RealTown's RealTalk

Has anyone used Norton Ghost?

I'm told that if I buy a new laptop, I can use Norton Ghost to move everything over to the new laptop, including programs that I then won't have to install on the new laptop.

I know it can also be used for automated back-ups, which will be great. But, will it also move programs over that I no longer have the installation CDs for?

Thanks!
Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, CT

@Don asked about using Norton Ghost

Years ago I used to have removable drives in my desktop machines and I would use Ghost on a boot floppy to make images of the main drive for backup.

That was when Ghost was pretty much the only game in town, and it wasn't even designed for that at the time. It was for large companies to roll out new machines with the same image.

More recently I used Arconis True Image to change the drive in my Dell laptop to a larger size that wasn't available at time of purchase. It really works well and is the product of choice my everyone I worked with on an IT project last year.

http://www.acronis.com

Hi Don,
 

Yes, I've used it extensively when I did Mergers and Acquisitions for a
number of years. The Ghost product just got better and better with how
it handled and what it could do. For what you are asking it to do
below, most certainly it will handle, and with ease. Whether it was
creating a ton of new PCs from a single image, or just moving someone
over from an old laptop to a new laptop, it handled it.
 

It doesn't really "move programs" per-se, but what it does do is take a
giant snapshot of your hard drive for that moment in time. So when you
are going to move everything over to a the new laptop, you just stop
using everything on the current one, shut it down, boot Ghost (but make
sure you have external storage attached to it because you will need
somewhere to store the image), then start the imaging process. Once you
are done on the old laptop, you can start ghost on the new laptop, and
begin dumping the image to the hard drive. That's it, you have it
copied. One thing I do recommend is using that external storage device.
The reason being, you have just made yourself a backup (as you alluded
to in your email) as well as your new laptop image. It'll provide a
failsafe should you need it in the future.
 

I would be remiss in my geekness if I did not explain to you some
caveats. Your operating system may not play nice with the new laptop.
This will all depend on how well the drivers are supported and how close
the old motherboard is to the new one. The Operating Systems (like XP
and Vista) have definitely been refined more to handle "system wide"
changes, so you should not really get hit, but I say this for you to
keep in mind as they used to cause me heartache in the past. So make
sure you try everything out after you've ghosted to the new laptop,
check every little detail, and you will know if everything transferred
ok (old programs and all). Likewise for all the programs, because some
of the keys you entered just might be attached to something specific on
your old motherboard (like a MAC address) and it would have built the
key off of that. Not saying that you do, because I'm not familiar with
your setup, but again this is just to make sure you test everything you
need to use on a daily basis on the new laptop when completed.
 

Best of luck with the transfer!
 

Regards,
 

Alex Wingeier, Head Geek
http://www.clrsearch.com
 

---------------------------------------
 

Has anyone used Norton Ghost?
 

I'm told that if I buy a new laptop, I can use Norton Ghost to move
everything over to the new laptop, including programs that I then won't
have to install on the new laptop.
 

I know it can also be used for automated back-ups, which will be great.
But, will it also move programs over that I no longer have the
installation CDs for?
 

Thanks!
Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, CT

Thanks for all the responses.

The current laptop is XP, and the new one will probably be Vista.
I'm understanding that the change in OS might cause some issues.

I'm thinking it might make more sense to keep the old laptop as a back-up (until it dies, which just may be soon...) and not bother moving any programs over.
But, at the same time, I'd hate to risk losing everything.

I looked at the Acronis website, and it was a bit over my head.

Any other ideas that a non-techie can do himself? Is Ghost simple enough? Or do I need to hire a tech person? Ghost was recommended to me, and if it's user-friendly, I'm smart enough to follow-directions. But, if it can get too technical, then it can go over my head and I'll have a new laptop that isn't working...

Thanks!

Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, CT

Don,

Just to clarify, it really will not matter what the new OS is because
with Ghost you are taking a snapshot of your old drive and putting it on
the new one. That means it will write (in binary) directly to the
drive. It will overwrite EVERYTHING on the new one. There will be no
trace left of the Vista OS when you are complete. It will be just like
accessing your old laptop OS, but on a new laptop.

If you follow the instructions (as you plan to do), you have little to
fear. As I mentioned in my previous reply, just make sure you use an
external drive to write the image to. Then take your time and follow
the instructions to write to the new one. I know some recommended
removing the old drive, setting it as slave, then doing the image
directly to it. However, as you are claiming to be a Non-Techie, I
would recommend just taking a good USB Drive (one that is larger than
your current capacity of the laptop drive), and utilize that as the
intermediary for the transfer. Less moving parts for you :)

If you have no reason to get rid of the old laptop, yes, by all means
keep it as a backup. That's always a great idea as you never know when
it will come in handy.

Good luck!

Alex Wingeier, Head Geek
http://www.clrsearch.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for all the responses.

The current laptop is XP, and the new one will probably be Vista.
I'm understanding that the change in OS might cause some issues.

I'm thinking it might make more sense to keep the old laptop as a
back-up (until it dies, which just may be soon...) and not bother moving
any programs over.
But, at the same time, I'd hate to risk losing everything.

I looked at the Acronis website, and it was a bit over my head.

Any other ideas that a non-techie can do himself? Is Ghost simple
enough? Or do I need to hire a tech person? Ghost was recommended to me,
and if it's user-friendly, I'm smart enough to follow-directions. But,
if it can get too technical, then it can go over my head and I'll have a
new laptop that isn't working...

Thanks!

Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, CT

Don,

All the replies previously given were excellent but if you are at all concerned about how involved they may be I wanted to throw another one out there.

In the past I have used PCmover by Laplink to transfer data from my XP system to a new Vista system and it was totally worryfree. In the kit is a USB cable that connects both computers and the software walks you through the process. The end result is a new computer with the same feels as your old one, from the desktop to your original folder structure.

It's a bit pricey at $49 (You can find a better price) but beats worrying.

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover

Good Luck !

Alex wrote:

Just to clarify, it really will not matter what the new OS is because
with Ghost you are taking a snapshot of your old drive and putting it on
the new one. That means it will write (in binary) directly to the
drive. It will overwrite EVERYTHING on the new one. There will be no
trace left of the Vista OS when you are complete. It will be just like
accessing your old laptop OS, but on a new laptop.

Thanks, Alex. That clarifies things a lot.
Since the new machine will be Vista, by using Ghost I would be giving up Vista and sticking with XP. I see good and bad with that, but at least now it makes a bit more sense.

Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, Connecticut

Robert wrote:

In the past I have used PCmover by Laplink to transfer data from my XP system to a new Vista system and it was totally worryfree. In the kit is a USB cable that connects both computers and the software walks you through the process. The end result is a new computer with the same feels as your old one, from the desktop to your original folder structure.

It's a bit pricey at $49 (You can find a better price) but beats worrying.

http://www.laplink.com/pcmover

Thanks, Robert.
I checked out their website, and it seems much more straight forward and easier to use than Ghost - at least it appears that way.
Also, this will not alter the OS of the new laptop.

Now I guess it depends on whether I want to keep Vista on the new machine or continue using XP.

Thanks!

Don Fabrizio-Garcia
Danbury, Connecticut