NEW INFO ON GHOST 2003, Version 9, Windows XP and NTFS file system, EXTERNAL DRIVES bottom of page!

Ghost is a SUPERIOR, time tested, RELIABLE method for keeping your Windows PC running smooth and safe, easily and quickly.

And this is perhaps the EASIEST guide to Norton Ghost you will find anywhere....

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Norton Ghost is the number one program used by people who want the easiest and QUICKEST method for backing up their Windows based PC. Other programs are available to do this- Ghost is currently by far the most popular and recognized application for doing this by people who know, and has been for YEARS.

Windows, crashes. Fact. At the very least, programs become corrupt, or you mess up a program from an error, or you misplace data.

Often you will install a new program that screws up your system and other programs.

And you know what--  MACS CRASH and become corrupt too. No secret there.  I've got plenty of friends with Macs, and they have exactly the same need for backup as my PC. (So go get a reliable backup if you've got a Mac).

Unless you have a good easy backup system for Windows, these things will cause you to pull your hair out.

Current Microsoft Backup Systems and programs are less than perfect and/or STINK for various reasons, including those included in ME and XP.

WITH Ghost backup-- Windows is a very reliable system and tolerable PC operating system, and will work properly 90% -99% of the time. 

WITHOUT Ghost backup-- Windows can be a monster devil destroying your time and work.

Of course, Apple users will say "That's what you get", but there are some advantages to Windows PCs in some respects, (although Macheads will never admit this). I have no argument with Macs and they are great computers, but this instruction is for PC folk, and there ARE things I do on my XP PC at half the cost, and just as well if not better than on an Apple......so...)

If you use your computer for nothing more than email or Web cruising, okay, you can live without Ghost. If you use your computer for anything more than that-- you are asking to be tortured.

Here's how you can learn how to do EASY EASY EASY backups of your computer. It actually looks more complicated than it is. DO IT ONCE, and after that it takes a minute or less to set up a backup of your Windows system and program files, or to set up the restore. YOU WILL HAVE THE PROCESS INSTANTLY MEMORIZED, its that simple. The program will take anywhere for an average of 5-10 minutes to run itself in most cases. This beats HOURS, DAYS, or LONGER restoring a crashed computer system.

The Ghost Install Manual is impossible to understand.
Other Ghost "how-To-do" web sites can be difficult to understand.
This is the EASY (yet completely effective) Ghost How-T0-Do web site.

Congratulations
YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE.

This IS
THE EASY GHOST GUIDE To SAVING YOUR COMPUTER
From Crashes, Conflicting and Corrupt Programs

And Restoring Your PC to Perfectly Working Condition

Norton Ghost saves a working version of your computer's system configuration and program files, and lets you restore them quickly and easily. It is used by just about every computer nerd who runs a PC and knows what s/he is doing.

It  takes me less than five minutes to restore my C drive to a previously perfect working state, if something goes amiss with a newly installed program, missing files, or Windows corrupt something.

WHY GHOST?

Ghost runs NOT on your hard drive, like every other Windows program, but INDEPENDENT of Windows from a floppy disk or from your motherboard memory, which is the only way you can copy an exact image of your ENTIRE hard drive including all of your Windows system and boot up files and restore it. Further you can make multiple different hard drive copies, before and after changing any individual programs, files etc.

Ghost Backup files are saved on either another physical hard drive installed on your computer, or on a second separate partition of your hard drive. The program runs from a floppy disk you make when you get the Ghost program.

None of the available internal Windows restore programs really work properly, obviously because Windows can't copy and restore files that it is using to run Windows....duh. Secondly, if Windows becomes corrupt, and you can't even boot up to Windows in the first place (not at all uncommon) how the heck are you going to restore your system using a Windows based restore program....duh again. This exact thing happened to a friend of mine who had turned on his computer in order to install Ghost. He was 1 minute too late, and had to completely start from scratch, wasting HOURS and DAYS of his life fixing his Windows PC, for the 10th time.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE:

Use Ghost 2003. 

We have tried the newer versions of Ghost. 

We do not like them for a variety of reasons we won't go into here. Get 2003 Ghost from somebody, somewhere, somehow. It is better.

New versions of Ghost unfortunately suffer from the same fate of many "new improved" programs -McAfee, Norton Virus Scan, others all suffer from this... New for the sake of selling new stuff. Made more complicated and less real ease of use and function. Bleech.....

