I am in the process of purchasing a new process control network file server. I would like to ghost the drives when it arrives. In the past to ghost drives I have removed them from the computer and put them in the backup computer in my office. I then boot up in DOS and run ghost. Am I at risk of corrupting the drive using this method? I do understand the risk of ghosting the wrong direction and overwriting the drive but beyond that is there a risk?

There should be no writing to the primary partition at all, so I would say no. I have NEVER had an issue when ghosting drives. Partition magic, on the other hand, I have toasted 1 partition when resizing.

I then boot up in DOS and run ghost.

I assume you mean that the drive you're trying to ghost is on the secondary IDE controller and that your boot drive is something other than the one you're trying to ghost?

If that's the case, then that's correct: You can't hurt the drive if you don't write any data to it.

However if it's an NT (or 2k/xp) server that participates in a Domain, there are issues with the security database when you try to restore a ghosted image. The security account for an NT-based computer on a domain is updated about weekly. So about a week after you've made that ghost image of the drive, the image will contain a stale/invalid version of the security key and if you restore that image it won't participate in the domain any more. There are ways around this, but I won't get into the details unless you tell me that it's a Windows domain box that already has the trust relationship set up with the domain controller.

The system is comprised of 4 processors. The NFS computer which is the one that I am replacing, it runs Windows NT4 Server. The Primary Work Station, this also runs Windows NT4 Server. The PWS can be switched over to take the place of the NFS by going through a failover routine that primarily just chages the IP address of the box. The Frame Processor which is a VME motorola processor that interfaces with the scanners. The Decision Processor which crunches the data from the Frame Processor and determines how the machine setworks will respond to the scanned image. The NFS is the machine on which system parameters are entered and also contains the Sql Database that holds all of the data and production shift variables. The PWS is the machine that can work as a backup and also contains the MMI for the actual machine. I work for a lumber company. This particular machine is a board edger. The system scans each board and produces a 3d image of the piece. It than skews the saws and moves them laterally as the board passes through them at 1100 feet per minute. By doing this it eliminates the need for the board to be perfectly aligned as it enters the edger. Example: If the board if skewed 3 degrees than the saws will skew 3 degrees and move laterally so as to cut the board perfectly down its center. This is all controlled hydraulically and at high speed. There are three saws in the edger. It will cut either one or two boards dependent on value based computation. It's pretty cool actually.

Very interesting!

But I'm not clear on whether the two NT boxes are using the Windows NT Domain security model, and if they are joined together to participate in the same domain. Is one of those boxes a domain controller?

If not, then you've got nothing to worry about when restoring the image. The security key problems only exist if you're doing a domain.

OK, Thanks Tony. It sounds like all I need to do is see if there is a Domain name set up in the network parameters. If the system just uses a workgroup then I'm fine. I'm sure it's evident that IT is not my specialty.

Yeah, that's essentially it. There will be a radio button or a checkbox that allows you to choose between workgroup-style security and domain-style security. I forget exactly where this checkbox is found in NT4, perhaps try right-clicking on "My Computer" and hitting "Properties". It think it's somewhere in that dialog box.

I've used PQ Drive Image quite a lot and never managed to corrupt a source machine.

A few times the images didn't take when cast across a network but that was flakey IP rather than a problem with the image itself.