More Ghost questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Branden Wolner
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Branden Wolner

I've gotten great feedback in this group so here goes some more:

I've been told that restoring your primary partition from a ghost image has
problems with "my documents" and the outlook/outlook express e-mail files.
However, I cannot figure out just what these problems actually are. I've
had several people tell me to move "outlook.pst" and "my documents" to a
secondary partition, which I could do, but no one can tell me exactly why.
I was hoping someone here would know and could explain it to me.

Thanks.
 
Branden Wolner said:
I've been told that restoring your primary partition from a ghost image has
problems with "my documents" and the outlook/outlook express e-mail files.
However, I cannot figure out just what these problems actually are. I've
had several people tell me to move "outlook.pst" and "my documents" to a
secondary partition, which I could do, but no one can tell me exactly why.
I was hoping someone here would know and could explain it to me.
Click to expand...

I don't know the context in which you got that information, but I
imagine it's not that others were telling you Ghost (or DriveImage, or
BootIt NG, or et al) has a "problem" with those, but rather that you may
not be happy if those files are out of date.

If mydocs and the oe folders are on C:, then they'll get backed up in
the Ghost image. When you need to restore from the Ghost image, they'll
get restored along with the rest of C:. But that could be old versions
of your documents and mail -- the versions as they existed when the
partition image was made.

One solution is to try and recover those files from C: before you
restore from the Ghost image, then copy them back after C: is restored.
But a better solution is to reconfigure your system so mydocs and the
outlook/oe files are on another partition. Then they won't be
overwritten when you restore C: and your system will still have the
latest versions of your documents.
 
I don't know the context in which you got that information, but I
imagine it's not that others were telling you Ghost (or DriveImage, or
BootIt NG, or et al) has a "problem" with those, but rather that you
may not be happy if those files are out of date.

If mydocs and the oe folders are on C:, then they'll get backed up in
the Ghost image. When you need to restore from the Ghost image,
they'll get restored along with the rest of C:. But that could be old
versions of your documents and mail -- the versions as they existed
when the partition image was made.

One solution is to try and recover those files from C: before you
restore from the Ghost image, then copy them back after C: is
restored. But a better solution is to reconfigure your system so
mydocs and the outlook/oe files are on another partition. Then they
won't be overwritten when you restore C: and your system will still
have the latest versions of your documents.
Click to expand...

Unless that partition is kaplooey too. Is this really the only issue?
Couldn't you just backup these files/info seperately on a daily basis
and do a two-step restore?
 
I've gotten great feedback in this group so here goes some more:

I've been told that restoring your primary partition from a ghost image has
problems with "my documents" and the outlook/outlook express e-mail files.
However, I cannot figure out just what these problems actually are. I've
had several people tell me to move "outlook.pst" and "my documents" to a
secondary partition, which I could do, but no one can tell me exactly why.
I was hoping someone here would know and could explain it to me.
Click to expand...

There is no problem. Most likely what they were talking about is the fact
that when you restore a primary partition, it means *everything*. All data
files, including outlook/outlook express. You end up with versions of
those files from the time you made the image.

This is handled by a reminder that Ghost is not intended as a backup
program. Unless you like imaging your system partition every night (or
however often you want it backed up). That's fine. God knows Ghost is
fast enough, especially if you image to another hard drive or a network
drive.

Everything else will be out of date also, depending on when the image was
made. Any programs you installed since that time will not be there, changes
made to the desktop and config will not be there, etc.
 
That's because if your email and documents are on the ghost image they'll
get overlaid when you restore the image, thereby destroying any email or
documents you've saved since the image was taken.
 
Branden Wolner said:
Unless that partition is kaplooey too. Is this really the only issue?
Couldn't you just backup these files/info seperately on a daily basis
and do a two-step restore?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that works, too. Not as good as a separate partition because
you'll lose any changes made this morning, but better than no backup at
all.

You didn't ask about backup strategies, you asked whether Ghost has
problems. Ghost has no problem whatsoever with "My Documents" or
Outlook/OE files -- it doesn't even see them as files or folders,
they're just sectors to be backed up. If you want to ask about backup
strategies, that's a whole different topic, and one for which you'll get
a lot of different opinions.
 
Yeah, that works, too. Not as good as a separate partition because
you'll lose any changes made this morning, but better than no backup
at all.

You didn't ask about backup strategies, you asked whether Ghost has
problems. Ghost has no problem whatsoever with "My Documents" or
Outlook/OE files -- it doesn't even see them as files or folders,
they're just sectors to be backed up. If you want to ask about backup
strategies, that's a whole different topic, and one for which you'll
get a lot of different opinions.
Click to expand...

Alright. I'm asking. Fire away :)
 
Branden Wolner said:
Alright. I'm asking. Fire away :)
Click to expand...

I can give you my opinion, but let me first ask you to start a new
thread with a more appropriate subject line. That way, you'll be more
likely to get the opinions of others, as well, which may be different
but no less valid than mine. (Make sure in the repost to remind others
that you have Ghost.) You may also want to do a google search of
newsgroups for something like "best backup strategy" or "backup strategy
microsoft.public", since this topic is revisited semi-regularly in
various microsoft.public newsgroups.
 
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