Can you "ghost" a laptop hard drive.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Falco

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2004
16
0
18,560
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever have
any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot from
that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
thing with this.
As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up another
drive so any suggestions on backup media
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Falco" <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
>ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)

You have several options. Ghost will indeed boot from a CD and talk
to many USB (and firewire) external devices.

Many modern laptops have the ability to boot from an external USB hard
drive. Set up a small bootable DOS partition and a large Ghost
partition, boot from DOS and make an image file. I do this with
external USB drives and D-Bay drives on our Dell Latitude D600 laptops
all the time.

You can also boot from a USB keychain drive and burn CDs or DVDs using
Ghost.

You can remove the laptop hard drive, put it in a desktop machine with
an adapter kit, and Ghost it from there, but that's not a thing you'd
want to do on a regular basis.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 10:12:28 GMT, "Falco" <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com>
wrote:

>In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
>and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever have
>any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot from
>that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
>I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
>thing with this.
>As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
>ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
>Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up another
>drive so any suggestions on backup media
>
You could do a similar thing with an external USB drive but if you are
running Ghost from a DOS boot disk I don't believe you get USB
support.

I have used a BART-PE boot CD to do this and it works very well (I was
given the CD).

More info on this can be found at:

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

All the best ..

T i m
 

bojangles

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2005
15
0
18,560
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

This is how I back my laptop up every other week. I have a 75gig external
2.0 usb drive enclosure. I use Norton Ghost 2003 it works well very easy to
do and pretty fast and reliable. I have had to restore from it a few times
and no problems there. I think NOrton Ghost 03' or newer utilizes the
iomega dos usb drivers so it works from DOS.


"T i m" <news@spaced.me.uk> wrote in message
news:t5gfc1htqcj59oitvmfeqipj5h4v8gfkrr@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 10:12:28 GMT, "Falco" <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com>
> wrote:
>
> >In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
> >and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever
have
> >any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot
from
> >that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
> >I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
> >thing with this.
> >As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from
a
> >ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
> >Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up
another
> >drive so any suggestions on backup media
> >
> You could do a similar thing with an external USB drive but if you are
> running Ghost from a DOS boot disk I don't believe you get USB
> support.
>
> I have used a BART-PE boot CD to do this and it works very well (I was
> given the CD).
>
> More info on this can be found at:
>
> http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
>
> All the best ..
>
> T i m
>
>
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Falco" <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:gSOxe.13117$oJ.10481@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
| In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up
(internally)
| and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I
ever have
| any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot
from
| that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
| I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the
same
| thing with this.
| As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot
from a
| ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
| Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up
another
| drive so any suggestions on backup media
|

There are a number of good suggestions in this thread.

You might consider getting a USB floppy drive. There are still lots of
reasons to use floppy disks and you can get them from $25 -$70 USD. Most
new laptops will boot from a USB device including a floppy drive.

In addition, you can buy or build a USB external HDD. They are easy to
assemble. You can buy the case for $25 -$70 USD and pick up whatever
size HDD you want. Open the case - a few screws - plug 2 cables into the
drive and reassemble, 15 minutes time at most. You can also get smaller
external USB cases for 2.5" laptop HDDs that are pocket sized.

This will be a lot faster than backing up to CDs or DVDs.

I prefer the owner assembled external USB HDDs to the "one touch" drives
available from Maxtor and other HDD manufactures. These packaged drives
come with software that does everything you need for backups but I've
heard of and seen some nightmares with some of these setups.

I personally back up to an external SCSI DAT tape drive connected to my
laptops with a SCSI PC Card using Ghost 2003 running from a floppy.

Good luck, Chas.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005, Falco wrote:

> In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
> and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever have
> any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot from
> that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
> I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
> thing with this.
> As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
> ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
> Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up another
> drive so any suggestions on backup media
>

The easiest way in your case would be this. If you have a usb port
(almost all the newer laptops do) buy an external FDD , plug it into
your usb port and it will automatically be recognized as "A dr" on
boot up. Then proceed to create or restore your image with a
Ghost floppy bt disk as you have in the past.
I use Ghost in this manner however since dont have Usb port I use
an external burner on the epp port to save or restore images.
I also use an a/b switch with 4 slots and switch it to the
backpack burner. All done via the A: fdd ghost bt disk.
Joe
 

Andrew

Distinguished
Mar 31, 2004
487
0
18,930
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Falco <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com> wrote:
: In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
: and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever have
: any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot from
: that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
: I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
: thing with this.
: As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
: ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
: Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up another
: drive so any suggestions on backup media

I use external hard drives to backup - actually, I use USB enclosures
and put my own drives in them to make external hard drives. I use
Acronis True Image, which is another company's version of Ghost. True
Image as well as the the latest versions of Ghost have the ability not
just to clone a hard drive but to make an image of it as file(s)
on some other hard drive. True Image (and probably Ghost) allows you
to make a rescue CD if you have a CD burner. If your main drive dies
you can restore to another drive in several ways. You can first of
all boot from the rescue CD, which has drivers for USB drives. I can
then restore the image I made wherever it exists, either on my
external hard drive or even a DVD.

