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Try my site WWW.ELPBack.com !! This is an old Site I wrote many years ago, on how to protect your PC data. I now own a national, secure, off-site backup service. User data is very valuable, and I've built one of the best off-site backup solutions around to protect that data. combined with Ghost, my off-site back up is a very powerful tool. If still after browsing through this site, you are having problems or need more info, please check my useful links drop down. There are some very good sources of information, including the Ghost Knowledge base. It has gotten much better, and is a very good resource on problems, I even use it. The info I put in to site is not every thing, and this site should not be used to replace the instructions for Ghost. I highly recommend reading the PDF file, or at least skim through it. If you have any ideas please E-mail me your ideas or suggestions.
What is Ghost? Ghost is a DOS imaging program. This means it supposed to only be run in true DOS, using a boot floppy. It is used to clone PC's, in environment where a user has many similar PC's that must have identical software. It can be used to back up your HD's, to protect from both a full system crash, and physical HD crash. This is what I'll be discussing here. You can store the images on a second HD, or removable media like CDR. What will it protect me from? It depends on how you use it. If you just want to be able to recover from a fatal OS crash, then keeping an image file on another partition will work. But if that HD physically fails, you back up will be useless. If you want to be protected from physical HD failure, then store the images on another HD or on removable media. If Mother Nature is always blowing down your house, then you will want removable media. And also will want to implement some type of auto scheduling back up for your personal data. For the most part we will be worrying about an OS failure. The methods I will be using will be perfect to recover a system from a non-booting OS. Is Ghost the best back up tool? That depends on your needs. There are many back up tools around. And each has its pluses and minuses. Take MS back up, no really, take it, I don't want it. The problem with MS back up 9X (licensed from Seagate at the time), is that in order to recover or do a full restore, you must first do a small install of the OS, then start the back up program, and it will restore the files from the removable media. Also MS back does not support CD recorders. Sure you can use one CDR if you have packet software, but that's it. No spanning, so you can only back up around 1.5G compressed. You can also store MS back up files on another HD or partition. So for the most part MS back up is not a good tool for full system back ups. It is good for personal file back ups, since it can be scheduled. The newer version of MS back up included with Win2000 is much better. I'm still testing it, and have not used it for a full system restore yet. Adaptec has a very nice back up tool, called "Take Two". This is a powerful back up tool, and works like Ghost. Except its really simple to use. The program runs in windows and backs up directly the CDR(W) or another partition. It uses UDF formatted CDs, normally this would be bad as UDF disks are unreadable in DOS. But take two makes a custom restore floppy, that lets DOS read UDF disks. Take Two makes an image of any partition, and burns it to CD, on the fly. And it supports spanning with compression. using Take Two you can perform a full system restore in minutes. I have used 3 times and all worked great. Take two allows you to restore individual files too. If you find Ghost too complicated to use, or do not wish to master Ghost, Adaptec's Take two is for you. So, what can Ghost offer you? How abut peace of mind. If you use Ghost using the method I'll be discussing, you will have a vampire for a computer. What will you need to implement Ghost as a back up tool? First and foremost some knowledge of computers. I will try to make it very simple, but it will take a new user some time to get the hang of it. You will need the Ghost program, including Ghost explorer. And you will need a second HD or partition. And for ultimate protection, some type of removable media. I'll be using a CDR recorder. A Ricoh 7060a unit. Any Recorder will do. If you're in to 4X4 ing or Dodge trucks you may like my site. It has videos of my off road adventures. I mostly run in Macgregor range, the Worlds largest artillery rage. Army's from around the world come here to practice, including Japan and many other nations. Lots of tank rutted mud roads, and mountain trails. I also hit the red sands in Far East El Paso TX.
WEB page designed by DEK. Contact at dkingery@hotmail.com If you found errors or have info that could be used to improve please send me an E-mail
Try my Off-Site Backup service at
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How
to use Ghost to make a back up of your OS
