Good drive cloning software

[FXGuy3369]

I have an old copy of Norton Ghost that boots from floppy and allows you to clone a drive to a dvd. I loved it! I load my machine the way I want drivers, software etc, then make a clone to the dvd. Should my hard drive catch a virus etc, I pop in the DVD its bootable and has my hard drive back to day 1 in less than 30 minutes. However I hate using antiquated floppy software and the new ghost versions dont support copying from a hard drive to a dvd. Does anyone know of a software that does???

 

[George P Burdell]

You need Acronis True Image

 

[Markbnj]

Or DriveImageXML from Runtime... but how do you get a hard drive onto a 4 GB DVD?

 

[FXGuy3369]

I have Acronis TrueImage I do not see anywhere in there where it will allow you to make a clone from drive to disc, only drive to drive. and as for Marks question. All I load is Windows, the Drivers, and Office. It takes up less than the 4.5GB of a DVD, and my ghost program would compress it some on top of that.

 

[corkyg]

Technically speaking, you cannot clone a drive to other media. That is not "cloning." It is copying or imaging. You can backup a HDD to a DVD. The term clone means exactly the same in every respect so the units can be used interchangeably.

What you can do is backup the HDD to a DVD and then later restore it to another HDD.

Your old Ghost was technically imaging the HDD on the DVD.

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Technically speaking, you cannot clone a drive to other media. That is not "cloning." It is copying or imaging. You can backup a HDD to a DVD. The term clone means exactly the same in every respect so the units can be used interchangeably.

What you can do is backup the HDD to a DVD and then later restore it to another HDD.

Your old Ghost was technically imaging the HDD on the DVD.

What he said.

 

[FXGuy3369]

Fair enough, but TrueImage has that capability?

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Or DriveImageXML from Runtime... but how do you get a hard drive onto a 4 GB DVD?

basic windowsxp install is less than a cd if compression is selected, even with ms office installed. with more apps installed it should still be less than 4gb compressed.
ghost is smart enough to ignore or super compress the page file. driveimage xml seems stupid that way and results in much larger image files.
if you keep your o/s partition reasonably sized and keep media/games off it you can make very small images.

doesn't matter if imaging software does it directly to dvd. just saves you a step. i do it to a second drive or partition.

 

[FXGuy3369]

The whole point of this is to make a restore type disk....

 

[George P Burdell]

Originally posted by: FXGuy3369
The whole point of this is to make a restore type disk....

That's exactly what Acronis does. If your HDD fails (or you want to revert your current HDD to it's previous condition), you can put in a new one, boot from a Acronis boot CD/USB drive, and use the images you burned onto DVD to restore the new HDD.

Look through the user manual (10.5 MB PDF)

 

[jaqie]

I actually still use ghost 2003 I bought new... made a DOS boot and full install on a 32MB usb memstick, and run it off of that. It will even image vista partitions.

As for imaging to DVD, ghost 2003 can auto span discs, so there is no one disc (4.3GB) limit.

 

[bruceb]

I also use Ghost 2003 .. it came with Norton System Works Pro 2003
No need to buy anything else yet, as it works fine.
Use the Ghost command switch -auto to auto span (ghost will prompt
when it needs the next blank CD/DVD when creating an Image or when
to change to the next one when Restoring an Image)

