[dba-Tech] Petulant PC

Arthur,

I think the first thing to do is determine what you want installed and then
install the OS and all of those programs, THEN ghost.  If you ever need to
restore all of the programs are preinstalled.  

After installing all of my required programs my laptop sits at about 40gb.
That includes everything though from Spy sweeper AV and Comodo firewall, to
Adobe, VNC, UltaEdit and 3DFTP to Office 2003, Streets and Trips, Visual
Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005.

It is amazing how quickly it all adds up, and how long it takes to install
it from scratch.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2007 4:40 PM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Petulant PC

The following is no help at all to your current situation, but since you
have used Ghost for a while, and I never have, even though I had it included
in a previous version of Norton, I thought I would ask:

Let's say your current boot drive has 250GB capacity and 150GB is occupied
when you Ghost. How big is the Ghost file? Do you need another HD upon which
to plant said file?

The reason I ask is this: a bare-bones installation already comes with my HP
computer. (This is achieved by partititioning the HD, creating a read-only
partition with the initial image on it, then allowing you to start over
anytme by re-initializing drive c: from the r-o drive d:. However, even
though I love this ability, it still means after re-initializing I have to
spend the better part of a day reinstalling Office, Office Developer,
SP1...n, NoteTab, winRAR, VS.NET, SQL 2005 and so on. So even though I can
reinit the original, I still lose a day implanting the rest.

So let's assume that the total install that satisfies me is > 50% of the
disk. Does Ghost compress it? Even if it does, I think there is no
alternative but a pair of disks of whatever size in the machine of interest.
Ok. Given that if I'm talking about a box with a 500GB disk, therefore I
need a pair, in fact three (the third on another box, so I can copy the
Ghost file to safety).

This sounds:
a) like a recursive problem;
b) reminiscent of the days of FastBack, when I needed 50 3.5 disks to back
up my HD (currently the number of dual-layer DVDs is smaller, let's see
250GB / 4.7 GB = 50 + single-layer DVDs. That assumes the drive is full. I
never let a drive get even 50% before I think it's time for another.
Fortunately prices plummet in relatively direct proportion with my
compulsive need to install more software and create new data.

Either way, it seems that backup has been momentarily possible and then
suddenly impossible, then possible, then impossible, then possible, then
impossible (repeat until exhausted). Hofstadter, so to speak.

Even the alleged massive storage of Blue-Ray apparently leaves us in the
FastBack situation of multiple disks. 200GB to back up, 50GB on a Blue-Ray.
Back in the FastBack situation. If disk 3 has a problem, I have a BIG
problem.

A.