Ghosting Software.....

[skippybangkok]

Had a fun last 36 hours........ backing up my data, trying to fix laptop - ended up wiping it clean, and re-installing my XP - and then all the XP updates up to SP3, and programmes with their related updates........... all day sunday basically.

Wanna ghost what i have not ( make a disk image ) and file it on a external hard disk so in future if computer gets buggy, just restore it and restore updated user files.

Any recommended programme ? Thx

[Supernova]

Acronis True Image

Norton Ghost

[skippybangkok]

Thanks......... but $50 for a software i will use maybe once every 2 years....... seems alot. Anything simple out there ?

Found DriveImage XML, not sure how good it is though

[Supernova]

DriveImage XML is good, although not feature rich. But then again, it's FREE.

Here's another one:

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition

[Dontdisturb]

SystemRescueCD

Free, download SystemRescueCd-x86-1.3.2 (238 MiB) on the download page, burn it on a CD. Reboot and follow instructions.

You'll get compressed disk images using Partimage or FSArchiver. Both included in the bootable CD among other tools.

I prefer FSArchiver as it has the ability to restore the filesystem to a partition which is smaller than the original. FSArchiver vs partimage

Edited November 22, 2009 by Dontdisturb

[esbkk]

Part of beautiful Windows7 – Create a system image.

[thaimite]

Thanks......... but $50 for a software i will use maybe once every 2 years....... seems alot. Anything simple out there ?

Found DriveImage XML, not sure how good it is though

Acronis is my choice and I would advice using it much more frequently than 2 years or you will be in the same boat again. I update my systems image every m1/2 months. This does not iinclude day to day data on a different partition which is backed up daily.

[skippybangkok]

Thanks to everyone for their kind help. I love the speed of a newly installed system, so if i loose the misc junk i have installed over the years - fine. But want the core of the updated XP, Office, Skype, iTunes, MSN and devices ready to roll. I back up the user create files monthly anyway.

Thanks again.

[bendejo]

Another vote for Acronis True Image.

What you are also buying is peace of mind, knowing if your disk or system goes south it's just a matter of restoring the latest image.

I usually backup once a month, or when I've done some installing/uninstalling that I don't want to have to do again. It's like insurance: if you never restore it may seem like money wasted, but when you need it it seems a bargain.

I recommend you create other partitions on your hd, this way if the Windows partition craps out and has to be restored you're not over-writing your own data files.

Also, it would be smart to back up your everyday program data, like browser bookmarks. Firefox has some nice add-ins for this.

Instead of using CD/DVDs for the backups, might be better to get an external USB drive. You can even use a cheap, out-of-date IDE drive salvaged from an old computer: it might be slow over the USB line, but you can start the backup at night and let it run while you sleep.

[SeanMoran]

One possible free (open-source) solution might be Clonezilla, which you can download the 108mb .iso file from the web at the site below. It even goes so far as to cloning the UUID so make sure to remember that when your USB stick is plugged in, the partition that is officially listed in your boot menu as an HDD partition will actually be the clone on the USB stick.

It works for .iso files as well, so I'd assume DVDs would be a possibility if your system is within the range of GBs, but have only used it for necessary operations so far, and haven't done much experimenting beyond ghosting running partitions onto USB sticks.

http://www.clonezilla.org

[TwentyBaht]

Yes,

I've used Clonezilla, also. It's Linux based and works well as a live cd. The GUI is easy to use after a few minutes looking at the manual. (Recently, cloned my Vista 80Gig drive to a larger 250 Gig drive.)

Just for info, PartedMagic 4.3 (a Linux-based live cd) has Clonezilla and GParted (partition tool) on it. As well as network tools (Firefox is on the cd and I sometimes use wireless to search the web for help info when cloning and partitioning). And a bonus, TrueCrypt is also included.

Pretty much an all-in-one live cd. And, you can safely run it and look at it. It won't make any changes to your Windows installation until you tell it to. There are "sanity" checks before you completely "apply" anything.

(Oh, just in case you do a Vista clone, there is a final step to boot the clone. You will need your Windows cd. Vista is particular about MBR. But, the last step is easy to do.)

Best wishes.

[Digitalbanana]

I also rate Acronis tops. The latest version (2010) is a breeze to use, and saved me lots of time. To the o/p 50USD isn't a lot for piece of mind if all your other s/ware installations are legit as well. For those less mindful it can be found for a lot cheaper on the net as well;-)

Edited November 24, 2009 by Digitalbanana

[sierra01]

Thanks to everyone for their kind help. I love the speed of a newly installed system, so if i loose the misc junk i have installed over the years - fine. But want the core of the updated XP, Office, Skype, iTunes, MSN and devices ready to roll. I back up the user create files monthly anyway.

