Ghost 2003 doesn't see NTFS partition in XP?

[zcarenow]

I was following the ghost.radified.com site on creating a ghost image
and i ran into a problem. Apparently, ghost doesn't see NTFS
partitions. Isn't there a switch that i can run with ghost.exe for it
to recognize NTFS? Once i start the Local--Disk-To Image, the only
thing i see is my Afloppy drive) and no c:\ drive for a destination
because of NTFS i believe. So any quick fixes for this? Thanks.

 

[Anna]

I was following the ghost.radified.com site on creating a ghost image
and i ran into a problem. Apparently, ghost doesn't see NTFS
partitions. Isn't there a switch that i can run with ghost.exe for it
to recognize NTFS? Once i start the Local--Disk-To Image, the only
thing i see is my Afloppy drive) and no c:\ drive for a destination
because of NTFS i believe. So any quick fixes for this? Thanks.

I assume you're using the Ghost 2003 bootable floppy disk to undertake the
disk cloning operation. If my assumption is correct, here are some
step-by-step instructions to directly clone the contents of one HD to
another HD. But just in case you're *not* using the Ghost bootable floppy
disk to perform the cloning operation, I've also included instructions for
creating one. See if this helps...

Using the Ghost 2003 program to *directly* clone the contents of one hard
drive to another hard drive via a Ghost bootable floppy disk or bootable CD
is relatively simple and straightforward. Here are the steps to create the
bootable floppy disk...
1. Install the Ghost 2003 program on your computer.
2. Insert a blank floppy disk (it need not be formatted) and access your
Ghost program.
3. Click on Ghost Utilities.
4. Click on Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.
5. Select Standard Ghost Boot Disk. A dialog box will appear.
a. Select the USB 2.0 Support option (assuming you have that
capability).
b. Select the Assign DOS drive letters option and click Next.
6. Select the Use PC-DOS option.
7. Complete the process following the screen prompts.
8. Remove floppy and label accordingly.

That's it. Now you have a Ghost bootable floppy disk which you can use to
undertake your cloning operations. Now when you want to clone the contents
of one HD to another HD you simply insert the Ghost bootable floppy disk in
your floppy drive and boot up with both drives connected. Here's how to
perform the cloning operation...

But before doing so, make sure that the only storage devices connected to
your computer are the two drives - the one you'll be cloning from and the
one you're cloning too. Disconnect any other storage devices such as flash
drives, ZIP drives, and the like.

1. After booting up with the Ghost bootable floppy, you'll get an initial
screen that displays "License agreement warning". Right-arrow (or tab) over
to the "Continue with marking drives" button and press Enter.
2. The "About Norton Ghost" screen appears. Click OK.
3. Right-arrow twice over to the "To Disk" button and press Enter.
4. The next screen will list both your drives - the Drive 1 (source disk)
and Drive 2 (destination disk). MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN Drive 1 IS INDEED
YOUR SOURCE DISK, I.E., THE DISK YOU'RE CLONING *FROM*!
Drive 1 will be highlighted. Press Enter.
5. The next screen will have Drive 2 (destination disk) highlighted. AGAIN,
ENSURE THAT Drive 2 IS YOUR DESTINATION DISK, I.E., THE DISK YOU'RE CLONING
*TO*! Press Enter.
6. The next screen is the "Destination Drive Details" window, and reflects
your ultimate destination disk, i.e., your current Drive 2. Press your Tab
key to highlight the OK button and press Enter.
7. The "Proceed with disk clone?" dialog box will open. Left-arrow over to
the Yes button and press Enter.
8. The cloning process will begin. If you want, step out for a quick cup of
coffee.
9. After you get the "Clone Completed Successfully" message, left-arrow over
to the Continue button and press Enter.
10. Down-arrow to Quit and press Enter.
11. Click Yes at the "Are you sure you want to quit?" message.
12. Remove the Ghost floppy and shut down the computer.
13. If you want to check that your newly-cloned disk is bootable, disconnect
your source disk and boot up with the cloned drive. Presumably it should
boot up without a problem and in about 40 to 50 seconds after arriving at
your Desktop, XP's "System Settings Change" window will appear, informing
you that new hardware has been found and asks "Do you want to restart your
computer now?" Click Yes.
14. BTW, the reboot of the newly-cloned drive usually takes a longer time
than usual, so be patient. On rare occasions it will fail to reboot - the
system will hang before reaching the Windows XP Welcome screen. It's a rare
occurrence, but I have experienced it from time-to-time. If that does
occur, simply use the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys to reboot.

