How can I use an external USB hard drive to image a system?

I am experimenting with external USB to IDE boxes and using Ghost to image a system and using other software to make incremental copies. Here is what I am trying, you might find it helpful:

1) Buy Norton System Works Pro 2003 for about $18 (check
Pricewatch). Be sure to get a 1 year license and not the
90 day version. Get the Pro version for the Ghost software.

2) Buy an external USB 2.0 to IDE drive housing for about $50.
If you prefer, get a Firewire version (see below).

3) Salvage an old hard disk from an unused machine or
buy a new one for $70. You can also buy a 60 gig drive
already mounted in a USB box for about $120. I am leaning
toward using Mobile trays in an external USB box. See below.

4) If your machine does not already have USB 2.0 ports, then
add it via a PCI card. USB 1.1 works but is too slow
at 17+ minutes/gig.

Ghost 2003 can write to USB 1.1 and 2.0 external drives.
However, it can have trouble if there is more than one USB
in the same computer. Thus, adding a USB 2.0 card to a
machine that has USB 1.1 might not work unless you can
disable the USB 1.1. Using Firewire might get around this.

5) Carefully read about using Ghost here:
http://ghost.radified.com/
You will make an image file - compression will make the
final image size about half the size of your source
machine's used disk space. Your milage may vary.
Use these switches:
-z low compression (or -z2 or -z3 for more compression)
-fdsp preserve signature (so on a restore, the operating
system does not think it a new drive.)
-SPLIT=2000 max size file before starting a new file
-auto automatically name each new file

You can add the -clone switch to make the process more automatic,
but you still end up typing some stuff into the user interface.

Read up on all of the above switches. Especially -fdsp.

A few years ago, Ghost had a lot of limitations when backing
up NTFS drives, but almost all of those restrictions are
gone now. If you read that something does not work with NTFS,
try it anyway. It will probably work just fine.

6) For redundancy, take the USB external disk to another PC and
copy the image file(s) off. One such copy should be off site.

7) If it works for you, put GOBACK on the machine (part of
Norton System Works). Some people have had trouble with
Goback, but it works great for me. Make sure you are
running the latest version as there have been important
bug fixes. It will allow you to roll the whole machine back
to a known working version in minutes. Upgrade to the
Pro version and you can also restore individual files.

8) Get Fileback http://www.fileback-pc.com/ or
Second Copy http://www.centered.com/
These will make multi-generational copies of
the most important files. About $30.
Set them up to backup all files since the date of
your last Ghost backup.

The USB/Ghost solution is portable and can be used to make an image of any machine in your home or office. Ghost runs from a floppy and appears to be licensed for multiple machines. Of course, you would need a license for each machine for the other software like Goback and Second Copy.

Both Ghost and Goback have versions that are meant for businesses which do a lot of this sort of thing.

Be forewarned, I have not used Ghost with an external USB hard drive. However, I have ordered all this stuff and will be trying it sometime in the next few weeks. (Feb 2003)

I have used Ghost to backup to a hard drive that was mounted in a removable tray (Mobile Rack Tray & Frame cost about $17). Works great.

You can combine external USB and Mobile trays. Making it a snap to use multiple drives for cycling off site storage and for save sets that go over one disk full. Its a great use of old drives. NewEgg has them for about $77+$11 per tray + Shipping (search for Kingwin and Vipower).

Another possibility is to get an external DVD writer (USB or Firewire). Ghost supports these too. Check the Symantec/Norton site for compatible devices.

You might also want to check out the Maxtor Personal Storage 5000LE. It has a push button that starts a backup to an external USB drive all in one package. http://storage.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,799121,00.asp

This can all be done for under $200. A bit more if you go with the Mobile Tray USB box.

- Rob