1. You are viewing our forum as a guest. For full access please Register. WindowsBBS.com is completely free, paid for by advertisers and donations.

Some Deep questions about Ghost

Discussion in 'Other PC Software' started by ackerberg, 2004/05/20.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. 2004/05/20
    ackerberg

    ackerberg Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/02/02
    Messages:
    869
    Likes Received:
    2
    I have a Compaq desktop with a single 120GB hard drive which is partioned in the following way:
    1.WIN XP occupies the C portion of the HD in NTFS
    2. A backup to WIN XP occupies the D portion of the HD in FAT32

    The D portion of the HD is hidden from sight and I have not really tried to examine it very carefully, since it is considered a backup for the C drive.

    Here's the question. Suppose I want to clone my hard drive using Ghost. When I loaded Ghost it can see both partitions. If I clone the HD to an external HD which has been formatted as FAT32, how will the C partition be cloned. Will it be copied to the external drive in NTFS or FAT32?
    Now suppose I want to restore the hard drive from the clone. Will the restored HD have the partitions as I had them originally (NTFS & FAT32) or will the restoration be all in FAT32?
    I might mention that I tried doing the cloning and even though I had used Ghost before, I fouled up and used my HD as the destination rather than the source--so everything was wiped out and I had to reinstall XP from scratch.
    However, the questions I raise above did not occur to me before I attempted to clone and I'm wondering about how all this will work out. Anyone know?
     
    ackerberg,
    #1
  2. 2004/05/20
    dobhar Lifetime Subscription

    dobhar Inactive

    Joined:
    2002/05/24
    Messages:
    924
    Likes Received:
    3
    acerberg...

    I believe your talking about Norton Ghost from Symantec...

    It does not matter whether it's FAT32 or NTFS. If your C: Drive is NTFS then the Ghost image that is created will be NTFS. When you use Ghost it creates the image file with an extension of *.gho so the image will reside as a single file (or spanned depending on how large the image is) on a location of your choosing.

    I'm using the Norton Ghost 2003 that came with my Norton Systemworks 2003. I use a boot disk and burn my images to my secondary HD then burn to CD. Ghost does have the option to burn direct to CD.

    A couple links for you...
    - http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm - a very good step by step guide :)
    - http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2002030414141625
    - http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...sf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=
     
    dobhar,
    #2


  3. to hide this advert.

  4. 2004/05/21
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

    Joined:
    2002/01/18
    Messages:
    9,072
    Likes Received:
    400
    Ghost will clone the drive in NTFS.

    However, you probably do not want to clone the entire hard drive, what you want to do is image the C partition.

    To do this, you must create Ghost boot diss (it will require 2 floppies) with USB support included. You can make these disks by running Ghost in Windows.

    Then boot the computer using the first floppy and from the Ghost menu select:
    partition > to image
    Then select the destination drive the image will be written to (in this case your usb drive).
    The select highest compression and proceed with image copy.
    You'll get prompted to insert the second floppy during this.

    That hidden partition can only be used by the compaq restore CD thus there is no real need to image that partition. The file is safe from viruses on that partition because it it 'read only'.
     
    TonyT,
    #3
  5. 2004/05/21
    ackerberg

    ackerberg Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2002/02/02
    Messages:
    869
    Likes Received:
    2
    Thanks Tony and Dobhar for your responses. Although the D drive is read only, I see no reason not to clone it in case the whole HD fails. I am still puzzled about my questions concerning the NTFS and FAT32 partitions, as well as the external HD which is formatted in FAT32. From what you wrote, am I to assume that Ghost will store anything as a *.gho on any drive, however formatted, and then restore it as it was on the original drive in NTFS or FAT32, whatever is called for?
     
    ackerberg,
    #4
  6. 2004/05/21
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

    Joined:
    2002/01/18
    Messages:
    9,072
    Likes Received:
    400
    Yes.
    The image file is an "image" of the hard drive at the sector level. (basically just 1's and 0's) It does not matter what the files system is where the image is stored. An img file, a gho file, an iso file could be stored on a cdr, a floppy, hard disk, usb drive, zip, etc etc and the file system of the drive that was imaged is contained in the image itself. The file system of the disk that stores the image has no bearing on what is contained in the image.

    I have a drive w/ 2 partitions FAT32, C & D. I have a separate drive G in NTFS w/ xppro on it. The gho images are stored on D which is fat32.

    The file system of a drive has most to do with how the files are stored, accessed, used and managed. For instance, linux can use a file system called Ext2 and many web servers use this. Put a GIF image on a web server and it appears in your browser which is on a drive using NTFS. The file is the file and it does not change because of the file system of the drive.
     
    TonyT,
    #5
  7. 2004/05/22
    RayH

    RayH Inactive

    Joined:
    2002/01/10
    Messages:
    740
    Likes Received:
    0
    The problem isn't how Ghost will STORE the file. It's how it will EXECUTE the created file. I used another Symantec product, Drive Image 2002 (aka Drive Image 6). It'll write its files to an NTFS partition. But it won't EXECUTE a file from an NTFS partion. It has to be either a CD saved or a FAT 32 saved.
     
    RayH,
    #6
  8. 2004/05/24
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

    Joined:
    2002/01/18
    Messages:
    9,072
    Likes Received:
    400
    TonyT,
    #7
  9. 2004/05/24
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

    Joined:
    2002/12/17
    Messages:
    6,585
    Likes Received:
    74
    I would recommend creating a dedicated partition for storing Images and formating it to FAT32.

    I have had it formated to NTFS and that was the only time an Image didn't pass the integrity check. I had an email conversation with Symantec Support and they suggested Master File Table fragmentation. In the XP defragger, the MFT was reported to be in two fragments which is the minimum and in concequence, it wasn't fragmented.

    My theory is that Ghost invaded the reserved MFT space. All NTFS volumes have by default 12.5% of its size reserved for expansion of the MFT. This space is located somewhere in the middle of the volume.
    Ghost is a DOS application and it doesn't know of the reserved MFT space. It simply writes the large Image files and when it gets to the reserved space, it keeps on writing ...... :eek: ...... and something bad can happen. I don't say that it will happen but it can and I believe that it went wrong in my case.

    FAT32 doesn't have a MFT but a File Allocation Table which is created during formating and does not expand when the volume is filled like the MFT does. This suspicion is enough for me to use FAT32 for the storage of Images.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #8
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Accept Learn More...