Simple is better.

If you CAN'T get 2003, the new versions are better than nothing- however--- TRY to get 2003.

ORGANIZING YOUR COMPUTER for trouble free service
For both Fat 32 or NTSF file systems

Otherwise, hard drives fail, especially if you use your machine a lot, for business, or for important things- Murphy's Law. If you have your BACKUP on the same physical drive -Well, when that drive fails-you've lost your backup! Pretty straight forward.

Also, many intensive programs, like audio and video editing actually work better when data and temporary files are placed on a different drive than the drive containing and running the program files.

So, if you can put in a second drive DO IT.

2) You CAN partition your one drive into two partitions, and keep your Ghost Backup on "D", and that's better than nothing- actually a lot better than nothing. Ghost WILL work in this fashion. I backup my laptop, which is limited to one physical hard drive this way. (There are other alternatives such as backing up to CDs or USB or LPT ports but that is beyond the scope of this EASY GHOST GUIDE.)

3) If you install a SECOND physical hard drive-PARTITION IT INTO at least TWO PARTITIONS when you set it up.

A) Make the first partition BIG for all of your data files-
B) Make a second partition of about 7-10 GB (this is an average for most users) for your Ghost Backup files, or the same TOTAL size of your C drive/partition. YOU WILL PUT NOTHING BUT GHOST FILES in this second partition.

MY SIMPLE EXAMPLE:

In my computer, I have 2 hard drives, each 60 GB. Each drive is partitioned into 2 partitions with the following space assigned to each partition (done during hard drive setup, before you install Windows. ("Partition Magic" program NOT recommended to do this as an afterthought on drives already set up. Start from scratch if you need to repartition)

Physical Drive #1 "C", 9 GB (5 GB used) "E", 51 GB
Physical Drive #2 "D", 51 GB "F" 9 GB

Drive "C" contains Windows and Program Files ONLY

"E" contains NON-CRITICAL data and GAME Program files/data. (Install all games to another drive or partition other than C. It will save you time in backup and restores)

"D" contains all my critical data that I don't want to lose in a C drive meltdown, which is just about everything. I only put unimportant or backup data on "E"

"F" contains the Ghost Backup files, and THAT'S ALL. Don't defragment this drive ever; just leave your backup files alone. They'll be fine.

On my laptop, I have one physical hard drive only:

"C", 4 GB (3 used) contains Windows system and Program files only.
"D", 6 GB, (4 used) contains data, games, and Ghost Backup

As before, if you have only one drive, put all your data and the Ghost Backup on the second big partition. Don't be a cheapskate if you can help it. Put in that second physical drive.

>>>> If you only have one drive and one partition, you can't use Ghost.<<<

Either save all your important data somewhere and repartition/reformat your one drive and restore your whole system from scratch now having TWO partitions, or simply get a second drive.

AFTER removing data files from your C drive and SAVING them somewhere else BUT BEFORE you repartition your drives, look at the size of your USED C drive memory (My computer/ right click on the C Drive/click properties to see how much drive memory you are using). You will see how much size you actually require for your program files and Windows.

It's not that much. I have a TON of big programs, and I still only use 5 GB for all of this. It's my DATA that takes up loads of room-and I keep that on another drive/another partition. This leaves me about 4 GB for future program files on the C drive, more than enough. Set your partition sizes according to what it looks like you are using, and plan ahead somewhat so you have room to grow.

You don't want a lot of info on your C drive/partition. The reason is this: When it comes time to restore your computer-you are only restoring the critical working parts of your computer that crashes- the Windows system and program files. It only takes about 10-15 minutes (faster on faster machines, slower on slower) to restore this at 5 GB critical info using Ghost. If you tried to restore all of your data- which is completely unnecessary- it would take FOREVER. Keep data, pictures, audio, etc somewhere else than your main C drive/partition.

REPARTITIONING:

You can repartition/reformat using the software that comes with a new hard drive-be aware, >>>repartitioning will DESTROY all of your data on that drive<<<

1) Keep nothing but Windows system files and Program Files on the C drive or C partition.

2) Put all of your DATA files on your second drive, or D partition. This includes all of your word, .doc files, pictures, audio files, etc.

3) Have a separate partition on a second physical hard drive for GHOST FILES ONLY if you can. You can additionally have a second partition of your first physical hard drive for non-critical data.

