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Using Norton Ghost for a Disk Image

Create a Backup Hard Drive File in Case of a Crash

Nov 1, 2009 Jennifer Marsh

Norton Ghost provides a quick way to back up a hard drive and restore data in the event of a hard drive crash.

It’s no surprise that users who save important data on their computer hard drive need a way to backup the information. Norton Ghost is a software application that makes it easier to create a disk image, making restoration of the lost information more intuitive. The application takes a mirror image of the hard drive and backs up the data to a CDROM or DVD disk. When the hard drive crashes, the user can restore hard drive data using a boot disk, creating a way for users to be back up after a mechanical failure on the computer.

What is Norton Ghost?

Norton Ghost is a software application distributed by Symantec Corporation. The software has been around for several years. It allows users to take a complete copy of a hard drive disk image, creating a copy of all drivers, software installations and important documents. It was originally used as a way for network administrators to quickly copy corporate information across several hard drives for employee machines. As the software became more affordable, it is now a way for home users to create a disk image and save a backup hard drive file with just the click of a button.

Advantages of Norton Ghost over Traditional Disk Image Backups

Many people simply back up information like documents and software installations to a diskette or another hard drive. Norton Ghost takes an actual copy of the whole hard drive as a snapshot of its current state. The advantage of this method is that a full backup is completed and no drivers or software needs to be installed after the hard disk image recovery is restored. The user is able to continue on as if nothing has changed, and it makes hard drive recovery much quicker when failure occurs. This method saves time since the user doesn’t need to reinstall software after a hard drive crash.

Necessities to Create a Disk Image Using Norton Ghost

The user needs to have some basic hardware and software before performing a backup. The instructions for creating a disk image are included with Norton Ghost. The basic hardware requirements for a Norton Ghost disk image are a DVD drive (for large hard drives), a copy of the Symantec Norton Ghost disk image software, and a bootable diskette. This diskette can be a CDROM or a floppy disk. This is used to boot the computer in case of a severe hard drive failure.

The most efficient way to restore hard drive data is to take a complete hard disk image through software such as Norton Ghost. This enables quick restoration of data when a hard drive crash causes complete downtime. Network administrators can also consider Norton Ghost as a great way to supply several computers with the same information on employee laptops or desktops, creating less administrative work.

The copyright of the article Using Norton Ghost for a Disk Image in Computer Software is owned by Jennifer Marsh. Permission to republish Using Norton Ghost for a Disk Image in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Hard disk image can save data recovery time., Wikimedia.org Hard disk image can save data recovery time.
Norton Ghost protects machines against data loss., Wikimedia.org Norton Ghost protects machines against data loss.
 
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