[mridang_agarwal]

I have two a 80GB HDD. It has two partitions - C (60GB) and E(20GB). C is the active partition. I have Windows XP installed on the E drive. I have configured my XP to every minute detail. Now I have created an image of the hard drive such some imaging software such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. I have backed up the file onto DVD's and I have also created a bootable CD of the imaging program to help me re install the image. I guess this is the standard procedure with any ghosting program. Now my question is as follows:

If i format and repartition my drive creating two partitions C(20 GB) and E(60GB) and i use the ghosting boot disc to restore the image to C (not E drive from which the image was originally created) drive. Would i be able to restore the image to another partition -would this be allowed? anothe thing is that, if I am allowed to install the image to another drive, would the OS boot? What happend to the MBR upon ghosting? Thsi question has bewildered me for a long time and is one of the few reasons i doubt ghsoting technology. I hope to find some great answers here.

Thanks in advance guys!

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Neither TrueImage nor Ghost can make an existing image fit inside a partition which is smaller than the amount of uncompressed data inside the image itself, but if the target partition is equal to or greater than the size of the image, you can certainly do that. Doesn't matter if the original partition which you cloned from no longer exists, the image backup will still restore itself.Ghost or TrueImage will simply ask you if you want to re-size the image to occupy the bigger space, and you indicate 'yes'.

Be aware that, with Norton Ghost (at least with the 2003 version anyway), if you want to put an image on to a CD/DVD, you must do it by using Ghost to write the image directly to the CD/DVD. You cannot simply write a 'copy' of an existing ghost image file to a CD. Norton Ghost will not recognise it if you use this method. I know 'cos I've tried it. You must create the CD/DVD using Ghost. Acronis TrueImage does not have this limitation, but despite this I still think Ghost is more reliable generally.

Finally, despite claims made by both of these developers, it's unwise to create an image from within Windows. Create a DOS startup disk with whichever of the two programs you intend to use, and use it to boot into the DOS version of it. I speak from experience. The Windows interface may be more convenient, but it's technically impossible to clone Windows reliably while it's actually running, without risking a corrupted image file. And that won't become apparent till you want to restore from it -- by which time it's too late.

Edited by pip22, 03 October 2006 - 12:36 PM.

[pip22]

Neither TrueImage nor Ghost can make an existing image fit inside a partition which is smaller than the amount of uncompressed data inside the image itself, but if the target partition is equal to or greater than the size of the image, you can certainly do that. Doesn't matter if the original partition which you cloned from no longer exists, the image backup will still restore itself.Ghost or TrueImage will simply ask you if you want to re-size the image to occupy the bigger space, and you indicate 'yes'.

Be aware that, with Norton Ghost (at least with the 2003 version anyway), if you want to put an image on to a CD/DVD, you must do it by using Ghost to write the image directly to the CD/DVD. You cannot simply write a 'copy' of an existing ghost image file to a CD. Norton Ghost will not recognise it if you use this method. I know 'cos I've tried it. You must create the CD/DVD using Ghost. Acronis TrueImage does not have this limitation, but despite this I still think Ghost is more reliable generally.

Finally, despite claims made by both of these developers, it's unwise to create an image from within Windows. Create a DOS startup disk with whichever of the two programs you intend to use, and use it to boot into the DOS version of it. I speak from experience. The Windows interface may be more convenient, but it's technically impossible to clone Windows reliably while it's actually running, without risking a corrupted image file. And that won't become apparent till you want to restore from it -- by which time it's too late.

Edited by pip22, 03 October 2006 - 12:36 PM.

[mridang_agarwal]

i tnhink you didn't get my point. See, if I create an image of a partion named E and later restore it to another partion named C (whihc has adequate space), would the restored OS work? I have this doubt beacuse then all file references within windows would become corrupted. Example

a shortcut that was linked to "E:\windows\calc.exe" would not not work because windows has been restored on C drive. THe shortcut then would have to be pointing to "C:\Windows\calc.exe".


What happends to the MBR? Does it gaet backed up or not?

Thanks!

[mridang_agarwal]

hey guys,
Could I get some help on this topic?

[SRX660]

Yes, you can install the ghost image on the "C" after reformatting the drive. Ghost does not care what partition you put it on.

Read all about it here.

http://ghost.radified.com/

SRX660