Norton GhostTM Norton Ghost User's Guide The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Documentation version 8.0 Legal Notice Copyright © 2008 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Federal acquisitions: Commercial Software - Government Users Subject to Standard License Terms and Conditions. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, LiveUpdate, Symantec pcAnywhere, Symantec Backup Exec, Norton, Symantec NetBackup, and Symantec Backup Exec Restore Anyware are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows Vista, MS-DOS, .NET, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. VeriSign® is a registered trademark of Verisign, Inc. 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Consulting Services Educational Services To access more information about Enterprise services, please visit our Web site at the following URL: www.symantec.com Select your country or language from the site index. Contents Technical Support ............................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 Introducing Norton GhostTM ............................................... 13 Getting started ............................................................................ What's new in Norton Ghost 14.0 .................................................... New features and enhancements added in the previous release ........................................................................... About the Advanced page .............................................................. Where to find more information ...................................................... 13 14 15 17 18 Chapter 2 Installing Norton Ghost ...................................................... 19 Preparing for installation ............................................................... System requirements .............................................................. Supported file systems and removable media .............................. Unavailable features ............................................................... Installing Norton Ghost ................................................................. Completing the installation ...................................................... Activating Norton Ghost later ................................................... Setting up your first backup ..................................................... Updating Norton Ghost ................................................................. Uninstalling the product ................................................................ 19 19 20 21 22 24 25 25 25 26 Chapter 3 Ensuring the recovery of your computer ........................ 27 About ensuring the recovery of your computer .................................. Testing Symantec Recovery Disk ..................................................... If driver validation fails ................................................................. Creating a custom Symantec Recovery Disk CD .................................. 27 28 28 29 Chapter 4 Getting Started .................................................................... 31 Key product components ............................................................... How you use Norton Ghost ............................................................. Starting Norton Ghost ................................................................... Configuring Norton Ghost default options ........................................ Selecting a default backup destination ....................................... 31 32 33 34 36 8 Contents Adjusting the effects of a backup on computer performance ........... Adjusting default tray icon settings ........................................... Managing file types ............................................................... Using aliases for external drives ................................................ Configuring FTP settings for use with Offsite Copy ....................... Logging Norton Ghost messages ............................................... Enabling email notifications for product (event) messages ............. 37 38 39 41 42 42 44 Chapter 5 Best practices for backing up your data ........................ 47 47 48 48 49 49 51 51 52 53 53 54 56 About backing up your data ............................................................ Choosing a backup type ................................................................. Best practices for backing up ......................................................... About backups ....................................................................... Before you back up ................................................................. During a backup ..................................................................... When the backup is complete ................................................... Additional tips about backups ......................................................... After defining your backup job ........................................................ Viewing the properties of a backup job ....................................... About selecting a backup destination .............................................. About backing up dual-boot computers ............................................ Chapter 6 Backing up entire drives .................................................... 57 Defining a drive-based backup ....................................................... Running a One Time Backup ..................................................... Files excluded from drive-based backups .................................... About network credentials ....................................................... Run command files during a backup .......................................... Setting advanced options for drive-based backups .............................. Editing advanced backup options .............................................. About recovery point encryption .............................................. Verifying a recovery point after creation .................................... Viewing the progress of a backup .............................................. About setting a compression level for drive-based backups ................... About Offsite Copy ....................................................................... ...