How do you make a "ghost" drive image, without a ghost program?

[MichaelD]

This question results from an earlier post of mine about a dead video card. Turns out I'm gonna reformat the drive. Only OS and a few games on there anyway.

Someone suggested I make a small (1gig) partition on the drive and once everything is up and running, ghosting a drive image to that 1gig partition.

I DO HAVE Norton Ghost (part of Norton system works) that I purchased legally. (Not that anyone here uses pirated software! Heaven Forbid! ) Unlike Win98SE that I have running on a few (ahem) different systems, the problem is that in order for Norton System works to work, you have to register it online with Symantec. I don't want to get busted. (No jokes about "well now you admitted it...we're telling" please)


Can I ghost an image to another partition w/o a ghost program? How, please?

 

[Sir Fredrick]

you can't.

 

[MichaelD]

Gee Fred, how verbose. That's whut I figgered'. Guess I'll have to take my chances with the sleeping dragon that is Symantec.

 

[vash]

You can find various free programs that take snapshots of your partition. A really quick one to use is RAWREAD/RAWWRITE. This is typically found on a linux CD for making boot disks. This will work fairly well, but commercial software such as Ghost or DriveImage Pro are much better to manage.

vash

 

[DreamKing]

I don't use that particular systems package from Symantec so I have to ask a basic question....do you have to register it online to get it to install and or start or do they just ask you to register it online (to save you the trouble of sending in a card). If it contains a virus scanner I can see the reason for the online registration....for the updates.

 

[MichaelD]

You have to register it to get it to install. Most programs ask you to register, but have that "register later" button. Which I promptly go into Msconfig and delete from the startup list! Norton is different though. Install won't complete without registration. Sheet, I paid $100 for my Norton System Works Professional...I'm not gonna risk them suing me, or yanking my year's worth of free antivirus updates!

 

[billandopus]

"without a ghost program" ... uhh, I don't think you can.

If you don't want your Symantec to go to waste then either register it and don't worry about being busted or get your hands on another program like DriveImage4 which is better IMO.

 

[Stark]

you do not have to register to get it to work. there should be an option to skip.

I've used retail versions of system works for the last couple of years, and none force you to register.

 

[zzzz]

I have heard ImageCast is a simillar program and it has a functional demo..
link for download

 

[emjem]

You can make a mirror image right in windows by simply dragging and dropping the files. Every file in the win folder and the C root will copy this way, active or not. The only file you can't do this with is the swap file win386.swp. So deselect it before dragging files.

The hard way to do it is to run, I believe, Xcopy at the boot dos prompt.

 

[SeaHarp]

use the ghost program you own!! You dont have to register it to use it. I have retail 2000 &2001 systemworks and have never registered.

One quick question. you said you dont want to risk your 1 year update of antivirus, which implies you installed the antivirus. Why do you think you cant install ghost?

 

[Mytv]

Simple problem, Simple solution.

Do what I do and boot to your second hard drive in your system and copy the files

Or... run a script command in your autoexec.bat file to copy the two folders (C:\\Program Files and C:\\Windows) to another directory for backup.

 

[robg1701]

Ghost itself is a single exe file...you dont even have to install the 'Norton Ghost' product...the bloody boot disk it makes refuses to work on my computer anyway for some weird reason, so i just used the ghostpe.exe file it runs and i include it on my cds and make them bootable, so now i never even bother installing 'Norton Ghost', i just fire up the bootable cd and run the damn dos exe file.