How to burn a recovery image to a D/L disc

After much consternation I am opting to investigate other options beside Acronis' True Image 9. So i decided to email their main competitor with the particulars of what I'm trying to accomplish. (The thread that details what I'm trying to do is here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=129589) Here was the quick response Symantec sent me:

Thank you for contacting Symantec Technical Support,

I understand from your message that you want to know if it is possible to take the image of the complete operating system and not the HDD space and if it is possible to take the image to a dual layered DVD+R disc and if it is possible to include the Ghost bootloader with the burnt image disk so that it can be made bootable.

I'll definitely be able to help you regarding this.

1. It is possible to take the complete operating system backup and not the free HDD space. By default Norton Ghost 10.0 takes the backup of only the used space and not the free space.However, there is a option in the Norton Ghost 10.0 backup wizard to disable smart sector copy which takes the backup of the entire hard disk including the free space if you uncheck that option if takes the backup of only the used space and not the empty HDD space. By default the option is unchecked.

2. Norton Ghost supports dual layered DVDs. So, you can take the backup on a dual layered DVD.

3. It is not possible to include the Ghost bootloader with the burnt image disc so that the media is bootable.

Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance.

I purchased Acronis' True Image 9, but it requires 3rd party burning software and it appears Ghost 10 does not (though I may be mistaken -any Ghost 10 users out there?). I will try to work with what I have a bit further, but if I cannot find out how to use the Nero Express 6/StartSmart OEM Suite that came with my burner to transfer my large 6GB .tib from my HDD root directory to a D/L DVD+R then I don't see what choice I have. Acronis requiring 3rd party software is a burden that users shouldn't be plagued with to get True Image to work IMHO.

 

I found more information and updated my other Acronis True Image thread:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=743606#post743606

Now if Symantec says they can burn over 2GB images to D/L DVD+R then we may have a winner. I'll contact Symantec again and report back anything interesting.

 

I received some unfortunate news from Symantec:

Thank you for contacting Symantec Technical Support again,

I understand from your message that you want to know if Ghost has the capability to burn the images by itself without any other burning software and it is possible to make a restorable image on a external USB drive also about compression.

I apologize for giving a wrong information in my previous mail.

Norton Ghost 10.0 supports the DVD Dual-Layer drives but does not support the DVD Dual-Layer media. So, it is not possible to burn the image to a Dual-Layered DVD. But Norton Save & Restore supports the DVD Dual-Layer drives and DVD Dual-Layer media.

In case your image file is large you can burn it into 2DVD's after taking the backup on the first CD Ghost automatically asks to insert the second CD.
Similarly when restoring the image it asks the 1st CD the 2nd CD and so on.

It is possible to create a Ghost 10.0 restorable image on a USB external hard drive and which can be restored to the main HDD in case it crashes.

There is a option in Ghost to use compression however it is recommended to use standard compression which can be selected. Highly compressed images can have many errors and it is not possible to restore highly compressed images.

Ghost copies the a drive which contains the OS it copies the MBR into the DVD+R disk.

Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance.

So it looks like Ghost 10 is also limited regarding Dual Layer DVD±R media though the support rep. did mention Norton Save & Restore. I have never used this software so I have no idea about it whatsoever. Has anyone ever used this? Will it make images to D/L DVD media as Symantec says?

 

Hi smallpotato,

I haven't seen him around lately but you would do well keyword searching past comment's made by this clever, resourceful individual.
It may also be of interest to pose your question's to this respected soft's support team - http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/


GF