Ok so I'm not a complete computer geek....

falconey · 09-01-2004, 01:13 PM

I just love them to death though... Anywho I've heard the term ghosting a hard drive before in reference to having duplicate info on two seperate hd's. How do I do this? I want to have a back up hard drive sitting in my car that I can just hook up at any point just in case my other one burns out; or if I want to do maintenance on one I can stick the other in use and take my time adding data or modding or running the maintenance. Anyways does anyone know the procedure for this?
Also I know I'm an idiot because I only know one way to format a drive. I use the OS disk and follow the steps. Haven't done anything but XP lately and I'm wondering how do I set up two hard drives on one computer without having two operating systems show up during boot up?
Thanks in advance for any help...

antimatter · 09-01-2004, 01:28 PM

RAID 1 would work for this.

Basically it is having two disks mirrored. You can do this with windows 2000 (not sure about XP) without extra hardware.

It wouldn't be exactly as you described (i.e. you would be running both disks at the same time)

Laidback · 09-01-2004, 01:39 PM

Ghosting is done using Norton Ghost software.... or there are other packages out there that do the same thing (Drive Image etc.).

XP will only boot from 1 partition, which ever one you specify in C:\msdos.sys

e.g.

[boot loader]
timeout =3
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

bulgogi777 · 09-01-2004, 01:47 PM

The raid setup would work, but if this is for a carpc, then I'm not so sure that you'd want to run it that way. If your hard drive fails on you due to the jarring or what not, then it might affect both hard drives in your system. I would instead use a imaging program such as Norton Ghost, and have two identical hard drives, while running only a single one. You should be able to swap these out with no problem. One caveat is that you must continue to create new images while having raid will be an "automatic" backup.

falconey · 09-01-2004, 02:22 PM

Ok so basically the easiest way to do this is to just format each drive seperately and update the backup with data periodically. I don't want the drives in the car at the same time and the only raid I know about is for roaches : ).

falconey · 09-01-2004, 02:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Laidback

e.g.

[boot loader]
timeout =3
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Guess you missed the title LB(you don't mind if I call you LB do you?)
This makes some sense to me, but I've never fooled around with registry files or tweaks or the like so can you just give me a simple overview of this. Or is it self explanatory? Meaning if I go to the file you specified and click on it, similar data will appear that I need to change to what you've posted? Lastly even if I can figure this out how do I get the crap off of the boot up screen. I formatted a small HD and kept my original, but it now gives me two to choose from on boot up(which won't be good when I go without a keyboard) so it's not really working out how I want unless I only use hibernate.

DarquePervert · 09-01-2004, 02:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by falconey

I just love them to death though... Anywho I've heard the term ghosting a hard drive before in reference to having duplicate info on two seperate hd's. How do I do this? I want to have a back up hard drive sitting in my car that I can just hook up at any point just in case my other one burns out; or if I want to do maintenance on one I can stick the other in use and take my time adding data or modding or running the maintenance. Anyways does anyone know the procedure for this?
Also I know I'm an idiot because I only know one way to format a drive. I use the OS disk and follow the steps. Haven't done anything but XP lately and I'm wondering how do I set up two hard drives on one computer without having two operating systems show up during boot up?
Thanks in advance for any help...

Man... talk about misinformation...
OK, 'ghosting' a hard drive means you're making an image of that hard drive or partition. Usually IT shops that need the same software load on many PCs use Ghost (by Norton/Symantec) or a similar program to create the image.
On a personal level, I have an image of my gaming PC with a minimal software load, tweaked the way I like it.
If I get a new HDD, I load that image onto it, saving me the hassle of reloading WinXP, the necessary sogftware & drivers, and then tweaking it to my liking. It will also get my PC back up and running quickly if I have a HDD die on me, namely the primary HDD.
I store the image on a CDROM, so if multiple hard drives crap out, I still have the image.
Ghost (and it's comparable programs) can also be used as a small-scale drive duplicator, to create an identical partition or drive EXACTLY the same as the source. It works a lot like copying a CD using <insert favorite CDR software here>.

Ghosting has nothing to do with RAID, at any level. RAID is either striping or mirroring (or both).

What Laidback said about booting is correct, but for ghosting the drive, that doesn't really matter. Except that the file he referenced is the BOOT.INI, not MSDOS.SYS.
Basically it's the file that brings up boot options for Windows. On a clean XP install, this doesn't come up, as there's only one OS to choose from. If you create a multi-boot setup, you'd get a choice of OS's. Typically, if you're dual-booting Linux & Windows, you'd use the Linux boot loader (LILO, usually), which is FAR better than MS boot lader.
For what you want, you shouldn't need to mess with this. You'd just need to image one HDD to mirror the other as a quick way to swap drives in case your primary craps out on you, if I read correctly.

