Ghost Alternative

[GraemeM]

Hi, I was thinking of purchasing Norton Ghost. Basically I want a program that will clone drives, create images of drives, boot from a CD on system startup, and read a USB hard drive when you boot from a CD. (so I could image an entire drive with my OS on it to a USB harddrive, and if my OS crashes to the point of not being recoverable, I could recover it with this program)

However, I've heard people say to avoid most Norton products (referring mainly to firewall, antivirus, etc.) So, are there any better (or cheaper/free) alternatives that I should know about?

Thanks

[EzyStvy]

Norton Ghost works well...

I use acronis and love it...
http://www.acronis.com/

[TwoRails]

Ghost is a pretty good product; folks just love to hate Norton / Symantec stuff. I've been hearing a lot of good things about Acronis, as EzyStvy mentions, and just picked up a copy from Newegg. In fact, it's pdf manual is open in the other window

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832200204

[jayb1234]

You can't run windows from an external hard drive. You would have to install the drive internally.

[glc]

That's right, but Acronis can restore an image from an external USB drive to an internal hard drive simply by booting with the CD and loading the full program with USB support.

[RayH]

The FREE alternative for Ghost is Drive Image XML by Runtime Software. It's a bit slower than Ghost and Acronis. The created file is a bit larger. It doesn't do much. It clones drives and backs and restores Windows XP. But the thing works and it's free.

The only problem I've had with it is that in restoring, the desktop has to be restored. The screen is white and the active desktop doesn't work and the link doesn't work. But I've found that all I have to do is to be conscious to save the desktop independently at some point. I just call up the file and all is good.

The chink in the armour in this is that it requires BART PE boot CD to run the restore filles. Creating the BART PE disk requires a slipstreamed copy of Windows XP (Sp1 or Sp2). If you got a slipstreamed copy of Windows, it's all good.

It works and is free.

[GraemeM]

Originally Posted by glc That's right, but Acronis can restore an image from an external USB drive to an internal hard drive simply by booting with the CD and loading the full program with USB support.

Ya that was what I meant.

Okay anyways, thanks for the suggestions. I figure I'll probably buy one. Since it looks like no one knows of any major flaws with Ghost, I'll look at Ghost and Acronis and see which one I can find cheaper/easier.

Thanks.

[jimmyrules712]

I was an avid ghost promoter (despite hatred for all other norton products) until recently when I tried to backup my work PC with it, and it managed to mess up my MBR or something. In short the backup failed, and windows owuld no longer boot up, tried repairing it in every possible way but I ended up reformatting and reinstalling. I won't be using ghost again.

[rave]

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm

that is PCinspector Clone Maxx. i dont know how well it works. but its free. not sure if it can copy MBRs and so on. any input in this product?

[RayH]

If all you're doing is backing up Windows XP, Drive Image XML is the way to go for a home user. It's free and works.

[glc]

Acronis is cheap enough and it doesn't have a desktop restoration issue or the need to build a BartPE disk. I'd buy it before Ghost in a heartbeat. Sure, free is good, but when there's something this good this cheap - and with the ability to get tech support, it's well worth considering.

[RayH]

$50 here. $50 there. I use free anti-virus, too! After purchasing Windows, the computer can pretty much be run on freeware.

[TwoRails]

I know what you mean, RayH, that's why I *try* to be a "smart shopper." It doesn't always work, but it did with Acronis. Last week Newegg was having a special for $29 and Free shipping. This week it's $35 + $5 shipping, but they do have it on special a lot.

[kram 2.0]

Acronis rolled out with TrueImage 9.1 for Workstations/Servers a few months ago - that would be the main reason why TI9.0 is becoming cheaper. That said, TI9.0 is a fine software. You might want to look at Jason's TrueImage 9.1 Workstation review as well as try the eval.

kram

[RayH]

I had problems with earlier versions of Acronis and Ghost. Drive Image XML works. Since it does what I need it to do, there's no point in me spending any money on Acronis or Ghost. It's possible to run a Windows PC on freeware and the software that comes with hardware. The only software I recommend purchasing is AnyDVD...and that's for avid CD purchasers who want to back their audio CDs.