Command-line switches

@filename Specifies a file that contains additional command-line switches that Norton Ghost should read. Filename indicates the path and file name of the command-line switch file. The command-line switch file can include any Norton Ghost command-line switch, except for -afile and -dfile. The Norton Ghost command-line switch file must be a text file with each switch on a separate line. This feature lets you exceed the DOS command-line limit of 150 characters.
For example, for the following command line:
ghost.exe @ghswitch.txt
The file Ghswitch.txt would read:
-clone,mode=pcreate,src=1:2,dst=g:\part2.gho
-fcr
-sure
-afile=filename Replaces the default abort error log file name, Ghosterr.txt, with the directory and file given in filename.
-auto Automatically names spanned image files during creation. Using this switch avoids the user prompt that asks for confirmation of the next destination location for the remainder of the image file that is being loaded. This switch is the default behavior for Norton Ghost.
-batch Batch mode switch. Prevents abort messages from waiting for user acknowledgment, and removes user interaction prompts. The return value of Ghost.exe must be checked to identify whether the operation was successful. Norton Ghost returns 0 on success and 1 or higher on failure or error.
-bfc Handles bad FAT clusters when writing to disk. If this switch is set, and the target partition is FAT, Norton Ghost checks for and works around bad sectors. This option may slow Norton Ghost operation substantially.
-bootcd When writing an image directly to a CD/DVD writer, makes the CD/DVD bootable. You need a bootable floppy disk in drive A. If you use the -sure switch with -bootcd, and a floppy disk is not in drive A, then a nonbootable CD/DVD is created.
-buffersize=x Ghost creates an image file using a small buffer where x = number of KB. The size of the buffer is automatically calculated by Norton Ghost. The buffersize switch lets you override this size. You can set the buffer size value from 1 to 32.
-chkimg,filename Checks the integrity of the image file indicated by filename.
-clone Ghost.exe operation switch. This switch allows automation of Ghost.exe operations and has a series of arguments that define the operation parameters.


-cns Reverts the naming of spanned files to the system used by versions of Norton Ghost prior to Symantec Ghost 6.5. If this switch is not used, then the naming of spanned files conforms to Microsoft application guidelines. You do not need to use this switch when reading an existing file. Use this switch when the first five characters in a file name must be unique. For example:



With -cns Without -cns
Filename.gho Filename.gho
Filename.001 Filen001.ghs
Filename.002 Filen002.ghs



-CRC32 The -CRC32 switch lets you make a list of the files on a disk or partition or create an image file with CRC values and then verify the list against the original or a copy. The purpose is to allow both quick listing of the contents of an image file and verification that a disk created by Norton Ghost contains the same files as the original.
See -CRC32 switch usage
-crcignore Ignores CRC errors. CRC errors indicate data corruption. This switch overrides the CRC error detection and may let a corrupted image file be used. Using this switch leaves the corrupted files in an unknown state. You can use this switch to help you extract files from a corrupted image file.
-cvtarea Creates a file, Cvtarea.tmp, that is the location of the MFT when the FAT32 partition is converted to NTFS. This switch operates in a similar manner to the cvtarea program that Microsoft provides in Deploy.cab on the Windows XP installation CD.
For more information, see:
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev...ge/ntfs-preinstall.asp
The file is created in the root directory of the partition during a partition or disk restore and is created as a contiguous space on the disk. The largest size allowed is 4 GB. If the file is larger than this, it is truncated to 4 GB.
The syntax for this switch is as follows:
-cvtarea,filename=xxx,size=yyy{%disk,%free,KB,MB,GB},
firstcluster=zzz{%disk,%free,KB,MB,GB}
The default settings are as follows:



filename cvtarea.tmp
size 12%disk
firstcluster 1|3 GB|33%disk
Defaults to:
1/3 of the partition size if the partition size is less than 2 GB
1 GB if the partition size is less than 6 GB
3 GB if the partition size is equal to or greater than 6 GB


