To SP or Not to SP, That is the Question

Charles

I'm referring to the Backup Utility Restore Wizard.

 

Charles

The Backup Utility saves the backed up files in a *.bkf file - individual files cannot be seen without using the Restore Wizard.

Clearly the backup file can be saved to the hard drive and then burnt to CD, but after that ?? No idea if the Restore Wizard will see and recover those files within the *.bkf if the file is on a cd.

Regrettably I don't have time to evaluate at present - I have a novice friend with a very sick PC which I am trying to sort over the phone and by email!

 

Not exactly - unless you use something like Norton Ghost rather than the software you mention. Backup MyPC appears to only back up data.

An external (USB) drive will assume a drive letter when connected to the PC and clearly can be written to or read from - I use one all the time (Maxtor One Touch). However you cannot simply copy your operating system across and use it to restore your computer. For this you need to use a disk imaging or ghosting program. When PC's are made (assembled) the OS is not loaded manually, instead an image of the OS - and any accompanying software, is copied to the drive from a drive image.

Backups are for data only, unless you count XP's Automated System Recovery which appears to be a backup, but in fact formats the drive, reloads Windows and then restores all programs, settings and data that was on the drive when the ASR backup was made. Clearly the backup file that it produces needs to be on a separate partition, preferably a different physical drive. Disk images are for restoring an OS - and data if you want.

I guess you could save the ASR back up file to an external drive, but I have not tried that route.

For more info on Ghost see here

 

It would seem that Backup MyPc produces a drive image, in which case I would not expect any difference/advantage - except maybe in the 'small print' between that and say, Ghost. If it has worked for you - stick with it

BTW - ASR will backup to an external USB drive - just tried it.

 

I have 120Gb (USB 2) and 200Gb (USB 2 & Firewire) Maxtor One Touch drives and am very happy with them. They always come out well in independent tests. See Maxtor - I have no experience of other makes.

It is a little more straightforward and does not require the XP CD - for info see the link I posted to the definitive guide to Ghost - or search the BBS. Christer is the 'resident' expert on Ghost. I use it, but have not had the need to restore from it. I have used ASR on a couple of occasions to good effect.

 

Oh yes, it would!

It takes a bit of planning the setup of the harddisks, I've got two:

HDD1:
- C: = system partition
- D: = data partition
- E: = backup of G:

HDD2:
- F: = backup of D:
- G: = ghost partition

Operating system and all programs on C:

All user data on D:, including My documents, Favorites, Address book and E-mail storage.

Backups of G: by copying in Windows Explorer to E: (in case of failure of HDD2).

Backups of D: by a backup program, such as Replicator to F:

Ghost images of C: created to G:

It takes approximately 1 minute / GB to restore C: from an image on G: ...... ...... it's not even a contest!

Separating the data from the system will leave the data unaffected by a restore and will make the images smaller (quicker to create and restore).

Christer

 

Pete,

I have not had to use it in an emergency but on one occasion. I have used it on numerous occasions while trying to figure things out, such as the NetDetect issue when Ghost was used to get to the same starting point for two installations of NIS 2003. I did the same when making three installations of SP2 to compare the cumulative effects of RTM+SP1+SP2 with RTM+SP2 and finally with SP2 slipstreamed.

Once You get familiar with Ghost ...... ...... horns start growing from the forehead and You get more daredevil-ish ...... ...... as in editing the registry without the fear of disaster!

Christer

 

Christer

One day I will take the bull by the horns and play around with restores on my development/test PC. In the meantime I always back up the Registry or specific keys before fiddling with them

Having used ASR on a couple of occasions with success I sometimes wonder if Ghost is really necessary, but then you are completely 'converted'

 

Pete,

Yes ...... ...... I believe in Ghost(s)!

dkline,

From what I've read on the forum in my signature, that is a problem with Ghost too. It can be overcome by adding the appropriate USB drivers to the Ghost Boot Disk(s).

The people at DI talked about snapshots of the system but it's not enough for me to accept as an explanation since a snapshot takes longer than writing a 1 or a 0 to the system partition ...... ...... I simply don't trust it until DI explains it in a way that I understand ...... ...... and that's too late since it's now Symantec.

I'm not in such a hurry that I cannot spare the few minutes while the image is created from DOS, an image in which I have confidence. In addition to that, I will get used to the "DOS way" which is a bonus when the "You know what" hits the fan and the computer does not boot into Windows. I don't have to go get the manual ...... ...... I know what to do and that it takes a few minutes.

Ghost has a Windows interface and when creating or restoring an image, it reboots the computer to DOS for the task and when completed, it restarts Windows.

Look for Ghost 9 which is Drive Image in disguise!

I have only created Partition to Image of the system partition. What I will have to do is to install Windows, partition the new harddisk, move certain folders from C: to D:, connect HDD2 and restore the most recent image to C:. Finally backup G: to the new E: and copy the backup from F: to the folders on the new D:.

The next time I install a system from square one, after installing Windows, partitioning the harddisk and moving certain folders from C: to D:, I will create the first image "Disk to Image" of the whole harddisk. D: will contain a few empty folders and E: will be empty so, the size of that image will not be much larger than a Partition to Image of the system partition.
Subsequent images, after installing programs, will be Partition to Image of C: only.

Restoring the image, created D to I, can be done directly to a new unpartitioned HDD. If it is of a different size than the previous one, Ghost will default to keeping the partition proportions. My 120 GB is partitioned 12/90/18 and if the replacement is 200 GB it will get partitioned 20/150/30, in both cases 10%/75%/15%. If I want to alter the default suggestion, it can be done.
After that, I will have to restore the most recent image, created P to I.

I rest my case but I'm sure that You'll hear from others!

Christer

 

I don't have any USB harddisks myself and my reference is the discussions on RADIFIED Forums. You can browse the forum or post Your questions there as a guest but it doesn't hurt to register.
A guy called El Pescador is one of the most knowledgable on the subject.

I use Ghost 2003 and have not yet considered buying Ghost 9. Not many people have used it for long enough to have ironed out all the bugs and "how to ".

If You plan to keep the image of a whole harddisk up-to-date, then You would have to reimage very often, as soon as an important document has been created or ammended.

Under normal use, changes to the system should be less frequent than changes to user data. Separating the system from the user data will keep the image of the system partition up-to-date for longer. Then use another backup (file copying) program to backup the user data.

The above applies to Ghost 2003. As I said, I have never used Ghost 9 but I think that it can do incremental backups - refresh an image regarding added/removed/changed files - but I really don't know.

Christer

 

When you make the Recovery (Boot?) Diskettes in Ghost 2003 you have the option to add USB drivers. I can't be sure of the exact name of these disks as I am away from home and my desktop again, but my Ghost images are all on an external USB drive and the disks have been checked for functionality.