Assuming you've cloned the contents of your working drive to your second
internal drive, that second drive will be bootable (after disconnecting your
primary one, of course) as indicated above. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU
DISCONNECT YOUR SOURCE DISK BEFORE MAKING THAT INITIAL BOOT WITH YOUR
NEWLY-CLONED DRIVE. You can, if you want, reconnect both drives following
the initial boot with the cloned drive.

You also have the option of cloning your working drive to a USB external
hard drive. In that case the USB EHD is *not* bootable, but you could clone
the contents back to your internal drive for restoration purposes should the
need arise.

Let us know how you make out.
Anna

 

[Bob Harris]

GHOST 2003 and earlier were DOS based, and have the following limitations:

GHOST can make an image of an NTFS partition, but it can only save that
image on a FAT32 partition. The partition (or disk image) fails to write to
NTFS, becasue it is effectively trying to make a file, hence it has to obey
the rules of the file system, which it can not understand, so it refuses.

GHOST can "clone" one hard drive to another (usually larger) hard drive.
The cloning operation may be used to copy an NTFS disk to a disk, which then
becomes NTFS. The cloning operation works on NTFS because it pretty much
copies all the bits, without attempting to interprete them.

If you want to use GHOST 2003 to backup any partition (or disk), but not
clone it, think about getting an external USB 2.0 disk and formatting it as
FAT32. Keep the size of the disk under 128 Gig, since DOS (hence GHOST
2003) was never meant for larger disks. Alternatively, install a second
internal hard drive, format as FAT32, and save GHOST images on that.

Note that USB support for GHOST 2003 is not perfect, so test it on your PC,
if you cvhoose to go that route. As I recall, it could do 2.0 to 2.0 or 1.1
to 1.1 but not mixed USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. Also, GHOST may only work if the
first USB port on the computer is used.

A better solution, without all these problems, is Acronis True Image. The
rcently released GHOST 10 might also have overcome the limtations of GHOST
2003.

 

[Leythos]

I was following the ghost.radified.com site on creating a ghost image
and i ran into a problem. Apparently, ghost doesn't see NTFS
partitions. Isn't there a switch that i can run with ghost.exe for it
to recognize NTFS? Once i start the Local--Disk-To Image, the only
thing i see is my Afloppy drive) and no c:\ drive for a destination
because of NTFS i believe. So any quick fixes for this? Thanks.

When I boot to my Ghost 2003 boot diskette it sees all partitions on the
drive, all being NTFS, and lets me make copies of NTFS partitions or
even clone the entire drive to another drive or a file or to clone a
partition to another drive or a file.

If you're talking about not being able to WRITE to a NTFS partition from
a DOS boot disk, it's not a Ghost problem, DOS bootable disks don't
provide the ability to read/write to a NTFS partition. You need a FAT
partition to write your image to.

 

[Paul Cahill]

Ghost also has trouble with seeing some SATA drives. I've seen this on some
intel chipsets.

Paul

 

[Leythos]

Ghost also has trouble with seeing some SATA drives. I've seen this on some
intel chipsets.

That would be because of a chipset, not a drive, that does not properly
map the drives at the BIOS level. It has nothing to do with Ghost, it
would happen with any DOS level application.

 

[zcarenow]

Actually, i was just trying to create an image for my Win XP machine .
I was going to have the image created on the c:\ drive also. Thanks for
the info guys.

 

[JCE]

Hi,

I am not disputing your explanation, but I have a Sony Notebook with 100
Gig NTFS partition and I can use Ghost to make disk images to my USB 2.0
Hard Drive which is also formatted with NTSF and hangs somewhere in the
middle of 5 4-Port USB 2.0 Hubs. I can create the image and I also can
write back from the ext. to the int. HDD.

But, I am using Ghost 9.0 with a bootable CD ! Maybe that's the difference.


Tom

 

[Anna]

Bob:
With all due respect, there's so much misinformation you provided re Ghost
2003 in your post that I hardly know where to begin. Please see my inline
comments...

GHOST 2003 and earlier were DOS based, and have the following limitations:

Ghost 2003 can be used quite successfully within a Windows GUI interface
similar to virtually every other disk imaging program on the market. I
prefer to use Ghost's DOS interface as I described below because I prefer
its simplicity and portability aspects. It's a personal choice, however, a
user can use the Windows GUI interface with Ghost 2003 should he or she
prefer with no difficulty whatsoever.