-dd Dumps disk metrics information to the dump log file, Ghststat.dmp. The file location can be altered using the -dfile=filename switch.
-dfile=filename Changes the path and file name of the dump log file created using the -dd switch. This switch cannot be included in the @ Ghost switch text file
-dl=number Specifies the number of hard disks present. Valid numbers are between 1 and 8. This may help when the BIOS does not report the number of drives correctly.
-dlist=drives Specifies a list of drives to search for span files. If a span file cannot be found, then the drive letters in dlist are substituted one by one to look for the file on other drives.
For example, the command ghost -dlist=CDEFG instructs Norton Ghost to look for files on C, D, E, F, and G drives. The path remains the same.
-f32 Lets Norton Ghost convert all FAT16 volumes to FAT32 volumes when the destination partition to convert is larger than 256 MB in size. Ensure that the installed operating systems can access the volumes that will be converted to support FAT32.
-f64 Lets Norton Ghost resize FAT16 partitions to be larger than 2047 MB using 64 K clusters. This is only supported by Windows NT and Windows 2000. Do not use on computers with other operating systems
-fatlimit Limits the size of FAT16 partitions to 2047 MB. Useful when Windows NT FAT16 partitions are present on the disk, and 64 K clusters are not wanted
-fcr Creates a CRC32 file, Ghost.crc, while creating an image file.
See -CRC32 switch usage
-fdsp Preserves the signature bytes on the destination disk when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk cloning operation
-fdsz Clears the signature bytes on the destination disk when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk cloning operation.
-femax When an extended partition is created in a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk operation, the femax switch ensures that the extended partition takes up all free space.
-ffatid Forces the FAT partition id. This switch changes the partition id to the recommended partition id for the FAT partition within the destination image file or the destination partition table. This switch only takes effect if the source is a disk or partition, not an image file.
For example, if you are cloning a partition of type 0xA0 (some unknown partition id), and Norton Ghost sees it as a valid FATx (FAT12/FAT16/FAT32) partition, then the partition id is changed from 0xA0 to FATx.
This was default Norton Ghost behavior before Symantec Ghost 2001. This switch allows for backward compatibility.
-ffi Prefers the use of direct IDE access for IDE hard disk operations. This switch does not have any effect when running Norton Ghost in Windows 98.
-ffs Prefers the use of direct ASPI/SCSI disk access for SCSI hard disk operations.
-ffx Prefers the use of Extended Interrupt 13h disk access for hard disk operations.
-finger Shows the fingerprint details written on a hard disk created by Norton Ghost. The fingerprint details include the process used to create the disk or partition and the time, date, and disk on which the operation was performed.
-fis Use all available disk space when creating partitions. By default, Norton Ghost often leaves a small amount of free space at the end of the disk. Because partitions must be aligned to cylinder boundaries, Norton Ghost may leave up to 5 MB free even when -fis is specified.
-fni Disables direct IDE access support for IDE hard disk operations.
This switch has the same functionality as the -noide switch.
-fns Disables direct ASPI/SCSI access support for SCSI hard disk operations.
This switch has the same functionality as the -noscsi switch.
-fnx Disables extended INT13 support for hard disk operations.
-fro Forces Norton Ghost to continue cloning even if the source contains bad clusters.
-fx Causes Norton Ghost to exit to DOS after operation completion. By default, Norton Ghost prompts the user to restart or exit when the operation has finished. If Norton Ghost is run as part of a batch file, it is sometimes useful to exit back to the DOS prompt after completion so that further batch commands can be processed.
See -rb
-ghostoncd Includes Ghost.exe on a CD/DVD when writing an image to a CD/DVD.
-h or -? or -help Shows the Norton Ghost command-line switch Help page.
-ia The image all switch forces Norton Ghost to perform a sector-by-sector copy of all partitions. When copying a partition from a disk to an image file or to another disk, Norton Ghost examines the source partition and decides whether to copy just the files and directory structure, or to do a sector-by-sector copy. If it understands the internal format of the partition, it defaults to copying the files and directory structure. Generally this is the best option. However, if a disk has been set up with special hidden security files that are in specific positions on the partition, the only way to reproduce them accurately on the target partition is through a sector-by-sector copy. If you use this switch to create an image of a dynamic disk, then the image must be restored to a disk with identical geometry.
-ial Forces a sector-by-sector copy of Linux partitions. Other partitions are copied as normal.
-ib The image boot switch copies the entire boot track, including the boot sector, when creating a disk image file or copying disk-to-disk. Use this switch when installed applications, such as boot-time utilities, use the boot track to store information. By default, Norton Ghost copies only the boot sector, and does not copy the remainder boot track. You cannot perform partition-to-partition or partition-to-image functions with the -ib switch.
-id The image disk switch is similar to -ia (image all), but also copies the boot track, as in -ib (image boot), extended partition tables, and unpartitioned space on the disk. When looking at an image with -id, you see the unpartitioned space and extended partitions in the list of partitions. The -id switch is primarily used by law enforcement agencies that require forensic images.
When Norton Ghost restores from an -id image, it relocates partitions to cylinder boundaries and adjusts partition tables accordingly. Head, sector, and cylinder information in partition tables is adjusted to match the geometry of the destination disk. Partitions are not resizeable. You will need an identical or larger disk than the original.
Norton Ghost does not wipe the destination disk when restoring from an -id image. Geometry differences between disks may leave tracks on the destination disk with their previous contents.
Use the -ia (image all) switch instead of the -id switch when copying partition-to-partition or partition-to-image. An individual partition can be restored from an image created with -id.
-imgdesc Adds a single-line image file description to the image file. This has the following restrictions:

