Ghost 2002 vs. Ghost 2003

Is there any big difference between the two?

Here is a chart of comparison between Ghost 7.5 and Ghost 2003.

http://www.symantec.com/region/au_nz...parison_03.pdf

Hi Falcon Speed,

Did you mean to ask of the differences between Ghost 2002 and Ghost 2003? If so, two big differences that I know of are:

1) Ghost 2003 is the first version to have a Windows interface.

2) Ghost 2003 is the first version that has the ability to write an image file to a local drive that is formatted NTFS.

*** Edit ***

I edited the thread title to change it to 2002.

Limerick

Hi Limerick,

How are you?

Yes, thanks for the correction and also thanks for the info.

How can Ghost2003 see the NTSF partition from DOS? In other words, how can it write the image file to an NTSF partition when DOS does not see NTSF. Wouldn't that go against Microsoft security issue?

Thanks

Hi again, Falcon Speed,

Sorry that I don't have any intricate details to offer as to how Ghost 2003 is able to write to NTFS from DOS. I'm content to simply accept the fact that it does. :D

As to it being a security issue with the good folks at MS, not that I am aware of. The Drive Image product has been doing this for a good while, and this capability of writing to an NTFS partition is indeed a welcome addition to the Ghost product.

Limerick

I have ghost 2002 and backup to CD's. Does this mean I should get 2003. I have XP Home.

Limerick, Thank you greatly.

BTW... Is that you in the picture? :)

Jim Simon, only if your have your drive formatted as NTSF.

It is NTSF, does this mean my backups are no good? I've never had to use one yet.

Hi Falcon Speed,

You're welcome. Yes, that is my ol' ugly mug in the picture. :p I was out in the back yard playing my mandolin one day when my wife took the shot.

Jim Simon, you have nothing to worry about as far as the NTFS issue is concerned, since you are storing your Ghost images on CD. If you wanted to create an image and store it on another partition of the same hard drive, or on a different physical hard drive, your version of Ghost could not do it if the destination drive was formatted NTFS. (Only Ghost 2003 can do so.)

That being said, I would not be comfortable at all in relying on a backup system that I had never tested. When the proverbial chips are down, you don't want to get any unpleasant surprises when you are desperate to restore, only to find that your backup is faulty. I would encourage you to do some testing, to ensure that all is well with your backup regimen...

Limerick

Thanks Limerick for the info.

I know I should test the backups but I've been just a little hesitant, afraid of wiping everything out.

Limerick,

Actually, I just thought of two more questions which I know you probably have the answers to them.

First, what is the main purpose of the window in Ghost 2003? Is it so that it allow the user to make an image of the partition or disk while window is still running? If that is true, what will happen if the partition being image constantly gets new files or files being deleted?

Second, Ghost 2003 has two other options that I have never seen before. "Run Ghost Interactively" and "Create Virtual Partition" What are they?

Third, thank you for your time.:)

Hi Falcon Speed,

The Windows interface in Ghost 2003 is primarily for the benefit of the user. Since many enthusiasts do virtually everything "in Windows" these days, the world of DOS can be daunting for many. Even when using the Windows interface to set up a Ghost task, Ghost 2003 then boots to DOS and carries out the instructions that you have given it. If you choose the "Run Ghost Interactively" option, the program simply boots to DOS and you then have to manually instruct Ghost to do whatever you want. (Like older versions of Ghost require.)

I haven't yet used the "Create Virtual Partition" choice. However, a couple of months ago, I ran into a configuration issue that Ghost 2003 could not work with. I had set up a machine for my son that was a "triple-boot" setup. Each of the three operating systems was in its own Primary partition. Then I had an Extended (with one Logical) that all three OSes could access.

When trying to use Ghost 2003 from within Windows, it errored out with a message that it was not able to create a virtual partition. (No surprise, since I had already used the four allotments, with three Primary and one Extended.) The program still worked fine when booted to DOS and utilized interactively...

Limerick

Quote:

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Originally posted by Falcon Speed
How can Ghost2003 see the NTSF partition from DOS? In other words, how can it write the image file to an NTSF partition when DOS does not see NTSF. Wouldn't that go against Microsoft security issue?

---

What security issue? The only thing which enforces NTFS permissions is Windows itself - if you boot to DOS, anything which knows how to read the NFTS structure (like Ghost 2003, or NTFSDOS at www.sysinternals.com) can read and write.

Limerick, thank you for being so informative like always.

Tuttle, I thought NTFS was created for security issue. Well, I got that info from my friend. He told me that NTSF is more secure than Fat32. Maybe I misunderstood him.

