Symantec GHOST - V 15.0 User manual

Norton Ghost 15.0 User's
Guide

Norton Ghost 15.0 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: 9.0
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The product described in this document is distributed under licenses restricting its use,
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Technical Support
Symantec Technical Support maintains support centers globally. Technical
Support’s primary role is to respond to specific queries about product features
and functionality. The Technical Support group also creates content for our online
Knowledge Base. The Technical Support group works collaboratively with the
other functional areas within Symantec to answer your questions in a timely
fashion. For example, the Technical Support group works with Product Engineering
and Symantec Security Response to provide alerting services and virus definition
updates.
Symantec’s maintenance offerings include the following:
■A range of support options that give you the flexibility to select the right
amount of service for any size organization
■Telephone and Web-based support that provides rapid response and
up-to-the-minute information
■Upgrade assurance that delivers automatic software upgrade protection
■Global support that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
■Advanced features, including Account Management Services
For information about Symantec’s Maintenance Programs, you can visit our Web
site at the following URL:
www.symantec.com/techsupp/
Contacting Technical Support
Customers with a current maintenance agreement may access Technical Support
information at the following URL:
www.symantec.com/techsupp/
Before contacting Technical Support, make sure you have satisfied the system
requirements that are listed in your product documentation. Also, you should be
at the computer on which the problem occurred, in case it is necessary to replicate
the problem.
When you contact Technical Support, please have the following information
available:
■Product release level
■Hardware information
■Available memory, disk space, and NIC information
■Operating system

■Version and patch level
■Network topology
■Router, gateway, and IP address information
■Problem description:
■Error messages and log files
■Troubleshooting that was performed before contacting Symantec
■Recent software configuration changes and network changes
Licensing and registration
If your Symantec product requires registration or a license key, access our technical
support Web page at the following URL:
www.symantec.com/techsupp/
Customer service
Customer service information is available at the following URL:
www.symantec.com/techsupp/
Customer Service is available to assist with the following types of issues:
■Questions regarding product licensing or serialization
■Product registration updates, such as address or name changes
■General product information (features, language availability, local dealers)
■Latest information about product updates and upgrades
■Information about upgrade assurance and maintenance contracts
■Information about the Symantec Buying Programs
■Advice about Symantec's technical support options
■Nontechnical presales questions
■Issues that are related to CD-ROMs or manuals

Maintenance agreement resources
If you want to contact Symantec regarding an existing maintenance agreement,
please contact the maintenance agreement administration team for your region
as follows:
[email protected]Asia-Pacific and Japan
[email protected]Europe, Middle-East, and Africa
[email protected]North America and Latin America
Additional enterprise services
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Enterprise services that are available include the following:
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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.

Technical Support ............................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1 Introducing Norton Ghost™............................................... 13
About Norton Ghost ..................................................................... 13
What is new in Norton Ghost ......................................................... 14
Hiding or showing the Advanced page .............................................. 15
Getting more information about Norton Ghost .................................. 16
Chapter 2 Installing Norton Ghost ...................................................... 17
Before you install ......................................................................... 17
System requirements .............................................................. 17
About supported file systems and removable media ..................... 19
About disabled features ........................................................... 20
When you delay licensing ....................................................... 20
Installing Norton Ghost ................................................................. 21
Completing the installation ...................................................... 23
Activating Norton Ghost later .................................................. 24
About setting up your first backup ............................................ 24
Updating Norton Ghost ................................................................ 25
About uninstalling Norton Ghost .................................................... 25
Chapter 3 Ensuring the recovery of your computer ........................ 27
About ensuring the recovery of your computer .................................. 27
Testing Symantec Recovery Disk .................................................... 28
If driver validation fails ................................................................. 28
Creating a custom Symantec Recovery Disk CD .................................. 29
Chapter 4 Getting Started .................................................................... 33
About key product components ...................................................... 33
How you use Norton Ghost ............................................................. 34
Starting Norton Ghost .................................................................. 35
Configuring Norton Ghost default options ........................................ 36
Selecting a default backup destination ....................................... 38
Adjusting the effect of a backup on computer performance ............ 39
Contents

