Norton Ghost - what does it do exactly?

[16610lv]

...I'm trying to work out whether it's worth installing on my new Vaio laptop.

Thanks

[ThePassenger]

16610lv said:

...I'm trying to work out whether it's worth installing on my new Vaio laptop.

Thanks

Basically it takes a snapshot of your drive, dumps it as an image that can be burnt to CD/DVD and when it all goes wrong you can restore the computer to the momment in time that image was created.

[16610lv]

ThePassenger said:

16610lv said:

...I'm trying to work out whether it's worth installing on my new Vaio laptop.

Thanks

Basically it takes a snapshot of your drive, dumps it as an image that can be burnt to CD/DVD and when it all goes wrong you can restore the computer to the momment in time that image was created.

Thanks! But my laptop (SZ3) seems to have a built in 'system restore' feature that allows me to restore it to specific way points in previous days. I've already had to use this a couple of times, so it works! Is this the same thing?

[That Daddy]

sorry to hi/jack this post but is it that easy,i mean whats the chance of using this ghost and then getting loads of errors/files not found etc,im only asking you know what computers are like,thanks.

[malman]

No its not like system restore ( if thats what you are using - sony may have some other utility)as that only restores specific files not everything. Ghost takes a snapshot of the entire drive and to answer the hijacker it does it at a level below the filesystem so its not reading files as such just blocks of data that make up the disk and filesystems on it. It is reliable and has a verify option should you wish to check that the image matches the drive

Edit to add that some manufacturers "restore to factory default" disks actually use ghost to do this by having the original system image on a CD. Once used its as if its just come out the box. Having you own copy of ghost means you can create images any time after its out the box and restore to them. You can also explore images using ghost and pick individual files out of the image and just retore the ones you want.

Edited by malman on Friday 29th December 10:22

[16610lv]

malman said:

No its not like system restore ( if thats what you are using - sony may have some other utility)as that only restores specific files not everything. Ghost takes a snapshot of the entire drive and to answer the hijacker it does it at a level below the filesystem so its not reading files as such just blocks of data that make up the disk and filesystems on it. It is reliable and has a verify option should you wish to check that the image matches the drive

Edit to add that some manufacturers "restore to factory default" disks actually use ghost to do this by having the original system image on a CD. Once used its as if its just come out the box. Having you own copy of ghost means you can create images any time after its out the box and restore to them. You can also explore images using ghost and pick individual files out of the image and just retore the ones you want.

Edited by malman on Friday 29th December 10:22

Thanks for the info - clears things up for me. Think I'll go ahead and install Ghost then.

[That Daddy]

yes thank you as well Malman,that answered my question perfectly.think ill get a copy of that.sorry bout the hi/jack.

[T350Chunder]

Probably worth noting that a few chipsets (maily those with certain IDE/SATA controllers) have an issue with Ghost.

I have seen a number of Dell Laptop's (mainly Lititude D620's) fail when creating the ghost image...

Also, a little tip... Before you drop the image back down on to your PC, use the Microsoft 'Files and settings transfer wizard' to get your files, emails, email settings et al off your old PC... This might sound obvious, lots of people not aware of this tool... Its really quite good, picks up things like your email settings as well. You can find it from Start menu - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Files and settings transfer wizard. Run it and dump everything to a CD / DVD...

HTH, Rich...