I am not very familiar with Norton Ghost. I'm using v15 with Windows 7 (64 bit). Today I did my first backup from my system drive (C:) where all my data (system and documents) resides. I used the NG "Backup Drive" option when I backed up.
The data on C: was about 150Gb. However when I looked at the external drive I used to back up, it only had about 100Gb of data on it. Did I back up all my files, including My Documents and My Computer, or do I need to do something else? If all my files got backed up, why is there a difference in the amount of data on both the drives?
I apologize for this elementary question, but I need to get the backup right. I'm going to be sending the computer out for repair soon and don't want to go through the hassle of recovering my data from offsite and reinstalling all my apps and updates if the repair techs reload the Operating System.
Did you do a file and folder backup or a system image (recovery point)?
If you make a system image you end up with a large .v2i file. The system image includes windows and all your programs and data (everything).
If you did a file and folder backup you only backed up your data. You end up with a whole bunch of files (I can't remember the extentions on it, maybe fbs or something).
A system image size is based on not how large your hard drive s but the amount of data on the drive, the image file usually ends up 60-70% of the size of the data.
If you ended up with a large v2i file, double click it.
It will open up in the image explorer and you will see that it has everything, the windows folder, all your data and programs.
Keep in mind that is only the C partition. Almost all windows 7 systems have additional partitions that are usually hidden.
Look in disk management to see how many partitions you have on the drive and if you see others, go back into Ghost and do a "One time backup" of each of the other partitions. On the screen you select the partitions with, click the box to "show hidden drives".
Dave, I did a system image backup, and the file size of the backup was about 65% of the size of the source data. So, based on your response to my original question, it looks like I backed up all the necessary data.
Dave, I went into Disk Management and found the following partitions on my system disk (Disk 0):
OS (C:) 681Gb NTFS
SYSTEM (no drive letter) 199Mb NTFS
RECOVERY (E:) 16Gb NTFS
HP_TOOLS (no drive letter) 103 Mb FAT32
I've already backed up OS (C:). Should I back up the other three (SYSTEM, RECOVERY and HP_TOOLS) using the "one time backup" option on Norton Ghost? Will I have a problem with HP_TOOLS since it's FAT32 and my backup external drive is formatted NTFS?
The first partition is the SRP partition, it contains the boot files and if you look in disk management it is usually the active partition. If you don't restore that partition you have to use a windows 7 installation disk or startup repair disk to get your system to boot.
Although it's not critical we consider it important so go ahead and make an image of it.
The recovery partition is necessary only if you want to restore the system to a factory state. Some people have no need fo do that and either reley on Ghost backups or they have made a set of restore DVD's using the utility that most preinstalled systems have.
So that partition is optional, but if you got extra space you might as well image that as well. It's eaiser to delete the file later than to wish you had it.
The HP tools partition is so small you might as well image that as well. It doesn't matter that the partition is FAT32, the image file is like any other file and can reside on any file system.
I never used the tools on my HP but a lot of people have found them helpful.
If you have enough space on the external drive you might as well image all of them.
When you get your laptop back it will give you more options on what you want to do, it may come back with the same configuration and you end up needing only the C drive image but you never know whats going to happen.