OT: Norton GhostPE 2001 problem

Dunno..I use Acronis True Image. D from BC

"Robert Baer" skrev i en meddelelse news:fPIci.1775$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Nah - I will mock instead ;-)

1) Never use a Symantec product!?

2) Use the PeeCee the way Bill intended it to be: "there shalth be one drive, it name shalth be C:\\ ... all of your data shall resideth in that same fragile container until such time it doesn't ... only Windows shall run on it". I.O.W. You are confusing the tools with your aparte setup - the developer and test machines were *never* like yours, so the latest upgrade or whatever it was that broke is not tested for your application!

3) Don't back up the drive, back up the data on it.

Can you tell it how many sectors to use for each partition (like one can do in GhostPE)?

Making a full exact copy of the drive does "back up" the data, with the distinct advantage that when the master (running) drive dies, one can replace it in minutes with the copy and not be much worse for the wear.

I just set Acronis to clone and compress any complete partition I chose. D from BC

Compress? Does that mean the resulting HD cannot be used as a replacement when the sh** hits the fan?

OK; i have looked at the info on Acronis True Image and have a few nit-picking questions.

1) "Backup" has had a number of definitions as well as a number of methods, which include compression and/or encryption. Obviously, the resulting HD is useless as-is in those cases (assuming the main or working HD went bad). 2) "Image" also seems to have a number of methods / definitions, and in one case i saw, included compression and/or encryption. Hell, on one HD, the so-called "forensic" copy mode that GhostPE has, did *NOT* make a faithful copy - thereby rendering it useless for court evidence, etc.

Well, what i would like to be able to choose, is a *copy* mode whereby i can modify the size of the resulting partition (obviously no smaller than soruce). Now i do not care what XYZ Corp calls that (backup, image, copy or something else), as long as it can do what i would like to do. It is not completely clear from the info sheets, that Acronis can do that and i am tired of hassling with salesshitheads to get *all* of my money back (price, shipping and handling) for a product that will not do what they say it will do (including defective products).

So, in that light, can yousay from real-world experience, can that copy mode be done? If so, what version (and if older one, where can i get it)?

When a drive craps out, the drive is replaced and a boot CD is used to transfer the disk image to the new hard drive. The disk image can be from DVD,CD,another hard drive etc..

D from BC

So you want a backup program that is a partitioning app + a back up app....?? No..I don't think Acronis does partitioning changes... For example...When the backup gets bigger,the target partition is resized to fit. I haven't seen copy options like that..But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist..

Another imaging program I've played with in the past is Drive Image

2002..I don't know what's changed since 2002. D from BC

Right...that means some OS is needed - which is implied by the words "boot CD". So in this case "image" is useless; one cannot *directly* take a HD with an "image" on it and use it as if it were the original. I am lazy and do not want to futz around when my HD goes bad; i can switch HDs in 15 seconds and be booted up in a chosed OS as fast as if it were the original.

Seems that Acronis will not do what i want.

Both Drive Image and GhostPE allow a re-size (re-size seems to be automatic if you do not tell it otherwise). But a "same-size" will do also. They both give good copies.

I imaged my single drive with OS, apps and all files to a spare hard disk. I then booted up with the Acronis boot CD and transferred that image to a 2 disk raid 0. After a lengthy transfer, I rebooted and everything is back but on a speedy raid 0 setup. Sure beats reinstalling winxp, all my apps and files. + settings..

I'm aware of it but haven't done it yet and that is Raid 1 mirroring. IIRC this is a live running copy of a drive. Smash 1 drive with a hammer and the other drive takes over... No noticeable change. D from BC

Well, yes ... Except when it doesn't ;-p

In my Linux/Windows dithering days have suffered all kinds of obtruse weirdness with disk partitions on dual-boot machines until, finally - because I got involved with making a custom Linux distribution where we actually tested every part of the funny custom configuration and found a double-digit figure of bugs that nobody apparently ever saw in real life; even some blatant show-stoppers like chrashing all cores except Core 0 on a PRINTK .

Then I saw the light and simply decided to use One Disk with One Partition per OS (or RAID, which looks like one disk), and everything went quiet after that.

One Disk is all what the PeeCee architecture is designed for ... and certainly the only configuration that will ever be verified.

The next time I buy a machine I will look into virtualisation - another can of worms probably but worth a shot to cut down on the machine inventory.

** See comments like this below.. ** Time wasting step #1: ** lots of wasted time, step 2: ** When i use GhostPE or Drive image, those steps do not exist; the resulting HD looks and acts like the original.

So, it seems you are confirming that Acronis is useless for my purposes. Any other suggestions? Any fixes for that MFT "problem"?

My HD has three OSes, and i very rarely have a problem (lst 15+years). Still works OK, but this eror message concerning MFT and using CHKDSK (which finds *no* problems and makes no difference) is puzzling. Any "fixes for MFTs?

True..I don't recall Acronis automatically resizing partitions so it's generated image file can fit perfectly. A partition has to be defined first by a partitioning app.

I only know raid 1 mirroring and disk imaging apps (Ghost, Acronis Drive Image) for "photocopying" drives or partitions.

I know little about MFT.. Maybe try Norton tools??? In the past I've used disk checking programs from Maxtor. Hard drive company's might be putting out their own diagnostic utilities.

D from BC

I do not really "need" re-sizing; i could use Ghost or DriveImage (20Gbyte to 40Gbyte HD) for that, then Acronis (if it will do a COPY) for 40Gbyte-40Gbyte "backup" copying. You seem to imply that Acronis might be able to do a copy if and only if the destination drive was previously partitioned to match the source. I find that strange as all heck, because writing a drive does over-write what was there; at worst one would have (in my case) the first 20Gbytes copied to the first 20Gbytes of a blank HD with the remaing 20Gbytes untouched.

[snip]

Space is needed for the Acronis image file. Also space is needed when Acronis extracts this image file. The destination partition must be equal to or greater than the extracted image file. All contents in the partition get wiped out*. For example: Acronis extracted a 7Gig image file onto my 10G partition.

D from BC

Thanks. That seems to confirm my impression that Acronis cannot make a *copy* of a HD (to another).