I've be ghosting for years and it has saved me many times. I don't use casper though. I use a program called BOOTitNG. It's actually a boot manager which is independent of windows which contains a bunch of extra tools, and one of them is disk imaging. It boots on its own ahead of windows and redirects your boot to what ever partition/HDD/USB stick you want. Because it doesn't work inside Windows, it'll image anything... Linux, Apple, Microsoft.... etc. You simply direct it to image a partition or drive and it does it. It doesn't care what's on the drive, it just simply does a byte for byte copy, then compresses it for easy storage.

Ever wanted to get around a trial date for some extra trial time? Image your disk, then install your trial program. When the trial time expires, reload your previous image and your trial program and away you go for another 30 days (or what ever your trial is).

I'm curious about this method. The disadvantage seems that if your system is compromised and you don't realise it then the clone will quickly become infected too. I can see it as an extra level of protection but not a primary method. The advantage of images is that they can be kept separate from the system which reduces the risk of compromise.

Geebax, cloning to another drive is great, but there are differences. For one thing, when I use Macrium (or Acronis) to do a backup every couple of days, it can do an incremental backup, which is typically about a gigabyte or less in size, so it goes quickly. Furthermore, after a few months I have a backup drive containing a full image and dozens of incremental backups, meaning that I can restore to any date in the past up to the date of the original backup. This can be useful if I've done something to trash my system but I don't discover the fault for days or weeks. This has actually happened more than once. For example, last year I belatedly realized that if I opened a window showing a hard drive's contents and if there were hundreds of files, I could scroll down the usual way by sliding the little block in the right-hand window margin--but the display wouldn't update instantaneously, it would instead take several seconds. I did restores back until I discovered that the issue first began when I had installed a particular program a few weeks earlier. So I did a restore to that earlier image, then was able to pull back files from the latest backup that I needed, such as my email in-box, my desktop, and bookmarks.

So it does complicate life a bit by doing it this way, but I've learned it's the only way to save me from myself. I seem to be good at trashing my system from time to time in ways that aren't obvious at first glance.

"Geebax, cloning to another drive is great, but there are differences. For one thing, when I use Macrium (or Acronis) to do a backup every couple of days,"

Why would you need to back your system drive every couple of days? Unless of course you keep data files on it there really is no need.

I have my system drive (C:) which contains nothing but Windows and programs and then a whole other drive for personal data (which includes internet cache and mail data), another for capture, another for render, etc. The only time I need to re image my system drive is when I add another program to it... which isn't often.

"The disadvantage seems that if your system is compromised and you don't realise it then the clone"

I don't know about geebax, but I don't actually clone another drive. I do an image after I'm sure it is good, and then store a compressed version on a removable drive. If my system is compromised then I simply wipe my system drive, recall the image and write it to the drive. Takes about 20 minutes to completely rewrite the drive. Good as new again.

Why would you need to back your system drive every couple of days? Unless of course you keep data files on it there really is no need.Agreed. Once you partition your drive, it only takes 10 minutes to do a complete image backup, making incremental or differential backups unnecessary. As far as frequency, I try to do an image backup at least once a month on my main computer, but usually only do it once or twice a year on my main computer. However, I don't use iTunes or any other horrible program that insists on writing important data (like the backup to your iPhone) directly on the C: drive, and cannot be configured to put it anywhere else. I had to restore my daughter's backup a year ago (March 2013) and I hadn't done a backup to her C: drive since she visited at Christmas, three months earlier. No programs had change, and everything worked exactly as it had before, but she also at the same time (total coincidence) killed her iPhone, and we could only restore it back to December.

So, if your programs write data to the C: drive and cannot be reconfigured to put it somewhere else (the Garmin running GPS gadget is another that does this), you may want to backup more frequently, and the incremental backup in that case would be a useful option.

BTW, the reason she needed a restore is that the laptop had developed a open trace on the motherboard which cause the computer to hard crash at random times, much like pulling the plug on a desktop computer. This finally corrupted the hard drive (not physically, fortunately) to the point it could not be recovered.

If a program insists on writing to the system drive it's time to ditch the program...

Casper is an incremental backup system, it does not need to create a complete copy each time. You can also set it up to do the clone any time you want.

As pointed out by Rob Franks, you really should not keep any data on your system drive if you can avoid it, I am religious about not doing this. As a result, my system drive only contains Windows and the applications, and is a quite small drive.

Yes, you can corrupt your system drive then write an exact copy to the clone, but as I do not put data on the system drive, the material does not need to be cloned any more frequently than once a week, if that. So I would most likely have woken up to any nasty and taken steps to remove it, or switch to the clone by then.

Primarily this regime is intended to protect you against a catastrophic disk failure, however I am fortunate that it has not occurred to me for more than 14 years now because I regard my disks as consumables and replace them at least every 3 to 5 years.

Geoff

[I]If a program insists on writing to the system drive it's time to ditch the program...[/I]iTunes not only does this, but it writes [I]hundreds of thousands of files[/I], totaling multiple gigabytes.

IMHO, iTunes is the most obnoxious mainstream Windows program ever written.

Maybe it plays nicer on a Mac.

I've never let iTunes touch any of my computers.

