Sorry for the elementary question. I am not an IT pro (by any stretch!) and the app seems like it's designed with them in mind. I just got my computer back from the repair shop, and they reloaded the operating system, so all my data and apps are gone. Before I sent it to the repair shop, I backed up my system and data to an external hard drive. I reinstalled Norton Ghost, but got lost when I tried to use it to restore the system and data from my backup. The online help wasn't of much value to me.
Are there some instructions which approach a "restore from backup" in an easily understood stepwise fashion. If there is, can someone send me a link to it? If not, can someone provide some guidance here? I tried looking for the answer on Google and searching in this forum, but nothing seemed to fit very well.
If the hard drive is just like before with the same 4 partitions, is the C drive the same size as before?
(About 681GB).
I think it should be the same if they did a factory restore. If thats the case you should be able to simply restore the image for the C drive. (partition).
You can use Ghost to image the current installation if you want but thats optional because you could always restore it to factory conditions and end up just like it was when you got the system back.
But thats up to you.
To restore the system like you had it before, boot the system with the Ghost 15 recovery disk and have your external drive attached.
After the recovery disk boots all the way, click "Recover My Computer"
On the next screen click "next"
the next screen it will say "View Recovery Points By:" change that box using the arrow to say "Filename"
Then click the "Browse" button and navagate to the external drive and select the image you made for the C drive and click Next.
On the next screen leave the box checked that says "verify recovery point before recovery" and on the right side click the "edit" button.
Verify that the C drive is selected as the target for the recovery. It should be the partition highlighted.
Since we are only recovering the C drive and the system boots you can uncheck the box "restore original disk signature".
Click the "OK" box on the bottom and then click "next" to proceed with the recovery.
Deric, I'm not sure how to clear the drive by creating unallocated space, or the elements of running an image transfer. Is it a pretty straightforward process to someone like me who has limited familiarity with both Norton Ghost and the more advanced aspects of disk management?
I'm not against throwing in the towel if I'm too far over my head, and turning the restore over to the local computer repair techs. I thought it would be a pretty straightforward process to restore from my backup, and it's turning out to be more complicated than I thought it would be.
Creating the unallocated space is simple, right click computer and then click manage and then disk management.
Select the primary drive and right click to delete.
Dave's instructions are an image transfer just clear the C: partition as I describe and select the unallocated space when prompted.
Before you do anything backup with a "one time backup" option and make sure when you back up highlight all partitions on that drive.
If your original backup contains all the partitions it is a simple matter just to select "recover my computer" when you boot up with the disk select the recovery point and highlight all partitions Ghost will recover the lot all in order.
I didn't question your instructions, that was for what I call a image transfer, I have no problem with that.
When using Ghost 15 it is a bit confusing when you have to use the edit function that is why I said create the unallocated space on the partition C: That way you just direct the transfer to the unallocated space.
If he had previously backed up All the partitions on the primary drive initially then it is a simple matter to recover in the normal way and let Ghost do it automatically.
As you know I have always selected all partitions at once both with G12, G15 and SSR 2013 and I know you like to image one at a time.
Just a difference of opinion that's all between two accomplished Ghost users.
Creating the unallocated space is simple, right click computer and then click manage and then disk management.
Select the primary drive and right click to delete.
You can't delete the windows partition from inside windows, windows will not let you delete it'self.
One time backups were already done on all the partitions and I see no reason to restore everything because it's only the C drive that needs to be replaced.
As for using the edit button, thats where most of the options used for the restore are. You need to make sure the settings are corect so while your on that screen it's a simple matter to look at the box and make sure the right target is selected.
If all the partitions really did need to be restored, (like if was on a new drive), I would not suggest "selecting them all at once" anyway. We know that when more than one hidden partitions are involved, Ghost sometimes puts them in the wrong order when done all at once.
In this case all that needs to be done is a restore of the C partition. When the system came back from repairs it had been restored to a factory setting.
Think of it just like having a windows problem and just needing to restore the windows partition, the other partitions, sizes, and contents are the same.
