difference between Norton ghost & windows xp system restore?

Question

can we use Norton ghost for installing windows xp on a system if we install a windows xp on a fresh system and we do not install any software any driver which link to the hardware and create an image file f c drive through Norton ghost and use this image file to another computer and restore that system with that file do you think the windows work fine.

Answer 1

One is free....
System restore can save or restore certain important system files and the registry.
Ghost does its thing to the whole computer.
There are a lot of lesser differences, but System Restore does not protect your own documents - like email and letters.
Ghost comes in versions but check out the list at http://www.symantec.com/themes/ghost/index.jsp The basic idea is to create an image of your entire (or part of) drive(s). Later you can restore the whole thing in case of a disaster or you can grab just (a few) file here and there.
System Restore copies only a certain set of system files and registry settings. It is NOT a backup program, but it can rescue when your system goes belly up because it knows what files and settings are important.
Ghost will restore the whole thing or just what you tell it to, but it doesn't know which files are important.
Use both if you have room on the hard drive. Ghost for specific files and catastrophes, System Restore for minor disasters.
The two items perform totally different functions. Ghost id a backup/restore program. It takes a copy of the *entire* system and stores it on other media, for possible future use. System Restore, on the other hand, monitors changes to certain system areas and time-stamps the changes as they are saved when a restore point is created. Note than ONLY the items that are getting changed, are recorded, in their pre-changed status in the restore point...
If you system failed, you can recover to a new HD with Ghost. System Rwstore stores it's restore points on the HD, so if hat fails, you have no recovery...Image backup programs (like Ghost) take a picture (image) of your whole partition or hd and saves it off to a destination (external hd, second hd, CD-Rs, etc). When you restore from an image backup, it puts you back to exactly where you were when you took the image.

If you've never played with an image backup program, you might want to try one of the free trial versions out there. I used to use Ghost for years and years and just recently switched to Acronis True Image 10 on Dale's recommendation. I'm very happy with it. I wanted to get away from Symantec products because I felt that they were getting too intrusive on my system. Hence, I don't have any Norton/Symantec products on my new XP system.

If you're interested in looking at/trying True Image, the link is:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Answer 2

Norton Ghost For Windows Xp

Answer 3

2

Answer 4

The PC computer I work with (I support about 1400 computers) uses Ghost to do exactly what you are asking about. All our computers are identical, and we use a Ghost image to set them up anytime Windows needs to be (re)installed.

However, we had to purchase an Enterprise version of XP. This is a special license which allows us to use the same activation code on multiple PCs. It also does NOT phone Microsoft whenever it is installed on a PC.

Without the Enterprise version, you will have problems that it will not active on the "imaged" computer. It will check the serial numbers of the system board, processor, hard drive, memory, etc., realize it is not on the same computer, and refuse to run.

Answer 5

It won't if the hardware differs between the computers - Windows locks itself onto the hardware and will need re-activating if it detects significant changes. Plus you should have a different serial key for each computer anyway, unless you have volume licensing.