Confession time....I dont really know what an image is.

newbie~wan · December 29th, 2001, 08:47 PM

I've heard about 'em. I've heard many people say they use 'em. Heck, I even use them all the time at work.
But I dont REALLY know what they are......

People say they "image their drive". Does this mean sorta like taking a snap shot of the current tweaks to the OS, so you can format, and reload the OS the way YOU WANT IT? If so, its about time I started imaging instead of trying to remember all of my old tweaks when I reformat.

Does imaging have to image an entire drive, or can it be just a partition? I currently use like 6gb of my drive, but only like 2gb are OS files and default installed programs (win2k and winxp).

I might be a senior member, but I am clearly still a newbie.

vass0922 · December 29th, 2001, 08:56 PM

You can use software like Norton Ghost to get your desired effect.

I believe it just does OS and installed progs, although that doesnt' make much sense LOL

I would assume you would image a partition or an entire drive + partitions if you wanted.

Germ · December 29th, 2001, 09:15 PM

With Ghost, you can image a drive or just a partition, the entire size or just used size. You can image the boot sector. You can make bootable restore CDs for the drive or partition, you can do it over a network, use a tape drive, or write the image to HDD, as long as it's not the drive or partition you are imaging. You can make an image, do a low level format on the drive, restore the image and it's exactly like it was originally. It "clones" your drive or partition.

Germ

How did you ever get a dual-boot 2K/XP install down to only 2 gig?

cadetstimp · December 30th, 2001, 02:09 AM

image = copying the exact contents of an enire Hard Drive or Hard Drive Partition into a single file using a utility such a Ghost.

The same utility can write the "image file" back onto the same or different drive

If the image file is be more than 2 GB then it is split up into and is stored as multiple files that together act as one image. (This is due to a Microsoft file system limitation - no single file can be more than 2 GB)

newbie~wan · December 30th, 2001, 03:33 AM

My bad - I meant 2.5 gb. 1.5 for xp, 1 for 2k.
Ok, thats what I thought, just wanted to make sure.

I hate to be such a bum, but is there a freeware drive imager? If not, do you guys feel it is worth the money to buy?

Gutter Ball · December 30th, 2001, 04:54 AM

Norton Ghost is definately worth the money! That proggy has saved me reinstallation MANY times!! Before I install ANY new software/updates, I ghost my drives up just in case the new install/update causes problems...and a few times they caused major problems (IE CD-ROM/Burner no longer working). Re-Ghost my image and everything's back the way it was before things went bad!

Richard Cranium · December 30th, 2001, 08:53 AM

Many of the CD Burners have a "back-up" software included.

Sometimes the term might be misleading though, if ya got a burner read the documentation.

DVNT1 · December 30th, 2001, 10:48 AM

Another way to think of a ghost image is a big zip file of the entire partition.

Ghost is a great product. For me, right along with Ghost sits Partion Magic... Very usefull together.

ClubMed · December 30th, 2001, 11:02 AM

So imaging is a form of backing-up, would I be correct in assuming that?.

fatal xception · December 30th, 2001, 11:07 AM

The last time (of the many numerours times) I reformatted my HDD, I got everything installed, ran it for about two days withour errors then imaged my drive. Once after I had a program that jacked up my system and another time I may have had a virus. I reformatted my HDD then re-imaged it. Back to the way it was without having to reload all my programs. It's a time saver.