Norton Ghost - does it back up ...

[jbslow]

I haven't had a chance to try it yet but I want to know if in addition to the hdd data does the back up store new bios or new drivers settings?

[zoopa_man]

It does save your latest drivers. As for bios I think that gets saved in the BIOS chip it's self. so it never gets changed. May be wrong on that one though. But drivers stay. It's just like taking a snap shot of your computer. All the data on the hard disk is saved..so what ever is on your HDD is in the ghost immage...viruses included :) how nice....

[CrystalMethod]

Best thing to do is to make a ghost image of your HDD, right after a fresh install. Anything REALLY important you should burn to cd. Stuff like drivers should be kept on a separate cd. Re-installing is always a hassle, but to make sure everything goes without a hitch I have a ghost of 98SE, 2K, and ME. Without any drivers installed. This way, I can use it to install on anything. If I change setups completely, I know can cut the time it takes for a traditional install in half. 2K for some reason doesn't like it when you spontaneously switch MB's on it. As far as I know it will make an image of everything on your HDD at the time you make it, like Zoopa_man said. But the BIOS is saved on the BIOS chip on your MB. So that wouldn't be part of the ghost image. If you're keeping the same MB, you have nothing to worry about, once programed, the bios will keep what ever bios version it has on it till you change it, or it gets change by some outside force (like pulling it off the MB, and holding it to a magnet for a bit. I've never tried, but I'm pretty sure it'd screw up your BIOS )

[maha_x]

Norrton Ghost is really powerful tool.

I have usually an image of my latest fresh install with drivers and software and everything included. As ghost restores EVERYTHING from the image just like it was before.

Then after I fiddle with allsorts of demo software etc. and swap drivers and finaly mess my Windoze for good, I just pop it back from the image (takes 7min for 600mb image) and everything is just like it was when "imaged".

I have had several troubles with the NTFS and Ghost. U usually need the latest and the greatest Ghost to image the NTFS of XP or 2K. Even service packs can render yer Ghost obsolette. FAT32 works like a charm tought.