Restore Ghost Image

On a previous page I showed you how to make an image (also known as a Norton Ghost image) of your hard drive. Here I will show you how to do the Symantec (Norton) Ghost restore!

Note: If you use DOS or a 16bit Operating System you could do your restore from the command line, although not as pretty as Ghost32 in say BartPE or with an ERD disk with the GUI (Graphics User Interface) it will be faster. The problem is with the DOS or 16bit OS you have to have a driver or program that can access large hard drives and partitions over 32 MB.

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Note: After testing a few Windows 7 ERD's (Emergency Repair Disc) I have found that the Windows 7 (and 8) 64 Bit Operating Systems will not support 32 bit programs, if you want to use the GUI version of this program you have to have a Windows 7/8 32 Bit ERD otherwise you are wasting your time, it will not run on a 64 Bit ERD OS.

The problem with using the Windows 7/8 ERD is the program can not be put on the media, you will need to access it from another location such as an additional CD/DVD or USB pen/flash drive. Find out how to make the custom Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) to restore ghost image - Check this out. (You can have all your tools on one device...)

Note: If you get stuck or need to make a ghost.env file to set your special parameters do so before you put the ghost program on a CD/DVD because the env file can not be changed once it is on a CD. Use the Help function for the switches (options) you want to use when you are making your images.

Using Symantec Ghost image instructions:

Start the Ghost32 program:

Select image / partition / from image.

Go to the storage drive and select the img file.

Next select the target drive, note there are two drives here, one is the target drive (top) and the source drive (bottom).

If you have a new drive and the image is stored else where you can use Ghost to create the partition, just click in the box that will be highlighted, type in the size in MB of the new partition. Be sure to set the new partition to "Active" or your computer will not start!

Be careful you will over write the storage drive if it is a hard drive!

Proceed? This is your last chance to insure you are on the correct drive, look as the white writing at the lower half of the screen, it tells you about the image file and the target drive.

Progress indicator, this drive was being imaged from an external USB hard drive, it is slow because the port on the target computer is a ver 1.1 USB port, very slow.

Image now on the target drive, you can restart now or shut down the system and remove the external drive if it is a bootable device.

If you created a new partition or deleted and created another partition you have to make the partition bootable...

Restart and Enjoy!

Note: MS in it's Great Wisdom has discontinued Symantec Ghost software as of 1 Feb, 2014. They believe the kludge built into Windows 7 and 8 is sufficient to do the job. You may want to try to find the program before any packages that are left are gone... or try Acronis True Image.

If the image is fairly new then your data restore from your back up should go quickly. If the image is pretty old and you had installed software programs since the image was made you will have to reinstall those also. The idea is to make an  image when you feel there has been significant changes to your software programs.

Before you can restore ghost image you have to make it!

And remember: Your recovery is only as good as your last backup!

Or you could use Acronis True Image.

To make an image you need to start the computer from an external Operating System; I use a custom Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), how you can make your own for Windows 7 /8 / 10? Check this out. (hint: have all your tools/programs on one device...)