Thanks again.

Twice I've lost the sound on my PC, and twice I've had to pay to have it sorted out, here's my solution....

Free Seagate diskwizard to take an image. I started by doing a clean install of XP, downloaded a stand alone copy of SP3, installed that along with all the other upates it needed. Got the internet set up and working, installed all my programs and printers then took an image of the drive with diskwizard and keep it on my external drive. Any problems and I can put the image back on and the PC isnt far off how I want it, every so often I take a fresh image to keep it upto date....maybe long winded but it works!

[mahtin]

Another vote for Acronis True Image.

Instead of using CD/DVDs for the backups, might be better to get an external USB drive. You can even use a cheap, out-of-date IDE drive salvaged from an old computer: it might be slow over the USB line, but you can start the backup at night and let it run while you sleep.

Another Acronis user, but I do incremental backups which take about 9 minutes.

[skippybangkok]

Thanks to everyone for their kind help. I love the speed of a newly installed system, so if i loose the misc junk i have installed over the years - fine. But want the core of the updated XP, Office, Skype, iTunes, MSN and devices ready to roll. I back up the user create files monthly anyway.

Thanks again.

Twice I've lost the sound on my PC, and twice I've had to pay to have it sorted out, here's my solution....

Free Seagate diskwizard to take an image. I started by doing a clean install of XP, downloaded a stand alone copy of SP3, installed that along with all the other upates it needed. Got the internet set up and working, installed all my programs and printers then took an image of the drive with diskwizard and keep it on my external drive. Any problems and I can put the image back on and the PC isnt far off how I want it, every so often I take a fresh image to keep it upto date....maybe long winded but it works!

Yeh, thats my rational. ( i have a SP3 fresh load now - want to save it while it still works quickly )

Tried many of the above, getting errors - will load and try sea gate now.

[skippybangkok]

DONE !

Thanks for all the tips...... Tried many, but for some reason, had many errors ( cyclic error and others ) which stopped the back up process. My Backup disk is Seagate, so used SeaGate Disk Wizard ( which is actually a lower tech version Acronis _ and FREE if you have a seagate disk ). Worked great - did a disk clone, and it went into a shutdown, and boot up in blue screen ( DOS kinda thing ) and made a 100% duplicate.

I prefer the clone, with a 1-1 copy of date onto another disk. Will never forget about 12 years back using a software from some vendor, which compressed the data - problem was the data got corrupted, and lost everything. A pure copy makes me alot more comfortable.

Happy camper now.

Thx

Edited November 24, 2009 by skippybangkok

[Naam]

Thanks......... but $50 for a software i will use maybe once every 2 years....... seems alot. Anything simple out there ?

download "Hiren's Boot CD" which contains amongst other cloning software Acronis and Ghost and in addition a wealth of diagnostic software one can only dream of.

personally, i use Acronis (DOS Version), earlier i used Ghost. without at least two backups a week on three different drives i wouldn't be able to sleep.

[Naam]

I prefer the clone, with a 1-1 copy of date onto another disk.

the only proper way to go. anything else i'd consider half-assed.

[skippybangkok]

Thanks......... but $50 for a software i will use maybe once every 2 years....... seems alot. Anything simple out there ?

download "Hiren's Boot CD" which contains amongst other cloning software Acronis and Ghost and in addition a wealth of diagnostic software one can only dream of.

personally, i use Acronis (DOS Version), earlier i used Ghost. without at least two backups a week on three different drives i wouldn't be able to sleep.

OMG -Your better off stating what it does not have - thats massive!!

[pete_r]

PING is free.

http://ping.windowsdream.com/

[bendejo]

Another Acronis user, but I do incremental backups which take about 9 minutes.

I have always had terrible luck with incrementals. Even with Acronis they take long and end up being much bigger in total than a nice, new image. Might be karma, I used to write backup/restore software.

I use Acronis for bu images. Other data I will copy files to other partitions, and also archive them into zip files. BAT files handy for this.

I also prefer to use Acronis via the boot CD.

[Spoonman]

Skippy, what brand of laptop did you clone and did you plug in the cloned HDD to check the clone was successful.

FWIW, im another Acronis true image fan, although i suspect the copy i bought for 100b may not be legit.