Adjusting default tray icon settings ........................................... 40
Managing file types ................................................................ 41
Using nicknames for external drives .......................................... 43
Configuring default FTP settings for use with Offsite Copy ............ 44
Logging Norton Ghost messages ............................................... 44
Enabling email notifications for product (event) messages ............. 46
Chapter 5 Best practices for backing up your data ......................... 49
About backing up your data ........................................................... 49
About choosing a backup type ........................................................ 50
Best practices for backing up .......................................................... 50
About backups ....................................................................... 51
Before you back up ................................................................. 51
During a back up .................................................................... 53
When a back up is finished ...................................................... 53
Additional tips about backups ........................................................ 54
After defining your backup job ....................................................... 55
Viewing the properties of a backup job ....................................... 55
About selecting a backup destination ............................................... 56
About backing up dual-boot computers ............................................ 58
Chapter 6 Backing up entire drives .................................................... 59
About defining a drive-based backup ............................................... 59
Defining a drive-based backup ........................................................ 60
Related Drives options ............................................................ 62
Recovery point type options ..................................................... 63
Backup destination options ...................................................... 64
Recovery point options ........................................................... 64
Advanced scheduling options ................................................... 66
About files that are excluded from drive-based backups ................ 67
About network credentials ....................................................... 68
About running command files during a backup ............................ 68
Advanced options for drive-based backups .................................. 70
Compression levels for drive-based backups ...................................... 74
Running a one-time backup from Norton Ghost ................................. 75
About running a one-time backup from Symantec Recovery
Disk ..................................................................................... 76
Running a one-time backup from Symantec Recovery Disk ............ 77
About Offsite Copy ....................................................................... 81
How Offsite Copy works ................................................................ 81
About using external drives as your Offsite Copy
destination ..................................................................... 82
Contents8

About using a network server as your Offsite Copy
destination ..................................................................... 84
About using an FTP server as your Offsite Copy destination ........... 85
Chapter 7 Backing up files and folders .............................................. 87
Defining a file and folder backup ..................................................... 87
About folders that are excluded by default from file and folder
backups ................................................................................ 89
Chapter 8 Running and managing backup jobs ............................... 91
Running an existing backup job immediately ..................................... 91
Running a backup with options ....................................................... 92
Backup options ...................................................................... 93
Adjusting the speed of a backup ...................................................... 94
Stopping a task ........................................................................... 94
Verifying that a backup is successful ............................................... 95
Editing backup settings ................................................................. 95
Enabling event-triggered backups ................................................... 96
About Symantec ThreatCon ..................................................... 96
Editing a backup schedule .............................................................. 97
Turning off a backup job ................................................................ 97
Deleting backup jobs ..................................................................... 97
Adding users who can back up your computer ................................... 98
Chapter 9 Backing up remote computers from your
computer ....................................................................... 101
About backing up other computers from your computer .................... 101
Adding computers to the Computer List .......................................... 102
Deploying the Norton Ghost Agent ................................................ 103
Using the Norton Ghost Agent ..................................................... 105
About managing the Norton Ghost Agent through Windows
Services .............................................................................. 106
About best practices for using services .......................................... 107
Opening Windows Services .................................................... 108
Starting or stopping the Norton Ghost Agent service .................. 108
Setting up recovery actions when the Norton Ghost Agent does
not start ....................................................................... 109
Viewing Norton Ghost Agent dependencies .............................. 110
Controlling access to Norton Ghost ............................................... 111
Running Norton Ghost using different user rights ...................... 113
9Contents

Chapter 10 Monitoring the status of your backups ......................... 115
About monitoring backups ........................................................... 115
Rescanning a computer’s hard disk .......................................... 116
Monitoring backup protection from the Home page .......................... 116
Monitoring backup protection from the Status page .......................... 118
About SNMP traps ...................................................................... 122
About the Norton Ghost management information base .............. 122
Customizing the status reporting of a drive (or file and folder
backups) ............................................................................. 122
Viewing drive details ................................................................... 124
Improving the protection level of a drive ........................................ 124
About using event log information to troubleshoot problems .............. 127
Chapter 11 Exploring the contents of a recovery point .................. 129
About exploring recovery points ................................................... 129
Exploring a recovery point through Windows Explorer ...................... 130
Mounting a recovery point from Windows Explorer .................... 131
Opening and restoring files within a recovery point .......................... 131
About using a search engine ......................................................... 132
Dismounting a recovery point drive ............................................... 133
Viewing the drive properties of a recovery point .............................. 133
Chapter 12 Managing backup destinations ...................................... 135
About backup destinations ........................................................... 135
About how backup data works ....................................................... 135
About drive-based backups ..................................................... 136
About file and folder backups ................................................. 136
Managing recovery point storage .................................................. 137
Cleaning up old recovery points .............................................. 138
Deleting a recovery point set .................................................. 138
Deleting recovery points within a set ....................................... 139
Making copies of recovery points ............................................ 139
Running a one-time virtual conversion ........................................... 141
Defining a virtual conversion job ................................................... 147
Running an existing virtual conversion job immediately .............. 153
Viewing the properties of a virtual conversion job ...................... 153
Viewing the progress of a virtual conversion job ........................ 153
Editing a virtual conversion job ............................................... 153
Deleting a virtual conversion job ............................................. 154
About managing file and folder backup data .................................... 154
Viewing how much file and folder backup data is stored .............. 155
Contents10

