What are the best "Ghosting" software?

[Optical]

Is compression being used for ghosting? I would like to ghost a server to CDR's but concerned it may take too many CD's.

 

[Sid59]

Ghost on "HIGH COMPRESSION" usually compresses around 50%. So unless your USED Space is around 1.3 gigs, then it wont fit on a CDR

 

[DaveSimmons]

Ghost and PQ Drive Image compression is about the same, around 50% of used space for the highest setting.

I think Ghost can span CDs (or create a set of 6xx MB files on the HD for burning) -- I know it breaks images into 2 GB chunks by default.

 

[stingygrrl]

i swear by drive image 7; i've been using it about 1 yr. it can run it in windows and restore from bootable cd.
it takes about 20 min for my machine adn you can program it to run automatically once a week or whatever schedule you like. you can also tell it the compression amount to use, and how big (a drop down list of about 10 choices) to make the files.

you used to be able to download and run it for 30 days free. you can't restore from that trial version. since they got bought by symantec, i don't know if they changed it.

for some reason, i never liked ghost.

well worth the $65

edit: it also has 'smart sector' copying - it doesn't image blank space on the drive you are imaging. makes for smaller restore images.

 

[corkyg]

Look at TrueImage 7 - $15 cheaper than Ghost or Drive Image, and it is really better in every way. It is especially good for making a bootable CD with all of the choices onit so you don't have to deal with the OS.

TI7

BTW - forget imaging a drive on CDs - just clone a duplicate drive and have it ready to connect. Neater - faster - and more reliable. Can also be cheaper in some ways. I have duplicate drives on all three of my systems.

 

[NightCrawler]

Just thought I would note that the 50% compression rate doesn't really work for heavily compress files like mp3's, video, zips and rar's.

PS: True Image 7 is great

 

[krackato]

Acronis True Image 7 is awesome. It's so much better than Drive Image.

 

[de8212]

Not knocking DI but I used it without a problem ever since version 4.0. I then recommended it forwork one time and we were unable to restore the image wen needed. That was version 7 btw.
WE immediately ghosted it and were able to clone an identical machine.

So I recommend Ghost but I'll defiantely try True Image.