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Nonameo

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Is this possible?
May 28^th, 2007 at 1:56pm

Hey guys..

Ok, so i'm sitting here on my computer with an 80GB hard drive but no more than 3GB to spare. It runs slow and sometimes crashes for no reason. I think it's time to format the drive and start fresh.

I was reading about ghosting hard drives so i decided to investigate it and i've come up with an idea. What i want to do is:

Format my entire HDD
Install windows
Install any drivers that i need
Install a firewall etc..
Setup windows so all it's settings are the way i like them.

Then i want to make a ghost image of the hard disk drive and put it on another drive (i'm going to buy a new drive specifically for this (40GB)).

Every 30 days after that, i am going to restore the image from the second hard drive onto my main one to make sure my computer is always clean and as fast as it can be.

Is this feasable?

Can i ghost from an 80GB drive onto a 40GB one? (bearing in mind that the drive had just been formatted and had windows installed on it)

Would it be as simple as it sounds?

Would i run up against hardware problems when plugging in the 2nd hard drive to do the ghosting?

I cant find concrete answers to these questions yet.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

-Nonameo-

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tallin

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #1 - May 28^th, 2007 at 2:39pm

Nonameo wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 1:56pm:

Hey guys..

I was reading about ghosting hard drives so i decided to investigate.

Then i want to make a ghost image of the hard disk drive and put it on another drive (i'm going to buy a new drive specifically for this (40GB)).

-Nonameo-

What version of Ghost have you purchased?

I image from 80GB onto 160GB HD. Get back to us with more information about your System.

By the way this is a great forum, you can see how Brian and Ghost4me have helped me in the last days. They between them taught me heeps about my Ghost 10 image software.

tallin Norton Ghost 12

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Nonameo

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	Re: Is this possible? Reply #2 - May 28^th, 2007 at 2:42pm I havent bought any ghosting software yet but i'll probably go for Norton Ghost 10 if it will do what i want. So you store your backup on an 80GB HDD and restore it onto a 160? If so, then i guess it will work for my setup.
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tallin

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #3 - May 28^th, 2007 at 4:07pm

Nonameo wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 2:42pm:

I havent bought any ghosting software yet but i'll probably go for Norton Ghost 10 if it will do what i want.

So you store your backup on an 80GB HDD and restore it onto a 160? If so, then i guess it will work for my setup.

No, you misunderstood my post. My C\Drive 80GB is my main HD with XP/SP2 operating system. This is an internatl HD. It is imaged once a week onto my Seagate Barracuda 160Gb Internal Removalble HD. E\Drive

I also have set Ghost 10 to do incremental backups daily whenever I install or uninstall a program or 500MB is exceeded.

Perhaps if you read this thread it will all be explained.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1179994561

tallin Norton Ghost 12

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Brian

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #4 - May 28^th, 2007 at 4:33pm

Nonameo,

Have a look at this site regarding backup. Separating data and OS. Your new learning process is starting.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#13

Remember, a ghost backup will probably be 60 to 70 % of the used space size of the C: drive and you should keep a couple of backup images. Your HD choice is too small.

Have you defragged your C: drive lately?

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Pleonasm

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #5 - May 28^th, 2007 at 4:35pm

Nonameo, if I understand you correctly, your proposed plan of action should work well, whether you choose to use Norton Ghost 12, Ghost 10 or Ghost 2003.

The fact that you are storing the image of an 80GB drive on a 40GB drive (external USB, I presume) isn't an issue, provided (of course) that the size of the image file (aka "recovery point") is less than 40GB.

You should verify that the version of Ghost you use has visibility to the 40GB drive, but generally speaking, that ought not to a problem.

As Brian noted above, I too encourage you to consider a larger hard disk drive that is dedicated to the storage of your backup images. (You can also periodically burn these images to DVD discs, too, if you wish, with Ghost 12 or Ghost 10.)

ple • o • nasm n. “The use of more words than are required to express an idea”

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Nonameo

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #6 - May 28^th, 2007 at 5:04pm

So you think i should keep multiple recovery points on my 2nd HDD and you think it should be bigger than 40GB?

I did a degrag today but i stopped it after 2 hours (10%). I only have 6% of my D: drive partition left and 2% of my C drive. C = 10GB, D = 70GB.

Thanks for all the advice guys, i'll check out those links

The HDD i'm thinking about buying is a 40GB seagate one which i will keep in a safe place and only connect to my PC when i need to create a recovery point or restore to an earlier one.

Cheers

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Brian

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #7 - May 28^th, 2007 at 5:22pm

Nonameo wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 5:04pm:

I did a degrag today but i stopped it after 2 hours (10%). I only have 6% of my D: drive partition left and 2% of my C drive. C = 10GB, D = 70GB.

I think Windows defragger needs 15% free space to complete a defrag. I'd be surprised if Ghost works with your partitions either. Too full. Unfortunately, you need greater than 15% free space in both partitions before you can start to sort out your computer.

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tallin

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #8 - May 28^th, 2007 at 5:29pm

Nonameo wrote on May 28^th, 2007 at 5:04pm:

So you think i should keep multiple recovery points on my 2nd HDD and you think it should be bigger than 40GB?

I did a degrag today but i stopped it after 2 hours (10%). I only have 6% of my D: drive partition left and 2% of my C drive. C = 10GB, D = 70GB.

Thanks for all the advice guys, i'll check out those links

The HDD i'm thinking about buying is a 40GB seagate one which i will keep in a safe place and only connect to my PC when i need to create a recovery point or restore to an earlier one.

Cheers

Try this program: http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/screenshot.php

However I agree with Brian, HD far too small to use for Ghost backup.

tallin Norton Ghost 12

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Nonameo

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Re: Is this possible?
Reply #9 - May 29^th, 2007 at 2:55am

I'm not going to try and make a ghost backup of my computer as it currently stands. I'm going to format the entire drive and re-install windows. Then i will make a ghost backup.

Anyway, i think my questions have pretty much been answered. I'll look into buying possibly a bigger HDD than 40GB to hold my ghost images and i'll go with ghost 10 or something.

Thanks for the help

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Brian

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	Re: Is this possible? Reply #10 - May 29^th, 2007 at 3:06am If I could make some suggestions. Buy Ghost 12. Buy a "large" HD and install your OS and put your data on this drive. It will be "faster" than your present HD. I note you have an OS and a data partition. Very good. Use your 80 GB HD as the second HD.
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