If you have any questions about using Ghost (or equivilant), PM me. I've used it extensively in many different environments.
And no, I don't have a copy of it, I can send you.

falconey · 09-01-2004, 03:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by DarquePervert

Man... talk about misinformation...
OK, 'ghosting' a hard drive means you're making an image of that hard drive or partition. Usually IT shops that need the same software load on many PCs use Ghost (by Norton/Symantec) or a similar program to create the image.
On a personal level, I have an image of my gaming PC with a minimal software load, tweaked the way I like it.
If I get a new HDD, I load that image onto it, saving me the hassle of reloading WinXP, the necessary sogftware & drivers, and then tweaking it to my liking. It will also get my PC back up and running quickly if I have a HDD die on me, namely the primary HDD.
I store the image on a CDROM, so if multiple hard drives crap out, I still have the image.
Ghost (and it's comparable programs) can also be used as a small-scale drive duplicator, to create an identical partition or drive EXACTLY the same as the source. It works a lot like copying a CD using <insert favorite CDR software here>.

Ghosting has nothing to do with RAID, at any level. RAID is either striping or mirroring (or both).

What Laidback said about booting is correct, but for ghosting the drive, that doesn't really matter. Except that the file he referenced is the BOOT.INI, not MSDOS.SYS.
Basically it's the file that brings up boot options for Windows. On a clean XP install, this doesn't come up, as there's only one OS to choose from. If you create a multi-boot setup, you'd get a choice of OS's. Typically, if you're dual-booting Linux & Windows, you'd use the Linux boot loader (LILO, usually), which is FAR better than MS boot lader.
For what you want, you shouldn't need to mess with this. You'd just need to image one HDD to mirror the other as a quick way to swap drives in case your primary craps out on you, if I read correctly.

If you have any questions about using Ghost (or equivilant), PM me. I've used it extensively in many different environments.
And no, I don't have a copy of it, I can send you.

Ok so Ghost is a software??? that creates and image of what's on your source(i.e. my hd)??? you store this image on a cd-r/rw??? this img can then be placed on to another hd???

Correct me where I'm wrong and I have an outright question. How do I place the image on the second drive or does the Ghost software do this for me?

@DarquePervert-The way you've described it I think this is what I want to do because it would save me the time of going through XP's format process loading drivers, software, programs, tweaking everything like I like...etc

bulgogi777 · 09-01-2004, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Ok so Ghost is a software??? that creates and image of what's on your source(i.e. my hd)??? you store this image on a cd-r/rw??? this img can then be placed on to another hd???

Correct, Norton Ghost is software that you can use to create an image of a drive. You can also select where the output of the image is placed... CDs or another hard drive.

What I was talking about before, however, is another option from the Norton Ghost program which is to create an identical drive. Basically you have your original hard drive with your OS and everything, and then you have another hard drive that has been formatted... nothing on it. The program will create a duplicate of your main drive onto the other drive. At this point you will then have two duplicate drives. Then you could swap the drives if one went bad.

Laidback · 09-01-2004, 04:05 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by DarquePervert

Except that the file he referenced is the BOOT.INI, not MSDOS.SYS.

Of course! That was a typo, I even had a look at the file to make sure I had the right one!!

And no, for what he wants he wouldn't have to mess with that.

One more thing, no need to format or even fdisk a hdd to put a ghost image on it, ghost will take care of that.

bulgogi777 · 09-01-2004, 04:08 PM

Quote:

One more thing, no need to format or even fdisk a hdd to put a ghost image on it, ghost will take care of that.

True, but I thought you had to in order to "copy a drive", NOT create an image. I think the requirement is that there is enough space on the second drive to accomodate duplicating everything on the first drive.

falconey · 09-01-2004, 04:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Laidback

Of course! That was a typo, I even had a look at the file to make sure I had the right one!!

And no, for what he wants he wouldn't have to mess with that.

One more thing, no need to format or even fdisk a hdd to put a ghost image on it, ghost will take care of that.

I must say you guys really do know your isht. I've learned a lot since being on this site.

Anywho I've copied this quote because this is my last remaining question. So now if I click on the boot.ini file will I get a similar layout to what LB posted back in post #3, then just tweak it how he has it so I don't have the option for dual boot? If not what do I do?

bulgogi777 · 09-01-2004, 04:29 PM

Wait, you already have two duplicate drives that are connected to the pc?

Laidback · 09-01-2004, 05:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by falconey

I must say you guys really do know your isht. I've learned a lot since being on this site.

Anywho I've copied this quote because this is my last remaining question. So now if I click on the boot.ini file will I get a similar layout to what LB posted back in post #3, then just tweak it how he has it so I don't have the option for dual boot? If not what do I do?

Show us what's in your boot.ini