)
7. Click Yes to Proceed with disk restore and wait for your HDD to be stamped.
Pretty straight forward really, works the same for Imaging and Restoring a partition on a HDD or Cloning a HDD to HDD.
There are other disk cloning tools others prefer such as acronis which work in the same way but I've always used ghost and it has served me well.
Any n All Comments Welcome.
Hope this is helpful, It works for Me.
If you have 2 or more identical PCs you could create an image of the first PC and use it for the others, this technique is used by PC Hire Companies.
It is also possible to copy a HDD Directly to another HDD when upgrading.
You will require a Ghost bootable Floppy, CD or USB, I personally would recomend Hirens Boot CD as it has a few different Ghost Boot Options and a host of other tools that are useful for PC troubleshooting.
The First thing to consider is where you will store your backup, Ghost can backup to CD/DVD, USB, HDD and Ethernet Master/Slave Setup or to a Network Share.
CD/DVD: If you have a Writer in the PC you are backing up, works well, speeds dependant on your Writer, How many disks will it take!
USB: I found this problamatic on earlier PCs with USB 1.1 and very slow, Works well with very good speeds if it works with your USB2 controller.
2nd HDD: Fastest Speeds, Not advised to create image on the same HDD you are backing up.
Master/Slave: 2 PC's, Master (PC your Cloning or Imaging) Slave (PC your creating as a Clone or Storing your Image backup) works very well, reasonable speeds.
Network Share: A linux server setup is prob best due to modern windows networking permissions, reasonable Speeds. Better for larger scale ghosting.
Basic Image Backup method:
1. Ensure you have set in your bios the first boot device to the correct device.
2. Boot to Ghost, (If you have used Hirens to Boot then goto Backup Tools > Norton Ghost and select your prefered boot option, Normal should be fine for standard ghosting)
3. When creating a Backup Image of a HDD select Local > Disk > To Image
4. Select Source HDD (HDD you wish to make a Backup of)
5. Select Location to store you Image (CD/DVD Drive, USB Drive etc)
6. You should now be asked if you wish to compress the image file (I tend to use fast, created image approx 50% commpression of used space on HDD)
7. Click Yes to proceed with image creation and wait for your image to be created.
Basic Image Restore Method:
1. As Above
2. As Above
3. When restoring a backup image of a HDD select Local > Disk > From Image
4. Select backup Image file (Image you want stamped to your HDD)
5. Select HDD for Stamping (If you have more than one HDD please ensure you choose the correct HDD)
6. You will now see Details of HDD to be stamped, Click OK once happy you chose the correct HDD. (Details will show Original HDD Size n New HDD size, typically if upgrading your HDD New size will be larger this is not a problem for Ghost)
7. Click Yes to Proceed with disk restore and wait for your HDD to be stamped.
Pretty straight forward really, works the same for Imaging and Restoring a partition on a HDD or Cloning a HDD to HDD.
There are other disk cloning tools others prefer such as acronis which work in the same way but I've always used ghost and it has served me well.
Any n All Comments Welcome.
Hope this is helpful, It works for Me.
