How to test Ghost backup with a spare HD

Archive
1

Hi

I have windows 7 and all my apps installed. I have a ghost backup on my third HD. Also have a recovery cd and tested it by booting up

the system. It works fine.

 

1. Can I use a spare HD and remove my current C drive from my system and test the backup to the spare drive.

2. If so does this drive have to be formatted. It currently has data on it but its not important.

3. If its installing the OS again to the new drive do I need to have my windows serial number available for the install.

4. The spare HD is 800 Gig, the original C drive with win7 installed is 250 Gig....is this a problem

2

Hi

I have windows 7 and all my apps installed. I have a ghost backup on my third HD. Also have a recovery cd and tested it by booting up

the system. It works fine.

 

1. Can I use a spare HD and remove my current C drive from my system and test the backup to the spare drive.

2. If so does this drive have to be formatted. It currently has data on it but its not important.

3. If its installing the OS again to the new drive do I need to have my windows serial number available for the install.

4. The spare HD is 800 Gig, the original C drive with win7 installed is 250 Gig....is this a problem

3

Hi Brian,

 

Since the new HD is larger, he would also want to select the resize option during restoral.

 

Allen

4

Hi

 

I`m unclear as to why I need to reimage my system when I have a image stored on my third drive?

I thought I could just remove the current HD, install the spare, bootup and point the restore to the image

on the third drive

5

Allen,

 

That's correct. Beebee will be able to choose a custom size for the restored partition. Anything from 250 to 800 GB.

 

http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=other&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=16156#M16156
6

beebee,

 

It is a drive letter issue. If HD1 (partitioned) was in your computer and was seen by Win7 prior to the Ghost image being written to HD2 then the image restored to HD1 might not boot. If HD1 hasn't been seen by Win7 (at any time) then you can use your current image.

 

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

 

See "do not let old-XP see the new partition before cloning."   It applies to images as well as cloning.

7

Hi

 

I need to format the spare drive prior to attempting the test restore. I have XP handy, can I use

its format ability to format the spare HD. Is this a problem. It would leave a reference on the HD

to windows xp. Now that I think about it can you format using the xp install CD but not install the

complete OS. That seems like a waste of time for this test.

8

After you delete the partitions on HD1, there will be nothing to format. It will be unallocated space. That’s what you need.

9

Hi

 

I wanted to mention that my test with my spare hard drive was a total success. Thanks for the help.

This is absolutely amazing that this works. Usually reinstalling my OS and all my applcations takes

hours. The test restore took 10 minutes. 

10

That is great to hear. I restore my main OS partition every week or two. Sometimes for trivial reasons such as an icon looking different today than it did yesterday. But it fixes the problem. Don’t be afraid to restore an image if you have a bad installation, a bad Windows update, a program no longer working, a slow startup, a virus, etc. It’s a good way to fix a problem that can’t be easily fixed.