Limiting the number of file versions to keep .............................. 155
Manually deleting files from your file and folder backup .............. 155
Finding versions of a file or folder ........................................... 156
Automating management of backup data ........................................ 156
Moving your backup destination ................................................... 157
Chapter 13 Recovering files, folders, or entire drives ..................... 159
About recovering lost data ........................................................... 159
Recovering files and folders by using file and folder backup data ......... 159
Recovering files and folders using a recovery point ........................... 161
About opening files and folders stored in a recovery point ........... 163
About finding the files or folders you want ................................ 163
Recovering a secondary drive ....................................................... 164
Recovery options .................................................................. 165
Restoring using LightsOut Restore ................................................ 166
Summary of the LightsOut Restore process ............................... 167
Starting the LightsOut Restore Wizard ..................................... 168
Chapter 14 Recovering a computer ..................................................... 173
About recovering a computer ........................................................ 173
Starting a computer by using Symantec Recovery Disk ...................... 174
Configuring a computer to boot from a CD ................................ 175
How to prepare to recover a computer ............................................ 176
Scanning for viruses ............................................................. 176
Checking a hard disk for errors ............................................... 178
Recovering a computer ................................................................ 178
Edit target drive and options .................................................. 181
Recovering a computer from a virtual disk file ................................. 183
Virtual disk recovery options .................................................. 185
Recovering files and folders using Symantec Recovery Disk ............... 187
Exploring files and folders on your computer using Symantec
Recovery Disk ................................................................ 188
About using the networking tools in Symantec Recovery Disk ............ 188
Starting networking services .................................................. 189
Using the pcAnywhere thin host for a remote recovery ............... 189
Mapping a network drive from within Symantec Recovery
Disk ............................................................................. 191
Configuring network connection settings .................................. 192
About viewing properties of recovery points and drives ..................... 193
Viewing the properties of a recovery point ................................ 193
Viewing the properties of a drive within a recovery point ............. 194
About the Support Utilities .......................................................... 195
11Contents

Chapter 15 Copying a drive .................................................................. 197
About copying a drive .................................................................. 197
Preparing to copy drives .............................................................. 197
Copying one hard drive to another hard drive .................................. 198
About drive-to-drive copying options ....................................... 199
Appendix A Using a search engine to search recovery
points ............................................................................. 201
About using a search engine to search recovery points ...................... 201
Enabling search engine support .................................................... 201
Recovering files using Google Desktop's Search Desktop feature ......... 203
About finding a file using Google Desktop ................................. 203
Appendix B About backing up Microsoft virtual
environments ............................................................... 205
About backing up Microsoft virtual hard disks ................................. 205
About backing up and restoring Microsoft Hyper-V virtual
machines ............................................................................ 206
Index ................................................................................................................... 207
Contents12

Introducing Norton Ghost™
This chapter includes the following topics:
■About Norton Ghost
■What is new in Norton Ghost
■Hiding or showing the Advanced page
■Getting more information about Norton Ghost
About Norton Ghost
Norton Ghost provides advanced backup and recovery for your computer. Protect
any kind of data you keep on your computer by making a backup of your computer's
entire hard disk. Or, limit your backup to include only those files and folders that
mean the most to you.
You can schedule backups to capture your changes automatically as you work
from day to day. Or start a backup manually at any time. You can also easily
configure Norton Ghost to run a backup in response to specific events. For example,
a backup can run when a particular application is started. Or, a backup can run
when a specified amount of new data is added to the drive.
When you experience a problem with your computer, you can restore a file, folder,
or an entire drive. This recovery process returns your computer to a previous,
functional state with the operating system, applications, and data files intact. Or,
if you accidentally delete a personal file, get it back with a few steps.
Using easy-to-follow wizards, you can set up fast and reliable backup jobs and
have them run while you continue to work. Or, schedule your backups to run after
hours when your computer is idle.
When disaster strikes, Norton Ghost helps you recover your computer from the
effects of many common problems, including
1
Chapter

