How many of us are software junkies? How many times have you needed to throw in the towel and perform a fresh install after you really hosed your system good? But, you didn't, because of the mind numbing task that you knew lay ahead. So, you spent hours thrashing around the registry kicking out all the bad blood. But then, about 2 weeks later when you got sick of all the annoying, "mysterious" crashes, you went ahead and began contemplating the unthinkable, the dreaded, fresh or "clean" install.
Now, let's be honest, each time that happened, didn't you make yourself a promise, a promise that goes something like this? "Now that I have finally figured out all the proggies I need to create the worlds most powerful desktop system; I promise, that after I finish my clean install and put in my earth shattering selection of essential programs and utilities, I will be good and quit trying 15 Beta programs a week and causing my system to run like a turtle with a broken leg or worse yet, lock up incessantly."
Fast forward a feverish two hours later: You have just completed the new installation and a strange thing happens, yes, boredom sets in! So, the first thing we do is what? Yes! You invoke your Internet browser. Then you realise much to your own horror, that the pact you made to yourself will soon be broken once again. However, your Internet connection has never seemed faster and fortunately, the thought passes quickly. Hmmm, a new version of Nero 6 is out on the Ahead FTP server! Let's see, 6.3.11.1.17.3.a, with no changelog, that's odd. Uh-huh, came out about 10 minutes ago, that sounds interesting, whoa, 50 megs. Yesssss, come to papa!
Well, maybe now would be a good time to use one of those CD or DVD disks, you know, the cheap 650 meg to 4.7 gigabyte ones, to store this pristeen environment for the future with a drive imaging program. Forum moderator Womble recently had to perform a re-installation. When he was done, he was good enough to put forth the extra effort of creating a step-by-step guide, complete with screenshots and suggestions for using Norton Ghost 2003.
Norton Ghost is a tool which allows you to backup your entire hard drive or partitions on your hard drive in-case something goes wrong with them at a later date. You can do this to a second hard drive, a number or CD's or a DVD. Before Norton Ghost 2003 you had to have knowledge of DOS commands to be able to successfully backup your drive. Now there is a nice new shiny front end that will do all of the hard work for you. All you know have to tell it is what you want to backup and to where. Below is a guide running through the basic steps of backing up a drive in Norton Ghost 2003 followed by doing an Image Integrity Check. After that I will run through the Ghost Explorer program so that you can view the files inside your image and finish up with Restoring your image back onto your hard drive. |
Take a minute and head on over to the Software Forum where Womble has put together this guide. Who knows? Maybe you will decide to do like he did and create an image, just in case you can't resist the urge to try out some more shareware or Beta software. Thanks Womble, for taking the time to show us how this program works! We sure appreciate it.
Source: The Club at CD Freaks
