Norton Ghost 12 Installation Tips
Prior to installing Ghost 12, shut down your PC (not restart). Press start button to fire it back up. Let it start up all the way. Watch disk-activity light. Wait until light stops flickering.
Shut down any programs resident in system tray you know you don't need. (Rt-click » Exit)
Open NO OTHER programs first and launch Ghost installer. Follow on-screen prompts. Might not be a bad idea to review my screenshots, so you'll know what to expect.
These superstitions may be unnecessary, but I *did* install Ghost 12 with no problem.
You might also consider downloading & running the Norton Removal Tool (I did), which will remove all traces of previously installed Symantec products, to prevent any conflicts during installation of Ghost 12.
You might not want to go thru the hassle, especially if you have many Symantec products currently installed. The best time to run this tool is if you previously had many Symantec products installed which are no longer installed. This tool will remove all lingering remnants, which could interfere with the installation of Ghost 12.
If you use this tool with Symantec products currently installed, you'll have to re-install them all. This may or may not represent a hassle for you. Or, it may be a good time to upgrade, say from Norton AntiVirus 2005 to NAV 2007.
From the Symantec Knowlege Base for Norton Ghost 12, you might also find the follow article helpful » Installing Norton Ghost 12
Hard Drive Partitioning
Hard drive capacities continue to grow. You can now, for example, buy a 1-TeraByte drive (1,000 GigaBytes). Ghost and *all* drive cloning programs work best if you if partition your drive to include a small partition (~30 gigs, maybe 40) at the beginning (fastest part) of the disk .. for your operating system & programs.
This will help keep your backup image files small as possible, and make the process go faster. You only really need an imaging/coning program to backup your system partition (where Windows resides). The rest of your disk can be backed up using less sophisticated techniques (such as burning files to DVD, or standard copying to an external drive using Windows own Explorer).
For more about Partitioning, see my ditty on the topic » Partitioning Strategies
Terminology
Here's some terminology we've adopted over the years. These terms will help us better understand your situation, should you need help with any aspect of the imaging (or cloning) process.
Image » file(s) created by Ghost (*.v2i), typically of an individual partition. Ghost 12 doesn't create images of entire hard disks (which contain multiple partitions). Symantec refers to images created by Ghost 12 as Recovery Points.
Source » Where the image came from. Typically your C drive, or system partition (where Windows resides), but can be *any* partition.
Destination » Where you plan to store the image, or more accurately, where Ghost will *write* the image. This should be a drive that is physically separate from the drive that contains the source. So if your source drive dies, you don't also lose your back-up image.
Target » Where you *restore* your image to, typically your C drive, or system partition (where Windows resides), but can be *any* partition.
Cloning » Transferring the contents of one partition to another partition (usually on physically separate hard drive) .. without ever creating an image file (also called a Recovery Point). Copying. Brian discusses cloning with Ghost 9 here > Cloning partitions with Ghost 9, which should be similar in Ghost 12.
Disk » An entire physical hard disk, the kind you buy in the store, such as the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11. If you refer to a Disk as a Hard Drive, we'll also know what you mean.
Partition » is a better term to use than "Drive," which can mean either a Disk or a Partition. The word Drive should always be accompanied by a letter .. e.g. "C drive" or "Drive D".
Other Helpful Info
In addition to the above mentioned terms, the following info is also helpful when troubleshooting problems:
- version of Ghost you're using (e.g. Ghost 12, Ghost 10, NS&R 2.0)
- version of Windows (e.g. WXP, Vista)
- computer manufacturer & model (some brands, such as Dell, includes hidden partitions for utilities and system back-ups)
- partition scheme and interface of each hard drive in your system
- description of any optical drives you might be using & interface
- exact error message (via copy-n-paste), or screen shot (either of which are usually very helpful)
The guys in the forums are normally laid-back. If you omit necessary info, they'll ask for it.