Hi:
What I need:
I am looking for a backup solution that Ghost appears to provide....but, the more I read, the more confused I get...
What I have done so far:
Skip to 3) below if you don't want to know what is biasing and misinforming my assumptions about what I need. Maybe this info will resonate with, or be helpful to others trying to get up-to-speed on effective backup techniques.
0) Bought an external USB drive naively thinking I could make clone or image backups for three home (same family PC's) and store them in three separate folders. I assumed I could just write the image file as it was created (or later if NOT) to the external drive.
Accomplished: I learned how little I know about backups since the last time I backed up files with 5-1/4" floppies. :O( I did not know that a drive image (same as clone?) of a 5%-filled HD can (w/o compression) require storage space = 100% of drive being imaged. Apparently backing up to a USB external drive isn't as simple as Plug&Play.
1) I have spent weeks reading forums for Ghost and competing software, but I'm back looking at Ghost for many reasons. :O)
This answered some of my questions, raised more, so I'm confused differently afterward. Understanding the relevance (or not) of other users posted 'problems' paralyzes my decision-making further. I understand looking for previously posted questions, and do this, but still feel the need to get some direction.
2) Wrestled with past experience and bias, which may or may not not be relevant to Ghost functionality. (I guess this is a question...sort of).
I want to be aware of RAM requirements by Ghost. I like Norton/Symantec software. It works well! However, twice I have become unhappy with Norton or Symantec security software. Provided in one case by my college school when I was a student (extremely effective, but took forever and slowed everything down because it was protecting against everything imaginable. I got frustrated enough to remove it and got in a jam after 5 PM needing a password to remove it). Currently my ISP (SBC/Yahoo) had switched to Norton/Symantec bundled security software. Worked fine. After a couple upgrades I was locked out from upgrading and after 2 hours on the phone we determined I NOW needed more RAM to update the software.
This causes me some frustration, and am no longer using the software because the last time (only time in 6 PC's/18 years) I upgraded RAM it destroyed a 'bundled' OS I had no disk to restore. I am not comfortable making hardware changes that SHOULD have minimal or no risk to support one software need when all my others are met with current hardware. I start out with enough RAM...
3) Attempted to organize some questions...I hope I am using proper terminology, because it isn't always clear what software feature, capability, or function matches a perceived requirement. (Knowing how to describe ones goal in the right jargon to make itunderstandable. My describing a 'bootable' disk image backup was met with confusion on one forum - I was trying to describe a restoration that was as self-initiating as possible, and not needing manual Windows reinstallation, FDISK/partitioning, etc.)
We have three PC's at home, purchased with pre-installed (licensed) Windows XP (I think two may be XP Pro, purchased used) and have no XP install disks for any. All have SP2 installed. This is a budgetary issue. I know you get what you pay for, but it's what I have to woork with! The restore-to-out-of-box capability provided loses it's luster as time passes. I suppose the included Windows/Veritas Backup and System Restore features would provide me some measure of protection, but I am eager to leap to 2009 and have the ability to schedule and restore a drive image. I think this is 'the way to go', but it seems that the problems people post in forums indicate it depends what you need, what you have and how you try to do it. I didn't even look at that included feature because the last two places I worked only use Ghost to restore to their last known good functionality. No one recommended the included Windows Backup to me...just Ghost.
A) Someone told me the older Ghost versions, like '2003', had some 'local environment' capability (?)that the latest Windows- environment-based version does not. Maybe urban legend, and irrelevant since it's not 2003 anymore (not sold), and he thought at some point (Ghost 9?) a separate disk was included for people who need/want whatever ambiguous capability I am not able to describe. Is there any relevance in this vague rumor, to Ghost 14 and my scenario with no Windows install disk, say, when it comes time to restore a disk image?
B) Mr. Weiss (I forgot his first name) referred a dual-boot user to an Enterprise solution and/or Ghost Solution Suite 2.5? I looked at that but did not understand if it supplements Ghost or is an alternate solution (the feature screen seemed to describe two very different products, and GSS 2.5 costing less than Ghost 14 implied to me it didn't offer MORE, just DIFFERENT.
C) I was advised by someone with a different personal budget I should either install a 2nd HD in each PC to 'Ghost to', or remove my wife's laptop hard drive, install it in a desktop and 'Ghost it' there...but to what? A 3rd HD, or the desktop's 2nd HD? Short of having the extra HD's, is multi-disk DVD predictable when restoring? How does one restore a complete-drive-contents image backup (clone? other name for this?) to the same drive it was Ghosted from, and alternately how is it done if a hard drive is replaced and has no OS, CD/DVD ROM drivers installed yet? (A Ghost recovery disk of some sort does the 'setup' first?)
D) Initially I thought backing up anything personal, financial, etc. to a remote Web-based location sounded stupid from a security standpoint...my distrust biasing my view of web-based-backups. Today seeing the Ghost 14 FTP feature actually did get me thinking about this again. Obviously if you replace a hard drive with one devoid of an OS, you are not capable yet of connecting to the Internet to restore your PC to where it was yesterday. So, is this a feature just for a redundant storage method (2nd or 3rd copy)?
E) Back to external USB HD's...if not practical to back up directly to or restore from, are they useful for drive-image type backups, if only for 2nd or 3rd redundancy?
F) I see Ghost 14 is single-user-licensed. Multi-user licensing for GSS 2.5 appeared to start at 5+ licensing, and I mentioned earlier I didn't understand how GSS 2.5 offered the same (and more) functionality as Ghost 14. Do I need three licenses (3 retail boxes) of Ghost 14 to use on the three PC's at home? The last thing I want to have happen is to attempt a restoration on PC#2 and have it not complete because it's not on the same PC Ghost 14 was installed/registered to. On the other hand, better to ask before spending the money 3 x , but an uncooperative restore is worse than no backup!
Thanks