Cannot include any new lines
Cannot be used with -imgdescfile
Must be used with the clone switch
Clone switch mode must be create, dump, prcreate, or pdump

-imgdescfile Specifies a text file that contains an image file description to be added to the image file. This has the following restrictions:

Cannot be used with -imgdesc
Must be used with the clone switch
Clone switch mode must be create, dump, prcreate, or pdump

-ir The image raw switch copies the entire disk, ignoring the partition table. This is useful when a disk does not contain a partition table in the standard PC format, or you do not want partitions to be realigned to track boundaries on the destination disk. Some operating systems may not be able to access unaligned partitions. Partitions cannot be resized during restore and you need an identical or larger disk.
-jl:x=filename Creates a log file to assist in diagnosing problems with TCP/IP connections. The amount of information logged is set by the log level, x. The log level x can be E (errors), S (statistics), W (warnings), I (information), or A (all), in increasing order of logging detail. The file name indicates the path and file name of the log to be created. In general, the error and statistic levels do not affect session performance. All other levels may reduce performance and should be used for diagnostic purposes only.
-lockinfo Shows the type code and information stored in the BIOS or the Pentium III Processor ID.
For example:

Type Based On Value
M Manufacturer Compaq
P Product name Deskpro EN Series SFF
V Version Award Software
S Serial number H925CKH60020
U UUID 2DA9379B4707D31185E8C800A4F232BC
C M&P combined Compaq Deskpro EN Series SFF
I PIII ID 0000067200028E72A6994A20

-locktype= Type Lets you lock an image file for use with a specific set of computers defined by the type chosen and the source computer.
For example, ghost -locktype=P creates an image that can be used only on systems that have the same product name type as the source computer.
-lpm The LPT master mode switch causes Norton Ghost to automatically go into LPT master mode, and is the equivalent of selecting LPT Master from the main menu.


-lps The LPT slave mode switch causes Norton Ghost to automatically go into LPT slave mode, and is the equivalent of selecting LPT Slave from the main menu.


