Nonexpert user here: not Tech Support’s nightmare customer, but also not familiar enough with what’s under the hood. I have 2 questions about backing up my PC, and hope a kindly Doper can either answer or direct me to answers elsewhere.
I use Norton Ghost 2003 (on Windows XP Home) to make backups to an external hard drive.
Question 1: General use. I’ve been assuming that the image file will be enough to restore my computer in case of disaster. Fortunately, disaster hasn’t struck yet, but if it does, how do I know the image file will work as advertised? I do check integrity using a Ghost Boot disk and everything seems fine. Is that sufficient? I don’t think I should have to do an actual restore when one isn’t necessary, just for the sake of testing. Or should I?
Question 2: USB. When I prepare to create a new image file, Ghost has trouble recognizing my USB drivers. (I have 3 devices connected by USB: the external hard drive, my router, and my mouse.) Ghost insists that I choose whether to install USB 1.1 or 2.0 drivers, telling me to choose 1.1 “if any of [my] cards or chipsets are USB 1.1.” Well, I have no idea, and can’t find this documented anywhere. How can I tell if I’ve got a 1.1 lurking in the cards and chipsets?
That should be sufficient. I’ve restored from ghosts several times. You can even use it to switch hds. Just ghost drive #1 then replace it with new drive then restore to the new drive. My system couldn’t tell the difference. Everything was just like before.
You can try going to the hardware section of prperties from the ‘my computer’
My Computer (right click)–> Properties --> Hardware Tab --> Device Manager --> Universal Serial Bus controllers
This is from Win2k, but i think the process for XP is very similar.
Mine shows that I have a USB 2.0 root hub. All I have is USB 2.0
Or you could look up your mobo documentation online.
As for USB, I followed your suggestion and discovered some 10 instantiations of USB, but no mention of 1.1 or 2.0. Maybe the information is hidden somewhere different in XP…
I can’t say enough good things about the ghost products.
For re-imaging from non-USB boot devices (IDE type Hard drives, CDRom drives, etc), you do not need the drivers. The operating system install contained in the ghost image contains the drivers needed once it is placed on a drive.
If you are booting from a USB type device, like a smart card, external floppy/cdrom, etc, then you will need to load the drivers.
I use ghost to create an image, which I store on a standard hard drive for every PC I build. I simply build the OS, install the basic set of applications (Office, basic utilities, etc), install all the updates available at the time, and then create an image. This has saved me no end of trouble when I’ve messed up my system. A quick reinstall of the image, reload my games, and I’m off to the races!
I’m an IT guy, and have used it to deploy massive quantities of machines, and though you do need to jump through a few extra hoops when rolling out onto a corporate network, it’s a real time saver over the standard install processes.
Ghost is a good tool but as with all things IT, test, test, and test again. If you need to rely on the backup you want to make sure it really will work. Ghost is not the only obstacle you may encounter that can cause problems during a restore…if you do a dry run you’ll know exactly what you will be up against if you find yourself in that position. You’ll also have a better idea of how long you will be down.
Well, it’s USB 2.0. The Googling advice helped, PatriotX, but I confess it really came down to RTFM. :smack:
Bongmaster, I’m just a naive home user so I may not be getting your point, but how is a “dry run” of Ghost possible? Wouldn’t I be overwriting a working system with something that may or may not work? If the restore causes problems, how do I go back to the pre-restored state? Or is this just a necessary risk?
If you don’t have a spare hd to test it on, then all that you can do is the real thing. I’d wait to do the real thing until necessary.
But, if the time comes, be very patient, take you time and read everything carefully. It’s a powerful tool. Kind of like a chainsaw. Very handy and helpful, but muist be handled attentively.