pylonbitch Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 i recently was having problems with aspects of my big workhorse studio pc. tried all the various diagnostics.. nothing obvious, so took it to the 'puter shop for a clean and a service in case it was just overheating. turns out there's 4 blown capacitors on the motherboard, so a rebbuild is in order... expensive, but what the hell.. time for an upgrade. bought new bits, built pc, installed win7.. doesn't work with most of my software... try xp mode, xp compatibility mode, try 32 bit etc... some software works, some doesn't... so back to xp. get a super slick install up and running, scan for viruses and malware, all clean, all running smoothly. tried to run my old copy of ghost 2003.... no fucking dice.. my pc will load dos from the dvd drive, but then says it doesn't have the correct drivers to run ghost FROM THE SAME CD DRIVE. i'm antsy when my system isn't backed up.. ghost has pulled my ass out of the fire soooo many times in the past. just can't get it to load. after a number of different hardware configs and a long time pissing about in the bios, give up... still wanting to back up my hard drive, i try clonezilla (which came recommended. feeling confident with the new backup i 'acquired' some software which i wanted to try... boom... virusesd up with a nasty one... restored from a clone... bricked the fucking pc. so much for clonezilla... so i bought norton ghost 15. after a fresh install, ghost is now installed... i can't recommend it enough. sets up its own boot partition, so the recovery environment is accessible even if you lose the disc. pc now backing up in the background incrementally every 4 days. it'll even search your system for drivers and burn you a custom recovery disc. anyway, having read the precursor to the recommendation, it is indeed a very boring story. upshot is, if backing up your system is important for you, norton ghost 15 is outstanding and has a fucking impressive array of tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zazen Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 So Ghost is good because you had to buy the new version? No thanks. Norton and AV companies like that persist in trying to get people to pay for things that can be done better for free. So they make annoyware/pesterware. It works ok for grandmothers but personally I find it annoying. I've seen loads machines slowed to a crawl by pre-installed crap from Norton that then threatens people with scary stuff if they dont pay for the full version. My preferred solution: free sync software copies important content to two usb hard drives which I keep at separate locations I dont both backing up the OS and software - whenever I get a new system it needs loads of custom tuning anyway so I just reinstall what I need would also recommend dropbox or other cloud solutions for smallish folders of fast changing stuff. edit: on reflection, whatever is cool. why am I arguing about backup software? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 I'm an Easeus person myself (This one for backup, this one for everything else). They're both completely free plus I don't trust anything that has the word Norton written anywhere close to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylonbitch Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 to be fair, my old version was ghost 2002, and it was a hooky copy. i use easus partition manager, but never used the backup tool. people like what they're used to i guess... just really impressed with the integration and the toolkit, plus my pc is fully backed up and restorable to several different dates. i'm pretty happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zazen Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Backing up in general is something we can all agree on. Back up your stuff, everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba69 Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 I'm glad to see you got something working. Ghost is solid at least, especially for NTFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscillik Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 still wanting to back up my hard drive, i try clonezilla (which came recommended. feeling confident with the new backup i 'acquired' some software which i wanted to try... boom... virusesd up with a nasty one... restored from a clone... bricked the fucking pc. sorry my recommendation was ballsed up :( it's worked ok for me, but i'm sorry my recommendation caused you more wasted time and headaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylonbitch Posted June 12, 2011 Author Share Posted June 12, 2011 no worries mate. it prompted me to do a few twaeks of the system drive. the new install is the slickest and most importantly cleanest i think i've ever done. and now all backed up properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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