r2i forum

ycl1688;8193anyone used symantec's ghost program to back up data and
use it to restore computer crash ?

question is do you need to back up on dvd or external drive ?[/quote]

The IT guys at work loaded this program and after a few days, I took it off my machine. The problem with this NetBackUp software is that it monitors and makes a backup of everything all the time. You could receive a file without knowing the contents and it promptly backs it up. Creates situations. I thought it was best to avoid being in those situations.

ycl1688;8193anyone used symantec's ghost program to back up data and
use it to restore computer crash ?

question is do you need to back up on dvd or external drive ?[/quote]

I use it in my office to image all my computers. It can be used to restore the computer back when it crashes. I have successfully tested and restored it back a few times on different computers. It is an effective imaging tool but not the best daily backup software. There are very good data backup programs which will do the job more efficiently.
Yes, you need to backup the image to dvds or 2nd physical hard disk (kind-of defeats the purpose to put it on the same physical disk even though you can technically do so on a logical partition).

rajsriadit;8250I use it in my office to image all my computers. It can be used to restore the computer back when it crashes. I have successfully tested and restored it back a few times on different computers. It is an effective imaging tool but not the best daily backup software. There are very good data backup programs which will do the job more efficiently.
Yes, you need to backup the image to dvds or 2nd physical hard disk (kind-of defeats the purpose to put it on the same physical disk even though you can technically do so on a logical partition).

ycl1688;8265thanks for the input. my idea is to get the computer restore back to pre-crash,
then use the dvd to restore. average how long it takes to restore ?[/quote]

Your wording is very confusing. What do you mean when you say you want to restore to pre-crash first, and then use dvd to restore ? Do you mean data restore first ? Here's what I do. I install all the programs that are needed, and then create my image dvds using norton ghost. I use another program which is more flexible, for data backups on dvds and tapes (daily, incremental, etc). In case of a computer crash, I restore the computer using the ghost image dvd, and then restore data from the tapes. It usually takes about an hour (sometimes 1/2 hour) to create image dvds and about 1/2 hour to restore image.

ycl1688;8286sorry for the confusion.

say i have a brand new computer.
say i added printer software on my own.
i make my ghost image on dvd.

for some reason my computer crashes, i use the dvd i created to
restore my computer does it work this way ?[/quote]

Yes, absolutely. Read my previous post. When you first get your new computer, you can install all the drivers (printers, scanners etc), and software like microsoft office, norton security, antivirus and other necessary ones. You can then image the computer after all these are installed. In case of a computer crash, you can restore it back to the condition when you imaged it meaning you don't have to reinstall any of the programs or drivers again. This is equivalent to your own customized recovery DVD.