Good ghost / image software(?)

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HTPCnewbie

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Master Geek

#25087 11-Aug-2008 20:53

Hi all,

I'm about to embark on my first HTPC build and from reading through the forums I figure I'll be doing a LOT of tweaking trying to get everything running smoothly...

I've seen a few of you recommending using ghost / image software to help rollback tweaks that make things worse.

Would be interested to know what ghost / image software you recommend... is there a decent free option?

Thanks!

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#156033 11-Aug-2008 20:56

I like Acronis. It's not free, but it's really good. There are a couple of free options though, but I never used those.

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HTPCnewbie

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Master Geek

#156038 11-Aug-2008 21:07

freitasm: I like Acronis. It's not free, but it's really good. There are a couple of free options though, but I never used those.

You mean True Image 11 Home?

I've never done this before, so don't really know what I'm doing... is it as simple as:
(1) Before making any changes to your system, take a image backup of the partition your program files are on
(2) Make changes to the system, and test
(3) If good, then do nothing. If bad, then restore the image / backup

Is it really as simple as that? Can I do the backup to a NAS? How do I restore if I backup to a NAS? (i.e. what do I boot off?)

How often do people go to this effort - anytime they tweak anything, or just major changes?

Cheers!

tonyhughes

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#156043 11-Aug-2008 21:14

I use Storagecraft ShadowProtect. Its fantastic. Backup to a NAS or DVD or other partition, either on a manual, or scheduled basis (I used to back up the system partition of my HTPC every day, and kept the last 2 weeks worth at any given time).

Restore from the installation CD - they have a bootable recovery environment in them.

My system partition on my XP MCE was about 2.8GB. I could do a full restore in about 4 minutes.

freitasm

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#156050 11-Aug-2008 21:28

Aconis will provide the tool to create boot disc which you can then use to start your computer, connect to a network and restore the image.

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HTPCnewbie

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Master Geek

#156051 11-Aug-2008 21:29

tonyhughes: I use Storagecraft ShadowProtect. Its fantastic. Backup to a NAS or DVD or other partition, either on a manual, or scheduled basis (I used to back up the system partition of my HTPC every day, and kept the last 2 weeks worth at any given time).

Restore from the installation CD - they have a bootable recovery environment in them.

My system partition on my XP MCE was about 2.8GB. I could do a full restore in about 4 minutes.

I assume you mean the Desktop version(?).

System requirements for Vista say I need a 40Gb HDD with 15Gb spare... but I see you have only 2.8Gb as your system partition(!) I was thinking about doing a 50Gb partition (on my 1Tb HDD) for the system... is that total overkill?

Thanks.

amanzi

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#156063 11-Aug-2008 21:45

HTPCnewbie:
tonyhughes: I use Storagecraft ShadowProtect. Its fantastic. Backup to a NAS or DVD or other partition, either on a manual, or scheduled basis (I used to back up the system partition of my HTPC every day, and kept the last 2 weeks worth at any given time).

Restore from the installation CD - they have a bootable recovery environment in them.

My system partition on my XP MCE was about 2.8GB. I could do a full restore in about 4 minutes.

I assume you mean the Desktop version(?).

System requirements for Vista say I need a 40Gb HDD with 15Gb spare... but I see you have only 2.8Gb as your system partition(!) I was thinking about doing a 50Gb partition (on my 1Tb HDD) for the system... is that total overkill?

Thanks.

I use the IT edition of ShadowProtect and it's awesome. But the desktop version gives you enough features for a single computer backup/restore so I'd definitely recommend that. I created a 64GB system partition for Vista on my 500GB hard drive which left just over 400GB free for media and recordings. 64GB is probably overkill though, 32GB should be fine, but I wouldn't go any less than that, even though it's possible.

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#156126 12-Aug-2008 00:29

Another user of ShadowProtect here.

I have a copy of the IT Edition myself and have sold the Server Edition to lots of clients.
Has worked great and saved a lot of hassle restoring a server when there has been some hardware failure.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

tonyhughes

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#156146 12-Aug-2008 07:42

My XP partition was actually 20GB, but only 2.8GB full.

For Vista, I thoroughly recommend a 40GB partition, and always plan to have 10 - 15GB spare space on it. You can go lower on both specs (say 20GB, and 5GB free) but if you don't know what you are doing, you are going to run into performance+space problems faster than foobar can advocate open source.

I use desktop edition mainly, but I also have IT edition and server edition too.

Desktop edition $125 + media + 1 year support.
Server edition $995 + media + 1 year support.
IT Edition ~$3000 (I think)

All RRP ex-GST.

The IT Edition rocks like you wouldn't believe. It gets given away in time-limited releases to some IT Integrators. 1 year of support is mandatory on the server/desktop editions.

You can install the desktop edition to run regular automatic backups on one machine, but the disk is good for manual backups and restores on as many machines as you have.

I have used Acronis, Ghost and Shadowprotect, and definitley reccommend SP.

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#156163 12-Aug-2008 08:32

I'll put my vote in for Acronis TrueImage - been using it for years to backup my windows boxes.

edit: Symantec Backup Exec for business backups - i've had great experiences with it and very few fails.

1gkar

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Ultimate Geek

#156379 12-Aug-2008 19:34

Must be nice to ba able spend $3000 on a piece of software

. Think I'll wait 'til I win powerball.

I'm still stuck in the backwaters, using Ghost version 3. Have it set up on a bootable CD so it boots straight into the Ghost DOS environment. It takes a while (about 17 minutes for 70% full 16GB boot partition with an Intel CPU. AMD takes longer).

Here is the forum for Ghost if you want to check it out. http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

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freitasm

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#156385 12-Aug-2008 19:56

Actually the official forum for Norton Ghost is hosted by Symantec. But as it happens you might find better answers in third party forums...

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kiwijunglist

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#156636 13-Aug-2008 16:39

Thanks

I wanted to know this information too.

I had been using XpressRecovery2 which is built into the bios of the motherboard,
however on 2 seperate occasions i have done a restore of backup, and then my system dies.
Obviously the program has made an error when backing up, but since the original system partition is
overwitten and the backup is corrupt, you are stuck with reinstalling everything!

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HTPCnewbie

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Master Geek

#157809 18-Aug-2008 20:10

Someone suggested to me that I could just use System Restore (which is part of Vista), but I'm skeptical.

Has anyone had any experience using this instead of standalone ghost/image software?

kiwijunglist

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#157810 18-Aug-2008 20:15

vista ultimate includes something even more powerful that system restore.
it includes something that allows you to do a backup image of the system drive, similar to the above programs.
however i have never used it myself, but google is your friend.

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exportgoldman

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#157825 18-Aug-2008 21:18

I'll put my vote in for Shadowprotect, Acronis supports tape drives and shrinking the image down to smaller drives but I had problems with it blue screening servers a few versions ago, and I'm very unforgiving when software does that to me :-)

ShadowProtect will support restore to smaller drives in the next release, but it is sorely missed, and the only major product which doesn't do it.

Ghost is still the good old standby, I have a BardCD which boots Windows XP off CDROM and then run ghost32, or if your old school Bradds Network boot floppy :-)

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