[How-to] Make a full backup of your VAIO Z

i used acronis to backup, never used it to recover my data. did get an error while backing up though. will use this method after updating and drivers and installing other applications. thanks!

 

hi pyr0,

i just purchased a VAIO SA but have not turned it on yet, because i would like to make an image (or is it called a clone?) of the hard disk before going through setting up Windows 7.
1) i was wondering whether i can use Ghost to do this and save the image on an external USB2.0 HDD using your guide? does it matter what operating system i have on the laptop?
2) if yes, i think i should select to image the whole disk (and not any particular partition), am i right?
3) also, the HDD is 500GB so it has a lot of empty space right now; does Ghost actually image all that empty space as well or only copies the data?
4) do you suggest i download Ghost 8.3 and do it myself or just use Ghost 11 included in Hiren's Boot CD? is there any big difference between the two? (i know that after Ghost 8.3, Symantec changed the code base to that of DriveImage).

thanks

ps: now that i checked, the current version of Hiren's Boot CD does not include Norton Ghost at all!

 

^

1) Ghost and many other imaging tools like Acronis, DriveImageXML, GImageX or Seagate DiscWizard (all available available free of charge on the newest BootCDs, except Acronis) know almost all common Filesystems so can Backup your Computer. Windows Backups are a piece of cake for these tools. Boot the mini XP environment and you can Backup your drives to an external HDD with ease.

2) Yes, for best results, image the whole Disk so you can fully revert to the original state. Given that something breaks your MBR and you only got a partition backup, you need to do additional steps in order to make it work again. A full backup is just a straigt forward process when reverting to the original state and always works.

3) Ghost and all these other tools know the filesystems. So they read out the MFT (Master File Table) of your drive and ignore free space in the backup. You can also further compress your image. If your drive comes with 20GB data on it, your Backup image will be 20GB or less depending on the compression setting. There are options to do a sector-by-sector copy, so full space of your HDD including free space will be imaged. This is only required if the filesystem is unknown or you got some encryption on the drive so the imaging tool isn't able to see where data is.
Also keep in mind that with the backup you only image existing files. Deleted files, that are marked as deleted (removed from the MFT) but reside physically readable on the disk, are NOT backed up when you use the regular backup so you can't recover them later. Use sector-by-sector method in this case. In your case, this is not necessary since it is a new system.

4) You can try using one of the above mentioned tools standalone. The problem with the Z was, the RAID drivers are not included in most of the rescue bootdisks from these tools so the RAID array is not properly detected. A backup could not be done. With your SA, this might just work because you seem to not using some complicated RAID setup like the Z does. Anyways, booting Hiren's BootCD does not hurt. It comes with many SATA drivers, detects almost everything and gives you a couple of options to work with.

Well, as I told in the first post in this thread, there are licensing issues since Ghost is paid software. I have a license and it is worth it. Piracy is absolutely NOT condoned by me.
Anyways, you can use one of the other tools that I mentioned above. They all work pretty well. My favorites are GImageX or Seagate DiscWizard.

 

thanks a lot

 

i got Ghost directly from Symantec, so now i have access to ghost32.exe. is that file alone enough to make an image and restore it later on if i run it from a WinPE environment (e.g. Windows 7 DVD?) i plan to copy it on a USB flash drive, boot with a Win 7 DVD, go to rescue mode (whatever it's called), load the command prompt, and run ghost32.exe. so i'm wondering if all i need is that one file alone.

ps: what is the key combination to go into a Sony VAIO's BIOS utility? like i said, i haven't turned on my VAIO SA yet, as i want to make an image of the HDD before i do anything.

 

^
I think it's F2.

 

Yes it's F2.

IIRC, you will need a windows desktop for Ghost32 to run. Just get any BartPE or similar boot media on a flashdrive and use ghost32 from there. Should run without issues at all. As I suggested, Hiren's bootCD does a great job and is perfectly able to run ghost32. Flashdrive boot available as well.

 

thanks ota-con and pyr0

it seems one can indeed use a Windows 7 DVD to launch ghost32.exe from the command prompt (according to this thread).

 

Well then you are all set, happy cloning then

 

i want to confirm that it is possible to use a Windows DVD to start Symantec Ghost. i have a Windows Vista Business x86 DVD (was too lazy to burn a Windows 7 DVD), so i booted the laptop with it, chose the repair option instead of going on with the installation (you don't press F8 when the CD boots but let it load the GUI to begin installation, then you can select to repair). at that point, i went to the command prompt and launched ghost32.exe from the USB stick i had plugged in before i turned the laptop on (Windows loads a lot of drivers upon startup, and so it was able to see my Blu-ray drive and my USB stick just fine).
i told it to image the whole boot sector as well (using -ib switch) and save it on the USB stick. everything worked flawlessly, and the image verified okay. then, i was able to see through the image file using GhostExplorer.

 

^That is actually quite useful!