GHOST can make an image of an NTFS partition, but it can only save that
image on a FAT32 partition. The partition (or disk image) fails to write
to NTFS, becasue it is effectively trying to make a file, hence it has to
obey the rules of the file system, which it can not understand, so it
refuses.

GHOST can "clone" one hard drive to another (usually larger) hard drive.
The cloning operation may be used to copy an NTFS disk to a disk, which
then becomes NTFS. The cloning operation works on NTFS because it pretty
much copies all the bits, without attempting to interprete them.

The point is that Ghost 2003 has absolutely no problems cloning NTFS
partitions nor FAT32 partitions. A Ghost 2003 user can feel perfectly
confident that he or she will encounter no problems cloning the contents of
one drive to another drive regardless of the file systems involved.

If you want to use GHOST 2003 to backup any partition (or disk), but not
clone it, think about getting an external USB 2.0 disk and formatting it
as FAT32. Keep the size of the disk under 128 Gig, since DOS (hence GHOST
2003) was never meant for larger disks. Alternatively, install a second
internal hard drive, format as FAT32, and save GHOST images on that.

I have no idea of what you're talking about when you state that Ghost 2003
"was never meant for larger disks". We've used Ghost 2003 with source and/or
destination drives of every conceivable capacity at least through 300 GB
with no problems whatsover. All that *really* matters is that the
destination drive be large enough to receive the cloned contents of the
source drive. So, for example, if there's 70 GB of data on a source disk of
120 GB, there's no problem using Ghost 2003 to clone the contents of the
source disk to a 80 GB drive. It's simply absurd to use a FAT32 formatted
drive to "save GHOST images on that".

Note that USB support for GHOST 2003 is not perfect, so test it on your
PC, if you cvhoose to go that route. As I recall, it could do 2.0 to 2.0
or 1.1 to 1.1 but not mixed USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. Also, GHOST may only
work if the first USB port on the computer is used.

Again, I have no idea of what you're talking about here. I've used Ghost
2003 with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 external hard drives, both in situations with
those devices are the recipient of the clone as well as where the USBEHD was
the source drive cloning its contents back to an internal drive. In neither
situation is there any problem whatsoever. It *is* true the early version of
Ghost 2003 *did* have a problem with USB.2.0 EHDs but that was corrected
back in about May, 2003 as I recall. As to your statement that Ghost "may
work only if the first USB port on the computer is used", I find that
statement incomprehensible.

A better solution, without all these problems, is Acronis True Image. The
rcently released GHOST 10 might also have overcome the limtations of GHOST
2003.

ATI8 is a fine product based on my limited experience with it. I would
encourage a user to try it out.

Let me be clear. If a user is primarily or exclusively concerned with
creating & maintaining a near failsafe backup system for his or her working
HD, he or she would be well advised to use a disk imaging program such as
Ghost 2003 (or Acronis True Image) to *directly* clone the contents of one's
working drive to another internal or external HD. The process is relatively
simple to undertake, straightforward in design, and quite effective in its
results, Bob's comments re the alleged deficiencies re Ghost 2003
notwithstanding. I have used Ghost 2003 for nearly four years now. During
that time I've performed countless cloning operations with that program
along the lines I've described. At least 500 times in an XP environment -
maybe more. And with virtually every HD on the market and scores of external
HDs. While I haven't found the program flawless, I've often said that I wish
every piece of software I use was as simple to use and as effective in its
objective as the Ghost 2003 program.

In my previous posting to "zcarenow" I provided step-by-step instructions
for using Ghost 2003. If anyone is contemplating using a disk imaging
program for the purposes I've indicated, i.e., cloning the contents of one's
HD to another HD in order to maintain a comprehensive backup system, he or
she would do well to give the Ghost 2003 program a try and not be put off by
so much absolute nonsense passed off as "fact" that's propagated re this
program..
Anna

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Actually, i was just trying to create an image for my Win XP machine .
I was going to have the image created on the c:\ drive also. Thanks for
the info guys.

PMFJI, you were trying to create the image on the same drive you were
imaging?

That's not supported, is it?

-pk

 

[JCE]

Ditto !

Good comments !

Thanks Anna.

Tom

Bob:
With all due respect, there's so much misinformation you provided re Ghost
2003 in your post that I hardly know where to begin. Please see my inline
comments...


Ghost 2003 can be used quite successfully within a Windows GUI interface
similar to virtually every other disk imaging program on the market. I
prefer to use Ghost's DOS interface as I described below because I prefer
its simplicity and portability aspects. It's a personal choice, however, a
user can use the Windows GUI interface with Ghost 2003 should he or she
prefer with no difficulty whatsoever.


