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Formating Harddrive Weekly

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X0d1@k

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Location
Drano(Reno), NV
I like to format alot, and I was wondering if there is some kind of program where I can get the image of my harddrive, OS also, and format and restore everything back to normal. What Im trying to do is cut my format time down. I dont really format every week, but If Im getting different hardware and what not, its nice to be able to format quickly.

I thought there was a program out that did it, and from what I have read about Ghosting programs, its not what Im looking for really.
 
Ghosting is what your describing. It takes an image of your hard drive and then you can later apply that image to the hard drive. Unless you mean you want to streamline your OS?
 
Another vote for ghost. doing stuff like that every week must be hell on your hard drive
 
I have some advice about using ghost.

Reformat, install windows. Then only install the chipset drivers for your motherboard, nothing else. Create a base image of this fresh install with ghost. This will eliminate your need to go through the windows prompts forever, or atleast until you replace your motherboard with one that uses a different chipset.

Now you should do one of two things - install everything else to get your system just the way you want it and image that, or do what I do...

Go ahead and install your essential applications that you don't update often (for example, don't bother including firefox in the image, it will just need updated before long and no reason for building in an old version). My baseline install includes various MS Powertoys, an old conversion tool I find handy, OfficeXP, McAfee, Diskeeper, AIM/DeadAIM, Winamp, StrokeIt, and Wizmo - everything I like to install but never update. Then create another image and you won't have to install these apps every time you reformat. Afterwards, I download the latest versions of anything else I use and install - firefox, other things which update regularly, etc.

Let me know if you have any questions about ghost... I think I've used it at a minimum once a week for the past two years with my job.
 
X0d1@k said:
...but If Im getting different hardware and what not, its nice to be able to format quickly.

I thought there was a program out that did it, and from what I have read about Ghosting programs, its not what Im looking for really.
I.M.O.G. said:
I have some advice about using ghost.

Reformat, install windows. Then only install the chipset drivers for your motherboard, nothing else. Create a base image of this fresh install with ghost.
This is perfect advice. What you have to remember about ghost is that it takes everything with it. For example, if your hard drive needed to be defragged before you make the image, the recipient of the image will need to be defragged as well. It takes the format and everything.

I ghost well over a hundred machines a day.
 
if ur gonna do this i recommend u format ur hdd jus install the stuff u want and make an image this way no viruses/spyware etc in the image thats gonna be installed every time
 
Man all you guys still using ghost? You living in the dark ages! Drive Image XML is free, will image while in windows, and you can browse the image too. Also there are great utils to make a bootcd with network support etc etc.
http://runtime.org/dixml.htm
 
khiloa said:
That is neat, I never heard about that before.

Me neither, I'll be checking it out though.

I see it can also be incorporated into a windows liveboot disc, which is what we currently do with ghost, so it sounds like it would fit in nicely.

Any experience with how it handles discs with errors? I've had pretty good success with ghost plowing through any errors if run with the right flags, and coming out with a good image still. Have you had good luck with DIXML pulling images from dead/dieing hard drives?
 
I.M.O.G. said:
Have you had good luck with DIXML pulling images from dead/dieing hard drives?
Never attempted that. The point is to image BEFORE the drive is dead or dying :D
 
I hear ya there... You know how (L)users can be though, and drive imaging can work pretty well to recover data when a drive is no longer bootable. What I would give to get people to realize that they shouldn't be storing important files on a local drive.

We have network storage for our people that work in offices, and we use Novell iFolder for field people to backup their data... Yet we still ALMOST always need to recover data when a hard drive tanks. :rolleyes:
 
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