COMPUTER GEEKS, I have a disk problem, need advice

JamesRK

I'll skip all the symptoms, but it appears I have a disk problem and it's just a matter of time until my computer goes down for the count.

When I replace the disk, if possible I'd like to clone my current disk to the new one with Norton Ghostr. I have a Ghostr copy on an external Iomega drive.

The capacity of the internal disk is 76.3 GB. The manufacturer probably called it an 80 GB. I don't think you can get a disk that small now. Will Norton Ghostr clone to a disk which is larger than the disk it was cloned from?

Thanks for any help.

11BravoCrunchie

I personally wouldn't use anything from Norton or McAfee. AVG Free Edition and AVG Pro Edition are two of the very best anti-virus/firewall programs available.

It is possible to clone a program. Whether it will work or not is another question. You have to copy all of the files and transfer them to the new disk. It's really very easy in theory. The problem is that when you install a program on a hard-drive, the operating system doesn't put all the files in the same place. It scatters them and puts them where ever it has space.

slipgate

Ghost will expand it to include the entire new drive. Your plan will work 100%!

ZULU: I don't think you understand what Ghost does. It is a sector by sector copy tool that exactly mirrors the contents of the drive onto another drive. The technology has been around for many years and is rock solid.

Old-Colts

James, here is a link to Symantec's website regarding using Ghost for the disk transfer you want to perform. It talks about using Ghost to clone from a smaller drive to a larger drive. From this article clink on the link titled "How to perform a Disk-to-Disk clone" under the solutions section.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sunset-c2002kb.nsf/0/43db1d92628e75f685256ee500610c53?OpenDocument

iwannausername

Ghost will resize to fit, as long as there is room for all of the actual data. I've done a 4gb image from a 20gb drive onto a 80gb drive onto a 10gb drive....

JamesRK

Thanks guys. I appreciate your sharing the knowledge.

buschmaster

it's important to know that when you make a ghost copy of a hard drive, one of the options is to copy the whole hard drive including empty space. if you do that, of course the ghost image won't fit on a smaller drive so you can't use it. simply don't choose that option.

I mention this because you said you already have a ghost image made and stored away. if you chose that option when making that image, it's too big. when you're ready to do the cloning, you would have to erase the original drive, ghost the stored image back on to it, re-ghost the drive without that option, then you can put that image on the newer, smaller drive.

givette

quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
I personally wouldn't use anything from Norton or McAfee. AVG Free Edition and AVG Pro Edition are two of the very best anti-virus/firewall programs available.

It is possible to clone a program. Whether it will work or not is another question. You have to copy all of the files and transfer them to the new disk. It's really very easy in theory. The problem is that when you install a program on a hard-drive, the operating system doesn't put all the files in the same place. It scatters them and puts them where ever it has space.


Z: givette here. How do I go about getting rid of the McAfee program (and others installed by the Dell folks-sheesh!), and run the AVG? (and still keep my phone book, photos, etc.) Thanks, Joe

CHEVELLE427

quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
I personally wouldn't use anything from Norton or McAfee. AVG Free Edition and AVG Pro Edition are two of the very best anti-virus/firewall programs available.



+1 on AVG. had norton and it made the computer run slow.

just got mine back from a crash and the computer guy installed AVG. on it, said that is what he uses on his at home and work

beneteau

quote:Originally posted by givette

givette here. How do I go about getting rid of the McAfee program (and others installed by the Dell folks-sheesh!), and run the AVG? (and still keep my phone book, photos, etc.) Thanks, Joe



Just follow the steps

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go here.

dheffley

Western Digital and Maxtor come with software to copy a smaller disk to a larger one and make it a systems disk. It works well. Some disk copy programs will make the new disk the same sive as the old disk, and if that happens, you have to do a low level format to correct it back to full size.

I'm sure other hard drive manufactures use the same type of software and furnish it or allow you to download it, but I have used both Maxtor and WD and had great luck just by following the directions.

Never used Norton Ghost, so I can't answer your original quaetion, but I would be more inclined to use what came with the ned hard drive just because they have tested it and it matches their hardware.

WinM70

Norton Ghost was the king of cloning software, was out on the market long before the other disk makers started to offer it with there new disks. I used to work in a computer shop and used that software for our store brand computers. Build one machine load drivers and software use it to quickly build and load several machines fast. Must clone to a drive the same size or larger. We used a floppy to boot with that automatically started the program once the power button was turned on. I've still got that disc here somewhere.