Installed Norton Ghost 12 last night, and (successfully!) created my first Windows-based back-up image (which Symantec terms a Recovery Point) .. of my laptop's system drive .. to a 500-gig Seagate external USB drive (from Newegg).
If you've been Radified for any length of time, you know how we stress the importance of backing-up your hard drive with a cloning program, such as Ghost.
The Rad Community forums have become the de facto Ghost support forums on the Web, frequented by people smarter than me, who graciously lend their experience.
We even have one of the program's original developers stopping by (from New Zealand), sharing insights, along with other wizards, who all possess their particular niche of expertise.
I've been pooh-pooh'ing the notion of Windows-based back-up images ever since Ghost 9.0 first arrived on the scene (for reasons detailed > here),..
.. but figure it's time to join the 21st century, and gather some experience with these newfangled (Windows-based) imaging tools.
••••• today's entry continues below •••••
So this is a something of a big deal for me. Admittedly, it wasn't easy to uninstall (DOS-based) Ghost 2003 (cuz you can't have both versions resident on your system), which has provided me with *years* of bulletproof protection .. against every type of screw-up & disaster you can imagine.
I have created literally hundreds of images and restored dozens. Never a single problem (after I learned a few tricks).
During installation & imaging last night, I grabbed some screenshots of the process and posted them in the forums .. see here > Installed Ghost 12 today, created image (Recovery Point), posted screenshots
I plan to throw together a *new* Rad guide .. to Norton Ghost .. based on Ghost 12 .. incorporating lessons & strategies we've learned & developed over the years.
It's too confusing to craft a guide that applies to multiple versions of Ghost, like I've been trying to do with the original Ghost guide (first published some 7 years ago, and updated countless times) .. especially when Ghost 9 arrived, which is based on a completely different program (Drive Image by Powerquest, which Symantec purchased in December 2003).
Along these lines, I've also been learning about XHTML, and plan to craft the new guide with web pages using those new standards (using Dreamweaver, or course, which supports XHTML 1.0 out of the box).
I'd like to keep the new guide short-n-sweet, but, from experience, I know they have a tendency to grow, especially once users start sending in their findings & suggestions using various configurations (from around the globe).
Along these lines, I created a new subdomain for the new guide > nortonghost.radified.com. The old version was simply > ghost.radified.com. There's nothing there yet, except the screenshots I grabbed last night .. but soon there will be.
So today is a new day in RadLand.
And if you've never backed up your hard drive with an imaging program (such as Ghost, or one of the many others), this might be a good time to begin moving in that direction.
A back-up image (stored on media other than your boot/system drive, such as an external USB drive) can save you untold misery & heartache. Most people (myself included) learn this lesson the hard way.
A back-up image is your first step on the road to making meaningful progress with your PC, cuz it keeps you from having to go back very far should tragedy strike (such as having to re-installing your operating system & programs should your hard drive die).
This gives you confidence to try things you might not ordinarily attempt.
For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query > symantec norton ghost
Comments (16)
Test commenting system.
Posted by Rad | June 12, 2007 2:51 PM
Posted on June 12, 2007 14:51
I find your page too difficult to read, due to small type and the black background. Remember not all your readers are your age.
Posted by John Marberry | June 24, 2007 9:01 AM
Posted on June 24, 2007 09:01
Regarding info for Norton Ghost 12, here's a page with larger text you should find useful:
http://nortonghost.radified.com/
Posted by Rad | June 25, 2007 6:43 AM
Posted on June 25, 2007 06:43
I also increased the size of the text from 12 pixels to 13 pixels.
Posted by Rad | July 3, 2007 8:26 AM
Posted on July 3, 2007 08:26
I have just finished three days of reinstalling all of my OS and programs and now I want to make a backup. I'm really afraid of Ghost because I screwed up a computer with it in the past. I've been looking through your RAD post and can't figure out which version is currently the best to use. Help....Just point me in the right direction please. I'm running WinXP Media Center edition on a laptop with two harddrives in RAID 0 config.
