Put_it_in_reverse
Can you put a second hard drive on the machine--or does 'opening the box' void the warranty? Creating an image to a second hard drive is going to be the fastest option and avoids the concern about CD-R reliability.
Imaging directly to the CD-writer is probably going to be as fast or faster than imaging to a USB 2.0 hard drive if the burner is one of the faster CD burners, and eliminates the extra step of burning the files to the CD after they have been created. I burn to both CD and DVD media without problems using Plextor CD and DVD writers. I always run an 'integrity check' after making the image to be sure.
(BTW--I use good quality CD-R's--my most common reliability problems are when using 'free blank CD-R's' that come with some other purchase, or the 100 blank CD-R's for $9.95 with a $9.95 rebate!)
Your questions in item 1:
It's unclear if 'marking' the hard drive and the 'fingerprint' are one and the same thing. You can find information in the 'User's Guide' here:
finger switch 158
fingerprint 36, 37, 39, 158
Look here for information about the fingerprint:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/1998111708450325You might be able to suppress the fingerprinting using this reference:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/8f7dc138830563c888256c2200662ecd/...Here is the result of doing a 'ghost -finger' at the command prompt:
**********************************************
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>ghost -finger
Norton Ghost 2003 Copyright (C) 1998-2003 Symantec Corp. All rights reserved.
Disk Last Norton Ghost Action Date Time Clone-ID
------------------------------------------------------------
1 File to Partition 04-26-2004 20:46 408d5eb8
2 File to Partition 05-31-2004 16:56 40b589b7
1 File to Partition 04-26-2004 20:46 408d5eb8
2 File to Partition 05-31-2004 16:56 40b589b7
1 File to Partition 04-26-2004 20:46 408d5eb8
2 File to Partition 05-31-2004 16:56 40b589b7
1 File to Partition 04-26-2004 20:46 408d5eb8
*** End of diagnostics ***
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>
*********************************************
As far as where the fingerprint and/or marking of the hard drive is located, I'm guessing somewhere in the boot sector. And can you remove it...maybe with a disk editor. You may be able to get more precise information by posting a question directly to Symantec here:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/ghost/ghost_2003_contact_tscs_solve_install.htm... Quote:I wish to create exact unaltered backups and exact unaltered restores.
You can find out more here:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2001111413481325and here:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/8f7dc138830563c888256c2200662ecd/...I don't think you will get an 'exact' copy with Ghost, but it can be close. But, be careful what you ask for...using the '-ir' (image raw) switch will probably create an image size approaching the size of the hard drive!
Also, see here in the 'User's Guide':
skipping files 69
And, also, see here in the 'User's Guide' about using the '-id' switch:
id switch 159
As far as using the CD burner...do some test runs--it will only cost you the price of a few CD-R's and will not harm anything on the computer's hard drive. It's when you have to do a restore that you have to 'sweat bullets' that you're aiming at the right partition, and the image has to be useable and not corrupted.
BTW, if you booted from you floppy boot disk, and you're burning directly to the CD burner, you will be asked by Ghost if you want to make the CD bootable. Put whichever of the boot floppies you have made from the 'Ghost Boot Wizard' that you would like this particular CD to boot from into the floppy drive, and Ghost will copy that boot floppy disk to the CD and use it for booting to Ghost from the CD. And you can use that bootable CD (the first one if it's a multiple CD image set) to boot Ghost in the future, even if you are not going to use the stored image on that particular CD. And now you can use Ghost for whatever operation you are planning on.
For instance, I'll boot Ghost using my DVD/CD-ROM drive with a bootable CD made by Ghost using the Standard Ghost Boot Disk floppy disk, and once Ghost is up and running, I then have Ghost write the image to my CD burner, leaving the bootable CD in the DVD/CD-ROM drive. Now, when Ghost asks if I want to make the CD bootable, I hit yes, and when it asks if the floppy is in the drive (it's not!--Ghost has create a 'virtual floppy A:\ drive when it booted from the CD, and you actually will not have access to the real physical A drive until you reboot), I hit yes and it copies the boot information from the 'virtual floppy' drive to the new CD. It will be the same boot information as was on the CD you booted from.