I just bought the boxed version, installed it in XP pro with all the SPs and updates, and am having a play with the Ghost tools.
I've been experimenting, swapping HDDs in and out of my machine to establish if Ghost (I like the name!) can actually do a full system restore. I don't think it can- please tell me if I'm missing something.
Here's what I'm trying to do.
Set up a new PC, install OS and lots of software tools I use for work. Various compilers, hardware control facilities and miscellaneous drivers for USB things. Set all the software just the way I like it. This has teken me about 3 days. I don't want to do it again. Windows itself takes about 5 hours, slipstreaming various drivers in.
Delete any rubbish and temp files, to minimise data to it's bare min and Install Norton ghost.
Create an all encompassing one off recovery point and save it on an external drive.
Create a custom recovery CD based on the CD supplied.
Total drive used space is about 5GB just in system files, drivers and software, without a single user document!!!!
Shut down computer.
Put a different hard disk drive in my machine. Empty, not partitioned or formatted, just as if my HDD had crashed.
I now want to restore it back to where it was just after new, original machine but with a different HDD.
I keep all my documents on a USB key and sky-drive to be safe, not on the hard drive, so they have nothing to do with the backup.
Boot from CD and provide the recovery point data file via USB (or external drive, or another CD). I've just been playing with using USB as the storage source for the moment.
After recovery, I do not get back what I had before. Nothing like it. The drivers aren't installed and all the setups don't work.
I don't want to reinstall windows and all the other stuff and then restore, as this defeats the purpose of me backing up my system. I want to do a system backup, not a documents backup.
I'd like to be able to boot from a recovery CD, supply the recovery data (CD or USB) and end up with EXACTLY what I had an hour ago. I don't believe that Norton Ghost can do this, can it? If it can, what am I doing wrong?!?!
Apologies for such a long winded Q, but I'm trying to be very specific about my requirements!
cheers,
fred