Best way... Ghost, or other solution?

[JEM]

I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original.

I know it may sound strange to go to all the bother of
swapping cables and all, but I have SATA and it's a piece
of cake. I only need to swap the HDD a couple of times a
month, so it's OK.

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)



Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Q: Why not some type of raid?
A: Don't want to do that...

 

[Harry Ohrn]

No you won't have trouble with WPA. To learn about activation check Alex
Nichol's page here http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

My preference is Norton Ghost 2003. I use it very often and it has not
failed me.

 

[Kristi]

I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original.

I know it may sound strange to go to all the bother of
swapping cables and all, but I have SATA and it's a piece
of cake. I only need to swap the HDD a couple of times a
month, so it's OK.

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)



Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Q: Why not some type of raid?
A: Don't want to do that...

I use Ghost.

I use OSL2000 to multiboot

hth
Kristi

 

[JEM]

Thanks for the information, but I guess I still have a
few questions:

I want to clone my 'C' drive with an identical drive. (I
have two Seagate SATA 80GB drives)

I want to use the drives alternately, that is, I will
unplug the original drive and use the clone, finish using
the clone, unplug it, and plug the original.

This is different than using the clone to restore the
drive, so I wonder if I will have a problem...

The 'original' drive will not be attached to the computer
when using the clone. So, will I lose 'votes'.

(I know I can edit the HDD volume number.)

If I understand correctly, the check is done internally,
without sending information to MS? If that's the case, I
don't have to worry... But if information is checked by
MS, I might have a problem if the 'C' drive is swapped
too frequently.

-----Original Message-----
No you won't have trouble with WPA. To learn about activation check Alex
Nichol's page here http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

My preference is Norton Ghost 2003. I use it very often and it has not
failed me.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original.

I know it may sound strange to go to all the bother of
swapping cables and all, but I have SATA and it's a piece
of cake. I only need to swap the HDD a couple of times a
month, so it's OK.

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)



Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Q: Why not some type of raid?
A: Don't want to do that...

.

 

[Guest]

A copy is a copy. A Image is a image. A
clone/copy/backup is bootable, it has everything your
original drive has,OS, Programs, Email, Address Book,
Data and Registry. You can update it at anytime, any part
of it. Casper XP does that from the windows platform. I
have had Image files for years, the problem with them is
it's a whole file. You cannot make changes to them, you
cannot access them, you have to restore them. Some will
boot some won't. A image file cannot be written to a
smalled disk unless you can change the partition size to
fit the smaller drive. Lets say you have a 40gb main HDD
with 10 gb of data, you cannot put a image of it on a
20gb disk. If you're up-grading to a larger drive
wouldn't it be nice to have the old drive for a back-up

I have all the backup programs made I think, Drive
Image, Ghost ( 3 versions ), Drive Wizard, Copy
Commander, Drive Back , TrueImage etc. I mentioned Casper-
XP because someone in here made a post about it , I said
what the heck, just another $39.00, I love it. It works
so easy and I have made 30 copies and they all booted,
proof enough for me.
Buy a second Hard drive $69.00 these days and a good
copy/backup program to make a clone. XP-Casper is one.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/ $ 39.00 make the clone
and then un-plug the power to the drive if you want.

Want to test drive a Demo for 30 days. It has some
features disabled.

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2248-10161151.html

 

[Carolyn]

I have to use my computer for business and have my system set up with (2)
80G HD's. I believe that they guy who built it set it up so that both of
them are considered primary drives. He then installed them so that I just
use a key to swap them out. I use Norton Ghost 2003 to clone from one to
the other and every so often I just use the key to swap the drives and make
sure that the copy is bootable. The cost of the trays to make the drives
swap without messing with the cable is only around $45 and well worth the
cost.
Maybe one of the guys here on the group can provide more information on how
all this can be set up.
I love being able to just click on the Norton Ghost and let it do the rest.
I walk away and come back to log in when the ghosting is completed.
Carolyn

 

[I'm Dan]

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)

Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Activation is not normally an issue when it's just an alternate hard disk in
the same computer.

Since it sounds like you want to keep multiple OS's, my advice would be to
install each OS as a truly separate installation (e.g., each sees itself as
"C:" and any alternate OS's are hidden) and make images. Each OS would have
its own partition, with another partition to store the images, and another
partition to use as a testbed. (FWIW, I also recommend a separate shared
data partition, but that's another matter.) Periodically refresh the images
so you've always got reasonably current backups. When you want to test new
software, restore any OS image of your choosing to the testbed partition and
boot into that one to muck around. This way, you can test new software
without putting your stable installations at risk, you can interchangeably
duplicate any of your OS's on the testbed at your whim, and you've got
backups to quickly restore the stable OS's (typically 10-20 minutes) if one
goes down. If you're using two hard disks, you can figure out a reasonable
way to arrange these partitions across both disks. I think this approach
(stable with testbed) is more sensible than trying to maintain duplicate
stable installations of a given OS.

Images are an ideal backup method and easier than trying to maintain a fully
active clone of each OS, plus they take up less disk space and can be stored
on CDR or DVD. BTW, the post that said you can't restore an image to a
smaller partition is simply wrong -- I do it all the time. The catch is
that if you have "a 40gb main HDD with 10 gb of data" (to use that example)
and the data is fragmented over 25GB of disk space, then you need at least a
25GB partition in which to restore. If you first defrag the source so the
10GB of data spans 10GB of space, then an image of it will restore to a 10GB
partition.

