?Newbie to Ghost Questions?

[MTDEW]

I know this may be elementry to some. but Ive never done this b4, I always just did a
"clean" install of Windows every month or so.

I have a maxtor 30gb harddrive that is divided into 2 partitions.

Drive c: 4gb = Windows & misc add ons
Drive D: 26gb = My software, drvrs etc....

If I use Norton ghost to "image" drive c: , Do I save the image to
drive D:?
Or do I need a seperate "empty" partition for the image?

Also, does the "image of drive c:" retain all of my registry tweaks & sytem settings
as well as my files?
I guess what Im asking is, if I restore from the image,will my system be restored
to EXACTLY the way it was when I "imaged" it?

Or are there certain things that dont retain their settings?

Is restoring from an image as good as doing a "clean" "fresh" install of windows?
(considering that the image is created after a "clean" install & all windows updates are applied, of course)

 

[Mday]

If I use Norton ghost to "image" drive c: , Do I save the image to
drive D:?
Or do I need a seperate "empty" partition for the image?

you can save it to D:\. you can save it to any OTHER drive\partition.

Also, does the "image of drive c:" retain all of my registry tweaks & sytem settings
as well as my files?

yes, ghost makes a copy of the partition which is compressed, that is, every detail of the partition\drive you are imaging is copied (data wise).

however, it is recommended you "export" your registry which is the best bet in terms of the registry being "safe"

remember, the registry is just 2 files on your c:\windows directory.

I guess what Im asking is, if I restore from the image,will my system be restored
to EXACTLY the way it was when I "imaged" it?

yes, you'd think it would, and it does for the most part. sometimes weird things can happen with respect to hardware. but for the most part, it works as advertised. PERIOD. ghost worked before symantec bought it, and will continue to work.


Or are there certain things that dont retain their settings?

well, you are allowed to restore the image in any partition as long as the data can fit. so if your original partition was 10 GB with 2 GB of data, you can actually restore the data to any partition with over 2 GB of space.

Is restoring from an image as good as doing a "clean" "fresh" install of windows?
(considering that the image is created after a "clean" install & all windows updates are applied, of course)

pretty much.

 

[Gorgonzola]

thanks for that info, i might try ghost next time im due to reformat (which was about 6 months ago ).

 

[MTDEW]

Thanks Mday.

Looks like I'm ready to create my image.