A couple of questions before deciding to migrate from Ghost to SSR Desktop Edition

[gilgamesh-aus]

I'm a long time ghost user having progressed through 4 or 5 previous versions, currently using Ghost 15.

With Ghost 15 I have a custom System Recovery Disk (SRD) to include my drivers and I actually use this to do all my backups as cold backups. This custom SRD is based upon a 2.x version of Windows PE which is a 32 bit Vista environment. I am a Windows 7 64 bit user so to build the custom SRD I had to create a 32 GB partition to install Vista as a dual boot option and then buld the SRD there, it is probably possible to do this in the Windows 7 environment but that is a bit too complex for me to identify all the correct options from the Vista drivers I download.

I read on the SSR detail that SSR uses Windows PE 4.0 - Based upon Windows 8 (Now picture me running away screaming) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824964.aspx. To get the correct Windows 8 drivers into a custom SRD does this mean I need to install a Windows 8 partition (more screaming) to do the SRD build?

Is it possible for me to download the Windows PE 3.1 64 bit edition (based upon Windows 7 SP1) and have the SSR software on this to act as the SRD?

Another question is regarding the Essential Support options, specifically "Downloadable Software Upgrades, Updates, and Packages"

If I only purchase the 1 year option does this mean Live Update will stop giving me updates after 12 months? If I purchase the 3 year option do I get a free upgrade to SSR 2015 when released? As a home user of Ghost I have never needed telephone support as I have had no critical issues and have found that any questions I have had have been promptly answered in the forums, so the I believe the only useful feature in Essential Support" for me is the downloads.

[criley]

To get the correct Windows 8 drivers into a custom SRD does this mean I need to install a Windows 8 partition (more screaming) to do the SRD build?

No. You can build a custom SRD from any machine (as long as it's the same bit level) where SSR 2013 is installed. You just add the Win8 drivers (after you have downloaded them from hardware vendors site) during the custom SRD wizard creation.

Is it possible for me to download the Windows PE 3.1 64 bit edition (based upon Windows 7 SP1) and have the SSR software on this to act as the SRD?

No. There may be a way of doing this but it would NOT be supported by Symantec.

If I only purchase the 1 year option does this mean Live Update will stop giving me updates after 12 months?

No. LiveUpdate provides service packs and hotfixes for the current version of the product you are using. You will still get this even without a support contract. I cannot answer the other part of your question about free upgrades to future new versions as I'm not a licensing specialist. You would need to contact customer care for this question:

http://www.symantec.com/support/assistance_care.jsp

Hope that helps.

[gilgamesh-aus]

No. You can build a custom SRD from any machine (as long as it's the same bit level) where SSR 2013 is installed. You just add the Win8 drivers (after you have downloaded them from hardware vendors site) during the custom SRD wizard creation.

This is pretty much the same way that could be done with Ghost 15, but as I indicated it is extremely confusing picking the correct options out of all of the ones provided in the driver files.

Plus for my MB the network driver is installed as part of running an EXE and is not a separate driver file for inclusion, so to get the Windows 8 network driver I would need to install Windows 8 and install the EXE there before I could get the driver for the SRD. As I am avoiding windows 8 like the plague this is not something I want to consider.

[criley]

Plus for my MB the network driver is installed as part of running an EXE and is not a separate driver file for inclusion, so to get the Windows 8 network driver I would need to install Windows 8 and install the EXE there before I could get the driver for the SRD. As I am avoiding windows 8 like the plague this is not something I want to consider.

This is not true. Almost all driver downloads give you the ability to extract the package contents to a location on disk. You can then browse to the .inf file when adding the driver to a custom SRD.

Hope that helps.