SP2 related woes: list any you find here

External Since: Aug 11, 2004 Posts: 42

"Art" <Anonymous DeleteThis @notanisp.com> wrote in
news:KMudnRqS9osiN7ncRVn-vg@adelphia.com:

  >> Thats what I was thinking. Probably a good thing as far as Ghost is
  >> concerned. It totally hosed a Dell system I was working on when I
  >> tried to backup w/o a boot floppy.
  >>
>
> I am constantly puzzled by the continuous negative comments such as
> the one expressed by "Lordy" as well as frequent misinformation that I
> come across on the various newsgroups that deprecate Symantec's Norton
> Ghost program. My experience with that program has been, and continues
> to be, completely counter to the negative views expressed by so many
> posters.

I've used ghost happily for years from boot floppies. When it was easy
to find a W98 boot floppy lying around! Prior to my latest incident I
would be in your camp..
The irony is when backup softare trashes your brand new baseline build
(that you was trying to ..er ..backup like the good IT Professional you
are), the memory tends to stick.
Prior to that no problems with simpler, MS-DOS based ghost boots.

Working from BOOT floppies (or better still boot CDS) has always been
good but for BACKUP software to first alter the MBR and create virtual
partitions - thats just asking for trouble if the OS its trying to load
(PC-DOS) doesnt work well in the machine,

IMO due to things like USB2,Firewire drives etc they should move to a
mini Linux Kernel on a boot floppy/cdrom ..

Right now I backup home machines partitions using a Knoppix cd and
partimage. (NTFS partitions need to be defragged first) - Although I
have never tested them (Ouch!), but I do normal file (tar) based backups
too.

My particular nightmare was due to one horrible sequence of events ...

1. No W98 MS-DOS Boot Floppy to hand.
2. PC-DOS boot floppy didnt work on Dell machine.

3. Me Thinking that the backup "via Windows" option would somehow work
differently not realising it simply modifies the boot record and creates
Weird Virtual Partitions at the end of a real partition.

(At this point my Spider senses did start a tingling but I was tired and
I trusted Ghost not to cause me any pain)

4. PC Subsequently fails to boot
5. All rescue options fail (ghrecover (or something like that),
FIXMBR etc nothing worked.
6. Booting with a Knoppix CD and using fdisk showed some of the horrible
stuff ghost did.

--
Lordy

External Since: Oct 21, 2004 Posts: 14

"Lordy" <spam_box RemoveThis @gmx.net> wrote in message
news:Xns954B769AD15Dlordybigfootcom@130.133.1.4...
> "Art" <Anonymous RemoveThis @notanisp.com> wrote in
> news:KMudnRqS9osiN7ncRVn-vg@adelphia.com:
>
   > >> Thats what I was thinking. Probably a good thing as far as Ghost is
   > >> concerned. It totally hosed a Dell system I was working on when I
   > >> tried to backup w/o a boot floppy.
   > >>
  > >
  > > I am constantly puzzled by the continuous negative comments such as
  > > the one expressed by "Lordy" as well as frequent misinformation that I
  > > come across on the various newsgroups that deprecate Symantec's Norton
  > > Ghost program. My experience with that program has been, and continues
  > > to be, completely counter to the negative views expressed by so many
  > > posters.
>
> I've used ghost happily for years from boot floppies. When it was easy
> to find a W98 boot floppy lying around! Prior to my latest incident I
> would be in your camp..
> The irony is when backup softare trashes your brand new baseline build
> (that you was trying to ..er ..backup like the good IT Professional you
> are), the memory tends to stick.
> Prior to that no problems with simpler, MS-DOS based ghost boots.

Lordy:
I'm totally mystified by your statement that "When it was easy to find a W98
boot floppy lying around..." then (I take it) Ghost was a program you could
live with. What in the world does a Win9x/Me Startup Disk have to do with
Ghost? To use the Ghost cloning program from a floppy (as I do), you simply
create the Ghost boot floppy from the Ghost program. That takes all of three
minutes or so. With your source and destination disks connected, you simply
boot with the Ghost floppy and a half a dozen or so keyclicks later the
cloning process begins. It's that simple, is it not? You can just as easily
create a Ghost bootable CD and undertake your cloning operation through that
means. All this talk about altering the MBR, creating virtual partitions,
Linux Kernels, Knoppix CDs, partimage, "defragging" NTFS partitions, etc.
are beyond my comprehension.

Let me reiterate what I stated in my previous posting -- I have often
remarked that I wish every software program I use was as simple,
straightforward, and effective as Symantec's Norton Ghost program. Let me
state at the outset that I use Ghost for one and only one purpose - to clone
the contents of one hard drive to another. By making a bit-for-bit copy (not
technically precise perhaps, but correct for all practical purposes) of one'
s working hard drive, you have, what seems to me, the ultimate backup
system. I have used various versions of Ghost over the years, including the
present 2003 version. During that time I estimate I've cloned various hard
drives more than a thousand times. And done so with nary a hiccup. Ghost's
ease of use together with reasonable speed make it a joy to use.

Art

> Working from BOOT floppies (or better still boot CDS) has always been
> good but for BACKUP software to first alter the MBR and create virtual
> partitions - thats just asking for trouble if the OS its trying to load
> (PC-DOS) doesnt work well in the machine,
>
> IMO due to things like USB2,Firewire drives etc they should move to a
> mini Linux Kernel on a boot floppy/cdrom ..
>
> Right now I backup home machines partitions using a Knoppix cd and
> partimage. (NTFS partitions need to be defragged first) - Although I
> have never tested them (Ouch!), but I do normal file (tar) based backups
> too.
>
>
>
>
> My particular nightmare was due to one horrible sequence of events ...
>
> 1. No W98 MS-DOS Boot Floppy to hand.
> 2. PC-DOS boot floppy didnt work on Dell machine.
>
> 3. Me Thinking that the backup "via Windows" option would somehow work
> differently not realising it simply modifies the boot record and creates
> Weird Virtual Partitions at the end of a real partition.
>
> (At this point my Spider senses did start a tingling but I was tired and
> I trusted Ghost not to cause me any pain)
>
> 4. PC Subsequently fails to boot
> 5. All rescue options fail (ghrecover (or something like that),
> FIXMBR etc nothing worked.
> 6. Booting with a Knoppix CD and using fdisk showed some of the horrible
> stuff ghost did.
>
>
> --
> Lordy