■Virus attacks: Damage might be done before a virus is quarantined.
■Faulty software installations: Some software can negatively affect your
computer's performance, and slow it down to the point that programs or
documents require too much time to open. But when installed, removing a
program might not recover unintentional damage by the installation.
■Hard drive failure: Data can become corrupted on your system drive (typically
C), making it impossible to start your operating system
■Files accidentally deleted or overwritten: Accidental deletion of files is common,
but often costly.
■Corrupted files: Individual files and folders can become corrupted by viruses,
or when a program used to modify them encounters an error.
What is new in Norton Ghost
Norton Ghost includes many enhancements and new features. Refer to the
following table for information about the latest features and enhancements:
Note: Not all listed features are available in all versions of this product.
Table 1-1 What is new Norton Ghost
DescriptionFeature
Norton Ghost now includes support for the
following virtual platforms:
■VMware ESX 3.5i and 4.0i
■VMware ESX 3.5 and 4.0
Improved support for virtual formats
Norton Ghost now includes support for the
following platforms:
■Windows 7
■Windows Vista with SP2 (includes Home
Basic, Home Premium, Business-Retail,
and Ultimate)
Improved platform support
Introducing Norton Ghost™
What is new in Norton Ghost
14

Table 1-1 What is new Norton Ghost (continued)
DescriptionFeature
You can now create independent recovery
points using the new Back Up My Computer
feature in Symantec Recovery Disk.
Sometimes known as a cold backup or offline
backup, you can create recovery points of a
partition without the need to install Norton
Ghost or its Agent.
See “About running a one-time backup from
Symantec Recovery Disk”on page 76.
Create recovery points from within
Symantec Recovery Disk
You can now create schedules to convert
recovery points to VMware Virtual Disk and
Microsoft Virtual Disks, or directly to a
VMware ESX 3.5 server.
See “Defining a virtual conversion job”
on page 147.
Convert recovery points to virtual disks
using a schedule
You can now convert recovery points to
Hyper-V format and also import recovery
points to a Hyper-V server.
Support for Microsoft Hyper-V
Back up your computer directly to Blu-ray,
DVD, or CD. Or, you can copy recovery points
to Blu-ray, DVD, or CD.
Support for Blu-ray disc media
If you choose to delay installation of the
product license, all features still remain
enabled during the 60-day trial period. The
60-day trial period begins when you do a
particular task.
See “When you delay licensing ”on page 20.
Fully enabled 60-day trial
Hiding or showing the Advanced page
The Advanced page offers experienced Norton Ghost users a single view of the
most common product features. If you have a good understanding of Norton Ghost,
you might prefer to perform most tasks from the Advanced view.
15Introducing Norton Ghost™
Hiding or showing the Advanced page

Note: When you refer to the documentation while using the Advanced page, the
first one or two steps do not apply. The first one or two steps merely indicate
where to access each feature from the other pages of the product interface. From
that point on, follow the remaining steps of each procedure.
The Advanced page can be hidden from view if you do not plan to use it.
To hide or show the Advanced page
1Start Norton Ghost.
2On the View menu, click Show Advanced Page to hide or show the Advanced
page.
Getting more information about Norton Ghost
To learn more about Norton Ghost, visit the Help and Support page. Depending
on which version and language of the product you have installed, the Help and
Support page includes one-click access to more information. The page also includes
access to the product help system, the product User's Guide. It also includes access
to the Symantec Knowledge Base where you can find troubleshooting information.
To access Help and Support
1Start Norton Ghost.
2On the Home page, click Help > Help and Support.
Introducing Norton Ghost™
Getting more information about Norton Ghost
16