Thanks! G
Posted by Greg | July 5, 2007 11:31 PM
Posted on July 5, 2007 23:31
I have used all flavors of Ghost except Ghost 9 & 10.
If you read my guides, you know what I do.
If you have a specific question, post it in the forums, where people smarter than me frequent:
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
Posted by Rad | July 6, 2007 7:39 AM
Posted on July 6, 2007 07:39
I created a ghost CD bootable based on the instructions for Rad's ghost 2003 and it works great, but I would like to add the ghost image that I've already created to the DVD so that I can load that image on identcal machines - the imaging will be done off site from the DVDs. What extra steps do I need to perform so that the GHO image on our server can be added to the boot DVD?
Posted by Joe | August 3, 2007 1:27 PM
Posted on August 3, 2007 13:27
I am having a bit of a problem using Norton Ghost 12. I want to upgrade my primary HDD to a bigger size.
I setup the second harddrive, create partitions, use the Copy my Hard Drive task from Norton Ghost and wait for a bit.
It finishes good, HDD looks the same only is called E: instead of C: (logical since original drive is still in there). Shut down swap drives (put bigger drive to master leave original drive out) and switch computer on.
Now what happens is that it boots fine to the login screen of my windows, but than when I log in with my password (administrator rights) the profile does not load and the screen just stays backfground empty with no shortcuts or windows loading and the mouse still visible.
I have a feeling it can not load my profile because it might not recognize the drive letter correctly maybe?!
Anyone got any idea's how to solve that so my windows loads normally? Help MUCH appreciated.
Thanks!
Sander
Posted by Sander | November 16, 2007 3:26 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 15:26
Got a step further I think. I redid the copy a disk and made the destination disk an unallocated disk.
It logs on but tells me that windows needs to be reactivated within 3 days because of a major hardware change (figures after putting a new harddrive in), however when I say "yes" to reactivate it throws me out to the login screen again everytime. I have no idea how to reactivate it...
:/
Posted by Sander | November 16, 2007 4:45 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 16:45
Post your question here:
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
Are you near Gravenhage?
Posted by Rad | November 16, 2007 6:48 PM
Posted on November 16, 2007 18:48
Thanks did that. Not near Gravenhage, near Amsterdam :) Lets see if I can solve this before someone has a solution for me... :D
Posted by Sander | November 17, 2007 1:28 AM
Posted on November 17, 2007 01:28
I have the exactly same problem. I got to windows by ctrl-alt-del + run explorer.exe but computer management would not start so could not change drive letters. Darn... was so close.
Posted by Sami | January 17, 2008 10:21 AM
Posted on January 17, 2008 10:21
Hi im new to norton ghost. Where can i get norton ghost boot disk. Or is norton ghost setup file is boot disk. Sorry about my english im from tamilnadu.reply me please. Ok or post a video on youtube.reply youtube url. In that video tell me how to put boot disk and how to take backup and how to restore using ghost7 and where to download ghost7 with working activation key. Please help me on this thing. It will be much helpful for all.
Posted by Vasanth | May 16, 2010 7:39 PM
Posted on May 16, 2010 19:39
Hi im new to norton ghost. Where can i get norton ghost boot disk. Or is norton ghost setup file is boot disk. Sorry about my english im from tamilnadu.reply me please. Ok or post a video on youtube.reply youtube url. In that video tell me how to put boot disk and how to take backup and how to restore using ghost7 and where to download ghost7 with working activation key. Please help me on this thing. It will be much helpful for all.
Posted by Vasanth | May 16, 2010 7:43 PM
Posted on May 16, 2010 19:43
I am new to Rad and am not sure this is the best place to ask this question.
I have Ghost 15 and a laptop with Win7 and a 500gb HD, with 2 partitions.
I would like a guide to the best way to protect myself in case of a HD failure.
Any suggestions/links will be appreciated.
Posted by qwester | May 29, 2010 7:07 PM
Posted on May 29, 2010 19:07
I love the new Norton Ghost
Posted by Kevin Thompson | November 7, 2010 4:13 AM
Posted on November 7, 2010 04:13