How can I create a ghost disk?

[loudSilence]

ok, so I have to reinstall windows, since my pc is full of crap.
Now, its becoming an annoyance since I format my pc often, having to go through all the trouble of reinstalling all the obvious stuff over and over again (such as drivers and stuff).
I heard there's a way to make a sort of a backup disk, which will allow me a sort of a one step reinstallation. So, first how do I make this ghost cd (I need a short but through explanation), and second, how do I use it to install over my current OS?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

I use Norton Ghost. With it I can make an image of the boot and apps partitions on my drive (not practical to backup the entire 250Gb drive).

I make a backup once a month and if something goes wrong I restore from my last good Ghost image. I archive my Ghost images in case I develop a problem over time that I don't notice - I can go back to my cleanest and stablest install (which right now was last April, and coincidently I just restored to last week because I was having some issues).

To do this properly without having to backup the entire HDD, you need to properly partition your drive. I explain all this in detail here: http://penguinblog.com/partitioning.shtml


I do computer repair work and I never work on a client's mission critical system - especially a server - without making a Ghost image first.

A Ghost image and regular data backups is a life saver for my clients. It takes 30 minutes or so to restore a file server OS with a good Ghost image and then I restore the last data backup and the server is up and running again.

 

[MustISO]

You can create an image of a good OS install using Ghost or True Image. This won't help you with the initial install of the OS but whenever you need to restore your "good" image it'll only take 5-10 mins.

 

[loudSilence]

Thanks FlyingPenguin, and MustISO. Yeah, what I wanted to say is, that I'm going to reforamt now, and do all the "hard way", but once I finish my new install,
and all is clean and neat, then I want to make a ghost of it, so next time I can do a one step install.
But, how do I do this one step install afterwards? I know there are issues with the sectors where the OS must reside, so if its not a proper windows (or any OS for that matter),
how do I make sure the system treats the new image as its new OS?

 

[Jiggz]

This is actually easier done than reading it thru here. Using Norton Ghost will basically walk you through the process. It will also include information on how to restore the ghost for a working system. Just make sure you read and heed the instruction as you go through,

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Restoring is very simple, especially if you backup the entire drive. You boot with the Ghost disk, select the image you want to restore (which can be on a CD, DVD or another HDD) and the destination drive and walk away for half an hour. When you get back it's done.

Selective partition restoration (as I recommend) is only slighly more complicated. You select the image (which in addition to the above locations can also be on another partition on the same HDD), pick the partitions you want to restore, pick the destination drive and partitions to overwrite, and again walk away for a half hour.

Whatever app you use will have a wizard to walk you through it.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Some links for those who want more info on Ghost and other alternatives:

The definitive Ghost tutorial:
http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm

Lot's of useful info here:
http://www.softpanorama.org/Unixification/norton_ghost.shtml

 

[terbolee]

I use a Ghost floppy disk. You can create one using the Ghost program. Use Nero to create a bootable CD from the floppy disk.

On my shelf is a cheap 20GB drive that contains my fully working XP, drivers, programs, etc, MINUS my data files. If my C-drive goes crook on me, I connect my 20GB drive as my Primary Master drive & connect my crooked drive as the Primary Secondary drive.

Once I boot my machine using my floppy drive, I use Ghost to refresh my crooked drive. The process takes less than 15-mins. Hope this helps.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Ghost (and all imaging software) saves the image in 2 to 1 compression. So you can backup 40Gb onto a 20Gb drive. Your image file size will only be the total size of the data on the original drive (less swap files).

My Boot, Apps, and data partitions total out to around 3Gb when saved as a Ghost image - easily fits on a DVD-R every month.

 

[0roo0roo]

my method is to keep os partition to about 10gb. only install apps and os. no games/media on that partition. then ghost image the parititoin after fresh install of all basic stuff. ends up about 600mb for xp+office or so. turn off hibernation or else u'll have a huge hibernation file backed up too. restoring is easier that way since you can just leave such a small ghost image on another drive or partition for restore. and u dont have to worry about overwriting any of ur media. just have to save your documents/email before image restore.

 

[Auric]

I do same as 0roo0roo but C: is only 6GB. C: is imaged to +RW regularly (keeping last 3 consecutive) and the whole HDD is cloned to an identical HDD less frequently (as media files warrant) and also My Docs is copied to DVD-RAM frequently.

Make an integrated SP2 CD. Ghost or True Image need only be installed to create their floppy or CD after which I wouldn't bother with 'em or even install again. C: can be imaged after initial OS setup and again after driver and program installs so either can be started from fresh. Then regular images for backups unless you intend to start fresh often in which case just backup your docs 'n' such as needed. Also, it is handy to export registry data and save config files (from C for games which are installed on D: so that when starting fresh with the OS they need not be reinstalled (just import and copy over as necessary).

 

[loudSilence]

ok, I made a bootable ghost cd, now when I boot, I get a menu with 3 options, 1. ghost with usb... 2. ghost with scsi... 3. ghost
I didn't know what to do, so obviously I pressed 1... then it started saying stuff like installation falied and stuff like that, I'm like wtf? I don't want to install anything, I just want to make a backup image of my freshly installed windows (about 6gb) to dvd...
Bottom line is, what de ferck am I supposed to do when I get to that menu in order to be able to back up the image to a couple of dvd's?