-memcheck Activates internal memory usage checking for Technical Support.
-noauto Disables the automatic naming of spanned image files during creation. The user is prompted for confirmation of the next destination location for the remainder of the image file that is being restored.
-noautoskip Includes the hibernation and skip files in the image file. These files are excluded by default.
-nofile Disables the Image File Selection dialog box. Useful when opening directories with large numbers of files and slow links.
-noide Disables access to IDE devices.
-noindex Prevents Norton Ghost from creating an index when creating an image file. This slightly reduces the size of the image file and saves memory but Ghost Explorer is much slower in reading the image file. This switch is useful if you are saving an image file from a large disk with very little memory.
-nolilo Does not attempt to patch the LILO boot loader after a clone. If you use the -nolilo switch, you need to start from a floppy disk after the clone and then run /sbin/lilo as the root user to reinstall LILO.
-noscsi Disables access to SCSI devices using ASPI.
-ntc- Disables NTFS contiguous run allocation.
-ntchkdsk Sets the CHKDSK bit set on a copied NTFS volume. This causes Windows NT to check the integrity of the volume when it is started.
-ntd Enables NTFS internal diagnostic checking.
-ntic Ignores the NTFS volume CHKDSK bit. Norton Ghost checks the CHKDSK bit on an NTFS volume before performing operations. When Norton Ghost indicates that the CHDSK bit is set, you should run CHKDSK on the volume to ensure that the disk is in a sound state before cloning.
-ntiid By default, Norton Ghost copies partitions participating in an Windows NT volume set, stripe set, or mirror set using image all sector-by-sector copying. This switch forces Norton Ghost to ignore the Windows NT volume set partition status and image the partition as if it were an NTFS partition to let it be intelligently imaged on a file-by-file basis. Take care when using this switch. Do not use the -ntiid switch with volume sets and stripe sets.
To clone mirrored partitions (also known as Windows NT software RAID partitions)

1 With Windows NT disk administrator, break the mirror set.

2 Using the -ntiid switch, clone one of the mirror partitions.

3 Resize as desired. Partitions can only be resized by Norton Ghost during a disk operation. When performing a partition operation, the target partition size must already be established.

4 After cloning, recreate the mirror set using the Windows NT disk administrator. The disk administrator creates the partitions in the mirror set.

-ntil Ignores NTFS log file check (inconsistent volume).
-or The override switch allows the override of internal space and integrity checks and lets you put a very big image into a small partition. The operation fails if it is unable to write to the limited partition size. This switch lets you override spanning, which fails if there is limited space. Avoid using this switch.
-pmbr Specifies that the master boot record of the destination disk is to be preserved when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk cloning operation.
-pwd and -pwd=x Specifies that password protection be used when creating an image file.
x indicates the password for the image file. If no password is given in the switch, Norton Ghost prompts for one. You can enter a maximum of 10 alphanumeric characters.
-quiet The quiet mode switch disables status updates and user intervention.
-rb Restarts after finishing a restore or copy. After completing a restore or copy operation, the target computer must be restarted so that the operating system can restore the new disk/partition information. Normally, Norton Ghost prompts the user to restart or exit. -rb tells Norton Ghost to restart automatically after it completes the restore or copy. This is useful when automating Norton Ghost in a batch command file.
See -fx
-script Allows you to specify a series of commands (one per line) that Norton Ghost will execute in sequential order.
For example:
ghost -script=script.txt
Following is an example of script.txt:
-clone,mode=create,src=2,dst=c:\drv2.gho
-chkimg,c:\drv2.gho
-clone,mode=create,src=2,dst=c:\part2.gho
-chkimg,c:\part2.gho
skip=x The skip file switch causes Norton Ghost to exclude the indicated files during a create or restore operation. A skip entry can specify a single file, a directory, or multiple files using the * wildcard. File names must be given in short file name format and all path names are absolute. Only FAT system files can be skipped. It is not possible to skip files on NTFS or other file systems. The skip switch may only be included in the command line once. To specify multiple skip entries, they must be included in a text file indicated using
-skip=@skipfile. The format of the skip text file, skipfile, matches the format used with the CRC32 vexcept option.
For example:

-skip=\windows\user.dll
Skips the file User.dll in the Windows directory.

-skip=*\readme.txt
Skips any file called Readme.txt in any directory.

-skip=\ghost\*.dll
Skips any file ending with .dll in the Ghost directory.

-skip=\progra~1\
Skips the program files directory (note the short file name).

-skip=@skipfile.txt
Skips files as outlined in Skipfile.txt. For example, if Skipfile.txt contains:

*\*.tmt
[partition:1]
\windows\
*\*.exe
[Partition:2]
*\*me.txt

This would skip all *.tmt files on any partition, the Windows directory, all *.exe files on the first partition, and any file that ends with me.txt on the second partition.