I agree, after I discovered all the insidious things iTunes did, massive files written to the disc, hijacking media files and such, I deleted it from my computer and will not let a single Apple program near it again.

Geoff

Well, not out of the Woods yet - all my Render Templates are gone. If I look further I'm guessing I lost other bits that I have come dependent on too. Bad.

This reinstall is a major no-no. In the future I am going to take further precautions.

Thanks to everybody for your support.

Grazie

Grazie,

I feel for you. It is all these little customizations that start to wear you down after a re-install. You forget how many nifty little "discoveries" you had, where you finally got some annoying thing to go away, after you figured out how to utter the right secret magic incantation.

Then, by the time you finally get everything working almost like it used to, you realize that all the speed ups and other advantages you thought you got by that clean, pristine new installation have somehow gone away.

Life can be a cruel joke ...

I have two points to add to this thread.

First, when I install Windows I have a Word file with the written steps of everything I do. This way I can refer to that if I need to reinstall and then make changes to the Word file. No experimentation, it's a science.

Second, I never ever ever ever install the virus known as iTunes on any computer. I hate the interface and like a virus it's pops up all over the computer. All I need to play music is a small app (I use Winamp) and access to my drive where I keep and organize my music files.

"Second, I never ever ever ever install the virus known as iTunes on any computer. I hate the interface and like a virus it's pops up all over the computer. All I need to play music is a small app (I use Winamp) and access to my drive where I keep and organize my music files."

PC users don't really use itunes for music and such. It is a requirement if you are an iphone or ipad user/owner. You have to go through itunes to catalog your music on your pad/phone and to get to the apps store.

After a clean install I save an image of the system with all the tweaks I can remember (such as desktop appearance, show file extensions, turn-off autostart when an optical disc is inserted, etc.). I then apply all the updates to Windows and drivers and save again. I then apply the must-have apps with all their tweaks that I can remember (I have yet to adopt the discipline of writing down the tweaks!) and save again. I then add all the nice-to-have apps, including anti-virus and save again. (I use a free anti-virus, and add it at this stage because I sometimes change the brand when the current one annoys me.)

I then do system backups from time to time, because I do updates and I often try out utilities, saving some and uninstalling others.

When something is not right, I go back to the most recent version that doesn't have the problem.

I don't normally store data on my system partition, but stuff does end up in My Documents and Favourites folders, so I copy them before a restore. Some people may have email as well.

@ GeeBax

I have been very busy working on videos and did not reply sooner but I have been telling users here about Casper for quite some time. They seem to ignore me as well.

I make multiple clones so I will have earlier versions in case the latest is a clone of a problem I did not notice.

I can see where the image method can be very helpful with this BUT I have yet to find an image method I really like. I tried Acronis and it was not what I wanted.

Once the video dust finally settles I will try other solutions. I am always looking for what is best for my needs.

I love the fact that I can try a software and see what it does. If I do not like it I do not worry about uninstalling it at all. All I need to do is put my cloned to 'spinner' drive in, clone from it to my normal 'working' SSD drive, put the SSD back in and I am back to as if the software was never there. Now if I decide to keep the software and tests show that everything is fine I can then make my clone update and continue on.

I have a number of 'spinners' laying around that make great clone-to drives for multiple and incremental backups. The side panels on my full tower are never screwed on so it is easy to slide them off to get to the drives and all.

I am using Casper on both my desktop and notebook computers. External USB3 with the desktop and USB2 (USB-Slow) for my notebook.

No matter what solution one chooses, ALWAYS do an occasional test to see if the backup actually does work. Do not take the software's word for it.

Norton Ghost told me that the backup was successful but when I tested it to see if it really was, it was not. Windows would boot and get next to the point of showing the desktop screen and it never did. I even waited quite a while for it and tried it a number of times but it always failed. That is when I went to Casper "the friendly Ghost". I never trusted anything from Norton since.

Final note: Vegas Pro 13 or whatever it is going to be called should be out soon. When it is, one should make a clone and/or image of their system drive BEFORE they install it! Then, if there are show stopping problems all one needs to do is either get the cloned to drive they used or the image and go back to where they were and be as if nothing ever happened. I cannot count how many times I have seen threads and posts on here with users asking how to go back to an earlier version and are stuck messing with all kinds of stuff trying to get back to where they were. What an awful nightmare they end up with when they could have done it right in the first place and made a clone and/or an image of their system FIRST!

The update install should have a dialog box that asks, 'Did you make a system backup first? Yes/No?' and only then proceed if the user clicks on Yes.

In Australia, Norton spends obscene amounts of money on motor car racing, that must tell you something, and that something is that they are making too much money.

I have never trusted Norton either, clunky, intrusive software that slows your computer down. And there is always that suspicion in my mind that anti-malware programs need virus designers working in order to stay relevant.

So who do you think finances the virus makers?

"So who do you think finances the virus makers?"

Pay us to protect your computer from us.

Norton IS a virus for which millions of people pay and willingly install on their machines.

Norton IS a virus for which millions of people pay and willingly install on their machines. And dat's the name of dat tune.

Not this little black duck!

Microsoft Security Essentials does the job just fine for zero dollars outlay.