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Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups (Read 12550 times)
AndyT
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Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Mar 30th, 2007 at 2:52pm
 
I have been looking at the Ghost 10 web page and saw that it " Makes incremental backups to maximize space and save time." I am familiar with differential backups of files, but I am not sure what this means in imaging a drive. I thought Ghost imaged the entire drive each time, and does this mean a differential backup of the "image" that changed? Thanks.

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John.
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #1 - Mar 30th, 2007 at 2:57pm
 
An Incremental backup just copies the sectors that have changed since the last full image-sector backup (Called a Recovery Point).  So it is much smaller in size.

Similar in concept to file backups.
 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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AndyT
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #2 - Apr 4th, 2007 at 5:29pm
 
Thanks Ghost4Me!
 
 
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LakeH
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #3 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 10:51am
 
I've just started using Ghost 10 (never used Ghost before) and was impressed by how fast the initial backup (149 gig drive - 41 gigs used - 20 minutes) went going to a second HD. (I tried using Ghost 2003 to write to DVD's - and after 12 hours and 50% completed- I cancelled it) I put it on schedule for incremental daily backups. 

I then used Ghost 10 CD Recovery Environment to boot the PC (wanted to be sure I could) and recovered a single file to a new location as a test.   It worked perfectly. 

  The question I have, is if you just want to restore just a couple of files, is there an easy way of determining which incremental backup contains the latest version of your file?  Or do you have to manually use the recovery point explorer to browse through them one at a time starting with the lastest incremental?

    One other question, if you recover the PC from a base (full) recovery point (image) to restore a failed drive, does Ghost 10 apply the incremental backups automatically to the restored drive or do you do that manually?

   Thanks for any suggestions you might have. 

  Again, so far I've been impressed by the product. 

   

 
 
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John.
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #4 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 11:21am
 
Brian is the incremental expert here.

But I have used it some (I mainly take full independent backups).

Quote:
The question I have, is if you just want to restore just a couple of files, is there an easy way of determining which incremental backup contains the latest version of your file?  Or do you have to manually use the recovery point explorer to browse through them one at a time starting with the latest incremental?

When you want to recover using incrementals, the terminology in Ghost 10 is a "Recovery Point".  As I recall you choose a Recovery Point which is by definition a point in time, for example, April 2 3:00pm from a list of available Recovery Points.  Ghost recovers the file/folder(s) that exist on/before that time.

Quote:
One other question, if you recover the PC from a base (full) recovery point (image) to restore a failed drive, does Ghost 10 apply the incremental backups automatically to the restored drive or do you do that manually?

Ghost applies the incrementals automatically once you choose the proper Recovery Point/date-time.

After you have several generations created, you should try some of these options.  Test using the Recovery boot CD and select a test folder to restore from different times and make sure.  When you boot from the Recovery CD, Ghost searches for all the available backups.  Most people keep them on an external USB2 hard drive because they are cheap now and big and fast.

Hopefully Brian will confirm whether or not I mis-stated something.
 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Brian
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #5 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 4:18pm
 
LakeH,

Ghost4me is not misleading you. Yes, I like incremental recovery points and schedule them daily along with a weekly baseline recovery point. I keep all recovery points (going back 3 to 4 weeks) in the same folder on my second HD. I keep a few older baseline recovery points on an external HD.

If you want to restore to last Wednesday then just choose that recovery point. It doesn't matter if it's baseline or incremental. As long as the recovery points are in the same folder, Ghost 10 will find the needed files.

For restoring files or folders, the easiest way is to mount the recovery point as a drive. Right click the recovery point in Windows (incremental or baseline, it doesn't matter) and click Mount. Accept the drive letter. The mounted drive looks just like your OS partition on the day the recovery point was created. You can copy files and folders from the mounted drive to your HD but you can't make any permanent changes to the mounted drive. Once it is unmounted it's gone and you still have your original recovery point.

Writing an image to a second HD as you have done is the fastest way to create an image. Twice as fast as imaging to the same HD. Choosing High compression (which I use) increases the time of image creation by 2 to 3 fold.


To Restore an image with Ghost 10

Boot to the CD
set the Time Zone
click Recover My Computer
You will probably get a message about No recovery points found. Click OK.
click Open another location
Navigate to your recovery point
click Recover My Computer
put a dot in Custom (not Express). Click OK.
Next
choose the destination. Next.
tick Verify recovery point before restore
tick Check for file system errors after recovery
put a dot in Primary partition
tick Set drive active (for booting OS)
tick Restore original disk signature
tick Restore MBR if you are restoring to a new empty HD. No tick is needed if you are restoring to the HD from which the recovery point was created.
Next
tick in Reboot when finished
click Finish. Yes.

Are you separating your OS from your data files? Then you can image the OS partition and backup your data partition differently. It's more efficient.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#13
 
 
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #6 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 5:57pm
 
Brian

Are you using Ghost 10 mostly, or Ghost 9--you had indicated in the past that you liked Ghost 9's interface better--but maybe that only applied to the Recovery Disk--can Ghost 9's Recovery Disk work with Ghost 10 images?
 

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Brian
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #7 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 6:11pm
 
NightOwl,

I use Ghost 9 on my computer and Ghost 10 on my son's computer. I still prefer Ghost 9, both from Windows and the recovery environment. I find it more intuitive.

In general, the Ghost 9 recovery CD won't restore Ghost 10 images. The Ghost 10 recovery CD will restore Ghost 9 images.
 
 
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LakeH
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Re: Ghost 10 and Incremental Backups
Reply #8 - Apr 5th, 2007 at 8:53pm
 
To all,

  Thanks for the great information and especially for everyone's taking the time to explain things to a novice user so clearly.   Smiley Smiley   This has been a big help. And I have been impressed by the level of expertise available here.

   Thanks again  Grin

   LakeH
 
 
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