Other Norton Products

[erik_carlstrom]

If you use the third drive you'll be performing a "My Computer" backup.  You won't be doing a copy.  Copy My Drive creates an image and then lays that image down on the new drive.  It skips the process of saving that image as a .v2i file.  If you create the image to the third drive it will only save a file (with an extension of .v2i) that you would then use to restore once you install your new drive in the machine (restoring using the recovery disk included on the Ghost CD).

[bravenewroad]

OK, now we're getting somewhere. I backed up regularly with Ghost in the past, so could I just work with the last backup I have on my separate external backup drive?

Would the Ghost startup CD turn the installed new drive into a boot drive for me, or do I have to do that myself -- either before or after restoring from the USB drive?

--Joe

[erik_carlstrom]

Absolutely, you can use one of your previous images.  That's exactly how Ghost is intended to be used.  The only thing you need to do is during the restore just ensure that you have the option to make the partition bootable.  This will set the boot record correctly while the image is layed down on the new drive.

[bravenewroad]

Erik--

I write from my restored computer. Unfortunately an image made after a spell of clattering didn't recover, but an earlier one did and I've been able to pluck files created since then off the dying drive. So far it appears that nothing has been lost.

Thanks for the assistance.

--Joe