I have my server set-up the way I like it. I got mysql installed and working, got the ftp working, telnet working, and the website in IIS. I am using windows server 2003. What is the best software to use to clone this harddrive. Price is not an issue on this matter because having the server up and running all and everyday is very important. I have never messed around with clone software, is there one out there thats lets u clone the os and everything. Once I do clone it on the disc, how do I go about put it back onto the server.
I use Norton Ghost, and have never had it fail to make a perfect copy of my hard drive. I "ghost" my main hard drive, to a separate hard drive. It has saved me more than once.
Ok. So I would put another harddrive on the computer. Install norton's ghost. Clone the server harddrive to the other then disconnect it. Thanks for the help I think I got it now
Ghost baby...(IMHO it's the only good thing to come from Norton since Disk Doctor back in the Windows 3.0 era)
Acronis True Image 9.0 is another option to look at. I have both Norton Ghost and True Image, and find the latter works far better than Ghost, hence Ghost no longer gets disk space on any systems I work on.
The beauty of Norton Ghost, is if you use the version from 2003, or before, you don't even need to have it on your hard drive to use it. You just need the boot disk that you made when you had Ghost installed on your computer.
You need to use a version of Ghost earlier than 9.0, such as Ghost 2003 if you want to Clone a drive in a single step. I have used Ghost since the mid 90s and version 1.x but in the latest versions they have removed the Disk Clone feature. Now it has Copy Drive in 9.x and 10.x. You have to copy each partition one at a time. Acronis lets you do it in a single operation. I recently switched to Acronis True Image because of this. I got a larger hard drive and wanted to clone my disk but Ghost 9 only gives you the option to copy a single partition at a time. I guess I could have did it 3 times since I had 3 partitions but Acronis did it in a single step, automatically resizing the partitions to keep the same proportion of drive space. http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...rod=Norton Ghost&ver=9.0&csm=no&seg=hho&tpre= That describes the process, and also mentions what I am talking about: I was very impressed with Acronis and will use it from now on, and that's coming from a 10 year Ghost user. I have no idea why they would remove the clone a disk in a single step from the later versions but it lost me as a customer for them.
The newer version of Ghost, really Drive Image 7.01, works in the background, (while Windows is running,) and can completely backup your entire HDD partition to another source in a very short period of time. If you have multiple partitions, it will do them as well. For example, a 160 gig HDD with 15 gigs of data will back up in less then 10 minutes complete. Later, if you want to only restore a single folder from that backup, you can. So both Ghosts have their merits. You create backup jobs the way you prefer, just a few folders or an entire Drive.
@GrandpaBW You still don't with the later versions of Ghost either, the Ghost 9.x and 10.x CD is bootable.
Drive Image 7.01 was purchased by Norton. Ghost 9.0 was packaged with both the newer version and the older version. Ghost 10 is just the newer version. The only way to do a full restore is by using the bootable CD disk to first boot but you can copy any single or multiple folders or files while running windows. The main program takes up approximately 72 MB on the HDD. At 2:00 am every morning, I get a FULL backup of my entire system on an Internal HDD, unattended! Every Saturday at 2:00 am, I get a FULL backup of my entire system on an Internal HDD and then an External HDD, that I remove in the morning and put in a Fire Safe, both completely unattended.
Acronis will do the same, unattended scheduled backups. It also will work in the background. They both pretty much have the same features. I just didn't like having to copy all 3 partitions one at a time in Ghost 9 when upgrading to a larger drive and decided to give Acronis a try. For a full restore with Acronis you also have to use the boot cd if you can't get into Windows, but it also has a function that lets you create additional boot cds in case yours gets damaged. Like I said, I have been using Ghost since 1995 when the company I was working for did a Windows 95 rollout. I tried Acronis and liked it and use it now. I had also used Drive Image when it was still Powequest, earlier versions of Ghost would kill the network when trying to Multicast, Drive Image did it better back then.
At least prodigy42 now has a couple of options to work with. As cost is no option, try either or try both and see which you prefer to use. You will always get differing views from people about which is the best, as a user of both like several others here, I would only ever recommend Acronis to you. Not sure how many the users of Norton have also tried Acronis, and don't like it.
I did some research on Norton's Ghosting Software. The verison I tried which i think is 10 does not support windows server 2003. I am seeing a re-occuring event here that many softwares doesn't work on windows 2003. I have not checked with Acronis True Image 9.0 to see if windows server 2003 will work with it. Hopefully one of you all will know off hand. T I have two harddrives, three parition. I have a 15 gigabyte that runs the os and everything I installed on it, which is only the ftp server software, and the no install of mysql. I just need to clone that 15 gig to another hard drive for future reference. hanks you guys for this. I was not expecting this much input.
BTW I hope you meant what was said about the cost being no object, as this runs at about $1000 or £560.
