moderetors plz xplain me the purpose or usage of ghost how to use it on xp and vista plz xplain me whole software and also tell me if there is a two .gho images of a single file how to merge them into one file i mean i hav 2 diffrent 100mb .gho files of a single 200mb application i want to make them agin in a single 200 mb file i need a quick help
i know how to back it up via open source softwares. and its called clonezilla its a bootable cd, insert the cd into the drive and boot off and clone it into another drive and save it up and then dump it back to another drive, not sure about activation issues. and second clonezilla is a live cd made of 2 major softwares parted and partimage. and if you know how to use these you are on the drivers seat. and second? i am not sure of XP but in vista? you have an option called backup vista and in that? backup entire installation and then? it it will ask you to save it. select backup entire image as a backup copy and then save it. this is the same process for windows server 2008. hope this helps even tho it aint quick as per the date. else follow hmonk's advice, its extremely nice and follow mine as an add-on and advanced option, when and where you know what you are doing.
is it possible to clone the system (full drivers + softwares installed) into another machine (same spec)? i'm planning to build a net-cafe, and i hope i can save much time to install it.. all machine have same spec.. i'm planning to "ghost" it.. if it can't, pls tell me how to do that..
But will it work? I tried this with XP SP3 You can, of course, clone anything but will it work? In effect, you would be migrating your existing OS to a new system which, generally, will not succeed. I speak from experience and an extensive search; however, I could have missed something. How closely your existing system matches the addons seems to be the limiting factor (if the mobos are the same, your chances are good). Generally, the issue seems to be complicated by the existing OS drivers and there is a significant number of posts throughout many forums that suggest one can delete, at least, the major mobo drivers (IDE, CPU, chipset, gfx) - if not all the drivers - from the existing OS, clone it, and when launched, Windows will install generic drivers, which one can then update. For the same reason you give (saving time updating/configuring, etc.), I tried to do this but in a system which was radically different from my existing system. My failed efforts included: 1. installed existing HDDs in new machines and/or cloned my existing OS to new HDDs and installed the new HDDs in new machines - yielded endless boot loop in both normal and all F8 options 2. deleted major drivers - ditto; 3. deleted all drivers - ditto; 4. attempted to effect repair (second repair option) of number 1, above, after installed in new machine - various results: could not start using XP set of start floppies (disc 2 returned a NTKRNLMP.EXE Code 7 error - a common complaint); created a bootable CD of the floppy set - which did get past the kernel error but when I placed the XP set up disc in the drive it did not recognize it; 5. Slipped my XP install disc with SP3/necessary hotfixes/drivers (for example, some AMD CPUs require a hotfix before SP3 will install) - the install went as far as "15 minutes remaining" and stalled; 6. created and attempted to repair using individual SLIPs of SP1, SP2; no luck. I ended up reinstalling anew. I might add that I posted to ASUS (my mobo), and others, but most concluded it could not be done because my mobos were so different. When I am really bored, I still horse around looking for a solution which, in my case, seems to be due to the fact that I am migrating from one to a radically different system - and you cannot migrate Windows as such. I'll keep an eye out here to see what others have to say and pipe in where/if I can contribute further. Monk
Forgot about Sysprep @Fuzzy Thanks for the input: I had completely forgotten about Sysprep (the little gray cells are retiring in great numbers ). The only time I used Sysprep was in mid 2002 when I decided my old office machines were not doing XP justice. I will give it a try on my current upgrade and post back with the results. Thanks again, Monk
Acronis True Image Workstation with Universal Restore also does the job. Used it probably a dozen times without any problems.
guys.. all ur explanations here really makes me headache.. maybe i didn't tell u exactly what i mean.. i have 6 same machine (same motherboard, same processor, same RAM, same HDD, same case, same psu). i want to save my installing-time.. coz i only have 1 DVD-RW to install it (from cd). n.. the cloning i want to do is: 1 machine (HDD) has fully-loaded (--> XP SP3 + all softwares users need.), n then clone it to another 5 HDD.. (all 6 machines are for an internet cafe..) i know i can do it with norton ghost, coz i saw an internet cafe in my city use it (i mean,, cloned it with ghost). though i'm not sure wether they only clone the xp, or "fully-loaded". but, i don't know how to do that, however they did.. by the way, actually i have another one machine, same with those 6 machine ,except the HDD is 500 GB.. i think i can't clone it to another machine (coz another machines are 80 GB HDD).. maybe someone here can tell me how to do it.. but, the important thing is how to clone those 6 machines.. i think i have to manually install that 500 GB HDD machine.. but another 6? i hope i can clone it (but already full installed it). sorry for my bad english.. i hope u guys now can understand what my question is.. p.s.: i thought no one replied my question, since i only checked my thread, not these thread.. i just noticed it, moderator merged my thread with these thread.. EDIT: the xp i want to install is xp corp sp3. (got what i "mean"?) EDIT 2: what if i copy all folders from 1 fully-installed machine into another 6 machines, from dos? will they work? i have hiren's cd here, is there any softwares in it would help my problem?
As I mentioned, Acronis True Image Workstation with Universal Restore will clone it onto as many machines as you want and reset the SID. You can also put it onto the 500GB HDD. You will need to resize the partition afterwards though. Acronis Disk Director will do that for you.
@HMonk The reason for your failiure is due to the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) One condition of sysprep is that the HAL of both computers is compatible. TassieToo has the answer, acronis works by replacing the HAL and hard disk controller drivers.
Create Image - Restore Perhaps I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do other than make it more complicated than it actually is. As long as your machines are basically the same, simply create an image backup of your working OS then restore it to the other HDDs. As mentioned by TassieToo, I prefer Acronis to Ghost but that is just my preference. If your machines are on a network you can follow TassieToo's suggestion regarding Universal Restore (an addon to Acronis). If all of your machines are stand alone, one simple thing you can do is make an image backup of your working OS (using Ghost, Acronis, or the free DiscWizard if at least one of your HDDs are Seagate or Maxtor), install your other HDDs in your working machine (one by one or more than one depending on the number of available controllers you have) and restore the image backup to each HDD (or set up the other machines and connect your working HDD to each, one by one, and restore the image). By following this method, your other HDDs would have to be formatted and partitioned (primary partitions) with the partitions either as large or larger than your working HDD. You are only apt to run into difficulties if your machines are radically different - which does not seem to apply in your case. Cloning accomplishes about the same thing except it directly transfers the data from one HDD to another without the intermediary steps of creating and restoring a backup file. Both work equally well. However, I should think that you would be sure to have a backup plan in place for your machines. For this, Acronis is hard to beat. Monk
Universal Restore is a separate addon that you install after the main program. You need this in order to clone on to "different" machines. Home Edition will probably do it just as well, but you still need Universal Restore.
True Image Home Edition does not work with universal restore, Acronis True Image Echo Workstation would work but you need to get universal restore licence also