After you have reorganized your computer, and have moved data OFF the C drive/partition, you can look at the USED space on your C drive (My Computer - right click on C -click properties you'll see THE PIE chart.) This will give you a rough idea of how big your new C partition needs to be, and the size you will need to make your Ghost Partition.

My TOTAL C drive size (used and unused) equals my TOTAL F drive/partition size (where I keep Ghost Backups). This will allow several different backups as Ghost compresses backups to either 60 or 70 percent of the original size.

IMPORTANT NOTE- If you have Windows XP you MUST use Ghost 2003 or newer. 

I recommend 2003 version above ALL ELSE. It is simpler to use than the newer versions and does everything well, and does everything you need. Get 2003 if you can.

FOR WINDOWS 98 see these instructions below

For WINDOWS XP GO DOWN THE PAGE!!

Windows 98 Instructions for earlier the 2003 versions of Ghost:

FIRST: MAKE A WINDOWS START UP FLOPPY DISK.

Go to Control Panel
1) Choose Add/Remove Programs

2) Choose Startup Disk, click CREATE DISC, its done when the little A drive light goes out

3) You will need this disk to make a Ghost boot up disk.

Place Ghost CD in Computer.

If the auto run doesn't turn on the program, EXPLORE (right click on CD Drive), then choose INSTALL folder/Seteup.exe

1) Accept the terms of the Norton Ghost Install questionnaire. Be polite.

2) Install to your Program files folder (default) nothing weird here.

3) SKIP THE REGISTRATION (yes, you will have this choice- watch for the SKIP button)

4) Restart your computer.

5) After you restart your computer, go to Start/Programs/NortonGhost2002/ and then choose Norton Ghost Boot Wizard program.

6) Say hello to the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard window and DON'T CHECK ANY OF THE USB, LPT, OR CD-R BOXES------- JUST click NEXT. (Otherwise you will have problems if using Windows Millenium. Don't worry, you don't need these for basic operation as explained here.)

7) >>>>PUT THE STARTUP DISK YOU JUST MADE INTO THE A DRIVE<<<<

8) Choose USE MS-DOS in next window. 9) "The Ghost boot Wizard will copy the MS-DOS file..." yes, yes, click OK

10) The window will now say " The MS files have been installed. CHANGE "Use PC-DOS" to "Use MS-DOS" AND REMOVE THE STARTUP DISK.

11) Now PUT IN A NEW BLANK FLOPPY DISK. Now, after the blank disk is in, click NEXT

12) "Select the location..." Leave what the new window says alone, and click NEXT

13) "Select the floppy drive.." Leave the window alone again, and click NEXT

14) "Confirm that the details…" Leave that window alone and click NEXT. The computer A drive will go "click"

15) "Format 3 ½ Floppy (Quick Erase)" Yes, click START. Don't label the disk. When this is done, the same window remains, but now you have the option to CLOSE the window. CLOSE IT. The computer will now write files to the disk, "Please wait…Copying DOS files" etc. Let it do it. This will take a minute or so.

You are now DONE MAKING THE GHOST BOOT-UP Floppy DISK.

DO THIS TWO TIMES so you have TWO DISKS, an original and a safety copy. Label them on the outside GHOST BOOTUP DISK. They will be exactly the same.

This is the floppy disk that actually now contains the program to run Ghost on your computer.

MAKING A GHOST BACK UP

This is the general instruction for using Ghost. You can do more, but this Easy Guide will explain what most people will do most of the time, for the main purpose of Ghost-to backup and restore your C drive.

1) Turn on the computer with the Ghost Backup Floppy Disk in the A drive.
This will work for just about every case. The Ghost program will run after you see a long boot up screen menu, complete with bizarre "failed to load" type messages, Paralink Installed Successfully, and Mouse Driver Installed. Ignore them and wait. It takes about a minute or so before you see the Ghost Program display.

NOTE: If you have an old computer using EZ-BIOS to run larger capacity hard drives, you will NOT push in the floppy until you see "EZ-BIOS loaded" in the boot up menu screen. AFTER you see that command line displayed, hit the CONTROL key, then follow the screen instructions to run the floppy disk program. You know this is the case if you start the Ghost Program, but you cannot see any drives to either save or restore from.

