Ghosting image from one HD to another?

[AB]

I have never ghosted an image from one harddrive to another. I just purchased an 80 gig Seagate, and I need to move over all of my current apps and OS from my current HD over to the new one. How can I do this? Currently I have 3 partitions on my current 20 gig maxtor. One partition is for my OS which is 2 gigs, another one which is 5 gigs, and the last one which is 13 gigs. Now how can I move over this stuff to the new HD without having to keep the same partitions? I want to have a larger partition for my OS (~5 GIGS) and other partitions. Is it possible to allocate larger partitions, then ghost over images from each partitions into the newer partitions, yet still keeping the linkage of all of my applications with the OS registry? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Also what applications and sites referencing ghosting would be great. Thanks.

 

[Maggotry]

I've never tried doing anything quite like what you're wanting to do, but Partition Magic and Norton Ghost should be able to do what you want. Not really my area of skill, but I thought I'd try to help anyway.
I've used PM in the past to add and remove partitions from a drive. I've only used NG to burn a copy of a new install to CD.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I would suggest using Ghost to perform a straight copy, then use partition magic to tidy up.

I think the latest version of Imagecast will re-size partitions when doing a disk-to-disk copy, but you'll get more control using partition magic.

 

[AB]

<< I would suggest using Ghost to perform a straight copy, then use partition magic to tidy up. >>



How would this work with multiple partitions with software installed in separate partitions? Do I need to have the same number of partitions made on my new drive? By making a ghost, will it inherintly make these partitions? I don't want that. Thanks

 

[WobbleWobble]

First create the desired partition sizes on your 80GB HDD. Then use Ghost to image each partition from the 20GB to the 80GB individually. (Using Partition to Partition)

You can also use Ghost to image the whole 20GB HDD to the 80HDD then resize the partitions after, but that's a much slower process. (Using Disk to Disk)

 

[AB]

Now when you say "ghost", does that mean I use a software like Norton Ghost? Do I need to boot into the Norton Ghost CD? Do I format and partition my 80 gig first using pqmagic or fdisk? Lastly, is it possible to leave one of the 3 partitions on the current 20 gig drive? Also, are there any drawbacks in data integrity with using ghost? I am debating on if I should reinstall everything from scratch or not. That would definitely be a large hassle. Thanks

 

[Yossarian]

I will have a few answers. Yes, Norton Ghost. I think you can get it standalone or with Systemworks Pro. You boot using a floppy that the software prompts you to make. They also put CDRW drivers on here so you can burn an image to CD if you like. You definitely need to fdisk the new drive first. I don't see why there would be a problem with data integrity. I believe it does CRC checks as it goes.

 

[dunkster]

I use Norton SystemWorksPro 2002 version of Ghost to clone OS and Data partitions, so I can recover quickly in the event of HD disaster.

I use Win98SE and FAT32 partitions - no experience with Ghosting any other OS or partition-format.

Target partitions must be formatted in the same format as the origin partition. Since Ghost clones only data-containing sectors, the target partition size need only be slightly larger than the actual size of the data sectors.

Try searching the 'Software -Application' forum using 'Ghost' search phrase for other posts. Ghost apparently can't/won't write to NTFS-formatted partitions.

I don't know what software utilities come with Seagate HDs, but I've used both Maxtor and WD utilities to clone new disks. They both faithfully cloned the new drives and offered option to manually assign destination partition sizes or automatically create partitions proportional in size to drive capacity.

Hope this helps!

 

[AB]

<< Ghost apparently can't/won't write to NTFS-formatted partitions. >>



Does this mean that if my WIN 2k is installed in an NTFS partition, I cannot clone this partition, so then therefore I cannot ghost my OS?

 

[Yossarian]

Check this out, lots of useful info.

Symantec Ghost help

 

[WobbleWobble]

I know my version of Symantec Ghost (version 7) can write NTFS partitions, including your Win2K one. It doesn't matter how you create the partitions on your 80GB HDD as long as you just do it. You can clone a partition to another partition to another size (ie. 4GB to a 8GB or vice versa, as long as the data on the 8GB is less than 4GB). I've done this a few times and have experienced no data integrity problems.

The only thing you have to worry about when trying to keep one of the partitions on your 20GB is the how Win2K looks for itself. In the boot.ini file, you have to make sure that the partition specified is the right one. If Win2K is the first partition on your 20GB and you keep it the first parition on the 80GB, you don't have to worry about where Win2K is looking for itself.