NTFS & Norton Ghost

[dezekiel]

I am having problems backing up my Boot NTFS drive with Norton Ghost. It seems Ghost does not back up the MBR, or at least the way I have it set up it does not. Does anyone have experience with ghost and NTFS? Can you lend me a hand with the switches?

Dan

[wbierman]

It does not work. Use Drive Image instead. Norton has been very slow moving to curent OSs.

[MikeTimbers]

Have to disagree here. I have Norton Ghost 2001 and regularly image my live drive. And since I have also had reason to restore from it, I know it works.

This is the ghost.ini from my boot floppy

====
span(Spanning) = N
autoname(AutoName) = Y
crcignore(CRC Ignore) = N
fcr(Create CRC32) = N
f32(FAT32 Conversion) = N
f64(64K FAT Clusters) = N
fatlimit(FAT Limit) = N
fnw(Disable writing) = N
sure(Sure) = N
fro(Force Cloning) = N
rb(Reboot) = N
fx(Exit to DOS) = N
defaultImg(Default) = Y
ia(Image All) = N
ib(Image Boot) = N
id(Image Disk) = N
defaultTape(Default) = Y
tapesafe(Tape Safe) = N
tapebuffered(Tape Buffered) = N
tapeunbuffered(Tape Unbuffered) = N
tapeeject(Tape Eject) = N
ffx(UseExtINT13) = N
fnx(DisableExtINT13) = N
ffi(DirectIDE) = N
fni(DisableDirectIDE) = N
ffs(DirectASPI/SCSI) = N
fns(DisableDirectASPI/SCSI) = N
=====

This is the ghswitch.txt

===
-auto
-clone,MODE=dump,SRC=1,DST=c:\12052000.gho
-fx
-z9
-quiet
===

I boot from the ghost-created floppy, and dump to a second hard disk formatted as FAT32. I back up partition to image for each of my partitions. I have restored the contents after a low-level format.

YMMV

[wbierman]

I have not tried the latest Ghost. Are you ghosting NTFS or FAT32?
How can you ghost a NTFS image and restore to FAT32?

[MikeTimbers]

I'm ghosting NTFS and writing the resulting image file to FAT32. Ghost cannot store images on NTFS but can create NTFS filesystems and contents from their images. I restored an image file from a FAT32 filesystem. The image file contained all the info needed for Ghost to create an NTFS partition with the boot records.

Does that make sense?

[wbierman]

That makes sense now. I don't have any machines with FAT32. If I don't use Drive Image then my other choice is ntbackup. Sometimes I use sysdif which will make a bit level image of NTFS.

[dezekiel]

Mike, you know your Ghost Stuff...

I was doing a pdump, I think that was the problem.

I never set up a ghost.ini Interesting...

I will start to digest the info you posted and see if I can get it to work..

I was using:

-clone,mode=pdump,src=1:1,dst=f:\nt\xxx.gho
-autoname
-split=645
-z9
-skip=@skiplist.txt

Dan

[MikeTimbers]

There is a massive manual with incredible detail. Check the documents directory on your cd. Print it (at work) so you have a hard copy when you need it (i.e. when the computer is broken)

[dezekiel]

I have been messing with Drive Image 4 just to see what I am missing. I must say its really cool to work with but in high compression mode it is way slower than Ghost on my NTFS drive.
On my other machine with FAT32 the speed is about the same as Ghost 7.

I am trying to make a Drive Image 4 Bootable CD like I have for Ghost. Can DI4 run with a different DOS?

Dan