Spanky's Place

Chat ID: <redacted>
Problem : Product Functionality Question

Norton Support: You are being transferred to Norton Support.
Norton Support: Welcome to Norton Support, my name is <redacted> Can I please have a minute to go through the information you have provided?
Devin: yes.
Norton Support: Please don’t follow this now – but just in case we get disconnected for any reason, you can follow these instructions to reconnect to me. You'll need to do this within a couple of minutes of being disconnected:
Can you please make a note of these instructions.
1) Open up Internet Explorer and then go to www.norton.com/connectme
2) Enter the [Connection Code] <redacted>
3) Click on [Submit]
Devin: thank you.
Norton Support: May I confirm that the issue you are encountering is you have some Questions related to the product?
Devin: yes.
Devin: I've never used the Norton Ghost, and wanted to make sure I understand what it is capable of doing prior to purchasing.
Norton Support: Thank you for confirming your details. Please make a note of this case no. <redacted> for your future reference.This case number will include the details of today's chat.
Devin: I've used many other Symantec products though.
Devin: Thank you.
Norton Support: Okay Please Go Ahead with your Question
Devin: I have purchased a new laptop, that came preloaded with Windows Vista (64 bit).
Devin: The laptop has a single 5400 RPM 80Gig drive.
Devin: I would like to replace the Hard Drive with a bigger, faster (320G, 7200 RPM) drive.
Norton Support: Okay
Devin: My hope is that I can use Ghost to take a "picture" of the current hard drive, then remove the drive and replace it with the new drive, and then use Ghost to replace the "picture" on the new drive.
Devin: Is this possible?
Norton Support: Yes It is possible
Norton Support: You can use Ghost 14 to do this
Devin: I have access to a network (Windows 2000) file server upon which I can write the data.
Devin: nice.
Norton Support: Use the Option copy my hard drive to do this
Devin: I guess my biggest question is how do I put the image on the new drive, when I can't boot up (because there is no OS on the machine once I remove the old drive)
Devin: Is there some form of "bootable runtime" with Ghost 14? Or do I have to figure out a different way to boot the machine?
Norton Support: You can copy the hard drive if the computer is working fine
Norton Support: Else you wont be able to do it
Devin: The computer currently works perfectly.
Norton Support: Then You can copy the Hrad drive it will work fine
Devin: I just don't understand how I can push the image to the new drive.
Norton Support: Please install the product on the computer download the user manual from the Help menu there you will have all the instructions and details about how the product works v
Norton Support: It basically copies everything from the old drive including the Operating system
Devin: Does the version that is included in Norton 360 do this, or do I need to purchase Norton Ghost as a standalone product?
Norton Support: No Only Ghost can do this for you
Devin: ok, no problem.
Norton Support: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Devin: So once I copy the image from the old drive to the network drive, and than I shut down the machine, and install the new drive, do I boot up to the Norton Ghost CD?
Norton Support: Can I place you on hold, while I check some details for you?
Devin: Yes, absolutely.
Norton Support: Thanks for holding.
Norton Support: The copy cant be taken to a Network drive
Devin: ok.
Devin: hmmm.
Norton Support: You should have a External hard drive to directly copy the content from Souce drive to destination
Devin: where do I write the copy to?
Devin: oh, like a usb drive?
Norton Support: Yes
Devin: (not a thumb drive, but one of those big ones)
Devin: ok.
Norton Support: Its should be a USB drive
Devin: So once I copy it to the external drive, then replace the old hdd with the new hdd, do I then boot up using the Norton Ghost cd?
Norton Support: No if you connect the New drive it will boot on its own
Devin: ?? - but the new drive would be empty. There would be no O/S.
Norton Support: Please read what I have already Typed in
Norton Support: After you make the copy it will boot
Devin: Please, that doesn't make sense to me.
Devin: Here are the steps as I understand them:
Devin: 1) attach USB Drive to machine
Devin: 2) Use Norton Ghost to write image of internal HDD to USB Drive.
Devin: 3) Remove internal HDD and replace with new blank, HDD
Devin: 4) Turn on machine.
Devin: - how does machine boot? Does it boot using the external USB drive?
Norton Support: After you copy the drive its No longer a Blank drive
Norton Support: Its contains Everything the Main drive has
Devin: Wait a minute. Are you really telling me that I should take my new blank INTERNAL laptop HDD, and connect it via USB to my laptop and write the image of my current internal HDD to it?
Norton Support: Yes
Devin: Umm, Is there somebody else I can chat with who understands the difference between external USB and internal SATA?
Norton Support: I can Help you with it
Norton Support: What Do you want to Know
Devin: Ok. I really don't mean to sound rude,
Devin: but it is impossible to connect an internal SATA HDD to an external USB connector. The two interfaces are entirely different.
Norton Support: Can I can you ?
Devin: I can use a third external USB drive as an intermediary to hold the drive image,
Devin: but I don't understand how I can get the image from the USB drive onto the new internal HDD.
Devin: If I can boot to the Norton Ghost CD, and then use Ghost to pull the image from the external USB HDD and write it to the new internal drive, that would be great,
Devin: but from what I'm beginning to suspect, that is not possible.
Devin: Is it?
- - -

It was at that point in the conversation that Norton Support called me on the telephone (listed on my support profile). It took a while to get an answer out of him (theoretically it is possible), but I'm still not entirely certain it will work. Considering I don't have the answer in writing, I'm not sure if it really is possible.

So, do any of my readers (all three of you) know if this will work? It seems that it should, but I really don't want to drop $50 on a "seems" situation.