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Joined: Jul 2000
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Joined: Jul 2000
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I am currently reloading my entire software after I had a major system failure last weekend. Of course, I did not have all files backed und lost quite a bit. Now that I am reloading eveything, I am thinking of buying ghost software and clone my hard drive to an external drive. Does this realy work? Would I be able to just copy it back to my PC and everything would work, like it did before the crash? Reinstalling every program and drive is quite a pain. Anybody had any experience wiht those ghosts?
Thanks,
Wolfgang
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Joined: May 2004
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Joined: May 2004
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Ive never used it but from what I understand you can back up everything including your O/System for a full reinstall. If you use an external drive I am not sure if you would need ghost, just back everything up using the WinXP software. Personally I try to back up pictures / info etc to dvd regularly as I like to reformat at least every 6 months to keep the PC ship shape, but have to agree an external drive would be the way to go  .
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 220
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Joined: Sep 2002
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Ghost works very well. Set up your computer EXACTLY the way you would like it. Windows settings, applications, shortcuts - even the look you want before Ghosting it and when you restore it in the future it will restore exactly the same way you copied it. Do a disk defrag too before ghosting.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Hello Degens..how do you construct your avatar?Is that a flash media or something of that sort? I'm doing a website...well..my wife is doing the technical portion..and I'd love to try to incorporate the type of image you use..is it an mpeg avi? thanks!
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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quote: Originally posted by DCR:
Ghost works very well. Set up your computer EXACTLY the way you would like it. Windows settings, applications, shortcuts - even the look you want before Ghosting it and when you restore it in the future it will restore exactly the same way you copied it. Do a disk defrag too before ghosting.
DCR. how does the data that "ghosts" the original format of one's hardrive become saved..is it done on dvd's or cdroms? or does it get saved on an external harddrive..not sure how this works..but would also like to do it.
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: May 2004
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Joined: May 2004
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Scott,
Both my signature and avatar are .gif files, the black and white avatar I made using a program that strings together a series of still images captured from a period video clip, the hard bit is keeping the file size small.
The heer signature is made using Xara3d, which I recommend to anybody who wants to construct their own banners or text related still or animated pictures. Let me know if you need any help.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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thanks Degens..I'll look for the software..I also want on my site to be able to click an animated avatar to play wav music files with period music and radio broadcasts..and I want the "avatar" to click on to be the old "RKO" radio logo..wich was a black and white spinning globe with a large radio mast sitting atop the globe..with lightning bolts eminating from the top of the radio antenna..it looks pretty cool..do you think I'd want to use flash or the program you mentioned to animate the spinning globe and other features? thanks!
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: May 2004
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Joined: May 2004
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Right click "save as". You would not believe how hard it was to find the original online. Large or small filesize, the smaller is better for a webby, to create your own using flash, would take about a week . It opens slowly on this page due to me having 4 x .gifs running on one post, but give it time to load. Regards  
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Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,787 Likes: 41
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Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,787 Likes: 41 |
I use WinXP and a USB drive to back up everything including my system. No other software needed. For those not familiar with a USB drive, you can get a USB case and cable, and install a laptop hard drive in it. WinXP will see the drive as soon as you connect it. Format the drive and you're ready to go. I installed 100GB drives in mine, use one for backup and one to carry info around. They are about 4" x 2 1/2" x 1/4", weight a couple of ounces, and fit a shirt pocket. You can get the case and cable off Ebay for around $10, and can get a laptop drive from Ebay or your local computer show. I paid around $35 for 100GB drives but the case can use up to 200GB drives. They're easy to use, cheap, and portable 
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Joined: Jul 2003
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Joined: Jul 2003
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not sure what a usb case is Vern can you steer me to one ? Your systems sounds neat
Actually just found a complete system with a 20gb drive set up as yours Vern on ebay and bought it . Great idea thanks
paul
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Here's 500GB which seems to be reasonably priced: http://cgi.ebay.com/Maxtor-500GB-7200RPM-16MB-USB-2-0-E...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItemYou just highlight the contents in each drive that you want to back up, click the "copy tab", which is usually located on the upper left hand side of your screen. You then get a pop up to where you want to copy the documents to, (which will be your new external hard drive) and then you're done.
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Joined: Oct 2002
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Joined: Oct 2002
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If you want to minimize downtime, using Ghost or a similar drive imaging software application is the way to go. It can get you back exactly to the point of your last backup. We use it to deploy our computers - instead of installing the OS and configuring each one individually, we can get several prepared for delivery within minutes.
Othewise, if you're just looking to backup files, Vern hit it on the head. I've got a nice 60GB drive I carry around for file backups and music.
Regards,
Aaron
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Joined: Feb 2000
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Joined: Feb 2000
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Actually, I use the "Move" option in WinXP. That's set up to move your system to a new computer. It takes everything and when it finishes, you're ready to go. Very similar to ghost, just not as fast
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Vern... if you use the move option, you move the whole document. If you use the copy option, you just make a back up.
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Degens....AWESOME..I cant thank you enough for providing that animation..WOW..its nice people such as yourself who go out of their way to help out a fellow collector that makes this site special..thanks so much!!! I'll be in contact!!
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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quote: Originally posted by Vern: I use WinXP and a USB drive to back up everything including my system. No other software needed. For those not familiar with a USB drive, you can get a USB case and cable, and install a laptop hard drive in it. WinXP will see the drive as soon as you connect it. Format the drive and you're ready to go. I installed 100GB drives in mine, use one for backup and one to carry info around. They are about 4" x 2 1/2" x 1/4", weight a couple of ounces, and fit a shirt pocket. You can get the case and cable off Ebay for around $10, and can get a laptop drive from Ebay or your local computer show. I paid around $35 for 100GB drives but the case can use up to 200GB drives. They're easy to use, cheap, and portable
Hello Vern..thanks so much!!!
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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quote: Originally posted by Scott A. Hess:
thanks Degens..I'll look for the software..I also want on my site to be able to click an animated avatar to play wav music files with period music and radio broadcasts..and I want the "avatar" to click on to be the old "RKO" radio logo..wich was a black and white spinning globe with a large radio mast sitting atop the globe..with lightning bolts eminating from the top of the radio antenna..it looks pretty cool..do you think I'd want to use flash or the program you mentioned to animate the spinning globe and other features? thanks!
Hello Degens..I did a right click and "saveas".if I now open it..will it play the animation.or is there something else i need to do? Im on my sisters computer until I put it on a usb stick to transfer to my computger..and when Ihit open it brings up their photoshop by default...do I need to "string" the images together..or will it do it automatically? thanks for the help!
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: Feb 2000
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Joined: Feb 2000
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The USB drive holds a lot of information and is fast and easy to hook up and use on a WinXP computer. They're giving security people fits
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Hello Degens..I right clicked and saved.and opened up with html/internet viewer..works great! thanks !
"Its a great thing the destruction of words"...George Orwell...1984
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Joined: May 2006
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Joined: May 2006
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I would only recommend Ghost to people who know what they're doing.
Alternatively if you have a friend show you how to use it and took notes you may be ok.
Definately the quickest and industry leader as used by IT technicians.
Its nice having your whole laptop/PC regularly saved as image files and if anything goes wrong you can just reimage it in under 10 mins.
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