cloning vs back-up

Rick,

Hi,

If I could figure out how to do it, then I would probably Ghost images across the network to hard disk partitions on the networked machines.

I've tried Ghosting over my network, but couldn't get it sorted, It is probably very simple and I'm certain I'm missing some obvious point but try as I did, I couldn't  set it up to work.

The network runs fine, I have access to all drives on all computers that I want or need access to. I must have or I couldn't save backups from this machine to two of the others. I've had remote access working.

I also backup other machines to my external USB hard drive and space on my old XPS R450, (This machine started life as a mere p75t)

Hi,

Can the cloning software you are using can access the external  ???? connected hard drive from a bootable floppy.

If so then I would partition the external drive into two partitions.

Use one partition as a cloned image, use the other as a back up using backup in Ghost or Drive Image if it has this. Or Backup within Windows

I use Ghost and create a clone image to a second internal sata drive. I save a backup to a separate partition on the same hard drive using Ghost backup.

On my external USB hard disk I store backups made under Win XP Home. It has to e installed though from the CD, it is not installed by default.

This gives me a cloned image and two backups. Maximising my chances of recovery from whatever mess I, windows or sometithiing else manage to get me into.

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@ceri sheeran wrote:

Hi,

Can the cloning software you are using can access the external  ???? connected hard drive from a bootable floppy.

If so then I would partition the external drive into two partitions.

Use one partition as a cloned image, use the other as a back up using backup in Ghost or Drive Image if it has this. Or Backup within Windows

I use Ghost and create a clone image to a second internal sata drive. I save a backup to a separate partition on the same hard drive using Ghost backup.

On my external USB hard disk I store backups made under Win XP Home. It has to e installed though from the CD, it is not installed by default.

This gives me a cloned image and two backups. Maximising my chances of recovery from whatever mess I, windows or sometithiing else manage to get me into.

You can restore the cloned image from a bootable floppy disk.

 

Re-install Windows and restore the backup using Ghost  or Drive Image or Windows backup.

 

Once a month or so I use Ghost to span an image across a series of CDR disks.

 

I also backup to space on hard disks in other computers on our network 

 

More chances of recovery.

 

hth

 

Ceri

 

I don't understand the value of using backup vs. Ghost.  I use Ghost, and it's quite easy to use the Backup Image Browser to copy back files I want to restore instead of the whole image.  Did it yesterday as a matter of fact.

 

I DO agree with the multiple backups.  I do a weekly of all machines, then daily base with incrementals each hour, and the weekly is stored on a different machine (and unplugged from the network and AC power) than the daily base/incremental backups.

Message Edited by rickmktg on 02-09-2006 02:32 PM

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@ceri sheeran wrote:

Rick,

Hi,

If I could figure out how to do it, then I would probably Ghost images across the network to hard disk partitions on the networked machines.

I've tried Ghosting over my network, but couldn't get it sorted, It is probably very simple and I'm certain I'm missing some obvious point but try as I did, I couldn't  set it up to work.

The network runs fine, I have access to all drives on all computers that I want or need access to. I must have or I couldn't save backups from this machine to two of the others. I've had remote access working.

I also backup other machines to my external USB hard drive and space on my old XPS R450, (This machine started life as a mere p75t)

The Ghost over a network instructions I have printed and read many times as this file showed a problem I had with newer versions of Adobe Acrobat on my work computer very clearly.

 

I just didn't have the patience to try and sort this out. I had workable solutions which worked, so gave up on it.

 

Ceri

 

Ah.  I had that issue with Ghost 2003.  Ghost 9 works from Windows, so no issue there.  However, it still has problems now and then like losing the network name and password.  Symantec is zero help on any issues.

Rick,

Ghost 2003,  that is the name on the box I have.. Only cost me £10 ($16) as the shop had the price wrong.

Ghost normally runs very well. I've only had one problem with Ghost, basically couldn't get out of an endless reboot loop into PC DOS.

If you haven't come across it this, I was close to a total re-install. The solution was very simple. Like so many things very easy once you know about it.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/8477deaaaafc102288256b1e00704619/ff7854ac0737d29585256b220000274f?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam&seg=ag

Message Edited by ceri sheeran on 02-09-2006 09:15 PM

Excuse me guys --- but is cloning and a system back-up the same thing?

If not, wht is the difference?

Thanks

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@7 Lakes wrote:

Excuse me guys --- but is cloning and a system back-up the same thing?

If not, wht is the difference?

Thanks

No.

 

Cloning, like with sheep :smileyvery-happy:, makes an exact duplicate.  So if you clone your C drive to another drive, then physically boot the system off the new drive, it would not know the difference.

 

Backup is a general term.  Some people create IMAGES of their drives, using products like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.  These images are compressed files containing the data necessary to recreate the drive that was imaged.  For example, you could image a 10gb C drive and create a file of approximately 6gb.  That image could be stored on CDs, DVDs, another partition on the same hard drive, another hard drive (internal or external), or another computer on a network.  You would then run the software to restore the image to the boot drive.  Dell PC Restore by Symantec uses Norton Ghost techology to restore an image of your C drive as it was shipped by hitting CTRL F11. 

 

Imaging programs normally can only image an entire partition, i.e. your C drive.  Backup programs allow you to backup partitions or backup just some folders, i.e. My Documents.  You would then use the Backup program to restore the necessary files if you have a problem.  Some backup programs will get versions of files you have, like the last 5 or 10 copies (settings by user). 

 

You can actually make Ghost do backups for you even though it doesn't image just folders.  I store My Documents on a separate partition, called "M", which includes other files like Quicken data, Outlook data, etc.  I create an image each morning automatically of about 3gb, then every hour it creates an image of all files changed since the last run.  Those images are very tiny.  So, if the machine died at 3:15, I could restore my data as of 3:00. 

 

There are many backup programs on the market, I used to use Iomega's but found it problematic at times.