restoring image to bigger partition is no problem.

to smaller is only problem if the amount of data on old partition will not fit on new.

thanks

In ghost settings (in DOS mode) are these options: default, image all, image boot... As I said, I have problem with MBR table. Can you tell me, when I made an image of disk partition (ghost was set on "default"), if it added to image file also boot sector of disk of not?

free_man

Quote:

Depends on how you created the image.

If you used *Local >

Disk

> To Image*, then the MBR would be present on the image, and it would be restored if you use *Local >

Disk

> From Image*.  The main setting here is the *Disk* setting--this means *whole disk*--which in turn means MBR included.

Even if you created the Image using the above so the image is of the whole disk with the MBR included--you can side step having the MBR transferred by using *Local >

Partition

> From Image*--now Ghost will not restore the MBR that's in that Image file--but now you have to have already pre-partitioned the HDD so the partition that is the destination is already in existence in order to accept the partition from the image file source.

If you created the image file using *Local > Partition > To Image*--now the MBR will not be in the image, and you can not use that image file to *re-create* the HDD partition structure from the HDD from which it was taken--again, now you must first partition the destination HDD before being able to restore the image.

Quote:

*default* means Ghost will leave out any *empty space* not being used for data on the disk and/or the partition being imaged--also excludes certain *temp* files which are not critical and are re-created when the OS boots--speeds up image creation and reduces image file size.  (Also, if the MBR is being saved because you are doing a *whole-disk* image, only the *critical* part of the MBR is saved--and the region usually not used is ignored--again to save space and time.)

*image all* means Ghost will save the whole disk, bit-for-bit, sector-by-sector--everthing is included--including *empty space* and temp files--and the whole MBR is saved as well.  If you restore the *whole-disk* image in this case--the destination HDD will be partitioned to the same size as the original source--no option to re-size to fill the space of a larger HDD--and no option to put image onto a HDD that's smaller.

*image boot* means that Ghost will be forced to image the whole MBR and not just the first *critical* sector of the MBR.  Some multi-boot programs such as Linux's *GRUB* and *LILO* (I believe), some HDD disk overlays so older BIOS's can access larger HDD's, and some anti-copy protection schemes for programs store data in the MBR area that's normally unused, and they require using that switch if you want to be able to restore that information in the MBR when you restore the image to a new destination HDD.  But, again, I believe you have to be using the *Disk* option so the *whole-disk* is being restored before the MBR would be restored from an image the has the *image boot* MBR present.