Ghost and mastering...

I've been using Symantec's Ghost software for quite some time now and have
seen it suggested here many times that rather than backing up directly to
CD/DVD, it's much less trouble to back up to another partition and later
burn the Ghost files to CD/DVD with regular mastering software.

I tried that and found it limiting in that Ghost itself (the DOS program)
wouldn't recognise it greated the files. Ghost Explorer works like a champ,
but there can't be wholesale drive/partition restores since the DOS Ghost
doesn't recognise the CDs/DVDs. Hell, you can't even back up directly to
CD/DVD, copy the files to your harddrive, then master another CD/DVD copy of
those files!

So tell me, folks. What am I missing here? How do I write a Ghost image,
burn the files to removable media myself, and then have Ghost recognise
those discs?

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

You just copy them back to HD, then restore.
One of the reasons to write the image to HD in the first place, is that it's
there when you need to restore. the CD's are a second level of backup.
you can also use the image explorer to copy the image to HD.
Drive Image does not have this problem, but Ghost does.

"Rick Pali" wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
I've been using Symantec's Ghost software for quite some time now and have
seen it suggested here many times that rather than backing up directly to
CD/DVD, it's much less trouble to back up to another partition and later
burn the Ghost files to CD/DVD with regular mastering software.

I tried that and found it limiting in that Ghost itself (the DOS program)
wouldn't recognise it greated the files. Ghost Explorer works like a
champ,
but there can't be wholesale drive/partition restores since the DOS Ghost
doesn't recognise the CDs/DVDs. Hell, you can't even back up directly to
CD/DVD, copy the files to your harddrive, then master another CD/DVD copy
of
those files!

So tell me, folks. What am I missing here? How do I write a Ghost image,
burn the files to removable media myself, and then have Ghost recognise
those discs?

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

"Rick Pali" wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
I've been using Symantec's Ghost software for quite some time now and have
seen it suggested here many times that rather than backing up directly to
CD/DVD, it's much less trouble to back up to another partition and later
burn the Ghost files to CD/DVD with regular mastering software.

I tried that and found it limiting in that Ghost itself (the DOS program)
wouldn't recognise it greated the files. Ghost Explorer works like a
champ,
but there can't be wholesale drive/partition restores since the DOS Ghost
doesn't recognise the CDs/DVDs. Hell, you can't even back up directly to
CD/DVD, copy the files to your harddrive, then master another CD/DVD copy
of
those files!

So tell me, folks. What am I missing here? How do I write a Ghost image,
burn the files to removable media myself, and then have Ghost recognise
those discs?

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/



Your second paragraph it kind of hard to understand, but I'll give it a shot
anyway.

Is Ghost creating just one image for your entire backup? In that's the
case, it will usually be more than what you can burn onto a single CD. When
you launch Ghost in DOS you must include the SPLIT switch, so that multiple
images can be created (spanned) that will fit onto your CDs. For example, I
use GHOSTPE -SPLIT=695, which limits the size of an image to 695MB. Once
you have your images, you can then burn them to CDs using EZCD, Nero, or
whatever mastering program you use. Generally speaking, you're only burning
one image to each CD.

In the event of a full system restore, boot to DOS using your book disk,
load up Ghost, and insert the first disc of your backup set. Once Ghost
completes restoring from the first disc, you'll be asked to insert the next
disc, and so forth.

If you need further help post back here.

Draven
Victims, aren't we all?

P.S. This post isn't SPAM! This is directed towards one local resident
here who thought otherwise from a previous post. That was a good laugh for
me, as well as my ISP too!

"draven_2" wrote

Once you have your images, you can then burn them to CDs
using EZCD, Nero, or whatever mastering program you use.
Generally speaking, you're only burning one image to each CD.

In the event of a full system restore, boot to DOS using your book disk,
load up Ghost, and insert the first disc of your backup set. Once Ghost
completes restoring from the first disc, you'll be asked to insert the
next
disc, and so forth.

That's exactly the problem. Unless Ghost writes the CDs itself, it won't
recognise them later. It'll just report that Ghost didn't create the CDs and
the process stops there. They can't be restored unless, as Dan G wrote, the
images are copied to another partition and restored from there.

BTW, sorry for my confusing explanation...but I can create the images (with
the 'split' switch as you suggested) in a harddrive partition and then later
write them to discs...but I can't restore directly from those discs. I
didn't realise that was a limitation of Ghost...

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

"Dan G" wrote:

You just copy them back to HD, then restore.

Fair enough. I just didn't realise I wouldn't have the flexibility to
restore directly from the mastered discs created later...

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

I should qualify regarding DriveImage, the later versions create a sort of
bootable CD on the 1st CDR, so only the earlier versions will restore from
CDR's burned from the HD. The later versions have the same issue as Ghost.


