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Since you are litterally copying the drive, I would agree with Dave. A one time backup is an image with a single recovery point. The copy drive functionality bypasses the image creation part and ensures that all data (data, registry, boot record if you select it, etc) is copied to the new drive. Be sure that if you swap drives to follow the user's guide instructions especially around master/slave/pin configuration/etc.
I am using Ghost 12 with Windows XP Pro and want to have a copy of my present system drive which is on (Disk 1) to be on a new drive (Disk 2) of the same computer. This is my question: If I use a “One Time Backup” or “Copy My Hard Drive” to accomplish this, will I have any problems using my computer if I leave the original system drive on (Disk 1) and have my new drive with same system on (Disk 2)? This would be temporary and not permanent. I am asking this only from a technical point of view and not about licensing issues.
Which method do you feel is better — “One Time Backup” or “Copy My Hard Drive”?
Also, what if I had the same circumstances using Vista Business or using Ghost 14 when I upgrade?
how would you copy a hard drive from an Xp to Vista computer assuring yourself that the program files will be usable on the vista computer assuming they are compatible
Ghost copies the system. So, if you were to copy from a system with XP to a system that currently has Vista, you would end up with Xp. Imaging programs do not copy the programs and data alone. They copy the system in its entirety. Are you looking for a settings migration tool or a tool that will take your currently installed programs and copy those over to a new system alone? I know of no program that can reliably do that. Even if you created an install toolkit with InstallRite and just saved the files that are added while using the application you will most likely end up with an unusable program if you use on a system with a different OS. The only exception would be simple applicaitons that don't use the registry and are stand alone within the folder that they reside.
I thank everyone for their replies to my questions. My original post is being misunderstood.
I am not mixing Widows XP Pro with Vista or making only a typical 1:1 copy.
The end result of what I want is to have a copy of my present Windows XP Pro on a new disk and leave the original on the disk where it is now. I then would have 2 Windows XP Pro systems that are identical (or nearly identical), the copy and the original, both being bootable system drives that are on different disks on the same computer.
I have used what has been called copies, images, clones or backups from PowerQuest then Norton and Acronis many times but one time I did leave the original disk connected along with the copy. I did this with Windows XP Pro and using an earlier version Norton Ghost with a backup image — now a restore point. I had both system drives — the original and copy on different disks on the same computer and had problems. I booted the copied operating system and it started using some files from the original system. I stopped the computer before it got totally out of control. This is why I am asking the questions. Maybe there is a right way and wrong way of doing it or newer versions of Ghost may make a difference.
I have read that there is a slight difference in the end result of copying and using a restore point or a onetime backup — I found that both will do the job. I am also wondering if that slight difference would make copying versus a backup the better choice for what I am contemplating.
I was hoping to hear from users who have done this or who have the technical knowledge to know if this can or cannot be done and why. It is the technical information I would like and not any licensing issues. I have multiple licenses for Windows and Ghost.
Another question was about doing the same thing but having a copy and an original of Vista on the same computer instead of XP Pro.
I was then asking if it would be any different using Ghost 14 instead of Ghost 12.
Thanks for reading. It’s getting late — please excuse typos.
Apologies, Logger, the Vista comment was in response to Dave's question. As for which is the preferred method both are perfectly acceptable. Using a recovery point just takes longer. The technological operations are the same. Cloning the drive using the disk copy method still creates an image, but instead of saving to an image on a seperate drive it skips the step of saving the image to a location as opposed to laying the image down on the new drive.
Thanks, Eric, possibly another Symantec employee can answer the question of whether I can run the copy and the original at the same time.
As long as both are not set to boot and only one is set to Master, you should be fine. If both are not satisfied, you will end up with stability/boot problems.
Logger, Im not a Symantec employee, but I have been fighting a similar issue with Vista, wanting to use two separate hard drives with copies of the same OS. When I first did this, I noticed the same thing that you did. Even though I was booting from the new copy, the original source drive was still being accessed.
Since this, I tried just making a copy of the drive and run it independently. It didnt work as smoothly as I hoped. Here's why...
When you have two drives mounted with your OS, the OS uses the hard disk signatures to assign the specific hard disks to certain drive letters within the OS. Your copied OS will not be C drive, you realize that. However, the OS expects many important things be done from the C drive. For example, your user profile hives are usually all nested under the C drive. There are settings in the registry that define where things are stored and accessed. This is why when you boot from the copied OS the other drive is being accessed. Luckily the drives are duplicates of each other and everything sorta works out. But if you were to continue working in this configuration, you will start to get a muddled up mess of two OS's instead of one.
Based on my understanding of how the OS works, its possible to run both those OS's together, but I think you are really running the risk of screwing them both up if you try to do some intensive computing (installing, upgrading,etc...). Remember, your OS will only work with one registry at a time. And it expects it to be on one single drive.
Foxarama is correct in that you can encounter problems. Usually these can be combatted by having the drive that you want to use as your boot drive in the master position and the BIOS pointing to the correct drive as a boot. In the drive copy process though, you would not want to set the non booting drive to active. This will lead to the problem that foxarama describe. At any one time, you can only have one active primary boot partition. Having two will either lead to a situation where you cannot boot, or some serious crosslinking problems within the OS. Because of this problem, that’s why it is recommended that after you perform the copy drive that you remove the one you are not planning on using to minimize the possibility of this happening.
Foxarama, thanks for your reply. I'm sorry for not responding earlier but I have been overwhelmed with work. I believe what you have written is probably true but I feel it may be possible to do. I am not in a position to experiment right now but let me post back.
Foxarama is correct, you can not have two OS's on the same system unless you are using a boot manager. You should be able to find out information on how to create "duel boot" systems on Microsoft's support site.
This is from a earlier post of mine:
One thing to remember is you never want two or more OS's installed on a computer unless you are using boot manager. If the two drives were visible during boot it is possible that both drives will be accessed during the boot process causing at the very least cross linking of files. When this happens the system may boot, but if anything happens to the secondary drive the system will become unbootable. This is what I call Siamese twin drives, neither one will work without the other. Worst case scenario is both drives will become corrupted and unusable.
A boot manager (at boot) will let you pick which drive Windows will boot from instead of Windows randomly selecting which drive it can access the quickest (which causes cross linking and corruption)
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
I have had two or more Windows XP OS on the same computer many times. I never setup Windows for dual booting and I have never had a problem. Each system is on a different hard disk and I can use the BIOS, also on my computer F11, to choose which drive to boot. All systems are active and they are visible to each other.
The problem is when there are two identical systems, an original and a copy, on the computer at the same time and the systems are visible to each other.
I felt that there must be a way to accomplish this and I now know how it can be done. I will post back
G'Day mate,
I'd suggest you use the Copy My Hard drive function - This will create a 1:1 copy of all the contents of the Hard drive and is the simplest, mess free way to clone your disk.
I assume that you are cloning the old hard drive to upgrade to a new hard drive and would like to keep everything functioning the way it was before upgrading. If this is the case, you can use the function above. This would also avoid any licensing issues that you were discussing as you would only be using Windows Vista on one computer.
If you have any further questions, or If I have interpreted your question incorrectly, please do not hesitate to conatct me.