1. Why should you back up the operating system?
Back up the operating system is creating a backup file of partition containing the operating system. In many cases, operating system is is faulty, we can use backup file to restore without reinstalling OS to save time and effort. This backup file should be created when the operating system is at its most stable and has installed all the necessary softwares.
The backup file of operating system is often called a ghost file. Norton Ghost is a software commonly used to create backup files.
2. Back up Operating System using Norton Ghost
Using Norton Ghost to backup the partition containing the operating system. This tool is integrated in Hiren’s BootCD. Refer to the article Partition hard disk drive using Hiren’s BootCD to see how to use this tool.
Choose Ghost (Normal).
Then, select Local -> Partition -> To Image.
Select the drive containing the partition to be backed up.
Select the partition to backup (backing up the partition containing the operating system is always the Primary partition).
Select the partition where the backup file is stored and then name the backup file.
Do you want to compress the backup file?
Click Yes to create backup file.
The screen informs that the backup file has been successfully created.
Check backup file
Select Local -> Check -> Image File.
Select the partition and folder to store the backup file. Note: the backup file has the extension .GHO and the size is large enough.
3. Restore operating system using Norton Ghost
Using Norton Ghost, select Local -> Partition -> From Image.
Choose backup file to restore.
Select the hard disk to recover from the backup file.
Select the partition to recover. Note: do not select the partition containing the backup file.
Click Yes to restore partition.
Recovery is complete, restart the computer to see the results in the recovered partition.
4. Requirement of practice
Students create a virtual machine with the name formatted as Student ID with the following configuration parameters:
- Operating system: Windows 10
- RAM capacity: 2048 MB
- HDD capacity: 60 GB
- Processor: 1 CPU – 2 cores
- BIOS timeout: 10 seconds
- Choose boot device: CD-ROM
Using Magic Partition Tool to format and partition hard disk drive:
- System: 30 GB (Primary – NTFS – Set Active)
- Private: 15 GB (Logical – FAT32)
- Public: 15 GB (Logical – FAT32)
Format Private, Public partition to NTFS
Merge Private partition to Public partition with label Personal
Adjust to reduce size of Public to 5 GB
Create new partition on empty partition with label Social (Logical – NTFS)
Rename System partition to OS
Install Windows XP or Windows 7/8/10 to System partition
Create backup file for System partition and store this file to Public partition with name backup_system.gho
Rename System partition to OS
Using backup_system.gho to restore System partition to OS partition
