Other Norton Products

[Fredhead]

OK..Here is what I have:

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, Service Pack 2, Active Directory Domain Controller Master.  The C: drive is rapidly running out of disk space.  I purchased a new 1 Terabyte drive and Windows Ghost 15, but it tells me that my OS is unsupported.  I know ghost works fine as I did it to another computer with Windows XP.

Does anyone know of an inexpensive app other than Ghost that I can obtain a drive image from a server computer? Symantec Enterprise edition, Acronis and Kace are out of my budget as I am a small business.  I need to get this drive image before my computer runs out of space and crashes.

Thanks in advance,

Fredhead

[Brian_K]

Fredhead,

How large is your OS partition? How much free space is present?

Can you create a Ghost image by booting into the CD recovery environment? (Ghost doesn't need to be installed)

[Fredhead]

Brian,

The entire drive is 80 GB with only one partition.

I am new to Ghost imaging, not sure how to boot into CD recovery envirnment.  I purchased Ghost from Symantec, downloaded the files, and I do not have documentation for it.  Any help?

Fredhead

[redk9258]

You should have received a link to an ISO file that contains the contents of the Ghost CD. If not you can download the SRD HERE.

To run a Cold Backup, you will need the license key. Ghost is most likely programmed not to work with servers since it is really targeted at consumers. Symantec System Recovery Server Edition is probably what you really need.

[DaveH]

You can do a cold image of server 2003 from the recovery disk.

I did it as a test before because I was curious if it would identify it as a server and prevent you from doing it like some other software out there.

Dave

[Brian_K]

Fredhead,

You missed answering my question about free space in the partition. If there isn't enough Ghost might not work.

[DaveH]

Although it would work to replace the drive, I think you should also consider what your going to do for an ongoing basis.

If you stick with Ghost you will be able to manually create backup images in the future but you will need some kind of program to backup all the changed data in between the images.   Your server would also be offline when your manually making these images.

I believe there is another product called "Image for Windows" that does not make the same distinction between server and non server operating systems.  That one should allow you to install the product and automatically create images for backups on a scheduled ongoing basis.

I only mention another product because I agree with you.  It seems Symnatec products are very resonable for home users and large enterprise customers but it is not cost effective at all for a small business or single server.  There products seem to leave out that "middle tier" of users.

Dave