-span Enables spanning of image files across volumes.
Do not use this switch if you are running Ghost.exe to write an image file directly to a CD-R/RW. Ghost.exe automatically spans CD-R/RW disks if required.
-split=x Splits image file into x MB spans. Use this switch to create a forced-size volume set. For example, if you want to force smaller image files from a 1024 MB drive, you could specify 200 MB segments.
For example:
ghost.exe -split=200
Divides the image into 200 MB segments.
-sure Use the -sure switch in conjunction with -clone to avoid being prompted with the final question Proceed with disk clone - destination drive will be overwritten? This command is useful in batch mode.
-sze Sets the size for the destination partitions for either a disk restore or disk copy operation. When numbering partitions in the -sze switch, do not include the hidden Ghost partition.
Setting a destination size for the clone switch
-szee Forces Norton Ghost to keep the sizes of all destination partitions the same as in the source partition (no resizing).
This switch can be used with or without the -clone switch.
See Setting a destination size for the clone switch
-szef Forces Norton Ghost to keep the sizes of all destination partitions, except for the first one, the same as in the source partition. The first partition uses the remaining disk space.
This switch can be used with or without the -clone switch.
See Setting a destination size for the clone switch
-szel Forces Norton Ghost to keep the sizes of all destination partitions, except for the last one, the same as in the source partition. The last partition uses the remaining disk space.
This switch can be used with or without the -clone switch.
See Setting a destination size for the clone switch
-tapebuffered Default tape mode. Sets the ASPI driver to report a read/write as successful as soon as the data has been transferred to memory. Useful when using older or unreliable tape devices or sequential media.
-tapeeject Forces Norton Ghost to eject the tape following a tape operation. If the tape drive does not support remote ejection you must eject and insert the tape manually before further use. Earlier versions ejected the tape by default. By default, Norton Ghost does not eject the tape. It rewinds the tape before exiting to DOS.
-tapesafe Sets the ASPI driver to report a read/write as successful only when the data has been transferred to the physical medium. Useful when using older or unreliable tape devices or sequential media.
-tapebsize=x Specifies the tape block size in units of 512 bytes, where x is 1 to 128.
-tapespeed=x Allows control of tape speed, where x is 0 to F. 0 is the default. 1 to F increase tape speed. Only use this when the tape does not work correctly at the speed used by Norton Ghost.
-tapeunbuffered Sets the ASPI driver to report a read/write as successful only when the data has been transferred to the tape drive. (It is possible that this occurs before the data is physically written to the medium.)
-tcpm[:slave IP address] The TCP/IP master mode switch causes Norton Ghost to go into TCP/IP master mode automatically, and is the equivalent of selecting TCP/IP Master from the main menu. The IP address of the slave computer may be specified.
-tcps The TCP/IP slave mode switch causes Norton Ghost to go into TCP/IP slave mode automatically, and is the equivalent of selecting TCP/IP Slave from the main menu.
-usbm The USB master mode switch causes Norton Ghost to go into USB master mode automatically, and is the equivalent of selecting USB Master from the main menu. This switch should precede the -clone switch. For example,
ghost.exe -usbm -clone,mode=dump,src=1,dst=1:1\image.gho
-usbs The USB slave mode switch causes Norton Ghost to go into USB slave mode automatically, and is the equivalent of selecting USB Slave from the main menu. This switch should precede the -clone switch.
-vdw If this switch is set, Norton Ghost uses the disk's verify command to check every sector on the disk before it is written. This option may slow Norton Ghost operation substantially.
-ver Shows the version number of Norton Ghost.
-z Runs compression when saving a disk or partition to an image file. The greater the compression, the slower the transmission.
-z or -z1: Low compression (fast transmission)
-z2: High compression (medium transmission)
-z3 through -z9: Higher compression (slower transmission)





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