I'm brand new to this.  I need some general info to get me started.  I've read alot of things on this site but just confused a bit.  

I have a laptop and would like to create a image for restoring in case something happens.  I do not have a floppy drive.  It does have a cd burner so which version would be the easiest to use for me for this purpose?

So I guess what you are saying is that many versions are available since mine does not have a floppy. Guess I need to do a bit more reading.  Thanks for your reply.

Brian wrote on Apr 25^th, 2007 at 1:11am:

I have Partition Magic 8.  Just didn't know if I wanted to partition this laptop.  It won't hurt anything, would it?  I wanted to add Microsoft Office before I make a DVD for restoring.  I do have the original restore disk for the laptop but it doesn't have Microsoft Office on it.

40 GB hard drive with only 37.2 showing.  I don't see any hidden partitions.  Free space is 28.3 GB without the Microsoft Office installed.

I saw where Norton Ghost 12 will be delayed.  I'd like to go ahead and buy a version that will clone the entire hard drive with the Office to a CDR.  Of all the versions out there is there a particular one that will work without a bunch of fuss or would I have to wait until Ghost 12 comes out?

I want it for restore purposes but mainly in case of hard drive failure so even if I partitioned it that would not do me any good if I used one of the programs that writes a image to another partition..

I only have a combo DVD reader and CDRW.  No DVDRW.

There are several imaging apps (trials) that you could use to write an image to the second partition while you are waiting on a final software decision.

aplados wrote on Apr 25^th, 2007 at 8:10pm:


One secret I found to using ghost (Ghost 2003, the DOS Version for me) is, try to avoid complexity.
KISS.....Keep it simple Sam!

Setting up an efficient and simple solution to system backups starts the day you set up the computer.
I've always built my own, so I have to partition and format my own HD's and then load the OS.
I made the decision years ago to just stay with FAT-32 for all my Hard Drives.  This gives me 100% control over every bit of info on that HD, and I can do it all from any simple DOS boot disk.

Then, after hearing the Horror Stories from guys trying to use the GUI versions of Ghost, I decided to go back to the DOS version of Ghost 2003, which is almost identical to the Ghost I used back in 1997.
 
Again, working with the KISS method, I set about getting the most use out of that old DOS version as possible.  I decided on Windows ME as the DOS boot disk that I'd use. Then I added my Ansi-Color menu system and a few other little utils till the disk (floppy) was pretty much full.
Then I found that Nero would burn that same Ghost Boot Floppy to a CD, creating my first Ghost Boot CD.  I willingly share copies of both to legal owners of Ghost.
I now have Ghost 2003 and my windows ME Utilities disks recorded on a Bootable 64 meg Flash Drive.  I can use that with Nero to make a boot CD which serves double duty as a Ghost boot CD and a Windows ME Utilities Boot CD all in one disk.  That one CD is all I need to set up a brand new HD.
I just used it to set up a new SATA II HD.

You mentioned partitioning.   
By all means PARTITION!  One for your OS and common programs and one for your Suites, archives, pictures, movies and of course your Ghost Backups.
Installing Office?  Re-route the install, to put all the program files on your second partition.  You don't need all that BLOAT on C: and all your scans and backups will go much faster.
Office won't give a darn where you install it.

Once you've created your Ghost backups to your second HD partition (the fastest way to create backup images) you can save those files to external hard drives or to CD's later at your leisure.

If you had a tower instead of a laptop, I'd say 86 the combo drive and replace it with the latest DL DVD burner.  Oh well........

Many people are having troubles with the Ghost DOS version, because they don't have the latest Build.
Build 793 is required to backup AMD 939 or AM2 mobos.  All my disks use the 793 build.

Good Luck,
The Doctor 

Let me get the thing networked first, then I'll give it a try.

It seems that I would use Nero with the split.  Upon recovery would that prompt me for cd #2 since it will take two DVDR's to write it?

I'll let you know how it goes.  Probably won't finish it today but look here in next couple of days as I've got to network the pc's first, then install Microsoft Office first. Thanks for your help as well as input from the other guys too.  Greatly appreciated!