irjc,

Most modern imaging programs allow for the creation of Boot Media using either Linux or Windows PE. This can either be a CD, USB Key, or a partition on a USB hard drive. When you boot the computer (with the appropriate Boot Media loaded) you press what ever key your manufacturer uses to present the Boot Menu (e.g. Dells use F12). When the menu appears you select the appropriate device and of you go no OS on the internal HD required.

Many of us also prefer to make out images using this boot media as it gets Windows completely out of the way of the imaging software. HTH :cheers:

Your boot CD or Ghost is probably just too far out of date to work properly and in this case you shouldn’t pay too much attention to the post you cited as it was more of a special purpose post. If you Google either Macrium Reflect or EaseUS ToDo and go to their websites, you can read about the process and even use either one of them to replace your old Ghost boot CD because they both have very good free versions.

A very good imaging software product is Acronis True Image. It is a paid product. However, both Seagate and Western Digital hard-drives have free imaging software based on Acronis, which only work on their respective hard-drives.
See http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/discwizard/
and http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

irjc
Update your OS on the boot disk. W-98 is just too old.

You’ll find the same version of DOS in either Windows ME or XP. Take your pick.

As as for Ghost itself, you should be using Ghost 11.5 for backing up every OS from XP to Win-8.1.

I do this every day, more or less, so I do know of what I speak.

I started using Ghost back in 1997 when the original authors, first put it up on their bulletin board as a 30 day trail copy. The guy I was working for back then, would download a new copy every 30 days, for us to use in the shop. That’s where I fell in love with Ghost. Later, I found Ghost 2002 on a motherboard software/driver disk. Somehow, I upgraded to Ghost 2003, which worked OK for XP, but not for later OS’s.

Jumping forward several years, I found a copy of Ghost 11.5 after hearing about it on a Ghost chat forum.
I use it from a bootable Flash Drive or CD, using the DOS from Windows ME as the boot OS.
It works just fine. By the way, if you use the DOS from a disk format in Windows XP, it will be the same DOS. Yeah, that one threw me too. lol

I was doing something different, a while back, when I did get that same “Stacks” error, thingy.
Then I went back to my old standard way of running Ghost and NO More Errors. I never did quite figure that one out. ???

Laters!

The Doctor 😎

tried a free copy of Macrium Reflect about a week ago and after that my PC started throwing BSOD’s.

There are several users on this forum that use Macrium Reflect with no issues.

I would never, ever, do backups from within Windows.

I make regular backup images from within Windows using Acronis True Image and have never had a problem with either the backup or the restore. I find it convenient to be able to continue working with Windows while the image is being created. There are other users on this board that feel more comfortable creating their images outside of Windows. To each his own.

Jerry

Here’s why you might not want to be performing backup from within Windows.

It is slower than running the same backup with the same program from a bootable (Rescue) CD.

Even though the active Windows partition is “locked” this does not prevent a process from running, writing something to a critical system file, and stopping or ruining the backup in progress.

Some files may still be in use, and may not be backed up properly.

Restoration can never be done from within Windows. When you start a recovery process from within Windows, the program must shut down Windows and then perform the actual recovery operations as scheduled tasks from outside of Windows. This handing off of the process can result in a failed restore effort.

(Aside — in Linux, which I am now runnning alongside of Windows 7 on my laptop, you CANNOT image or clone a partition from within Linux. You HAVE TO use external bootable CD or DVD media, or else hook up wiith a networked computer. Linux isn’t usually so much imaged as cloned, since its footprint is so small compared with 64-bit Windows installations. CloneZilla Live CDs are made for these operations, but the interface is very text-driven and can get a bit confusing unless you know how Linux enumerates partitions and drives.)

For myself, I have finally gotten to the point where I automatically reach for the Boot CD when doing either backup or restore operations, regardless of OS. It’s safer, faster, and more reliable for me. YMMV.

Macrium Reflect (for Windows) with the WinPE environment on a CD has more options and better flexibility than their Linux environment Rescue CD.

Finally, DO NOT back up to CDs, DVDs or Flash Drives. They are all too unreliable as backup media. Get an external Hard Drive or Solid State Drive (preferably a pair of them and copy the image or clone so as to have an off-site copy just in case) and use these reliable devices for backups of your system. Recovery operations all too often fail when the image is spread over several CDs or DVDs. And my 165GB Windows 7 installation would span over twelve disks if backed up that way.

