Boot Camp - Can I use Ghost with my XP?

imick

System:

20"

Core 2 Duo

Boot Camp 1.1.1

10.4.8



All firmware and software is up to date.



Boot Camp works just fine, including my bluetooth kybd and mouse.



I'm new to the Apple world (2 weeks), so this might be a dumb question -

Now that I have XP Home SP2 installed on my iMac, prior to loading any

other software, can I use Norton Ghost, DriveImage Pro or Acronis True

Image to create a restore cd(s) of my XP system? I don't completely

understand the dual boot process so I'd like to get this info before

messing up an otherwise clean XP installation.



Thanks!

tag me back

Quote:

Originally Posted by iMick


System:

20"

Core 2 Duo

Boot Camp 1.1.1

10.4.8



All firmware and software is up to date.



Boot Camp works just fine, including my bluetooth kybd and mouse.



I'm new to the Apple world (2 weeks), so this might be a dumb question -

Now that I have XP Home SP2 installed on my iMac, prior to loading any

other software, can I use Norton Ghost, DriveImage Pro or Acronis True

Image to create a restore cd(s) of my XP system? I don't completely

understand the dual boot process so I'd like to get this info before

messing up an otherwise clean XP installation.



Thanks!

In theory, yeah. Under boot camp, XP is installed normally on a separate partition, just like you would on a dual boot pc. When your machine boots, it looks to a boot loader which will tell the machine which hard drive partition to boot from. Bootcamp provides a repartitioning tool (so you have 2 partitions instead of one - you've done this obviously), a bios comatibility layer to the EFI on a mac (mac doesn't have bios, as you may have noticed) and provide an extended 'boot loader'. The only time these pieces of software have bios hooks will be on a restoration boot, and this differs from s/w to s/w. So you may be able to backup, but not easily restore. However, I don't quite see why you're wanting to back up an empty installation... seems a little pointless to me.

Try it. Let us know what you find.



-t

imick

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tag Me Back


In theory, yeah. Under boot camp, XP is installed normally on a separate partition, just like you would on a dual boot pc. When your machine boots, it looks to a boot loader which will tell the machine which hard drive partition to boot from. Bootcamp provides a repartitioning tool (so you have 2 partitions instead of one - you've done this obviously), a bios comatibility layer to the EFI on a mac (mac doesn't have bios, as you may have noticed) and provide an extended 'boot loader'. The only time these pieces of software have bios hooks will be on a restoration boot, and this differs from s/w to s/w. So you may be able to backup, but not easily restore. However, I don't quite see why you're wanting to back up an empty installation... seems a little pointless to me.

Try it. Let us know what you find.



-t

I'm just used to using Windows, I guess. Under Windows, upon a fresh installation, I would always create backup cd's with the drivers, but no software, installed, to make a future restore much quicker and easier. The Boot Camp install of XP was not without pain, albeit slight pain. I originally tried to install my RC1 of Vista, but it just sat there after a while. So I went to my XP Home version. My bluetooth kybd/mouse didn't originally work, so I wanted to create a restore cd with those function.

I'm chicken to try it because I'm new to my iMac, and don't wanna "break it if it ain't broken".

imick

Ooops - forgot one thing - I don't install ANY software other than XP updates, because by the time that I need to restore the pc, whatever software that I installed, has probably been upgraded by the developer, so I'd have to remove it anyway.