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Is there a way of selectively choosing exactly what data is Ghosted from the primary to a secondary hard drive (read body)
Is there a way of selectively choosing exactly what data is ghosted from the primary to a secondary hard drive?
I have a bootable system 600 GB hard drive (540 GB used, 60 GB free).
On this hard drive, there are 300 GB of data files that don't need to be ghosted to the secondary hard drive).
The new secondary hard drive which will be receiving this Ghost image is 300 GB in size. These data files are all contained in one particular folder.
Therefore, is there a way that I can choose to Ghost everything on the 600GB hard drive while excluding the 300 GB of data files?
I need to be able to ghost the bootable hard drive to the new smaller hard drive so that the new smaller hard drive will also be able to boot up on the same computer—I simply want to be able to choose some certain folders which contain 300GB of data files so that these folders do not get ghosted (cloned) to the secondary hard drive.
If I am simply able to choose to exclude the 300 GB worth of data files, then the larger hard drive will be able to successfully ghost to the smaller hard drive.
An obvious work around that would be able to make this work would be to first move (or delete) the data files off of the larger hard drive before performing the Ghost operation and then to copy the data back onto the larger hard drive after the Ghost operation has completed.
However, I have several different hard drives where I need to perform this type Ghost "cloning process," so I would prefer to be able to choose to exclude exactly what data folders are to be excluded from being Ghosted before the actual Ghost process occurs, which is what I am asking in this question.
Once again, this will be an actual cloning process (not a ghost to an image file) and I need the new secondary (smaller) hard drive to be bootable as well. It needs to be an exact replica of the larger hard drive while simply not having the data folders that I have chosen to exclude.
This program needs to be fully compatible with Windows 7 64 bit.
Is this something that Norton Ghost can do? If so, what version(s) of Norton Ghost can do this?
Or, are there other (competitor) products like Norton Ghost that can do this?
I have a bootable system 600 GB hard drive (540 GB used, 60 GB free).
On this hard drive, there are 300 GB of data files that don't need to be ghosted to the secondary hard drive).
The new secondary hard drive which will be receiving this Ghost image is 300 GB in size. These data files are all contained in one particular folder.
Therefore, is there a way that I can choose to Ghost everything on the 600GB hard drive while excluding the 300 GB of data files?
I need to be able to ghost the bootable hard drive to the new smaller hard drive so that the new smaller hard drive will also be able to boot up on the same computer—I simply want to be able to choose some certain folders which contain 300GB of data files so that these folders do not get ghosted (cloned) to the secondary hard drive.
If I am simply able to choose to exclude the 300 GB worth of data files, then the larger hard drive will be able to successfully ghost to the smaller hard drive.
An obvious work around that would be able to make this work would be to first move (or delete) the data files off of the larger hard drive before performing the Ghost operation and then to copy the data back onto the larger hard drive after the Ghost operation has completed.
However, I have several different hard drives where I need to perform this type Ghost "cloning process," so I would prefer to be able to choose to exclude exactly what data folders are to be excluded from being Ghosted before the actual Ghost process occurs, which is what I am asking in this question.
Once again, this will be an actual cloning process (not a ghost to an image file) and I need the new secondary (smaller) hard drive to be bootable as well. It needs to be an exact replica of the larger hard drive while simply not having the data folders that I have chosen to exclude.
This program needs to be fully compatible with Windows 7 64 bit.
Is this something that Norton Ghost can do? If so, what version(s) of Norton Ghost can do this?
Or, are there other (competitor) products like Norton Ghost that can do this?
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The answer to your original question is NO, you can select or exclude what to image.
but if this is a one time thing then I don't see why you can't temporarily MOVE the data that YOU DON'T want imaged out of there to another location (like an external drive) then image your system without it.
but if this is a one time thing then I don't see why you can't temporarily MOVE the data that YOU DON'T want imaged out of there to another location (like an external drive) then image your system without it.
For an OS image, you really need to separate data from the oS, and that is what I would do on all existing drives.
Gparted can be used to shrink the existing partition, once you remove the data you no longer need, and then use the OS to create a pure data partition.
makes life MUCH easier in the long run.
just my $0.02
I hope this helps !