partition / ghost

Hi
Ive read the other posts here about hidden partitions etc but still need help with a few things so hope you can help.

I have an Acer 4502wlmi with 60gb disk. It comes with 3 partitions that Part Magic can see - one 3gb one with no drive name (System recovery), and C and D about 25GB each and FAT 32.

I have used PM to resize C to 10gb, left the hidden one as is and added the freed up space to D. I have then coverted C and D to NTFS.

After installing all my apps on C I would like to use Ghost or True Image to back that up - hence in theory making recovery easy.
My questions are

1 Can I make a recovery disk like this using ghost / True Image ?
2 will that recovery CD be bootable
3 Will the recover keep the NTFS format or will I have to recover using acers supplied CD / hidden partition restore, re-convert to NTFS and then restore the ghosted image?
4. Do I need the hidden partition or should I delete that
5. Is this a sensible approach in the first instance?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Sorry for any questions repeated from other posts - but being a newbie I need to really go back to basics

 

I can answer a few of those, yes ghost is a good idea esp if you have software like Norton AV etc that requires activation, doing a ghost will mean you wont use up your limited activations when ever you want to reformat your hdd, and it reduces recovery time from days to and hour or so, since having a ghost image I'm much less stressed about having to rebuild/reformate my machines.

It depends on which version of ghost you use as to wether it will be bootable. The latest version isn't (older versions were) in that you use the recover cd that comes with ghost to boot up, then you can open/restore the cd/dvd/hdd ghost image. Can't remember what happens with NTFS etc, but I assume that the format will be as you last left the drive?
If you make a new image then you don't really need the hidden partition as this is the same thing, although it is handy to keep if your planning on selling the lappie at any stage.

a

ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM

 

I use True Image, so I will answer in reference to that program

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) If you make an image of your NTFS partition, that's what will be restored
4) That's up to you. For the lousy 3GB, I'd keep it.
5)Sounds good to me. Are you going to backup to your "D: drive? If so, keep in mind that if your hard drive crashes, you still lose everything. True Image allows you to easily backup your image to another computer on your network. If no other computer, you can split the image into DVD size pieces and store them there.

 

Thanks for the replies.[ ]

I will backup the data on the D Drive to CD/DVD as necessary.

So in the event of a crash (virus etc), would I need to use the system recovery CD first and then the TrueImage created image DVD, or just boot using the TrueImage DVD

 

True Image has you create a bootable CD during installation. You would boot with this CD and run the program from it. You then retrieve the image file from either the D drive or your cd's. Program works great. Just remember an image on the D drive will not protect you from a damaged D drive.

 

1. Yes, you can make a recovery disk using these types of apps
2. it will only be bootable if you make a bootable CD. Can be done using nero or most cd/dvd burning software
3. Yes, it will make a complete backup of the entire HDD including the file system
4. It's up to you, if you ghost the entire HDD, it should automatically backup the hidden partition as well. So when you restore the image, it should also bring back the hidden partition. You can also get rid of the hidden partition since your ghost image will become your new recovery CD
5. Definitely a good way to go. It's the best and fastest way to restore your OS to the way you originally set it up.

-Vb-

 

A third option for the easiest gaurenteed backup recovery would be to purchase the Apricorn EZ Upgrade kit consisting of software CD and a 2.5" hard drive USB2 housing. You slip your backup 2.5" drive into the housing, boot off the CD and clone the internal hard drive anyway you choose (as far as partition sizes and what to clone) to the USB drive. Apricorn uses modified Acronis True Image for software. It preserves partition letters and MBR on cloned drive.

The great thing is that for recovery you simply physically swap hard drives (most Acers have a two screw access door) and be back running within minutes and deal with the problematic system install at your leisure later or just reformat drive and repeat cycle.

A second benefit is the backup hard drive can always be just test installed to verify integrity. Failures with recovery from software backups do happen. My small (bare bubble wrapped) backup hard drive slips into notebook case and is always available if ever needed.