Slow Ghost

[BigLar]

I'm Ghosting a 160 GB SATA to an external hard drive via a USB 2.0 connection. The HD light on the computer flickers about twice a second while the write light on the external enclosure is on continuously. At the rate its going, the write process wil take 24 hours! I suspect this can't be proper.

Anybody got any ideas?

 

[networkman]

Which version of Ghost is it?

 

[BigLar]

Originally posted by: networkman
Which version of Ghost is it?

Its the one the came with Systems Works 2003.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

I never use external USB drives for Ghost imaging for this reason. The data throughput is VERY slow when using the drive from DOS because you're using BIOS DOS USB legacy support and not the faster Windows drivers. There's also no USB 2.0 support in BIOS legacy mode.

I carry around a 120Gb IDE drive in my service that I use for making ghost images of my client's systems. I connected it directly to the secondary IDE.

If you have a Windows based imaging app like Ghost 9 then it SHOULD be faster - but it may still take a while. If that 160Gb drive is fairly full it could take hours. USB doesn't have the same bandwidth as IDE.

 

[networkman]

Added to this: SATA support is rather poor on the older versions of Ghost -- seriously suggest upgrading to a new version along with LiveUpdates for more up-to-date support.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

In my experience Ghost 2003 (last REAL version of Ghost and the one I use - the new version of Ghost is a competitor's product Norton bought out) works fine with SATA.

Only issue you come across is on some systems if you have ONLY Sata drives and no IDE drives, Ghost may lockup on startup because it's searching for an IDE controller and waiting for a timeout. The workaround for this is to use the -noide command line switch when running Ghost.

 

[BigLar]

Wow, great information!

I'm backing up the family's collection of computers. Next will be my daughter's laptop which has a 40 GB drive and System Works 2005 (presumably carrying 9.0). It'll be an interesting experiment. I'll let you know the results.

 

[rise]

that sure is and definitely update please as i swore off ghost after a debacle. now i know its probably the no ide problem. thanks Penguin

 

[dman]

Not sure what version, but, I found that Ghost runs pretty slow (dos mode) running on NForce Chipset system. Slow enough that if I put both drives in a old BX board it's much faster. Anyone know if newer versions of Ghost support NForce IDE performance enhancements?

How about that Windows Bootable CD that's out there... "PEBuilder" anyone used it with that? How well does it work in that environment?

Thanks.

 

[Big Lar]

Wow! So strange to see my name up there

 

[LiLithTecH]

Originally posted by: FlyingPenguin
In my experience Ghost 2003 (last REAL version of Ghost and the one I use - the new version of Ghost is a competitor's product Norton bought out) works fine with SATA.

So were all previous versions of Ghost.

It started with a company called Binary Research.

USB doesn't have the same bandwidth as IDE.

No it doesn't.

IDE ATA100 (also ATA 6): 100MBps
IDE ATA133 (also ATA 7): 133MBps
Serial ATA (also Ultra ATA): 150MBps
USB 1.1: 1.5 Mbps to 12.5 MBps
USB 2.0: 12 Mbps to 480 Mbps

 

[BigLar]

Originally posted by: rise4310
that sure is and definitely update please as i swore off ghost after a debacle. now i know its probably the no ide problem. thanks Penguin

OK, my daughter's laptop had about 12 GB on 40 GB drive. Using 9.0 on the USB 1.0 port the job was complete in 1 hour 32 minutes. Not ripin', but tolerable.

I manually terminated the 160 SATA (with 40 GB of data) after 20 hours at 40% completion.

Next, I'll try my son's laptop which, I believe, has USB 2.0 ports.

 

[BigLar]

Originally posted by: Big Lar
Wow! So strange to see my name up there

You gotta be a distinguished fellow!!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: BigLar

Originally posted by: rise4310
that sure is and definitely update please as i swore off ghost after a debacle. now i know its probably the no ide problem. thanks Penguin

OK, my daughter's laptop had about 12 GB on 40 GB drive. Using 9.0 on the USB 1.0 port the job was complete in 1 hour 32 minutes. Not ripin', but tolerable.

I manually terminated the 160 SATA (with 40 GB of data) after 20 hours at 40% completion.

Next, I'll try my son's laptop which, I believe, has USB 2.0 ports.

Consider running the Win32 version of Ghost in a Bart's PE session.

English:
Download, and install, Bart's PE CD Builder application.
Use it to build a CD with Ghost32 on it (and Bart's PE).
Boot from the CD, and ghost from the hard drive to the external USB drive.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

I couldn't remember earlier but Ghost 9 is essentially Power Quest's True Image. Norton bought them out. They include a copy of Gost 2003 with it for backwards compatibility (Ghost 9 can't read earlier Ghost images).

I still prefer Ghost 2003. I've never felt comfortable with the idea of making a drive image from within Windows. Too many background processes that could potentially interfere.

 

[imported_Phil]

Acronis True Image works pretty well, in my experience. I prefer it to Ghost now.

 

[BigLar]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: BigLar

Originally posted by: rise4310
that sure is and definitely update please as i swore off ghost after a debacle. now i know its probably the no ide problem. thanks Penguin

OK, my daughter's laptop had about 12 GB on 40 GB drive. Using 9.0 on the USB 1.0 port the job was complete in 1 hour 32 minutes. Not ripin', but tolerable.

I manually terminated the 160 SATA (with 40 GB of data) after 20 hours at 40% completion.

Next, I'll try my son's laptop which, I believe, has USB 2.0 ports.

Worked great with my son's laptop. We back to the 160 SATA and used Ghost 9 without a hitch.

I guess that's progress. Thanks for all the help and guidance.


Consider running the Win32 version of Ghost in a Bart's PE session.

English:
Download, and install, Bart's PE CD Builder application.
Use it to build a CD with Ghost32 on it (and Bart's PE).
Boot from the CD, and ghost from the hard drive to the external USB drive.