The point is that Ghost 2003 has absolutely no problems cloning NTFS
partitions nor FAT32 partitions. A Ghost 2003 user can feel perfectly
confident that he or she will encounter no problems cloning the contents
of one drive to another drive regardless of the file systems involved.

I have no idea of what you're talking about when you state that Ghost 2003
"was never meant for larger disks". We've used Ghost 2003 with source
and/or destination drives of every conceivable capacity at least through
300 GB with no problems whatsover. All that *really* matters is that the
destination drive be large enough to receive the cloned contents of the
source drive. So, for example, if there's 70 GB of data on a source disk
of 120 GB, there's no problem using Ghost 2003 to clone the contents of
the source disk to a 80 GB drive. It's simply absurd to use a FAT32
formatted drive to "save GHOST images on that".

Again, I have no idea of what you're talking about here. I've used Ghost
2003 with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 external hard drives, both in situations
with those devices are the recipient of the clone as well as where the
USBEHD was the source drive cloning its contents back to an internal
drive. In neither situation is there any problem whatsoever. It *is* true
the early version of Ghost 2003 *did* have a problem with USB.2.0 EHDs but
that was corrected back in about May, 2003 as I recall. As to your
statement that Ghost "may work only if the first USB port on the computer
is used", I find that statement incomprehensible.

ATI8 is a fine product based on my limited experience with it. I would
encourage a user to try it out.

Let me be clear. If a user is primarily or exclusively concerned with
creating & maintaining a near failsafe backup system for his or her
working HD, he or she would be well advised to use a disk imaging program
such as Ghost 2003 (or Acronis True Image) to *directly* clone the
contents of one's working drive to another internal or external HD. The
process is relatively simple to undertake, straightforward in design, and
quite effective in its results, Bob's comments re the alleged deficiencies
re Ghost 2003 notwithstanding. I have used Ghost 2003 for nearly four
years now. During that time I've performed countless cloning operations
with that program along the lines I've described. At least 500 times in an
XP environment - maybe more. And with virtually every HD on the market and
scores of external HDs. While I haven't found the program flawless, I've
often said that I wish every piece of software I use was as simple to use
and as effective in its objective as the Ghost 2003 program.

In my previous posting to "zcarenow" I provided step-by-step instructions
for using Ghost 2003. If anyone is contemplating using a disk imaging
program for the purposes I've indicated, i.e., cloning the contents of
one's HD to another HD in order to maintain a comprehensive backup system,
he or she would do well to give the Ghost 2003 program a try and not be
put off by so much absolute nonsense passed off as "fact" that's
propagated re this program..
Anna

 

[Patrick Keenan]

PMFJI, you were trying to create the image on the same drive you were
imaging?

That's not supported, is it?

-pk

Sorry - meant to say, you were trying to create the image on the same
*partition* you were imaging. AFAIK, Ghost does not support this, because
it will simply lead to a full partition after it gets into a loop writing in
the image it is in the process of creating.

-pk

 

[Paul Cahill]

Nope
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/pfdocs/2003032512525325

 

[Leythos]

Nope
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/pfdocs/2003032512525325

Yep, did you miss the title of the document:
Ghost compatibility with Intel 865 chipsets and Serial ATA drives

Notice the key part here "Chipset" - again, it's not a Ghost issue, it's
a chipset issue. "the problem lies with the interrupt handling for the
Intel 865 Chipsets and later"

 

[Paul Cahill]

Good god.
Read it again. I stated that ghost has a problem seeing Sata drives on some
intel chipsets.
Of course it's a bloody chipset or INT13 issue although Semantec claim to
have worked around it.

The guy can't see his disk using ghost and we all know it's not a NTFS
issue.

Dos can't read NTFS natively, can't see USB drives etc etc. but Ghost can.

Just trying to help the guy out by asking him to check what chipset he has.

Doh

Nope
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/pfdocs/2003032512525325

Yep, did you miss the title of the document:
Ghost compatibility with Intel 865 chipsets and Serial ATA drives

Notice the key part here "Chipset" - again, it's not a Ghost issue, it's
a chipset issue. "the problem lies with the interrupt handling for the
Intel 865 Chipsets and later"

 

[Peter Wilkins]

GHOST 2003 and earlier were DOS based, and have the following limitations:

GHOST can make an image of an NTFS partition, but it can only save that
image on a FAT32 partition. The partition (or disk image) fails to write to
NTFS, becasue it is effectively trying to make a file, hence it has to obey
the rules of the file system, which it can not understand, so it refuses.

