Norton Ghost, Bootable Floppy ,Batch Files & automating the image/restore process??

[MTDEW]

Ok, to sum up in one sentence what I'm trying to accomplish......
I want to create bootable floppies with batch files that will automate the imaging & image restore process.

1: Can some one give step by step instructions on how to make a bootable/executable floppy that will allow me to just insert my ghost cd, Insert my floppy, boot my pc & it will automatically image drive c: & save the image to root directory of drive d:? (i'm using WinMe by the way)

2:I also want to make a bootable/executable floppy that will allow me to just insert my ghost cd, insert my floppy & it will atuomatically restore the image from root directory of drive d: to drive c:?

Remember, I will need to have generic cdrom drivers installed, can I steal one of the ones off of a WinMe bootdisk? How?

 

[bruzbros22]

I think you would be better, having a burner and creating a bootable CDROM with Ghost and the image file contained on it.

1. It would be easy to do a restore, put in the cd rom and execute ghost, point it to the image and go.

2. It would be better to have an image of your PC/machine for safekeeping.

You should just make a win98 or ME startup disk with generic CD rom drivers. Insert the GHost CD rom and then start the imaging process.

I personally like the CD Burner/bootable CD rom option myself.

I hope this gives you some good/other ideas.

 

[MTDEW]

Actually, I originally wanted to do that but I just sold my burner to a friend.
Maybe I can coax him into working out a deal.

But I still would like to try the bootable/executable floppy with images on a seperate partition for the frequent backups cuz a 30gb hd will probably span over several cdroms & it doesnt seem like a cost effective solution for my monthly backups.

 

[overmars]

Yeah, I agree with bruz bros on this one. You might want to use Image Cast 3 or Norton Ghost to make an image onto a CD.

You might want to try ImageCast 3. Everyone has used Ghost, but our computer dept. at CSUN actually prefers ImageCast as far as software deployment and disk imaging.

marc

 

[MTDEW]

I'm afraid I'm stuck with Ghost.

It was an X-mas present.

Guess I should have read up b4 I hinted like mad I wanted ghost.

What do people without burners do?

 

[kbum25]

I have some for for the xircom 10/100, intel pro 100, and 3x905x cards, email me, and i'll email them to you, just need make the floppies bootable on your end...

 

[bruzbros22]

Are the 30 GB HD's packed with stuff?
How much used space are we talking about?

I know from experience I've made a image of a 20GB hard drive and it all fit on one CDROM using just low compression. I guess it depends on how much stuff (programs, files ect.ect.) you have installed.

but again you are right, making the CDRom's does take a little time, but I was going after the safekeeping idea..... what if that hard drive (particulary (sp?) the partition with the image) crashes?

 

[NesuD]

I just made a bootable image on cd with ghost. 2.3 gigs took about 20 minutes to create with high compression takes about 18 minutes to restore from 2 cd's about 7 minutes to restore from a hdd image.

 

[corkyg]

For less than $150 you can do away with all that stuff . . . just get another 30 gig drive . . . slave it . . . use Drive Copy 3 and clone your entire drive. Finish . . . disconnect and then if you need it . . . you have a totally duplicate drive ready to rock and roll . . . no restoration or other Mickey Mouse Ghost nonsense to deal with.