The short story: I want to Clone one computer onto another computer, by imaging source computer to a bootable CD/DVD.
Hi all,
I'm not terribly computer literate, but am hoping this will be a relatively simple task. I have Ghost 15 (updated with Live Update) and this is what I want to do:
I'd like to make an exact copy of my drive (winXP with all the current settings, along with the programs I've added and their current settings) from my "source" computer, and burn this to DVD so that I can put an exact copy of this source computer onto a different (target) computer.
The target computer has been "wiped" and if for example, I put a copy of WinXP in the DVD drive, it will begin to install it after just a few simple screens (where I hit F8 to agree and Enter to continue, etc).
But Instead of putting a fresh, un-set copy of WinXp in, I'd like to put the DVD copy of my source computer in, and have it install the source-computer copy of XP with all my settings and programs on.
I looked through several threads and googled it, but I'm having difficulty figuring it out. I read to use "Copy My Hard Drive", but my Ghost 15 says under the Copy Drive Wizard : "This wizard cannot be used to copy to a network drive or removable media"
The only two destinations are the drive to be copied itself (C:\), which Ghost won't do. Or a drive named (*.\) which is only 10.3MB.
Or should I use the "Create Custom Recovery Disk CD" option?
I tried that and it burned only 192MB to my DVD. My used space on my (source) Drive C is about 6GB. Does the Recovery Disk of 192mb contain my copy of WinXp and all programs, ready to install on another computer? Or do I use this disk WITH another disk to set up the other computer? (I was thinking I'd need a double layer DVD, but all mentions of the "recovery disk" say it's a CD. I'm just a little confused) P.S. I realize the target computer may use different drivers which I'll have to add from elsewhere.
The short story: I want to Clone one computer onto another computer, by imaging source computer to a bootable CD/DVD.
Hi all,
I'm not terribly computer literate, but am hoping this will be a relatively simple task. I have Ghost 15 (updated with Live Update) and this is what I want to do:
I'd like to make an exact copy of my drive (winXP with all the current settings, along with the programs I've added and their current settings) from my "source" computer, and burn this to DVD so that I can put an exact copy of this source computer onto a different (target) computer.
The target computer has been "wiped" and if for example, I put a copy of WinXP in the DVD drive, it will begin to install it after just a few simple screens (where I hit F8 to agree and Enter to continue, etc).
But Instead of putting a fresh, un-set copy of WinXp in, I'd like to put the DVD copy of my source computer in, and have it install the source-computer copy of XP with all my settings and programs on.
I looked through several threads and googled it, but I'm having difficulty figuring it out. I read to use "Copy My Hard Drive", but my Ghost 15 says under the Copy Drive Wizard : "This wizard cannot be used to copy to a network drive or removable media"
The only two destinations are the drive to be copied itself (C:\), which Ghost won't do. Or a drive named (*.\) which is only 10.3MB.
Or should I use the "Create Custom Recovery Disk CD" option?
I tried that and it burned only 192MB to my DVD. My used space on my (source) Drive C is about 6GB. Does the Recovery Disk of 192mb contain my copy of WinXp and all programs, ready to install on another computer? Or do I use this disk WITH another disk to set up the other computer? (I was thinking I'd need a double layer DVD, but all mentions of the "recovery disk" say it's a CD. I'm just a little confused) P.S. I realize the target computer may use different drivers which I'll have to add from elsewhere.
I should point out that there is a good chance your going to run into problems trying to restore an image onto another system. Unless the 2 systems have very similar hardware it may not work right off the bat.
I didn't notice you said that only 6GB is being used, thats a very small system and it may even fit on one DVD with high compression. I never tried making an image onto a DVD, I image you choose "backup my computer" and choose the DVD drive as a location to save the image.
I tried using the "Define Backup Wizard" to "Back up my computer" to my DVD, it seemed to be working until more than halfway through it ejected the DVD and gave the pop-up message:
"File daisy7_C_drive001.v2i needs to be opened. Insert the first media of the backup set into drive: D"
I reinserted the same DVD and again it ejected it seconds later and gave me the pop-up message : "The media does not contain the correct file daisy7_C_drive001.v2i"
I then inserted a blank DVD thinking maybe the first DVD is full. But it ejected that seconds later with the same message as above.
I then checked the first DVD and 1.09 GB was written to it by Ghost ( I was using High Compression), and it shows free space as 0. It's a 4.7GB DVD yet it shows 1.09GB as filling it all.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong? What media should I be inserting.....that contains "daisy7_C_drive001.v2i" ? (as far as I can tell, only the first DVD that it wrote the 1.09GB to, has that file, and it won't accept that DVD to complete the process).
<< ... it shows free space as 0. It's a 4.7GB DVD yet it shows 1.09GB as filling it all. ... >>
Optical media -- CDs and DVDs -- used in the normal way always show free space as 0 since they create the usable space as you record onto it. It's just a blank bit of plastic (well almost) until you record something on it when it creates the tracks in a layer of dyestuff; similarly the recorded disks you buy normlly have the tracks with data on them pressed into a surface from a metal disk just like they used to make records (if you remember those <s>).
If you can it is often a good idea not to try to record large files direct onto a CD or DVD but first to record them to a hard drive -- the software often lets you set a size for a single file so that you can break a large file into CD or DVD sized chunks and then record them afterwards from the hard drive to the CD or DVD.
If GHOST does not do that then the burning software should enable you to tell it to spread the large file out over more than one disk.
Finally I'd like to echo what DaneH says in both his messages to you earlier especially about problems of restoring a working system from one set of hardware to another set of hardware.