Norton Ghost Question

[vaderpro]

I recently purchased Norton Ghost and I am doing my first full system back-up of my life. (Better late than never....) The program is definately easy to use. 3 questions:

#1) Should I use the "verify image" option? Is it necessary? Because its sure adding a lot of time to the back-up.

#2) Should I do a reformat and reinstall? Ive had this drive 'image' going for about 9 months now. I dont really have any issues, but if a reformat will improve performance I will do it.

#3) Ive used 7 blank DVD's, which will add up cost-wise. For regular back-ups, I guess it makes sense to buy another hard drive?

Cheers.

 

[Tyler1989]

1. Yes you should makes sure your backup will actually work when you use it.

2. NO you restore a backup when a system failure occures. Why don't you make a new backup of your system if your old one is 9 months old.

3. I bought my external harddrive for $160. Blank DVDs are about 10-25 cents a piece.

 

[vaderpro]

2. NO you restore a backup when a system failure occures. Why don't you make a new backup of your system if your old one is 9 months old.

3. I bought my external harddrive for $160. Blank DVDs are about 10-25 cents a piece.

Sorry, I didnt expalin well, I am doing a back up right now. My current "install" is 9 months old.

I've heard some people do reformats and reinstalls on a regular basis, with a drive image.

Blanks dvds in canada are about 0.91 cents each (good ones). If i do a backup say, once a month, thats $76 a year. I think ill buy a hard drive.

 

[KSoD]

1. It is a good idea but it is not necessary. I havent done it and all of my images are just fine.
2. That is personal preference. I made my first image when my system was stable for 16 months. That is also the one i just used to re-do my system 2 days ago. It is stable and works for me just fine.
3. Either get a External HDd or use DVD-RW. You will spend more $$ up front but you can re-use them.

 

[Tyler1989]

I'll warn you you can exect backups to take 15 hours if your computer doesn't have FireWire and only supports USB1.0 but I live just leave it on overnight.

 

[vaderpro]

Yah it takes a while, esp with the verifying. I only have 33gbs so wasnt too bad. Its just the swapping of discs that is a pain. Another reason to go with a single backup device.

 

[The Kid]

I've heard some people do reformats and reinstalls on a regular basis, with a drive image.

Holy Crap, thats a genius idea! Im gonna have to do that now!! *runs off to store to buy external HD*

Im serious, i have quite a few pcs mess up often in my household. So now instea of reinstalling everything all the time, ill do that!! w00t! Finnaly i found a reason to buy one of these puppys! :beard:

 

[Tyler1989]

I'm still looking for a device that will perform a backup with nothing installed on the harddrive. Just insert the backup and restore.

I know of one that does it sector by sector but I'm not paying for that.

 

[EricB]

I only make a backup after I reformatted and installed my programs back, so that I will have a clean backup. there is no use for backing up old temp files and other garbage that laying around. that just my preference

Vaderpro, I would also put my data on a seperate partition than my OS too.

 

[Osiris]

I'm with you Eric. I feel much better doing that in a clean install