OS X backup with Norton Ghost

[fyrekrig]

I am a new user of OS X but a long time user of Windows (NT, 2000 and XP) and for Windows backups I have always used the DOS version of Norton Ghost.

 

So when I started my OS X learning I wanted a partition backup solution that I could use if I screw up when trying to get OS X working with my hardware.

 

Having a bootable CD with the latest DOS ver (Windows 98 4.10.2222 or sometimes referred to as 7.10) and the latest Dos version of Norton Ghost ( 8.0 ) I thought I should try with OS X. To my surprise it works perfectly!

 

The only drawback is that the resulting image files becomes rather big as Norton Ghost can not understand the OS X file system and skip the free space on the partition so it takes the whole partition. My OS X 8.5 GB partition becomes a 4.8 GB image at high image compression. The backup takes about 6 min on my Core2Duo E 6300 system, restore slightly less.

 

I did a "Google" on the subject but did not find anything so I assume this backup solution is not very well known and I thought I should share my "discovery".

 

Just get hold of later later DOS versions (FAT32) and Norton Ghost for DOS ver 8.0 and make a bootable CD.

Make a FAT 32 partition on your OS X disk for storing the image files. Remember to split the files to less than 2 GB because that is the maximum file size DOS can handle.