Norton Ghost 2003 question

[eXTREME2002]

Have anyone here who use Norton Ghost 2003 faced a problem while using the "Norton Ghost 2003 Boot Disk" to restore an image of an NTFS partition (e.g. C:). It seem to me that the Norton Ghost miniature program file "Ghost.exe" is not able to restore an image from another partition to restore it on the C: partition and this is a disaster by itself as i'll not be able to restore my image in case of a real disaster ???!!!. In case of my bro's PC, the ghost.exe can restore images coz - as my bro adviced me - is to use FAT32 on c: drive in order to get the ghost.exe to work without problems but i am not ready 2 return to FAT32

[RACKnRAIL]

I use ghost with NTFS file format, but I burn the images, then install to my NTFS partition without any trouble at all. Are you booting from the HD image? You may have to change your bios to do so.

[CompuGeek]

You can find an extensive guide to using Norton Ghost at http://ghost.radified.com

But, like RACKnRAIL said, the best way to ghost your drive is to burn the image to CDs (or DVDs if you have a DVD burner).

That's the best way to do it because if you have a hard drive failure of some kind then your ghost image on the hard drive's other partition could become corrupt or inaccessible.

You can tell it to compress the image so it won't take up very many discs.

:sw

[eXTREME2002]

I use ghost with NTFS file format, but I burn the images, then install to my NTFS partition without any trouble at all. Are you booting from the HD image? You may have to change your bios to do so.

Nop, i boot from the floppy disk created by Ghost itself and that was my point of discussion

[DemonusAE]

I have used it to restore partitions to the C:\ partition, works fine, what message is Ghost giving you?

EDIT: Ahhh, a ghost image of your partition!!! Yes, it does have issues restoring from a ghost image to NTFS. This may not help you but what I do is make another partition (NTFS) and I chose the option copy partition to partition. You can then edit boot.ini and boot from your copy. That can help you troubleshoot minor problems. Also, it restores without a problem to your C:\ partition. Sorry couldn't help more.

[RACKnRAIL]

Nop, i boot from the floppy disk created by Ghost itself and that was my point of discussion

Exactly, I boot from the floppy when I want to create an image. I then, make the cd image bootable, so I can boot from that when I want to restore the partition.

[eXTREME2002]

Well I'd like to know how did u make yr CD bootable using the Ghost disk (so that i keep the contents of this disk safer on a CD as floppy disks are very liable to be destroyed)

[RACKnRAIL]

Well I'd like to know how did u make yr CD bootable using the Ghost disk (so that i keep the contents of this disk safer on a CD as floppy disks are very liable to be destroyed)

Ghost will ask you, or there is an option that needs to be checked (can't remember off hand), if you want to make the cd bootable during the process. Also as mentioned, you can compress the image so you use less discs. My C:/ drive is 8 gigs in size, with only about 40% being used. It takes me usually about 4 discs if I compress the image.
I have tried installing an image using the floppy to boot into ghost, but I couldn't get it to install this way either. I'm quite sure you need to boot from the image itself, whether it's on your HD or on a disc. At least that's what I've found. Though I have been wrong before...go figure!

[eXTREME2002]

Hi - thanks 4 all the info u provided but i just have 1 more question b4 everyone's getting bored from this thread...

Have u noticed the file on yr C: drive which is created by norton ghost itself as a virtual partition ? - it's about 26 MB and the teasing thing is that this useless file is copied among my image (i did know that after i explored my image file and looking at the c: root) - Is there any way to prevent this file from being copied with the image or to make norton ghost make this virtual partition it needs 4 image creation in RAM and not on Hard drive - THANKS

[RACKnRAIL]

Hi - thanks 4 all the info u provided but i just have 1 more question b4 everyone's getting bored from this thread...

Have u noticed the file on yr C: drive which is created by norton ghost itself as a virtual partition ? - it's about 26 MB and the teasing thing is that this useless file is copied among my image (i did know that after i explored my image file and looking at the c: root) - Is there any way to prevent this file from being copied with the image or to make norton ghost make this virtual partition it needs 4 image creation in RAM and not on Hard drive - THANKS

What is the file called?

Don't forget, when I use ghost, I burn my image to a disc. I have never browsed the image itself. I just use it for back-up purposes only. Ghost has been invaluable to me and it has also saved many hours of my time. A full ghost install takes just over 10 or 20 minutes. A full install of XP and the updates...all day and then some.

[eXTREME2002]

It's called: Virtpart.dat
It has a size of 26 MB and located on the root of yr C: Partition

[RACKnRAIL]

Hibernation and swap files

When Norton Ghost creates image files or clones, it does not include hibernation and swap files. These files are valid only for one Windows session, and when they are included in an image file, they make it significantly larger.

Norton Ghost implements file skipping differently for each type of file system.

FAT file systems: Files are not included on the image file or destination disk.

NTFS file systems: A file with the same name is created on the image file or

destination disk, but the contents of the file are not copied.

The following files are skipped on all file systems:
386Spart.par
Amizvsus.pmf
Dos data.sf
Ghost.dta
Hiberfil.sys
Hibrn8.dat
Hybern8
Navsysl.dat
Navsysr.dat
Pagefile.sys
Pm_hiber.bin
Save2dsk.bin
Saveto.dsk
70 Image file options
Hibernation and swap files
Spart.par
Swapper.dat
Toshiber.dat
Virtpart.dat
Win386.swp

[eXTREME2002]

How is that ??? - i have seen clearly that file "virtpart.dat" when i explored my image with the Image Explorer ?!