Disk Cloning

[FloydianOne]

Ive never used Norton Ghost or other disk cloning software and I was wondering how it worked because I was thinking about purchasing one of them. Can someone explain what the advantages of these programs are? Does it somehow not do the same thing as just copying all the files from one hard drive to the other? I know that it somehow makes an image of the source harddrive and I was wondering, is this image the same size as the contents of the source hardrive, or is it significantly smaller? If its the same size then how does one take this image and install it on other systems without using a harddrive as big as the original harddrive?

Thanks for any help on the subject.

[Cereberus]

Originally Posted by FloydianOne

Ive never used Norton Ghost or other disk cloning software and I was wondering how it worked because I was thinking about purchasing one of them. Can someone explain what the advantages of these programs are? Does it somehow not do the same thing as just copying all the files from one hard drive to the other? I know that it somehow makes an image of the source harddrive and I was wondering, is this image the same size as the contents of the source hardrive, or is it significantly smaller? If its the same size then how does one take this image and install it on other systems without using a harddrive as big as the original harddrive?

Thanks for any help on the subject.

I'll start, but there are much more knowledgeable people here who will give you tons of information.

The main advantage that I've found is that if you clone your hard drive, you don't have to spend hours reinstalling software in the event of a crash. It is most definitely NOT the same as copying files from one hard drive to another. If you do that, many of your programs (including Windows) won't work on the new disk.

The image can be compressed into less space.. Also, you can split the image onto a series of DVDs, if you so desire. Hard drives are so cheap that I'd recommend imaging your existing drive onto another one, though.

P.S. When you buy a new hard drive, it almost always comes with software that will allow you to image your old one. Even if it doesn't, the software can be downloaded from the website of the manufacturer of the new one.

Then all you have to do is back up your data at whatever intervals you deem necessary.

[FloydianOne]

So is it pretty much the same thing as taking an image of a cdrom? Like after you take an image of your hard drive you can then go and mount it as if it was the same hard drive as the one you took the image of? Im curious how much space you can compress it to, like I have a 80gig hard drive partitioned into 10, 70... that would be alot of dvd-r. Also does ghosting support partitions?

[Cereberus]

Originally Posted by FloydianOne

So is it pretty much the same thing as taking an image of a cdrom? Like after you take an image of your hard drive you can then go and mount it as if it was the same hard drive as the one you took the image of? Im curious how much space you can compress it to, like I have a 80gig hard drive partitioned into 10, 70... that would be alot of dvd-r. Also does ghosting support partitions?

I haven't imaged a CD ROM. I have imaged a hard drive onto a newer, bigger hard drive, then used the new drive as my boot HDD. As I recall, getting the new HDD to boot into Windows the first time required the Windows CD.

High compression on Ghost is 50%. I'm sure it somewhat depends on what type of data are on your computer, i.e. data vs. programs. Obviously, a compressed one couldn't be mounted as a boot drive.

You can get 50 DVD-Rs around here for under $15.

Ghost says you have to copy partitions one at a time to the new drive.

You've now exhausted my knowledge of the subject.

[FloydianOne]

Originally Posted by Cereberus

You've now exhausted my knowledge of the subject.

Haha thanks for your help.

[hrdwareguy]

OK, I use ghost at work all the time. Keep in mind, I use the corporate version so the home version might be somewhat different.

Ghost can image your entire drive or individaul partitions whichever you select. Empty space is not imaged. You can always go from a smaller dirve to a larger drive. It is possible to go from a larger drive to a smaller drive as long as there is enough room for the data in the image. Example, I have an image of a WinXP base installation. I took this image from a 20 GB drive. I was able to push this out to a 10 GB drive and it work fine. Yes, I do have appropriate licenses for each install.

The only problems you may have with ghost and reimage is if you try to image WinXP from one machine and put it on another. XP may give you fits about the hardware change. If you are simply upgrading the HD in your existing machine you shouldn't have any trouble at all. If you are using XP Pro, you can always use sysedit with ghost to image the drive and put in another machine that will require reactivation.

Imaging is much better than copying files because A) it takes less time and B) it works. If you try and copy files, you will not get your registry settings and many of the system and hidden files that exist on your drive. Also, you can not copy partition information. You would have to manually set up your partitions on the destination drive first before trying to copy. There is no need to partition or format a destination drive when ghosting. It does this for you automatically.

[bendsley]

Just make sure though, that if you clone a server version of Windows, and then try to promote it to a domain controller, the AD is going to throw back error messages regarding trust issues, in which you will have to change the systemID of the Windows install to the machine you just cloned.

Thats my $0.02 even though it really isn't relevant in this situation. More of an FYI really.

[FloydianOne]

Thanks for everyones help,

So is ghosting generally used in a buisness enivronment where they want all their computers to have an operating system and all the programs they chose to install? So therefore they only have to sit through the xp installation process once and then just use ghost to mount the image on all of their stations? Can they do this remotely?

[MikeSty]

Yeah, i'd say it is more of a business tool. My school uses ghosting apps to set up the computer lab ... only one computer usually throws a fit. We do it overnight though, and in the morning it is hot as hell and smells so bad. Then we go blow the machines out with a light compressor

[hrdwareguy]

Originally Posted by FloydianOne

Thanks for everyones help,

So is ghosting generally used in a buisness enivronment where they want all their computers to have an operating system and all the programs they chose to install? So therefore they only have to sit through the xp installation process once and then just use ghost to mount the image on all of their stations? Can they do this remotely?

The corporate version comes with a command console. This console will allow the administrator to deploy the ghost client remotely to Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstations that are members of the domain. The administrator can then set up tasks for a computer or group of computers and can run those tasks from the console. If the administrator wants to allow the end user to run ghost tasks, they must specifically check a box that says Allow Client Initiation. Of course, if the machine does not have an operating system on it, there is no way to remotely do this. You would have to be at the machine and use a boot disk to connect to a ghost session.