I think you should be multibooting, but beware that if you've setup your
existing system using Microsoft's asinine boot loader, then you'd have to
reinstall at least two of your three OS's to get a proper multiboot setup.
(You'll find more details about the reasons for this in my webpage at
www.goodells.net/multiboot. In that article I describe my system with four
OS's and two testbed partitions.)

 

[Kristi]

Thanks for the information, but I guess I still have a
few questions:

I want to clone my 'C' drive with an identical drive. (I
have two Seagate SATA 80GB drives)

I want to use the drives alternately, that is, I will
unplug the original drive and use the clone, finish using
the clone, unplug it, and plug the original.

This is different than using the clone to restore the
drive, so I wonder if I will have a problem...

The 'original' drive will not be attached to the computer
when using the clone. So, will I lose 'votes'.

(I know I can edit the HDD volume number.)

If I understand correctly, the check is done internally,
without sending information to MS? If that's the case, I
don't have to worry... But if information is checked by
MS, I might have a problem if the 'C' drive is swapped
too frequently.

-----Original Message-----
No you won't have trouble with WPA. To learn about activation check Alex
Nichol's page here http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

My preference is Norton Ghost 2003. I use it very often and it has not
failed me.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original.

I know it may sound strange to go to all the bother of
swapping cables and all, but I have SATA and it's a piece
of cake. I only need to swap the HDD a couple of times a
month, so it's OK.

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)



Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Q: Why not some type of raid?
A: Don't want to do that...

.

uh, can you explain why you are doing this? It sounds like you are using
fancy lingo to circumvent the EULA and have multiple systems from one
license.
Kristi

 

[Guest]

uh, can you explain why you are doing this? It sounds
like you are using
fancy lingo to circumvent the EULA and have multiple
systems from one
license.
Kristi

This was the top post, Kristi.

Have you ever used programs that may compromise your
computer's stability? A few time a year I use Adobe
Premeire to edit films, large, complex ones. Source files
around 30GB, render times of 8 hours or more. Quite often
Adobe doesn't play nice. Crashes and freeze-up, I can
live with, even the occasional re-boot. However, in
addition to this, several times, Adobe has rendered my
computer inoperable (no pun intended). Since I use my
computer to make a living, and bang away on it about 10
hours a day, having to repair or reinstall an OS and
other assorted programs, etc., well, it's troublesome to
say the least. (If you read further down, it's multiboot,
which complicates things.)

Simply put, there is nothing wrong with cloning or
ghosting a drive as a backup. Infact, when you get a
bigger drive and use it in the same computer, it's not a
problem.

True, I could ghost or clone the drive and use
the 'original' until there is some system failure and
then restore it from the cloned / ghosted drive. But,
logically, if your system works, why risk damaging it?
Why not clone the drive, keep the original working, use
the clone for other purposes (in my case, editing) and
not worry about repairing an OS? Blow up the clone? No
problem, clone it again. What is the problem if it's on
the same machine. - It's OK to clone to a bigger /
different drive if you never use the original again? But
if you swap between the original and the clone it's not?

Please... XP Pro OEM is less than 150.00, cheap! If there
is an activiation issue, I will buy another copy, but is
it really necessary to have two licences on one computer
simply because the OS is on two separate drives?





I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original

-----Original Message-----

Thanks for the information, but I guess I still have a
few questions:

I want to clone my 'C' drive with an identical drive. (I
have two Seagate SATA 80GB drives)

I want to use the drives alternately, that is, I will
unplug the original drive and use the clone, finish using
the clone, unplug it, and plug the original.

This is different than using the clone to restore the
drive, so I wonder if I will have a problem...

The 'original' drive will not be attached to the computer
when using the clone. So, will I lose 'votes'.

(I know I can edit the HDD volume number.)

If I understand correctly, the check is done internally,
without sending information to MS? If that's the case, I
don't have to worry... But if information is checked by
MS, I might have a problem if the 'C' drive is swapped
too frequently.

-----Original Message-----
No you won't have trouble with WPA. To learn about activation check Alex
Nichol's page here http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm

My preference is Norton Ghost 2003. I use it very

often
and it has not

failed me.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

I need my computer to function with minimal downtime. Got
it set up and running smoothly. I want to copy my OS onto
a second HDD. When using programs the may compromise the
stability of the system, I want to swap cables and boot
from the spare to run those applications. When I'm
finished, swap the cables back. If I happen to blow up
the OS on the spare, no problem, just copy it again and
from the original as well as continuing to use the
original.

I know it may sound strange to go to all the bother of
swapping cables and all, but I have SATA and it's a piece
of cake. I only need to swap the HDD a couple of

times
a

month, so it's OK.

What I am wondering is:
1. What is the best software solution is for this?
2. If I clone a drive and swap cables will i have a
problem with activation? (For Notron I beleive there are
two separate functions, Cloning and Ghosting)



Q: Why not dual boot??
A: Actually, there are 4 bootable partitions on the main
drive, in two different languages - W2K, XP Pro, XP Home.
A set up like this takes quite a bit of time, it's like
setting up 4 computers... Along with drivers, software,
activation, etc.

Q: Well, if you already have multiple OSs, why not use
the programs in question on one of the OSs - If one fails
you still have 3 right?
A: That's right, except in some cases, if you lose and
OS, you may lose some important files need to boot etc.
In the past, losing one OS completely has sometimes
forced me to start clean and install all the others
again. Not fun.

Q: Why not some type of raid?
A: Don't want to do that...


.

uh, can you explain why you are doing this? It sounds like you are using
fancy lingo to circumvent the EULA and have multiple systems from one
license.
Kristi
.