I have a very unlucky father. About every 18 months, for some reason, he experiences some kind of hardware failure with his computer. I am then called upon to help him fix and restore it from backup, costing both him and me several days before he is back to normal again. He and I have finally decided that we should obtain a hardware clone of his current PC and maintain a software clone using some utility like Norton Ghost. Although I am fairly tech savy, I must admit that I am not familiar with all of the features and uses of Ghost, and whether or not it is ideal for this purpose. So I seek the advice of this forum.
What I want to do is maintain two identical computers on my fathers desk - one primary and one standby. The computers will be networked together on the same subnet and will be connected to a single monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers using a KVM switch. During normal operation, my dad will work off of the primary computer, and the standby computer can remain turned off. Every couple of days or so, he will turn on the standy PC and perform some automated process that will clone his primary PC's hard drive and restore it on the standy. Then he will shut off the standy computer until it is needed.
If the primary PC's hardware fails again, my dad can simply switch over and use the standby computer as if nothing happened, and then alert me so that I can repair his primary computer at my leisure, instead of the frantic rush I normally face. Can Norton Ghost be setup to perform this process easily? If not, is there other software that can be used for my purposes? Perhaps there is a better process I can consider? I await all constructive advice.