When I open the recovery backup browser I see like 5000 files that Ghost has backed up. I deleted these off the hard drive as I was only testing to learn how to use Ghost's folder backup function.
Now that I've deleted the backup files from the hard drive, Ghost tells me that I cannot delete these (from the recovery browser because they cannot be found). How do I clear the 5000 file listings from my recovery browser?
Stop the Ghost service...
Start > Run > services.msc.
Stop the Norton Ghost service.
Browse to ProgramData\Symantec\Norton Ghost\History and delete the .ffh file(s).
Browse to ProgramData\Symantec\FileBackup and delete catalog.dat.
Restart the Norton Ghost Service.
I stopped the service as you instructed but then you say to browse to ProgramData.
Where is it? I can't locate it. Even searching my hard drive did not bring any directory for ProgramData. And yes, I've turned on hidden files so I can see them.
You mean Application Data.
I think I found it.
If you enable "show hidden files and folders" then Programme Data will show.
Deric
Dstain, nope. But I found Application Data and everything was there (windows XP).
Ghost is terribly confusing.
With Drive Image 7, all I did was create a backup of a partiton and saved it in a folder.
Then if I needed to reinstall that image, I would erase the old partition and then run Drive image to restore the parition using the saved image.
Now in Ghost, I've saved two backup filse of two seperate partitions I wanted to save. I saved them in two different folders.
I ran a couple of test folder jobs and then cleared them by turning off the services, clearing the FFH file and the history.
Now when I ran "restore" it says my 2 partitions are not available. WHAT?????
Why?
I think it has something to do with me clearing the history. I cleared the history because when I did a search in folders I found about 400,000,000,000,000 trillion files and thought, what a WASTE OF MY TIME!
I only want to browse to my saved backup, look inside, see the file I want, and pull it out.
So having seen the 400,000 trillion files, I cleared it just as instructed above.
But now my images I saved of my 2 partitions say unavailable.
This is non-sense.
Why not make it simple? Save the image files, and if you need them later, browse for them (like Drive Image 7) and click resotre. It asks where do you want to restore it to, you show it. BLAMO! DI7 restores the partition.
This whole recovery point is just awful and if there's a way to do a simple backup then they should not make it so ambiguous.
If you want a simple system backup do the following:-
click on the "Tasks" tab and select "One Time Backup"
Make a new folder on you destination drive and direct the backup into that folder.
When you get to the "Drives" page highlight the drives you want to back up, eg. C:, D: etc and or partitions if any.
That recovery point will then contain your full backup and don't forget to tick the box "Verify recovery point after creation"
The OTB is a simple manual backup without any "complicated" settings, I use it most times and recover or re-image.
Deric
Dstain, forgive me for the rant. I, like so many others, can get frustrated when trying to learn new systems.
I did exactly as you say. But if I try to restore that partition, what do I do. Ghost says it's "unavailable".
I think you are choosing File and Folder Backup instead of Recovery Points. Ghost's Recovery Points are the same as Drive Image's v2i image files.
You are not the only one that gets frustrated at times, it is the nature of the beast.
It should only be unavailable if the drive is off or Ghost can't "see" it.
Can windows "see" your destination drive, what sort of drive is it?
If you want to Restore the image or Re-Image you need to boot up with the SRD (Symantec Recovery Disk) that you have created or use the installation disk to boot with.
Follow the instructions on the screen and "Recover My Computer", when that option is selected you will see the list of recovery points and you can select the one you want, usually the most recent and recover that backup.
Deric
OK.
So what do I need to do exactly to create the image? Lets start with step 1.
Step 1. Choose your destination media, usually an external drive and create a folder on the drive say "Backup 1"
Step 2. Install Ghost on the computer so that you can run a"hot" backup.
Step 3. Make a Custom SRD, you will need the installation CD to do this.
Step 4. Click on the "Tasks" tab and select "One Time Backup"
Step 5. Highlight the primary drive eg. C: and any partitions.
Step 5. For the location of the backup go to Browse and locate the new folder on the external drive
Step 6 check the box Verify etc. and then run.
This action will backup up your primary drive onto the external drive into the new folder.
When you have done that get back to us.
If you could post a pic of your disk management it would be helpful. Right click the computer icon and click Manage and then open Disk Management.
Deric
Two questions:
3) What is SRD (serial recovery disk)?
5) do I have to include C? Can I only make an image of another primary that's inactive?
Also, yes, I'll take a pic of my partitions.
auggybendoggy wrote:Two questions:
3) What is SRD (serial recovery disk)?
5) do I have to include C? Can I only make an image of another primary that's inactive?
Also, yes, I'll take a pic of my partitions.
The SRD is a recovery disk that you can create (Symantec Recovery Disk) it will be customised to your computer and in case of a major crash you can recover with that disk.It will find your files that you backed up.
That is why I want you to post the pic of disk management so that I can tell you exactly what you need to backup.
For example I have a multi boot machine with a primary drive(C:) with 4 partitions and a secondary drive (D:) with 2 partitions and I back up my 5 operating systems 4 on C: and 1 on D:All these have to be backed up.
Ghost is primarily a computer backup and recovery software and should be used to backup your computer.
In simple terms if a computer has only one drive C: that will contain the O/S and all apps and data files and that must be backed up.
So post the pic of disk management and lets have a look at what you have got because some pcs have partitions on the primary drive .
Deric
Deric,
Thanks for the help.
I haven't had time to get to the partition pics but I will.
I tried d/l an ISO from norton to make a recovery disk and the CD failed. I am however, able to boot from the Norton disk and get to the utilities you mentioned.
I selected recover my computer and it seemd to find the ONE TIME BACKUP FILE I had created per your instructions.
Also by seleting advanced options, I saw that I could delete the old partition (for example, if I had a virus and my windows 8 partition was corrupt) and then choose to install the backup in that unallocated place.
That's exactly what I've been trying to achieve. It's much like Drive Image 7 but it's rearranged in it's menus and options.
Hopefully I'll get the pic up of my drive.
Thanks again.
That's good news,
it seems that you are nearly there, we just need to have a quick look at your disk management to see what actually needs backing up.
Pleased to see that the recovery or re-image as we call it worked ok.
The next stage is to "Clone" your drive in case of a Drive failure but that exersize is not for the faint hearted.
The images that you create with a OTB are also used to "Clone" a new drive in the same computer.
That is something to think about in the future.
Deric