"Rick Pali" wrote in message
le.rogers.com...
"draven_2" wrote

Once you have your images, you can then burn them to CDs
using EZCD, Nero, or whatever mastering program you use.
Generally speaking, you're only burning one image to each CD.

In the event of a full system restore, boot to DOS using your book disk,
load up Ghost, and insert the first disc of your backup set. Once Ghost
completes restoring from the first disc, you'll be asked to insert the
next
disc, and so forth.

That's exactly the problem. Unless Ghost writes the CDs itself, it won't
recognise them later. It'll just report that Ghost didn't create the CDs
and
the process stops there. They can't be restored unless, as Dan G wrote,
the
images are copied to another partition and restored from there.

BTW, sorry for my confusing explanation...but I can create the images
(with
the 'split' switch as you suggested) in a harddrive partition and then
later
write them to discs...but I can't restore directly from those discs. I
didn't realise that was a limitation of Ghost...

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

"Rick Pali" wrote in message
le.rogers.com...
"draven_2" wrote

Once you have your images, you can then burn them to CDs
using EZCD, Nero, or whatever mastering program you use.
Generally speaking, you're only burning one image to each CD.

In the event of a full system restore, boot to DOS using your book disk,
load up Ghost, and insert the first disc of your backup set. Once Ghost
completes restoring from the first disc, you'll be asked to insert the
next
disc, and so forth.

That's exactly the problem. Unless Ghost writes the CDs itself, it won't
recognise them later. It'll just report that Ghost didn't create the CDs
and
the process stops there. They can't be restored unless, as Dan G wrote,
the
images are copied to another partition and restored from there.

BTW, sorry for my confusing explanation...but I can create the images
(with
the 'split' switch as you suggested) in a harddrive partition and then
later
write them to discs...but I can't restore directly from those discs. I
didn't realise that was a limitation of Ghost...

It's not a limitation in Ghost, you simply have used the wrong boot floppy.
Start the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard and have a look at the "CD/DVD Startup
Disk With Ghost". It clearly states "Ghost boot disk with generic CD-ROM
drivers for reading from CD/DVDs not created with Ghost." This is the one
you should use when restoring from your CDs written with something other
than Ghost.
The "Standard Ghost Boot Disk" (I bet this is the one you have been using)
is, amongst others, for reading/writing to CDs from Ghost, it is unable to
read any CDs not written in Ghost.

Best of luck,

Ed

"Edvard Ringen" wrote:

It's not a limitation in Ghost, you simply have used the wrong boot
floppy.
Start the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard and have a look at the "CD/DVD Startup
Disk With Ghost". It clearly states "Ghost boot disk with generic CD-ROM
drivers for reading from CD/DVDs not created with Ghost." This is the one
you should use when restoring from your CDs written with something other
than Ghost.

Damn, is my face red. I still had the test discs I tried earlier and the
*proper* boot floppies has Ghost reading them just fine. Thanks a million,
Ed.

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/

"Rick Pali" wrote in message ble.rogers.com...
"draven_2" wrote

Once you have your images, you can then burn them to CDs
using EZCD, Nero, or whatever mastering program you use.
Generally speaking, you're only burning one image to each CD.

In the event of a full system restore, boot to DOS using your book disk,
load up Ghost, and insert the first disc of your backup set. Once Ghost
completes restoring from the first disc, you'll be asked to insert the
next
disc, and so forth.

That's exactly the problem. Unless Ghost writes the CDs itself, it won't
recognise them later. It'll just report that Ghost didn't create the CDs and
the process stops there. They can't be restored unless, as Dan G wrote, the
images are copied to another partition and restored from there.

BTW, sorry for my confusing explanation...but I can create the images (with
the 'split' switch as you suggested) in a harddrive partition and then later
write them to discs...but I can't restore directly from those discs. I
didn't realise that was a limitation of Ghost...

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/


What you have just said leads me to believe that you are burning the
ghost image files to CD/R(W) media with a "drag-n-drop" burning
program like DirectCD, or InCD, or some other packet writing software.
Is this the case? If so, DOS will not read the CD-R(W)s you created in
this way. This would not be limitation of Ghost, but of DOS.

If I am incorrect, please let us know since Ghost works fine reading
650mb image files directly off my CD-R backups. I even make the first
CD-R bootable and include the ghost.exe program on the CD-R so I never
need floppies to restore from backup.

Ezra

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 02:40:52 GMT, "Rick Pali"
wrote:

BTW, sorry for my confusing explanation...but I can create the images (with
the 'split' switch as you suggested) in a harddrive partition and then later
write them to discs...but I can't restore directly from those discs. I
didn't realise that was a limitation of Ghost...

Rick.
-+---

http://www.alienshore.com/seeking/


As far as I know it's not a problem. I have burned image files from a
partition to a CD many times, and have no trouble restoring from them.

You have to have a boot floppy and then go to the Ghost.exe program.
Don't know what you are not doing right.