So that’s the why and wherefor of backing up Windows (or Linux). Do it outside of the active OS partition for best results.

Indeed, no matter how we do it, the most important part of system backup is to do it. And before anything goes radically wrong!

Since I’m new to Linux, I find I am doing more backups more frequently in there than in Windows.

And I still prefer to do the backups outside of the active drive. It just feels safer to me, and for me, it is indeed faster. YMMV.

If you can continue to work while the backup image is being created, speed is not an issue. I’m making my weekly backup images right now as I’m reviewing forum posts. :rolleyes:

But we all do what we are comfortable with.

Jerry

Over the past 33 years, that I’ve been in the computer business, I’ve set up backup systems for Banks, Corporations, private businesses, CEO’s, and personal computer users.

There is one theme that has always carried forward from DOS, to Windows 95 and on to today and Windows 8.1

Will your last backup be restorable, to a new and blank hard drive, when your OS hard drive has just gone up in smoke?

To assure that the answer to this age-old question is always “YES!”, I employ these simple rules:

The backup/restore program should not be on the OS Drive, but on some, bootable and removable media and in several copies, for safety. Originally this was a floppy disk, but today it can be either a CD or a Bootable Flash Drive.

Then the backup Image file(s) should be also on some removable media that can be stored in a SAFE place.

In 1997 an unknown company in New Zealand released a program called “Ghost”. It worked!
In a little shop I was working in at the time, we used it for cloning small hard drives to bigger hard drives, for our customers. In those days, we could run it from a 3.5″ Floppy Disk.

In a computer store that I was in today, I was talking with the tech and I was surprised to find out that they still use the DOS version of Ghost 11.5, to clone hard drives. It’s quick, simple and just Works!
That completely takes Windows out of the equation, so it can’t screw things up.

Sorry this ran so long.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor 😎

The regimen that I have tested and used allowed me to escape digitally unscathed from a house fire that claimed 2 PC’s and 2 laptops (and the house).

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. Backup is one of those things that can be accomplished in many ways, with many different tools, successfully.

The easiest way to make sure that an image works is to restore it. In forums and threads all over Windows Secrets the warning has been repeated that one should not store images on the same drive or in the same computer, but on a separate external drive.

Most also advise having two external drives, rotating their use, storing multiple backups, and storing at least one external drive off site.

The best backup regimen is one that will be used regularly, tested often, with backups kept in a safe place.

The least useful backup is the backup one intends to make.

The least useful backup is the backup one intends to make.

I love it! That’s another way to say what I’ve been saying for the past 33 years……
Great minds, like soup, run together! Eh?

“The only bad backup, is the one that you decided NOT to make”. (just before your HD crashed)
Even back in the early DOS days, I’ve been setting up backup schemes for my friends and customers.

My own safest backups, are the ones I burn to DVD’s and then take 20 miles away and store in a Fireproof Vault. [Every backup should be Validated, before it’s considered finished]

Since 1997, my backup program of choice has been Ghost, run from a bootable disk. Originally that was a 3.5″ floppy disk, but today, its a Flash Drive or CD.

The fastest backup is always to a second internal hard drive. That’s not possible on most laptops, so an external (USB) drive will do. That external drive can be either a real hard drive, or a large Flash Drive.
I use both, on my main system for data backups, which I do daily.

One line in a batch file, using the old DOS command “XCOPY” does a daily Incremental Data Backup, to both of my USB drives, and only takes a few seconds to complete. It really don’t get no simpler than that. Eh?

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor 😎

I agree with The Doctor that data backups are brain-dead simple. I use copy commands for these, both in Windows and in Linux. If I had a large number of large files which change daily, I might use some sort of Sync or Cloud Sync routines. If I were using a Tablet, tethering to back up or syncing either locally or in the Cloud would be the best options, I would think. The right tool for the right job.

irjc,

Paper towels, Towels, Cardboard? These are all moisture absorbent materials. I’d ditch these for a Plastic box with desiccant packs (those little packs of beads that come in packaging). I’m just sayin… HTH :cheers: