jono300

iTrader: (8)

Help !!

recently got a copy off Norton ghost 2003 to make a back up off eveything on my pc incase I lost everything at any stage , started the programme and everything was fine until around 12 dvd discs later ( yep honestly !! ) I came back to the pc to find that the programme had the message saying it had failed.

unfortuatly I deleted to event log ( yep I know !! ) the only thing I remember was the error was reported as bios /DOS or something like this ??

anyone have any idea what could have gone wrong ?? really want to make this back up off the pc as I have so much that I really dont want to loose ie pics, d/loads etc but dont really want to go thru the process off filling up another dozen dvds only to find the very same thing happens all over again !!

anyone any ideas as to any possible causes off the above or failing that recommend anything newer in the Ghost programme that I could try ??

lastly does twelve discs plus ( was only at around the 60% level off the backup process ) sound about right for backing everything up for a well used pc ???

Alan C

I can't help you on the error code, but what I would say is that for the price of a small SATA (200GB for £30) or even an external HDD (£40 250GB) you'd be much better installing one of these as a storage medium..

The time and effort you'd save over spanning 15 DVD's would be priceless...

Try some on this free list if you're not happy with Ghost...

Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

12 DVD's sounds OK if your system is that big....

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Great stuff mate appreciate your advice, easy enough to copy everything over to the spare storage medium ( SATA or HDD ) then ??

excuse my ignorance ??!! but I take it even if my pc did get a virus that required me to do a complete reboot then I take all the saved data on the seperate storage would not be affected by the initial virus or whatever it was that ccaused the problem ??

the only advantage off the ghost systmn would be that it actually saves all settings etc also - this correct ??

thanks again.

mike1210

For home use I can recommend Acronis True image

I use an External lacie drive and backup to that every week. I backup certain folders on my hard drives so I can restore them from the backup if need be. Acronis has a secure zone which stops the OS from directly accessing it. You can also restore entire drives if need be.

Once backup is done I disconnect the drive and put the drive in another room, safer and preserves the hard disk in the lacie. backup would not be affected by a new virus you've just inherited

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATI/tru...FQnllAodnh_USA

check it

cheaper here

Amazon.co.uk: Acronis True Image 10 Home (PC): Software

Alan C

Sound advice from Mike. I'd also recommend the external HDD route if you have valuable stuff you want saved.. A HDD within the PC and mounted (i.e. you see it as a drive letter D: or E: etc) would be susceptible to a virus or worm attack and there is a risk you could loose it..

Simply unplug and put away for safety. Bring it out every week/month or whenever you need and do an incremental backup....

I'm not too hot on Norton Ghost, but there's different ways to backup, image or clone your system. Within these groups are various levels of configuration so you can backup a file, folder or whole HDD.

Problem with imaging is that you'll probably need some form of boot disk in order to get the system up and reading the external HDD in order to start the recovery, but this usuallygaurantees a full recovery of your data and programs if you've had a fatal crash and the OS or drive is dead..... .otherwise it maybe easier to re-install the operating system or use the recovery partition (if you have one) and then simply restore all the important stuff. But this way may mean you have to re-install your progs..

There's no right or wrong way.. just whatever suits your recovery time and personal preferences...