2) Click OK to start program. (Note the first page of the program screen contains the License NUMBER. Write this down and tack it to your wall. You will need to type in this number any time you want to RESTORE a Ghost Backup.)

3) Choose Local (click on the word)

4) Choose Partition

5) Choose TO IMAGE

6) Select Local Source Drive (drive #1) by clicking the blue bar on 1 (You'll see 1 AND 2 if you have two physical drives

7) Elect Source partition -- you want the C partition, which is "1" (You'll see 1 and 2 if you have your main drive partitioned)

8) File name to copy image to-CLICK on the scroll down arrow till you see your destination drive---

This depends on how your computer and hard drives are set up. Ghost will not let you copy a Ghost Backup to the same drive you are copying- obviously that would be pointless. I select the F DRIVE partition for my desktop that has two drives, with two partitions each. I select D DRIVE for my laptop that has one drive with two partitions only.

9) Type in the FILE NAME. Use something simple of 8 characters. When you are replacing an earlier Ghost Backup, you can simply click on the preexisting file name. Remember, if you do this, you will ERASE the previous backup. You can make two or more independent backups, provided each has a different name.

10) Click SAVE

11) You'll see the question "USE COMPRESSION?" Choose Fast or High. Fast is faster, but uses more space. High is slightly slower, but uses less space. I use High all of the time.

12) Proceed with Partition Dump--- Yes. The time it takes depends on the size of your C Drive.

13) THAT'S IT. You've saved a Ghost Image.

You may VERIFY a Ghost image from the start page just to make sure it all works the first time or two you do this. I have never had either a Ghost Backup or Restore fail.

NOTE: Bigger C drive images require "spanning" which Ghost does automatically, and breaks the backup into smaller parts. Just click YES if it asks you to continue at any such prompts. When it's done, it will give you the option to QUIT, which you will do. You will have to do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart your computer, or do a shut down and reboot.

RESTORING A GHOST BACKUP IMAGE

2) Write down the License Number from the opening program page.

3) Select Local

4) Select Partition

5) Select FROM Image

6) Scroll down arrow and find the drive location where you PUT your previous Backup ghost Image.

7) You'll see a Golden Ghost Image Backup- click on it.

8) Enter your License number-enter exactly (not case sensitive for the letters)

9) Select Source partition from image file- Choose 1 (that's your C drive)

10) Select local destination drive- choose 1, click OK

11) Select destination partition- choose 1, click OK

This will restore your backup.

NOTE ON EMAIL, OUTLOOK, and WEB BROWSER SETTINGS

It is a very good idea to make regular backups of these kinds of program data in between Ghost backups.

You will have to make a backup of these files separately before restoring a previous ghost Backup, or you will only see the data saved at the time of the backup. I.e., recent. emails, address book information, or new web browser settings and bookmarks made after the ghost backup will be lost when you restore.

Save Outlook Express Email using an excellent simple program available at http://www.genie-soft.com Or copy your email folder to another partition/drive before restoring. Email in Outlook Express is here: C/Windows/ApplicationData/Identities/CX(a longnumber)/Microsoft/OutlookExpress and copy it back to the same location in the C drive after you restore. The Outlook Express Backup above is WAYYYYYY easier and worth the small cost.

Microsoft Outlook allows you to do an export and import in the program, and do this before restoring.

The folder for your internet browser user settings/cache/bookmarks are found inside Program files for your browser.

Ghost 2003 is a snap to use. Simple. Just follow the instructions that come when you install the program. It will guide you.

You can RESTORE INDIVIDUAL files as well from the Ghost Image you make using the GHOST EXPLORER ADVANCED FUNCTION from withing Windows without having to reboot and restore and entire image as well. Just click on the Ghost Explorer from within the program, locate the individual folders or files you need to restore, and voila- it works, and you don't have to watch your computer reboot.

NOW READ THE REST OF THIS BELOW.

XP with NTFS is nearly bullet-proof, but on occasion, I will find a newly installed program has introduced problems- and fixing and removing has proven difficult if not impossible. The only problems in terms of XP have invariably been third party program introduced problems, and almost all of these early on using XP. Lately, XP has been really really nice to use. A perfect rollback is invaluable in the case of these third party screw ups, thus you still need Norton Ghost, without question. Further, XP RESTORE does work, but it does not work perfectly. I still do not like it as well as GHOST because it will still leave messed up crap on your computer even if you are able to restore most basic functions. My Ghost image is PERFECT.

I DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT recommend buying the on-line downloadable version from Norton - NO WAY NO HOW. Why? Because if you download it, it will then be on your hard drive, which when Windows crashes and if you can't even reboot to Windows XP (YES THIS HAPPENS FOLKS- its happened to me TWICE thus far), and if you need to restore your drive to the fundimental XP operating system, you will lose your download and installation. DUH. When you buy the download version, you don't actually get the installation file, but a pointer file that then downloads the program from the Norton site-- and you only get to download the installation program a few times, then YOU HAVE TO BUY IT AGAIN or go through the hassle of contacting Norton to get it again. You can NOT store the on-line instalation program itself on your computer, say, on a separate drive or partition. !! What a load of crap from Norton.

On-line purchase/download: This is a REALLY piss poor way to get Ghost on your computer. It's really unbelievable the way Norton sells this thing on-line. Forget it. GET A DISK COPY (purchased, copied, stolen or borrowed) and it will be 1/10th of the trouble of the on-line version.

Okay, so you've got Norton 2003 and you install it on Windows XP with NTSF. Good. PUT A SHORTCUT ON YOUR DESKTOP (not in the hidden start menu please) that will START THE GHOST PROGRAM.

THEN MAKE A FLOPPY BOOTABLE DISK to run Ghost in the case that you can not boot up to Windows because of a disaster. This is done from the Ghost Program menu, and creates a 3.5" floppy disk that will run the program in the case that system files have been damaged and you can't boot up into Windows and run the program from there.

Norton Ghost 2003 is actually MUCH easier to use than previous versions of Ghost, and a nice improvement. You don't have to make a bootable floppy as described above.

It's pretty self- evident from the Ghost program prompts how to run it from Windows, and it practically runs itself with just a few clicks of your mouse.

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UPDATE October 2005: For a long time I thought- (because I tried this to no avail) that you could clone your working XP partition to any other physical drive, then put the new drive in- say if you want to put in a bigger hard drive, or put your working OS in another computer. Guess what- Windows XP doesn't let you do this- without a little special hacking first. Fortunately, its a very simple fix.

It IS possible to CLONE an XP Ghost image to a new physical drive (using either the Clone or Restore function of Ghost 2003), without having to first install windows XP and then copy the saved ghost image. Previously, the problem was DISK ID-- a hidden part of Windows XP that prevented you from cloning the OS to anything but the ORIGINAL PHYSICAL drive that you had your OS on. Obviously, this was an issue to prevent unauthorized copying of XP to unlimited numbers of drives, and you can't exactly blame Microsoft for doing this. The problem is if you decide you want to install a NEW PHYSICAL DRIVE rather than restoring your Ghost image back to the original drive as a backup restore. If you try to take your image and put it on a DIFFERENT or new drive, Windows will not let you do this. Try it, it will look like everything is going great until you boot up on the new drive, you'll just get stuck on the BLUE WELCOME screen, and get no farther- the OS will not boot up.

Previously, The long fix was to reinstall from scratch, XP, then restore the image. This will work, but an extra 30 or 40 minutes for that step. But there is a QUICK FIX-

It's rather simple- you'll need a Windows 95 or Windows 98 STARTUP DISK, a floppy, remember those things? Download the Startup Disk file online, or go through your old floppys and find one, or pop a Windows 98 CD in your machine before cloning, and make the Startup Disk first ( Its in the menu somewhere)

However, the easiest thing is to FIRST simply clone or restore to your new physical drive, but before you try to boot from the new hard drive, pop the Startup Disk in your floppy, SECOND make sure and boot from the floppy (this may require going into your machines CMOS menu if its not set by default to boot from a floppy inserted in the A drive), and when you get the A: prompt, type in this: fdisk/mbr This will only take a couple of seconds. Then remove the floppy, and reboot into your newly cloned/restored/new drive. Voila!! It will boot up.

If you need to know why this works, go here: Kawecki's Trick"

PLEASE NOTE- DO NOT EVER EVER EVER DEFRAGMENT YOUR XP NTSF GHOST IMAGE. THIS WILL WRECK IT and it will be worthless. Make the image, keep it current, AND LEAVE IT ALONE. Thus, obviously, don't put your NTSF Ghost image on a drive/partition that you defragment under any circumstance.

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WHAT I DO