Norton Ghost 10.0 good for backing up system?

I was using a program (Back Up MyPC) to back up my system until I found out that it only backed up my data. I read that Norton Ghost will back up my complete system, programs and all.

So I ran out and bought it, but I haven't been able to get it to work. First I seem to keep getting an error code 1016 message. Then I read in the manual that they don't recommend backing up to DVD. Then when I attempt to back up, it gets stuck at 5% on the first drive forever.

I do have four hard drives (1-80gig, 2-120gig and 1-300gig) so I know it'll take awhile, but it doesn't move past five percent.

Is anyone using Ghost 10.0 directly to DVD's successfully? Is there a better way? Norton Ghost 2003 was included for free, should I be using that?

Ghost is not what it once was. I have not been able to get it to do all I would like it to do for a few years.

I've use Ghost 2003,9,10. Ghost 10 is a very good program to back up everything. To back up to DVD's you should back up to the hard drive and limit the size of the files so they will comfortably fit on DVD. Ghost will make how ever many files it takes and will put them in a directory. I can't reember the exact number to set the files size to. You'll just have to experiment to see. I always back up to hard drive. The next time I back up I take backup data to DVD for storage. Then clean the hard drive off for more space. You should also know that it is much easier to retrieve data from hard drive backup than after it is dumped to DVD.
Max Arwood

My experience with Ghost 9 was that although it was good for restoring partitions it did not do a drive copy properly to upgrade my system disk, and I wasted many hours trying different suggestions from the norton site. Can't say about ghost 10, though.

I got the 15 day demo of Acronis true image which did a brilliant job. If Acronis can do the same as ghost for backing up and restoring, and it looks like it does, then I will buy it and ditch ghost.

regards

Cliff

ORIGINAL: EbonyFunk

I was using a program (Back Up MyPC) to back up my system until I found out that it only backed up my data. I read that Norton Ghost will back up my complete system, programs and all.

So I ran out and bought it, but I haven't been able to get it to work. First I seem to keep getting an error code 1016 message. Then I read in the manual that they don't recommend backing up to DVD. Then when I attempt to back up, it gets stuck at 5% on the first drive forever.

I do have four hard drives (1-80gig, 2-120gig and 1-300gig) so I know it'll take awhile, but it doesn't move past five percent.

Is anyone using Ghost 10.0 directly to DVD's successfully? Is there a better way? Norton Ghost 2003 was included for free, should I be using that?

This is the ONLY backup program you need!! http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/

Backs up EVEYTHING, your programs,paswords etc

ORIGINAL: cliffsp8

My experience with Ghost 9 was that although it was good for restoring partitions it did not do a drive copy properly to upgrade my system disk, and I wasted many hours trying different suggestions from the norton site. Can't say about ghost 10, though.

I got the 15 day demo of Acronis true image which did a brilliant job. If Acronis can do the same as ghost for backing up and restoring, and it looks like it does, then I will buy it and ditch ghost.

regards

Cliff

Similar ecperience here. Ghost for some reason no longer makes an exact copy. I have been unable since win xp came out to successfully ghost a boot drive that would restore. The closest I've gotten is to reinstall windows then restore from ghost. But even then there were issues.

I never solved them and stopped using it.

ORIGINAL: daverich

It's very quick and easy. It took me bloody ages going through all the authorisation steps for everything I own so now I can clean sweep the system without having to go through all of that bollocks.

I never tried Ghost so maybe you can clear something up in that regard. For instance,since my N.I. DXi's authorization go by a system I.D.,how are they suddenly authorized on a new install of Windows with a new Sys ID, and what about XP authorization? It bypasses all this?

ORIGINAL: Alndln

ORIGINAL: daverich

It's very quick and easy. It took me bloody ages going through all the authorisation steps for everything I own so now I can clean sweep the system without having to go through all of that bollocks.

I never tried Ghost so maybe you can clear something up in that regard. For instance,since my N.I. DXi's authorization go by a system I.D.,how are they suddenly authorized on a new install of Windows with a new Sys ID, and what about XP authorization? It bypasses all this?

I think what he's alluding to is that you do the install of Windows, authorize all of the nightmare software, THEN use a tool to create the hard drive image. Later, if you ever have trouble with a plugin or something goes south, you restore the orginal image of Windows with the authorized plugins. No IDs are changing and Windows is already authorized. It should be as simple as restore, reboot and go. Of course, there may be exceptions to this. I've been using the Acronis product for a while but have only done one "restore" with it (to back out Windows XP SP2), I didn't change any hardware in the process and everything worked fine.

ORIGINAL: BruceEnnis

They would require a new authorization code but if you were for example restoring after a virus or drive crash nothing would be required.

That's what I though. So all it does is save installation time on a new copy(or reinstalled)of Windows which is not bad I guess. It's the other part(authorization) that's really time consuming though.

Here's a vote for Acronis True Image 9. Get it at New Egg for $30.

Beats the hell out of Symantec, which I used and upgraded for years.

Hello,

One more vote for Acronis True Image. Works like a champ, boots from a CD which you will need the day your system dies.

One can 't afford NOT to have an up-to-date image to restore in case of a system disk crash or after installing something you wish you hadn't.

Originally I used Ghost before it was a Norton product, then I moved to Drive Image which worked great. But PowerQeust the company that created Drive Image couldn't leave well enough alone and the last version was not as reliable as previous versions. However, Drive Image 2002, which works from two floppies still works great. Provided your machine has a floppy drive and not all of mine do.

Eventually Symantec acquired PowerQuest and that not so good version of Drive Image 7.0 became Norton Ghost 10.

I tried another product called R-Drive Image. But it didn't compress the image so a 16GB partiion resulted in a 16GB image.

I've had to restore my DAW system to a new hard drive using True Image and it didn't bother GPO, Autotune, Amplitube, Sound Forge or Wavelab. Sound Forge and Wavelab used to require a re-install after a re-imaging.

Best regards,
George

Wow, who knew I was in such good company!

I use TrueImage as well, pretty good product, though it took me quite a while to figure out the whole "packet burning" thing, and even after getting InCD up and running still couldn't image straight to a DVD.

Now I use it mainly to image my system drive. My audio data drive I do a straight copy over to an external drive. Although the latest version of TrueImage apparently allows file-level recovery, I'd prefer to not have a potential image corruption issue, so I only image the system drive so I could restore it if I had a meltdown.

Good idea wicked. I think I'll buy an external hard drive and only image my system drive and copy the other stuff. I'm mainly concerned with restoring in case of a crash (although I'm sure I'll eventually get a new system, but I'll worry about that later).

Thanks again to everyone.

Reading this thread you'd think that Ghost didn't work at all ! I use Ghost 2003 and it makes a perfect copy of my C: drive each and every time. Couldn't be happier.

OK, after trying many times to install and use Ghost 10.0, I decided to try Ghost 2003. No deal! After almost finishing the installation process, it would stop, and then uninstall itself...........automatically!!!! What kinda nonsense is that?

So I ran out and bought True Image 9.0. Flawless!!!!! Flawless installation and Flawless backup!!!!!

Many thanks to all of you!!!!!