Ghost, GoBack, Backup Question

I don't know what set-up you have, but I'll explain Ghost, and GoBack the best I can

1. GoBack takes snapshots of your hard-drive constantly. If there is a problem, GoBack can restore your Internal Hard-drives to the state they was before something went wrong. It is better than system restore, because GoBack restores EVERYTHING, including pictures, Documents, Music, and if your hard-drive becomes corrupted, you can fix it using GoBack on reboot (it boots before Windows. It usually takes a few minutes to restore, but the further back you go, the longer it may take,


2. Ghost just takes one snapshot of your hard-drives at a time, and you have to do it yourself (note, Goback must be disabled before using Ghost)by using the Wizard. If your Hard-drive becomes corrupted, the "Ghost Image" can be used to restore it to a time that you made the image. It will boot like it did when the image was made, because just like Go-Back, it over-writes your hard-drives. The differences are that GoBack only changes files that were modified since a restore point, whild Ghost replaces everything. So Ghost is slower. But Ghost has the advantage of the image being retained.

If your External Hard-drive can be used to restore your hard-drive, and make it bootable,(so you won't have to reinstall Windows) you got all you need.

Like I said, I don't know what kind of set-up you have.

Thanks.  It's pretty much what I thought.  I have a new e510 with a 250gb HD.  I have an external 200gb drive that is configured to copy the entire c: drive at the push of one button on the front of the external drive.  It works pretty smoothly.  In the event of a catastrophic problem, I have the OS restore disk and figure I could rebuild the drive using it, load the external drive software, and then restore from the external drive.  I can also selectively copy files/folders etc. from the external drive as needed. 

Again, thanks for your input.

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@jb122 wrote:

Thanks.  It's pretty much what I thought.  I have a new e510 with a 250gb HD.  I have an external 200gb drive that is configured to copy the entire c: drive at the push of one button on the front of the external drive.  It works pretty smoothly.  In the event of a catastrophic problem, I have the OS restore disk and figure I could rebuild the drive using it, load the external drive software, and then restore from the external drive.  I can also selectively copy files/folders etc. from the external drive as needed. 

Again, thanks for your input.

Make sure you're very clear on the ability of the external drive to restore your entire C drive.  If it's never been tested...

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@msil217 wrote:
I don't know what set-up you have, but I'll explain Ghost, and GoBack the best I can

1. GoBack takes snapshots of your hard-drive constantly. If there is a problem, GoBack can restore your Internal Hard-drives to the state they was before something went wrong. It is better than system restore, because GoBack restores EVERYTHING, including pictures, Documents, Music, and if your hard-drive becomes corrupted, you can fix it using GoBack on reboot (it boots before Windows. It usually takes a few minutes to restore, but the further back you go, the longer it may take,


2. Ghost just takes one snapshot of your hard-drives at a time, and you have to do it yourself (note, Goback must be disabled before using Ghost)by using the Wizard. If your Hard-drive becomes corrupted, the "Ghost Image" can be used to restore it to a time that you made the image. It will boot like it did when the image was made, because just like Go-Back, it over-writes your hard-drives. The differences are that GoBack only changes files that were modified since a restore point, whild Ghost replaces everything. So Ghost is slower. But Ghost has the advantage of the image being retained.

If your External Hard-drive can be used to restore your hard-drive, and make it bootable,(so you won't have to reinstall Windows) you got all you need.

Like I said, I don't know what kind of set-up you have.

The Ghost explanation needs to be expanded on a little I think.  Beginning with Ghost 9, Ghost can run from within Windows, and therefore can run totally unattended.  I run it in that mode.  Also, in addition to complete images, Ghost allows for incremental backups, I backup My Documents incrementally each hour.  Finally, you can easily restore a file or files.

You're not behind the times. Some say 2003 is the most reliable, and reasonably quick IF YOU USE THE FLOPPY BOOT method. At medium compression (called "fast") it images and restores at about a gig aminute. BUT...perfect for internal ide and sata drives but a bit of a mystery for external USB drives. The 9150 has lots of connections for sata drives, so one could be used externally if the cable is inserted through case.
The option "span drives" and "autoname" allows a save of more than a 3.8 GB partition.
O/S partiton>image= easy and infallable so far.
Rumors have restore on Sata needing the "fni" switch in options in Ghost. Mine didn't need that.
Using both Ghost in windows AND the floppy method gives most reliable results-IE 2 images "per". I just do 2 boot types once in a while when involved and important changes are made.

PS-Sorry if I repeated info you already know. I also have Ghost 9 but am currently not using it. It required boot.ini mod (for use in XP SP2)(which I did) but then needed sata drivers to be installed for it to see the drives in CD bootup. I have those and are to be installed when "F6" promp appears in bootup. Just haven't done it yet. Ghost 9 requires disabling "DEP" but then recommend you enableit after install.
The good thing about all this lis I learned how to actually totally(I think) disable DEP with the simple ini mod. Just having "checked" DEP for minimal in XP dialog will not allow Ghost 9 to install on my machine. I don't use internet on that machine so DEP off is good.

Ciao

Message Edited by moocha on 06-14-200602:50 PM