Mirroring Drives for exact bootable copies

[Perryg114]

I would like to know how to make an exact bootable copy of one hard drive with another. I know you can do RAID and mirror the drives but I believe they will only work in a RAID setup once you do that. Can I take a RAID mirrored drive and put it in as a standard IDE drive and have it work as a stand alone. I am building up new machines and I would like to just copy everything instead of spending hours loading a new operating system and associated software.

Perry

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

I think Norton Ghost can do that, but I would be interested in the answer as well, as I'm not entirely certain.

Would be nice not having to reinstall Windows etc when I get a fasterhard drive.

 

[Jeff7]

USB 2.0 drive enclosure, put the new hard drives in there - I think Norton Ghost can be setup with some USB 2.0 drivers then, which'd fit on a boot disk, or else it can use its "virtual boot disk" function - it creates a temporary partition or something like that, and boots off of that. Just clone the drive on the PC out through the USB port into the new drive. You don't have to open the PC then.
Or if the systems have networks cards, which they are almost certain to anymore, find NDIS or Packet drivers for your network card, and give them to Ghost (assuming it doesn't already have drivers for your NIC) and Ghost over the network to a PC set as a client (also done in Ghost).
I had a crash course in Ghost a few months ago when I had to try to retrieve data off of someone's dying laptop drive.

 

[pm]

I have two identically sized WD120GB drives that are in removeable drive bays. Once a week, I run Norton Ghost and make an identical bootable copy of the current one onto the next one, take out the one that was in before and replace it with the new one. Powerquest's Drive Image does this too (although they were just acquired by Symantec... there goes the competion). The drives do not need to be the same size... but of course the new one needs to be equal or larger than the data size on the old one.

 

[Perryg114]

Do I have to buy a $70 software package to mirror drives? That is as much money as a new drive LOL.

Perry

 

[corkyg]

Mirroring is not necessarily bootable. What you want is imaging. That is done with Norton Ghost, Powerquest DriveImage, and my faorite - Powerquest's DriveCopy 4.0 from a bootable CD or set of floppies. That way the OS doesn't matter, and a perfect copy of the drive is made including optimization made before the operation.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you're buying a new drive, you can get the OEM Symantec Norton Systemworks Pro for $24 (at newegg) which includes Ghost.

 

[Perryg114]

THat might work sense I ordered all my drives from Newegg. THanks for the Tip I will check it out.

Perry

 

[Davegod]

http://ghost.radified.com/

 

[Anonemous]

Would Norton Ghost work for those upgrading their systems (totally different cpu/mobo/gfx card/new HD) and just want to retain the OS (and programs) from an old HD? Or is that something totally different?

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: Anonemous
Would Norton Ghost work for those upgrading their systems (totally different cpu/mobo/gfx card/new HD) and just want to retain the OS (and programs) from an old HD? Or is that something totally different?

When changing the chipset it most likely will BSOD. There's an Article in the FAQ's on how to work around it but I would recommend a new install and backing up the Proggies.
Ghost is great (I use it) but most HD Manu's have a copy proggy available on their site @ no charge.

 

[Perryg114]

Ok I got a copy of Norton Ghost 2002 but can't seem to get it to load when booting from the floppy. It starts to load then stops after loading the mouse drivers. Is this the NTFS problem that someone mentioned earlier?

Perry

 

[corkyg]

That's why I prefer DriveCopy for that chore - NTFS does not make any difference to it. What you end up with is a command prompt. You may need to find the drive letter and type in the Ghost DOS command.

 

[Perryg114]

Well I have no idea where to get drive copy. I did just order the System WOrks CD from Newegg but it will be a few days before it arrives.

Perry

 

[SocrPlyr]

Just to let you know according to a Promise Tech Rep their raid 1 is completely bootable by itself, all you have to do is take it and plug it into another controller...
Check out the 4th Question on page 103 of this pdf
http://www.promise.com/support/file/manual/FT100%20TX_LP_English.PDF

Q: Can I take a drive used in a FastTrak100 array and access it directly
with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the
motherboard?
A: Yes, but only under certain configurations. The following array configurations
will allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller: mirror
(RAID 0), single drive striped (RAID 1), or single drive spanned (JBOD). Multiple
drives striped or spanned will not work. Also, the controller must address the
drives as LBA, not CHS.

to be honest i think this is the easiest way to make backups, then just unplug the drive...
note you are limited to the size of the smaller drive if they are different drives...

Josh

 

[Big Lar]

There is a command for use in dos, I am sure some peeps here know it, or can steer you to it, as to copying 1 drive to another, I had it written down, but can't seem to find it.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: LED

Originally posted by: Anonemous
Would Norton Ghost work for those upgrading their systems (totally different cpu/mobo/gfx card/new HD) and just want to retain the OS (and programs) from an old HD? Or is that something totally different?

When changing the chipset it most likely will BSOD. There's an Article in the FAQ's on how to work around it but I would recommend a new install and backing up the Proggies.
Ghost is great (I use it) but most HD Manu's have a copy proggy available on their site @ no charge.

The free proggies available are usually "OEM" versions from Ontrack that are limited to use on that manufacturer's drives. So they are the best solution if using the same brand and only disk to disk copying for identical systems is required. However Ghost and DriveImage have much greater functionality. DI was first with NTFS support while Ghost was a bit tardy. I don't recall if Ghost 2002 had it, but 2003 definitely does.

Carrying the same image over to different hardware, as in an upgrade, has limitations. Windows 5.x cannot dynamically load a different specific storage controller driver so must first be set to the generic Standard before imaging. Once that is done Windows can start and dynamically detect and load for all other different hardware.

 

[Perryg114]

I have western digital drives and did see a drive a drive copy program there.

Perry

 

[UpGrD]

I know retail WD and Maxtor drives come with a utility (can be downloaded also) that copies your old drive to the new one.
In both cases (WD or Maxtor) it has worked perfectly for me. I see no reason you could not use that to copy a single drive many times.

 

[Perryg114]

These are OEM drives so the disk did not come with.

Perry

 

[UpGrD]

WD Data Lifeguard Tools
Maxtor MaxBlast 3

 

[orion7144]

You mentioned something about RAID and Ghost? Ghost does not support RAID arrays. I went through their customer support and they said no way.

 

[Perryg114]

Ok I got the Western digital tool to work that mirrors the drive. It took a few tries but it finally took. This will save me loads of time. I have had good luck in the past installing a hard drive from one motherboard to another. Just load the drivers for that board and move on. Thanks for all the good input.

Perry