This is how I restore my windows partitio if I ever need to. Boot to the recovery disk, select the image, make sure the correct partition is the target and do the restore. There is no need to delete any partitions and make unallocated space, it's an image restore and not a copy drive and the existing partition has the correct drive letter and is the correct size already.
one thing I tend to forget is that I work most of the time on a multi boot machine and only have partitions with O/Ss on them and of course you are right Windows will not let you delete the one you are in.
Preparing a second drive for transfer is different that can be done in disk management.
Now you have reminded I have used diskpart included on the SRD to create the unallocated space and then did a full recovery of the primary drive with the 4 O/S by selecting the recovery point on the backup drive.
The only time I had trouble with Ghost 15 recovering from the recovery point was when I had 4 separate drives and it did mess it up.
I have never had a problem on the single drive with 4 partitions but I must admit nowadays I do recover a single O/S when necessary.
It is a pity that G15 didn't follow G12 when it comes to image restore because G12 doesn't use the edit function it is much simpler and easy for the inexperienced Ghost user.
Dave and Deric, I struck out on the restore. When I booted from Norton Boot Disk, I could not navigate to my external hard drive to access my backups, even though the drive and backups show up just fine when I boot from Windows. Tried several times, each with the same result.
So, I reverted back to the slow, cumbersome way that I used the last two times I got the computer back from the shop. I'm in the process of getting my data back from Carbonite, and re-installing my apps from my CD's.
I'm not giving up with Ghost. As soon I get finished, I'm going to take another run with backing up using the app. This time when the backup is complete, I'll immediately boot from the Norton Boot Disk to see if I can navigate to my external drive. If I have trouble, I'll be back on this forum.
I thank you both very much for all the assistance you have provided me. Even though I have not been successful, I've learned more about the Ghost program from the help you've provided. Only wish I knew more about IT, so I understood what I was doing better and I didn't have to follow instructions in such a cookbook way.
Deric, when I tried (and failed) to restore from my backup, the external hard drive was connected directly to the computer, and I also tried searching for the drive and the backups by date as well as filename. No luck.
Once I get all my data back from Carbonite and re-install my apps, I'll use Ghost to do a backup to the external drive and then boot with the Norton Boot Disk to see if I can find the drive and do a restore. If I have any problems I'll use the info in your last post, and come back to the forum if I need any additional help.
Again, can't say thanks enough to you and Dave for all the assistance you've provided along the way. I really appreciate your giving of your time and knowledge to help newbies such as myself navigate this app.
If I am following this thread correctly, you have an image of your Windows partition on an external USB drive. You can access the image using Windows Explorer and see it. From the Ghost 15 Symantec Recovery Disc, the drive is not recognized, Is this by chance a USB 3 drive connected to a USB 3 port? If so, there is a limitation of Ghost 15 (actually Windows Preinstall Environment 2 -WinPE) that cannot access USB 3 drives. You can either try using a different USB port, an older USB cable or download the SRD for SSR 2013. This is based on WinPE 4 and has USB 3 drivers. It will restore Ghost 15 images just fine.
Like Red said, make sure you are not using a USB 3 drive (blue port) connect to a (white) port and see if they are visible.
When you run a backup open the Ghost UI and select the "Tasks" tab and run a "One Time Backup" this is a simple manual backup with no "complicated" options.
Remember to tick the box "show hidden drives" and highlight all the 4 partitions to backup, browse to the destination drive and select the folder to run the backup to. If you haven't made a folder you can do so on that screen.
Click next and tick the box verify recovery point and next and finish.
Ghost will then backup all your partitions and put them into the new folder in one recovery point.
Just a point to think about, if you have a Windows installation disk you could have cleared the partitions and installed a "custom" install. That would have eliminated the other three partitions and you would finish up with a "simple" drive, just the O/S which includes the boot menu.
You could then partition the drive and have 30gig for the O/S and the rest for your data.
Ghost can then backup your O/S and apps quickly (minutes) and it is a simple matter to recover or re-image.
You can also use Ghost to run incremental backups of your data partition.
We haven't seen a pic of your disk management, I am sure DaveH would like to have a look at it to confirm what is your best option regarding future backups.