Imaging is more flexible than cloning for several reasons. For one,
you can make incremental backups. True Image will add to an existing
image only the files that have changed since my last backup - makes
backups much quicker. Also, you can split an image into multiple
files of small size i.e. 4500MB or about the size of a DVD, so you could
backup to two or three DVDs if your drive image is that small.
Acronis also does some compression when it makes an image (your choice
as to how much), so a drive with 20GB on it might be compressed down
to three files of 4500MB or less that fit on three DVDs. And of
course you can make multiple backups that way instead of having a
single backup on one hard drive.

Images are also cool because you can mount one as a virtual hard
drive. Say you made a backup you want to get files of off later.
True Image will mount the image as another drive letter so you can
look at/copy individual files on it. Very handy.

As far as enclosures go, there are different sizes. You can get a
2.5" enclosure for laptop drives or a 3.5" enclosure for desktop
drives. I have 3.5" desktop enclosures, and I have an adaptor
for a 2.5" laptop hard drive, so I can use desktop or laptop
hard drives that way. If say your current laptop dies but the hard
drive is still good, you could extract the hard drive into an
enclosure and read your files from it with another computer.

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
*******************************************************************
 

bojangles

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2005
15
0
18,560
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Ghost does the same as true image I guess. Ghost doesn't clone it images
the drive. It too spans it in 4.5 gig sections so the increments fit onto
a dvd if you wish.


"Andrew" <usenetMYSHOES@bizaveMYSHOES.com> wrote in message
news:zcasdacachj55064645636811@bizaveMYSHOES.com...
> Falco <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> : In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up
(internally)
> : and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever
have
> : any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot
from
> : that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
> : I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
> : thing with this.
> : As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from
a
> : ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
> : Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up
another
> : drive so any suggestions on backup media
>
> I use external hard drives to backup - actually, I use USB enclosures
> and put my own drives in them to make external hard drives. I use
> Acronis True Image, which is another company's version of Ghost. True
> Image as well as the the latest versions of Ghost have the ability not
> just to clone a hard drive but to make an image of it as file(s)
> on some other hard drive. True Image (and probably Ghost) allows you
> to make a rescue CD if you have a CD burner. If your main drive dies
> you can restore to another drive in several ways. You can first of
> all boot from the rescue CD, which has drivers for USB drives. I can
> then restore the image I made wherever it exists, either on my
> external hard drive or even a DVD.
>
> Imaging is more flexible than cloning for several reasons. For one,
> you can make incremental backups. True Image will add to an existing
> image only the files that have changed since my last backup - makes
> backups much quicker. Also, you can split an image into multiple
> files of small size i.e. 4500MB or about the size of a DVD, so you could
> backup to two or three DVDs if your drive image is that small.
> Acronis also does some compression when it makes an image (your choice
> as to how much), so a drive with 20GB on it might be compressed down
> to three files of 4500MB or less that fit on three DVDs. And of
> course you can make multiple backups that way instead of having a
> single backup on one hard drive.
>
> Images are also cool because you can mount one as a virtual hard
> drive. Say you made a backup you want to get files of off later.
> True Image will mount the image as another drive letter so you can
> look at/copy individual files on it. Very handy.
>
> As far as enclosures go, there are different sizes. You can get a
> 2.5" enclosure for laptop drives or a 3.5" enclosure for desktop
> drives. I have 3.5" desktop enclosures, and I have an adaptor
> for a 2.5" laptop hard drive, so I can use desktop or laptop
> hard drives that way. If say your current laptop dies but the hard
> drive is still good, you could extract the hard drive into an
> enclosure and read your files from it with another computer.
>
> Andrew
> --
> ----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
> *******************************************************************
> ----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
> ----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
> *******************************************************************
>
 

Andrew

Distinguished
Mar 31, 2004
487
0
18,930
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Bojangles <jzurb@charter.net> wrote:
: Ghost does the same as true image I guess. Ghost doesn't clone it images
: the drive. It too spans it in 4.5 gig sections so the increments fit onto
: a dvd if you wish.

