[24hoursupport] Re: Reformatting and Partitioning

  • From: "Spider" <spider1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <24hoursupport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 18:02:44 -0500

 

Karen,
Sorry, it took me a while to find time to respond to this.  First of
all, Ghost is certainly a good piece of software for what it is intended
for and that is to make a mirror image of a drive for quick restore.
One must understand the limitations of this though.  Each day you do
things to your PC.  You might tweak a setting here and there, install a
program, update software, and apply operating system critical updates
etc.  Some software installs that use self contained data also default
to the install directory and important data could be getting saved to
the C: drive and not off on a data drive.  Ghost is NOT intended to be
used as backup software.  To just willy nilly say it is time to run an
image to keep windows clean is a very reckless thing to tell someone.
Never re-do Windows unless it is a necessity.  There is nothing
preventative to re-imaging.  If I were to recommend a course of action
with Ghost it would be to make an image of your drive every 3 months or
so (more often if you make a lot of changes and install/uninstall lots
of software).  Keep the current image and the one that the current is
replacing and throw the older images away.

Next is to include a backup system using software designed for that.
The windows backup software is OK, but it does not backup to CDRW's so I
don't like it.  I am partial to Backup My PC sold by STOMP (I think)
which is marketing the former Veritas Backup Executive.  With this
software you can schedule regular backups of your data and back up to
your CDRW as long as you leave a CD in the drive when the backup is
scheduled to fire.  You should schedule a full backup once a week and an
incremental backup for the other 6 days.  Incremental backups only get
files that have changed since the last backup and that helps conserve
your backup media.  Maintain one month's worth of backup's and if you
really want to be safe, store those backups in a separate off site
location.  If data is being properly backed up, it really doesn't matter
if your data is kept on the C drive or on another partition although for
organization reasons a separate drive is not a bad idea.

I do make a distinction between PC's being used for serious stuff vs.
those that are just using a home pc for Internet and email.  Anyone who
would break into a sweat, experience shortness of breath and rapid heart
palpations if their hard drive fails should be following strict backup
procedures.

Spider

-----Original Message-----
From: 24hoursupport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:24hoursupport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Karren
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 4:27 PM
To: 24hoursupport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [24hoursupport] Re: Reformatting and Partitioning

Spider,

I do use this computer for business and there always seems to be some
data lost with each reformat despite various backup utilities used.  Can
you make a recommendation as to a safer and more stable method.  Also
what is your opinion of Ghost 2003? Thanks, Karren

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