HELLPPP !! Norton Ghost VS WindowsXP Backup

[PrinceHeart]

Hello Guys,

Need a quick help in this problem..

Got 2 HDD 40GB each - running win98se and winxp pro sp2
in c and d drives respectively.

I installed everything anew in d drive with winxp pro sp2 and its soo good config - i don't wanna loose it. It starts in 5 seconds and shut down in 3 seconds. I don't know what i did - but whatever happened - its all GOOOOOOD.

Got original CD of norton ghost 2003 from a friend. I installed it on C drive with win98se - i thought if i am gonna take backup of d drive(winxp pro_sp2), why install norton ghost in it.

But .... D drive is in NTFS - but in norton ghost. it recognise the drive - but no drive letters - just showing -
partition [NTFS] 12blablaGB. (2.4 GB used) which includes all the winxp pro_sp2 files + all the softwares i need to use.

So ...

1) I did a backup in another partition - f drive - which is FAT32. It got the file size to 0.99GB. from norton ghost in win98se

2) I starts windows backup in winxp pro_sp2 - made copy of d drive and dump the backup.bkf in f drive in another folder. which is 1.44GB file size.

So this is the case.
Now the problem -

As long i have c drive with win98se. I can run ghost from windows. Format d drive whenever there is any fault - and then run norton ghost from win98se and restore it to d drive.

OPTION 1

So will this work and i get all the system and installed programs in d drive as it was before ???? Since in win98se - its not showing the drive letter - just saying partition [NTFS] 12blablaGB. (2.4 GB used). MY concern is - since its not showing drive letters - maybe it will not backup properly ??


Another question -

If i use windows back - backup.bkf i made which is 1.44GB ?? what i can do - whenever there is problem - i can format d drive - put winxp pro_sp2 - and then next thing - i click restore with the backup.bkf. Will that work also ?? And i will get all my files and programes and drivers intact ??

OPTION 2

OR - I have to install norton ghost 2003 in d drive(winxp pro_sp2) - and then backup d drive and let it be norton ghost already installed on the d drive that im backing up. and whenever i restore - norton ghost will be there everytime ??

My main purpose - I am not worried abt win98se - I can configure anytime - I mainly use winxp pro_sp2 which is fortunately in its best right now and i don't wanna loose this config.

So please... DO suggest me

Thanks

 

[enoonmai]

Question 1: Yes, it will will work properly. I've never seen NG2003 screw up with a NTFS partition. In fact, a lot of sysadmins use Ghost images to roll out the exact same configs on identical machines. You should have all installed programs, drivers, files and what-nots all working properly.

Question 2: You would be better off using the ASR in NTBackup if you want to bring Windows XP back to its exact settings including drivers, patches, software, registry configs, etc, etc. So instead of using the plain backup tool to create the .bkf files, run the ASR tool to make sure everything stays the way it should. Of course, the problem with this approach is that it takes longer this way. You would be better off using the Ghost image, as it takes a ridiculously short amount of time to restore complete functionality.

 

[PrinceHeart]

Hi "enoonmai",

Thanks for your promt suggestions and reply to my queries.
Need some more info.

So i can
1. Use ng2003 on win98se and make backup of d drive(winxp pro_sp2 with ntfs). put it in a DVD.
2. Use ng2003 on win98se and make backup of c drive(win98se FAT32). put it in the same DVD.
3. Make ghost bootable floopy.
4. format both hdd.

and use ghost floopy to restore win98se and winxp pro_sp2 from that DVD on c and d drives and it will be same as i got it now with dual boot OS system ?

Or just keep win98se image as standby. And format all hdd and just use winxp pro_sp2 image and restore on c drive this time - only 1 OS - will that work ?? (since i make backup of d drive from c drive and with no drive letters showing ? and yes - i will format that c drive with ntfs.

or 3. make the dvd - ghost bootable. what bootable floopy i use ? win98se bootable floopy which is win98. or from winxp Pro_sp2 bootable floppy which is win 2000. got some demo on how to use ng2003. But its not clear to me yet.

I was thinking. use ng2003 and make copies of win98se( c drive) and winxp pro_sp2(d drive) on the same dvd(i got iomega dvd rewritter) and make that dvd ghost bootable, so it will boot without any external source. And then format both hdd since i got good configuration of winxp pro_sp2. so will use winxp pro_sp2 on c drive this time(win 98se will be in dvd just as a standby image) and all other partitions for my softwares+programs+files use.

I know the more you study, the more knowledge you will get. I want to learn new things, but need a way. Don't want to do all wrong from the starting and muck things up.

If you or anyone can help me with step by step procedure - would be greatly appreciated. Since this is a one time job - after that I just have to use the images and its back to the old & good configurations+ softwares+programs+drivers for both win98se and winxp pro_sp2.

Thank