I imagine that Ghost, like True Image, can both clone and image
drives. Cloning is faster if your are just trying to upgrade to a new
hard drive - there is only one copy process instead of creating an
image file then copying the image to a new drive.

Andrew

: "Andrew" <usenetMYSHOES@bizaveMYSHOES.com> wrote in message
: news:zcasdacachj55064645636811@bizaveMYSHOES.com...
: > Falco <johnyfalco@bigfoot.com> wrote:
: > : In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up
: (internally)
: > : and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever
: have
: > : any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot
: from
: > : that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
: > : I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
: > : thing with this.
: > : As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from
: a
: > : ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
: > : Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up
: another
: > : drive so any suggestions on backup media
: >
: > I use external hard drives to backup - actually, I use USB enclosures
: > and put my own drives in them to make external hard drives. I use
: > Acronis True Image, which is another company's version of Ghost. True
: > Image as well as the the latest versions of Ghost have the ability not
: > just to clone a hard drive but to make an image of it as file(s)
: > on some other hard drive. True Image (and probably Ghost) allows you
: > to make a rescue CD if you have a CD burner. If your main drive dies
: > you can restore to another drive in several ways. You can first of
: > all boot from the rescue CD, which has drivers for USB drives. I can
: > then restore the image I made wherever it exists, either on my
: > external hard drive or even a DVD.
: >
: > Imaging is more flexible than cloning for several reasons. For one,
: > you can make incremental backups. True Image will add to an existing
: > image only the files that have changed since my last backup - makes
: > backups much quicker. Also, you can split an image into multiple
: > files of small size i.e. 4500MB or about the size of a DVD, so you could
: > backup to two or three DVDs if your drive image is that small.
: > Acronis also does some compression when it makes an image (your choice
: > as to how much), so a drive with 20GB on it might be compressed down
: > to three files of 4500MB or less that fit on three DVDs. And of
: > course you can make multiple backups that way instead of having a
: > single backup on one hard drive.
: >
: > Images are also cool because you can mount one as a virtual hard
: > drive. Say you made a backup you want to get files of off later.
: > True Image will mount the image as another drive letter so you can
: > look at/copy individual files on it. Very handy.
: >
: > As far as enclosures go, there are different sizes. You can get a
: > 2.5" enclosure for laptop drives or a 3.5" enclosure for desktop
: > drives. I have 3.5" desktop enclosures, and I have an adaptor
: > for a 2.5" laptop hard drive, so I can use desktop or laptop
: > hard drives that way. If say your current laptop dies but the hard
: > drive is still good, you could extract the hard drive into an
: > enclosure and read your files from it with another computer.
: >
: > Andrew
: > --
: > ----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
: > *******************************************************************
: > ----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
: > ----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
: > *******************************************************************
: >



--

Andrew
--
----> Portland, Oregon, USA <----
*******************************************************************
----> http://www.bizave.com <---- Photo Albums and Portland Info
----> To Email me remove "MYSHOES" from email address
*******************************************************************
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Yes, you can boot from a bootable CD or possibly an external USB floppy
(I believe that Ghost 9 supports USB floppy, but this is partially a
matter of what the laptop's BIOS itself supports).

You cannot connect two hard drives to a laptop via IDE, in general (a
few exceptions do exist). You can use one IDE drive and one external
USB drive, which, again, I think that Ghost 9 supports. Also, you can
convert laptop drives to desktop IDE and power interfaces and install
them into a desktop. You can install two such drives if desired, this
will let you use your desktop conventionally with a floppy boot and no
need for USB support. The adapters to do this are under $5 each.


Falco wrote:

> In my desktop PC I have a spare Hard drive that I connect up (internally)
> and boot from a floppy and ghost my main hard drive. This way if I ever have
> any problems I just install the backup drive as master drive and boot from
> that. It has to be the easiest back up solution around.
> I now have a new laptop and was wondering the easiest way to do the same
> thing with this.
> As the laptop doesn't have a floppy I don't know how you could boot from a
> ghost boot disk (can you boot from a CD with GHOST)
> Also you cant exactly upon up the case on a laptop and connect up another
> drive so any suggestions on backup media
>
>
 

Caudill

Distinguished
Jul 1, 2010
1
0
18,510
07/01/10

Using the Norton GHOST Program, Version 7.0, I have been cloning hard drives in the Dell Inspiron, 8000, 8100 and 8200 lap top computers both by floppy disk and by cd disk. It is very easy to do but I do not know of another
lap top computer that can do it. If you do, please advise.

Thanks.


Joseph S. Caudill
jscaudill@qwest.net
(800) 830-2696
 
Status
Not open for further replies.