Disk Imaging - GHOST

[BlueRobin]

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I own a copy of Ghost 2002 by Norton. This allows me to image disks and partitions, so long as the file system of the source disk is FAT.

But my version of Ghost does not do NTFS! This would be a really nice feature. There is a version of Ghost that allows you to do this but it's really expensive.

Are there any other products out there that can image NTFS disks :confused:

If not, this is a general "HELP!" request ;)



BR

Even BR has his own IT problems

[Cornish Jack]

BR
I have Power Quest Drive Image V.2.0 The handbook states that it "supports ALL Windows (maybe not XP) plus Dos and OS/2, FAT32, FAT32x, NTFS and HPFS partition types; additionally, limited support for NetWare, Linux, Unix and other partition types"
Can't give you first-hand experience of use , since I haven't bothered to install it yet!!! :o
I tend to 'fiddle' a lot with my 'pooters' so it's almost as easy to re-install from scratch.

[BlueRobin]

Played around bit more with Ghost...

It can image a NTFS disk to file. It can't image a NTFS disk directly to another disk. Just look slike I have to buy another hardd drive with which to keep the image files on. Far cheaper than the alternative of buying the super-whizzo version of the software :)

[Mac the Knife]

Simpler than Ghost and makes a true clone rather than an image is XXCOPY. It also costs nothing for personal use. Doesn't do strange things to your drive(s), leaves the MBR alone, doesn't ferk up your Windows installation, just works.

It's a true 32-bit program that runs in a DOS window under Windows.

XXCOPY Personal Edition v2.80.3 is free from Pixielabs at http://www.xxcopy.com/

Its like a superpowerful Xcopy and the equivalent of a very sharp knife - wonderful if you are careful. The command syntax is very complex and rather arcane, but can do amazing tricks in file management.

Often used for moving drives, but like HandyAndy I use it to clone my main drive to a similar sized backup drive that lives in the woodshed.

For copying drives (clone the C:\ drive to D:\ drive

XXCOPY C:/ D:/ \CLONE will do the trick.
Add /PB if you want to see a pretty Windows progress bar as well.
Just remember to start in the root (i.e. C:\) when you do this.

Just make sure that you are in a DOS box in Windows (you heard me right, IN Windows). And if you're like me, with a lot of physical. logical and mapped drives, make sure you've typed the right f**king drive letter for the destination (only made that mistake once).

RTFM (Read The Firkin Manual) which is long and complicated, but worth it. It'll handle NTFS volumes too.

[SLB]

Played around bit more with Ghost...
It can image a NTFS disk to file. It can't image a NTFS disk directly to another disk.
I believe that it can.
Monday night working with a client who just purchased six identical Dells,
we deleted and reinstalled the C: drive partition,
formatted as NTFS,
installed WinXP HE and needed drivers to create a "stripped" original.
Cloned it with Ghost 2002 booted from floppy,
targeted one at a time to five other identical Dells.
Used "Disk TO Disk" over Ethernet
(machine to machine - Target in "TCP/IP - Slave" mode,
Source in "TCP/IP Master", "Disk - To Disk").
Worked perfectly.:D

[What_does_this_button_do?]

hope you ran Ghostwalker after you cloned a machine otherwise you're going to be up the creek without a paddle....

[PAXboy]

I use Ghost 2002 and clone W2000 NTFS disk to disk with no problems. I use it occasionally for a fast backup.

You load the CD and then boot from it, the CD drive itself must be bootable but new one normally are.

Then you are in DOS and so it can clone the complete drive. Then remove the Ghost CD and reboot onto the usual disk.