Whoops! Must be something wrong with my Ghost2003 then. I've been
using it happily for years imaging my C: Boot NTFS partition and my E:
Data NTFS partition onto my G: Backups NTFS drive, and never had a
problem. All the files in the (hundreds of) images have been OK
according to the Norton Ghost Explorer, and I have extracted a number
of individual files from images and restored them OK. The one time I
had to restore my whole system from an image, it worked fine, except
that I did lose a few emails received since the image coz I hadn't
backed up data since I took the full image.

My Ghost 2003 Version is 793 - I think earlier versions may not have
handled NTFS too well, but I can't remember as it was so long ago.

You can run Ghost 2003 from windows too - you set up what you want to
do, then Ghost automatically reboots to DOS, does the backup, then
reboots back to windows.

If you want to use GHOST 2003 to backup any partition (or disk), but not
clone it, think about getting an external USB 2.0 disk and formatting itas
FAT32. Keep the size of the disk under 128 Gig, since DOS (hence GHOST
2003) was never meant for larger disks. Alternatively, install a second
internal hard drive, format as FAT32, and save GHOST images on that.

Not necessary to format it to FAT32. My Maxtor OneTouchII 300G
external Firewire/USB2 disk came formatted in FAT32 and I immediately
reformatted it to NTFS, and Ghost recognises it and images to it fine,
whether I have it connected using Firewire or USB2 - you just have to
tell Ghost to load the appropriate drivers in the setup config.

Note that USB support for GHOST 2003 is not perfect, so test it on your PC,
if you cvhoose to go that route. As I recall, it could do 2.0 to 2.0 or1.1
to 1.1 but not mixed USB 2.0 and USB 1.1. Also, GHOST may only work if the
first USB port on the computer is used.

If you have mixed 1.1 and 2 devices, Ghost tells you to load the 1.1
drivers, so your USB2 wont work at full speed. I solve that by
unplugging my only USB1.1 device (an external floppy) when imaging and
specifying the 2.0 drivers - or else I just use Firewire.

A better solution, without all these problems, is Acronis True Image. The
rcently released GHOST 10 might also have overcome the limtations of GHOST
2003.

I like but don't fully trust Acronis or Ghost 9 or 10 - I don't
believe it is always possible to always get a correct backup from
within windows if many files are changing as they are being backed up.
Ghost 2003 avoids those possibilities, and guarantees a correct backup
every time.

Call me old fashioned, but I like DOS still!Check your version number - If it is earlier than 793, update it
using live update - you may have to run it several times to get the
793 update. Once it is 793, you should be OK with NTFS.

 

[Takrar]

You can switches to get back to windows . Norton Ghost creates a
vertual partition then it will do the needful as per the user
specificatiosn and then boot into windows. As you have issue with
booting into windows I will suggest that you use Ghost switches. I have
tried these swithches and worked out for me.

-Insert the Norton Ghost 2003 CD into the CD-R or CD-RW drive.

-System will boot into command prompt. (Precisely A
-Change the drive from A: to CD Drive. For Example: If the CD Drive is
D:, then the command should be D: and then press enter.



(Type the below commands in the Command prompt if it is a Ghost stand
alone CD)

- CD Support

- Dir (This is to ensure that Gdisk utility is available in
that folder)



(Type the below commands in the Command prompt if it is a Norton System
Works CD)
Type the following:

- CD ENG

- CD SUPPORT



-Next type gdisk 1 /i



(If the above command does not work, then use the command: gdisk 1
/status)



This command displays status information regarding the partitions.



Now, examine the information to find the partition number of the Ghost
Virtual Partition and the partition number of the drive's primary
partition.


The Ghost Virtual Partition is a FAT16 file system and will be
approximately 7.8 MB in size. The primary partition is usually the
partition onto which you installed Windows.



First you need to deactivate this Virtual Partition.



-Type the following:



gdisk 1 /-act /p:z /i



In place of the letter z, use the partition number of the virtual
partition. This command will deactivate the Virtual Partition.



- Examine the information to find the partition number of the
drive's primary partition.



The primary partition is usually the partition onto which you installed
Windows.



- Type the following:



gdisk 1 /act /p:x /i



In place of the letter x,use the partition number of the drive's
primary partition. This command makes the primary partition active.



- Remove the floppy disk and CD and restart the computer.