Topic: Anyone know anything about Norton/Symantec Ghost? -- NVM

[that Baby guy]

Update!  Read the third post for my new question!

I know that some of you a little more knowledgeable of computers than I am, so I thought I'd ask:

I need to dump the data off of two laptop hard-drives, but the computer they're in is currently fried and will soon have a new mother-board.  Is there a device I can use to clone the drives without installing them first?  Should I just find a local computer-repair shop?  Should I just google for more info?  I was going to start calling stores tomorrow, but I've always heard bad stories about giving some shops a computer to fix.

[DAaaMan64]

If the lappy is truly fried, remove th harddrive and put it in a working harddrive or if the harddrive is ide most external harddrive enclosures will work.  If the lappy can still be booted, then you could use a linux live boot cd, boot from it, and copy the data to an external harddrive.

Good luck!

[that Baby guy]

Alright, my computer's back, repaired and about the same as when I bought it new.  The place I had hired to back up my drives made image files using Symantec Ghost 8.2, and left the program on my external drive, along with three images:  A data drive I had, a back-up partition on the main drive, and the partition with the operating system on it.  I've already cloned over the drive with the general data on it, and I don't need to clone back the back-up partition, that already exists similarly enough on the main hard-drive here.

My issue is that I need to clone over the main image, the one with the operating system on it, over the part of the the drive that currently has the operating system on it.  Clearly, I can't use windows to do this, I have to do it in DOS.  All I need to do is recall how to boot to DOS, then figure out how to start this program from an external hard-drive, etc, etc.  If anyone can explain this very simply here, that would be nice.  I've found an guide on the internet that's supposed to be good for beginners, but they really over-estimate the knowledge beginners have.  I'll be able to figure it out with the general net and my knowledge, but if anyone has some pointers to make it simpler, please post them here.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Tap F8 after the initial boot screen, prior to the Windows boot logo appearing, to access the DOS boot menu.

[that Baby guy]

That actually helps a ton, thank you.


Edit: Nvm, my machine doesn't have DOS.  Looks like I'm calling the place that set this thing up to run me through the method they say to use.

[bustin98]

When you are in the Ghost program, isn't there an option that tells the machine to boot to Ghost? Man its been a few years since I worked in a shop but I thought Ghost had some options to allow for this type of activity.

[that Baby guy]

It does, as long as you're not using a gimped, bare-bones copy that the computer company half-installed.  I could also be missing something.  However, if you back-up something on a CD/DVD, it will boot to ghost.  I've got mine on an external hard-drive, which makes things more difficult.

[ShyGuy]

Peter Norton sold the use of his name to Symantec years ago. He no longer chooses Norton as his AntiVirus solution.

[RABicle]

And who would?

[that Baby guy]

Meh, I did it.  I made a DOS Booting DVD, copied the ghost program to my secondary hard-drive, then flashed over the image that way.  Part way through, my battery died because the computer wasn't plugged in like I thought it was, so I thought I had come up with some sort of corruption or RAM issue, but after a while, I realized the problem.  Hooray!

[bustin98]

Hooray for figuring out for yourself!