Installing Norton Ghost
This chapter includes the following topics:
■Before you install
■Installing Norton Ghost
■Updating Norton Ghost
■About uninstalling Norton Ghost
Before you install
Installation procedures might vary, depending on your work environment and
which installation options you choose. This chapter focuses on installing the full
version of Norton Ghost from the installation CD.
Before you install Norton Ghost, ensure that your computer meets the system
requirements. Review the Readme file on the installation CD for any known issues.
System requirements
The following table lists the system requirements for Norton Ghost to function
properly.
2
Chapter

Table 2-1 Minimum system requirements
Minimum requirementsComponent
The following Windows 32- or 64-bit operating systems are
supported:
■Windows 7
■Windows Vista Ultimate
■Windows Vista Business
■Windows XP Professional/Home (SP2 or later)
■Windows XP Media Center (SP2 or later)
Operating system
The following are the memory requirements for each
component of Norton Ghost:
■Norton Ghost Agent: 512 MB
■Norton Ghost user interface and Recovery Point Browser:
512 MB
■Symantec Recovery Disk: 1 GB (dedicated)
■LightsOut Restore: 1 GB
RAM
The following are hard disk space requirements for Norton
Ghost and other areas:
■When you install the entire product: Up to 430 MB is
required for a full install, depending on the language of
the product you select.
■Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0: 280 MB of hard disk
space is required for 32-bit computers, and 610 MB is
required for 64-bit computers.
■Recovery points: Sufficient hard disk space on a local
hard disk or network server for storing recovery points.
The size of recovery points depends on the amount of
data you have backed up and the type of recovery point
that is stored.
See “Best practices for backing up”on page 50.
■LightsOut Restore: 2 GB
Available hard disk space
Installing Norton Ghost
Before you install
18

Table 2-1 Minimum system requirements (continued)
Minimum requirementsComponent
The drive can be any speed, but it must be capable of being
used as the startup drive from the BIOS.
Norton Ghost uses Gear Software technology. To verify that
your CD writer or DVD writer is compatible, visit the Gear
Software Web site.
http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/recorders/index.cfm
You can look up information about your writer if you know
the name of the manufacturer and model number of your
writer.
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or later is required to
run Norton Ghost.
If .NET Framework is not already installed, you are
prompted to install it after Norton Ghost is installed and
your computer is restarted.
Software
The following virtual platforms are supported:
■VMware Workstation 4, 5, and 6
■VMware ESX 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0
■VMware ESXi 3.5 and 4.0
■VMware Server 1
■VMware GSX Server 3.x (replaced by VMware Server)
■Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 and later
■Microsoft Hyper-V 1.0 and 2.0
Virtual platforms (for
converted recovery points)
About supported file systems and removable media
Norton Ghost supports the following file systems and removable media:
19Installing Norton Ghost
Before you install

Norton Ghost supports the following file systems:
■FAT16, FAT16X
■FAT32, FAT32X
■NTFS
■GUID Partition Table (GPT)
■Dynamic disks
■Linux Ext2, Linux Ext3
■Linux swap partitions
Note: You must decrypt encrypted NTFS drives before you
attempt to restore them. You cannot view the files that are
in a recovery point for an encrypted NTFS drive.
Supported file systems
You can save recovery points locally (that is, on the same
computer where Norton Ghost is installed). Or, you can save
recovery points to most Blu-ray, DVD-R(W), DVD+RW, CD-R,
and CD-RW recorders. You can find an updated list of
supported drives on the Gear Software Web site.
http://www.gearsoftware.com
Norton Ghost also lets you save recovery points to most
USB devices, 1394 FireWire devices, REV, Jaz, Zip drives,
and magneto-optical devices.
Removable media
About disabled features
Norton Ghost is packaged to meet various markets. Some features might not be
available, depending on the product you have purchased. However, all features
are documented. You should be aware of which features are included with the
version of the product you have purchased. If a feature is not accessible in the
product user interface, it is likely not included with your version of the product.
Refer to the Symantec Web site for information about the features that are included
with your version of Norton Ghost.
When you delay licensing
If you choose to delay installation of the license key, all features in Norton Ghost
remain enabled during the 60-day grace period.
Symantec Recovery Disk, a component of Norton Ghost, is available with no trial
period or evaluation. However, you need a valid license key to use the following
features in Symantec Recovery Disk:
■Back Up My Computer wizard
Installing Norton Ghost
Before you install
20