Simple Steps for Making a Recovery Disk

When you purchase a new computer, you will normally get some kind of recovery or restore disk along with it. This is utilized to recover your operating system and programs back to factory conditions. The reason for doing this is to make your computer run as it did when you first bought it. This is typically done by storing an image of the partition where the operating system and setup software are found. The image is stored to a single data file, or split into a spanned group of data if its total size goes beyond FAT32′s 4GB data size restriction. This guide will explicate different means to create a recovery, or restore disks that you can customize and squeeze to your requirements. Because it utilizes Symantec Norton Ghost, it can be utilized on just about any computer, even those that are custom created or running Linux. The two primary techniques of doing this are to either save the image on the hard disk or on a rewritable disc. The benefit of saving the image to a hard disk is quicker speed and elasticity in overwriting images. It will be very helpful if you execute recurrent modifications to your images. Ghost has the choice of burning images straight to the CD or DVD. The disadvantage is that it obliges the user to utilize accessible floppy disks along with those discs. This tutorial will take one step more and abolish the requirements for a bootable floppy disk.

Needed utilities and setup

- Windows Millennium boot up diskette or Ghost boot disk

- CD or DVD writing software capable of generating a bootable disc

- CD or DVD writer or burner

- BIOS that is able to boot up from a CD or DVD (the El Torito format specification)

Generating Ghost image

This portion assumes that you have an idea of how to utilize the home or business editions of Symantec Norton Ghost. Make your partition image (from partition to image). Select the partition that the operating system and software are set up on. Ghost does not utilize alphabetical DOS drive allocation. In its place, it makes use of numeric allocation in the form of Number1:Number2. The initial number is the drive. The second number is the partition inside that drive. If you have no idea what this signifies, just pay close attention to the size and volume label of the partition you are choosing. Create a note of what it states on the very last menu screen. What you are required to know and recognize are the source and destination locations. It also states this at the far bottom portion of the screen: 1:2\ghost\winxp.gho. It typically signifies the image will be encrypted to a data known as the winxp.gho inside a folder pertained to as ghost on drive D:. So 1:1 would normally be drive C: the usual source partition where the operating system and software are set up to. When you are recovering, 1:1 will be the destination so it is inverted.