This might be off the track from this post a bit, but what are the advantages of formatting a partition NTFS rather than Fat32? I know speed is one issue and less defragment is the other one.

Thanks, will do research on NTSF and Fat32

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Falcon Speed
How can Ghost2003 see the NTSF partition from DOS? In other words, how can it write the image file to an NTSF partition when DOS does not see NTSF. Wouldn't that go against Microsoft security issue?

Thanks

---

Not familiar with all the details, but it may be like Drive Image, which uses Caldera DOS...a DOS "emulator" of sorts that can read NTFS.

Going have to check into this Drive Image Software! :D

Thanks Bistro

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Falcon Speed
Tuttle, I thought NTFS was created for security issue. Well, I got that info from my friend. He told me that NTSF is more secure than Fat32. Maybe I misunderstood him.

---

It's more secure in Windows. But if you let someone reboot to another operating system the permissions are completely ignorable.

NTFS also allows you to encrypt files and directories. That can't be overcome from DOS, but it wouldn't stop you from saving new data to the drive, only reading what is already there.

Thank you for taking the time to reply back.:)

Hey guys, I've tried backing up and restoring via Ghost 2003 and found an interesting problem (also happens with Acronis Backup).

If I backup a single partition System drive to a separate drive and then restore that backup to a single partition Active drive (not the System drive), I've noticed that works fine. When I start up the copy, it boots fine and shows the various users, although it may take up to ½ hour to do so and may have to be restarted a couple of times.

However, if I attempt to do the restore to the target drive's first (and Active) paartition of two, the computer will start to come up (begin to show the start screen) but will hang without showing the various users and you can't proceed from there.

What is the solution to successfully restoring to a two or more partition drive?

Thanks, in advance.

Do acronis and Ghost 2003 have any issues with windows activation etc? I have a windows xp home at my house, and a Windows xp pro on my office computer. With acronis, can I transfer the whole thing from my home machine onto my office? (Lots of tools and software etc apart from the data and configs!)

Would appreciate any experiences.

Thanks

Howdy folks,

I have never used Acronis, so will defer to those who are familiar with it.

DocDon, you ask "What is the solution to successfully restoring to a two or more partition drive?"

Sorry that I have no solution to offer. However, I have restored a drive that contains an image of partitions C thru G and have encountered no such adverse result. The machine booted right up after the restore was completed.

erick_p, I haven't seen any issues with Ghost and the Activation of XP.


Limerick

Thanks a bunch Limerick! Very helpful.

erick_p,

There is one thing that you might want to know. I don't recommend taking the ghost image of your home computer and reimaging it into a DIFFERENT computer. The hardware are different and will give you some trouble. Of course, you can update the drivers and like that but I prefer a fresh copy of the OS.

I took a ghost image of my computer and were trying to restore it on my sister's computer. It was giving me lots of complication in terms of detecting hardware and video. It was much easier to just redo her system and take an image of that computer.

Hi
ghost pe and ghost (full) was/are two slightly different animals

I am not yet familir with full 2003

faik, what pe and full (up to 2002) have in common is a capability or an option one can choose while in the windows screen

and one can do same while in DOS, even from a command-line

in DOS; command-line option one can choose to include "master-boot-record" (what incluseds bootloader) , and "all-partitions" (while cloning disk to disk)
to do this, I used -fro -ia -ib

when i did disk to disk, to recover data,,, this Dos option is what I called Magic

it works in 6.x and older, and 2002 PE as well

I am going to have to get me 2003, and see how much 2003 improved over 2002 (FWIW, i had corp 6.0x , and now have 2002- pe )

DocDon, I've tried restoring a ghost image using GhostBasic from the menu and haven't had much luck. I have to go with Ghost Advanced and "run ghost interactively" before I can get a decent image restore.

There's definitely something wrong with what you're getting for results. I've never had problems bigger than Norton AV not working after a restore. Or my sound being bad. In either case, restoring the image again solved the problem.

Thanks. Again, I have only occasional problems when going from a single partition drive to a single partition driive. The problem is when I try to copy from a single partition drive onto a dual partition drive.

I have read of this problem before and it supposedly has something to do with "prep"ing a drive. I just have no data on this or hw to handle it.

The problem I get is that the intro screen shows up but without any users and they either usually show up after a while (within ½ hour) if on a single partition drive. On a drive with two partitions I never get it to come up - it just shows the intro screen with no users.

Maybe that is enough data for you to guess what is going wrong.

Thanks, in advance.

Doc, are you using ghost images or clones?