I have been able to use ghost 2002 to have my c drive written and filed as a image file. Wonder whether this can be done on a vista machine since the restoration or conversion shuts down and reboot under PC DOS. Appreciate any confirmation. Thanks

Norton Ghost 2002 with Windows Vista? Nope No Ghosts at all (not even the current Version 10) will work with Vista accoding to Symantec table posted in the link below.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...

i_Xp/VistaUser

the problem isn't ghost here, it's your bootable floppy with PC-DOS (or a bootable win98 cd) ... most likely it fails to detect the hard drive on modern controllers, however, the there's a remedy for that.

get BartPE or the Vista PE builder and create a windows live CD. with BartPE you can include symantec ghost as a plugin ... but all you really need is one particular file on that CD: ghost32.exe (version 8.3 at least or better 11.0)

now this baby will clone ANYTHING for you, regardless the file system (FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS)

again, don't confuse Norton Ghost 9, 10 or 12 (current version :) with Symantec Ghost! these versions are evolved from PowerQuest's Drive Image, using an entirely different technology and are USELESS!

edit: here's a screen shot of BartPE in a VBox running ghost 11.0

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/91...

XP User: Norton Ghost 12 does work with Vista, however.
Oracle: I have not found Norton Ghost 10 or 12 to be useless. In fact, I have successfully restored images a few times with Ghost 10.

I didn't say anything about Ghost 12. I merely mentioned that the current version of Ghost (Ghost 10) - based on Symantec table last modified 02/07/2007 - doesn't work with Vista.

i_Xp/VistaUser

kk, not so useless and probably sufficient for casual use and backup purposes.

however, i prefer a rock solid solution totally independent from the operating system. i don't need hot-imaging or incremental backup (there are far better programs available than norton ghost).

read here, WHY Ghost makes a difference.

the most recent version (11.0) of the 'real' ghost software is currently included in Norton Save & Restore.

to be clear ... any version of Ghost prior to 9 i refer to as the 'real' ghost software, plus version 11.

versions 9, 10 and 12 (current) are derived from DriveImage. 12 supposedly works with Vista

and so do versions 8.x & 11 because they work not from within Windows, they clone everything regardless the content of the drive.

Thank you all. Looks like it is a complex job for a simple one I am used to in the past. Vista does complicate it.

Vista does not complicate it if you leave it out of the equation altogether.

however, your version 2002 will not suffice.

you'll need at least Ghost 2003 or Norton Save & Restore (in particular the file GHOST32.EXE, version 8.3 or 11.0)

creating a 'Windows Live CD' with Bart's PE builder is a child's play, just throw in this one file (the elegant way is to configure it as a plugin, but it will do as an add-on file) and you have all you need to clone/image ANY drive, Vista or not.