Maxtor 6Y160P0 wont boot after Ghost attempt

[les_stockton]

I've had XP Home running on a Sony Vaio for a couple of months. The
main hard drive is a 160 gig Maxtor 6Y160P0. I remember when I
initially struggled to install the OS, that XP didn't like this drive
because it was larger than 137 gig or 127 gig (I don't recall, off
hand). However, Maxtor's MaxBlast software installed bios that allowed
using the drive and booting to it.
Today, I tried using Ghost 2003 to do a backup to CD. This was a big
mistake and I'll never use Ghost again.
Ghost gave no indication of anything wrong. It's supposed to reboot
into DOS and run without windows so that it can properly backup the
primary boot drive. Well, it wouldn't boot at all. There was some
problem with Ghost, which I never figured out. I just tried rebooting
back to my hard drive, but the bios appears to have changed. It will
no longer boot to my hard drive either.
I've heard that other people have had this problem, but I've not seen a
detailed solution. I'm hoping I haven't lost the information on the
drive. I'd like to redo the bios, if possible and just reboot to the
hard drive. If I want to do a backup again, I'll try something
besides Ghost.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I've had XP Home running on a Sony Vaio for a couple of months. The
main hard drive is a 160 gig Maxtor 6Y160P0. I remember when I
initially struggled to install the OS, that XP didn't like this drive
because it was larger than 137 gig or 127 gig (I don't recall, off
hand). However, Maxtor's MaxBlast software installed bios that allowed
using the drive and booting to it.
Today, I tried using Ghost 2003 to do a backup to CD. This was a big
mistake and I'll never use Ghost again.
Ghost gave no indication of anything wrong. It's supposed to reboot
into DOS and run without windows so that it can properly backup the
primary boot drive. Well, it wouldn't boot at all. There was some
problem with Ghost, which I never figured out. I just tried rebooting
back to my hard drive, but the bios appears to have changed. It will
no longer boot to my hard drive either.
I've heard that other people have had this problem, but I've not seen a
detailed solution. I'm hoping I haven't lost the information on the
drive. I'd like to redo the bios, if possible and just reboot to the
hard drive. If I want to do a backup again, I'll try something
besides Ghost.

You've described in detail the circumstances surrounding
your problem but you have told us nothing about your actual
boot problem. What happens during the boot process?
How far does it get? What messages (if any) do you see?

 

[Richard Urban]

Drive overlay programs (MaxBlast is one of them) cause many problems. They
are installed on an unusable (by the user) part of the hard drive. The
problem is that other programs that are set up to start on a reboot need
this space. Guess what? Something won't work.

I have never needed to use a drive overlay program on any computer that is
newer than 3 years old. There are ways around them - if you ask FIRST!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Anna]

I've had XP Home running on a Sony Vaio for a couple of months. The
main hard drive is a 160 gig Maxtor 6Y160P0. I remember when I
initially struggled to install the OS, that XP didn't like this drive
because it was larger than 137 gig or 127 gig (I don't recall, off
hand). However, Maxtor's MaxBlast software installed bios that allowed
using the drive and booting to it.
Today, I tried using Ghost 2003 to do a backup to CD. This was a big
mistake and I'll never use Ghost again.
Ghost gave no indication of anything wrong. It's supposed to reboot
into DOS and run without windows so that it can properly backup the
primary boot drive. Well, it wouldn't boot at all. There was some
problem with Ghost, which I never figured out. I just tried rebooting
back to my hard drive, but the bios appears to have changed. It will
no longer boot to my hard drive either.
I've heard that other people have had this problem, but I've not seen a
detailed solution. I'm hoping I haven't lost the information on the
drive. I'd like to redo the bios, if possible and just reboot to the
hard drive. If I want to do a backup again, I'll try something
besides Ghost.

Les...
Unfortunately "the big mistake" you made (possibly among others) is that you
used that accursed MaxBlast overlay program when you installed your HD. As
any computer repair technician will tell you, these third-party "drive
overlay" programs are curses. They install proprietary non-standard
modifications to your system that will invariably "rise up and bite you" one
day (as might have happened in your situation). And this is even when the
program comes from the manufacturer of the HD you're installing.

Simply stated -- there is *no* place for these types of programs in an XP
environment. The XP partitioning/formatting process during the XP install or
subsequently using XP's Disk Management utility is all you will, or should,
ever need in this area. There are two basic requirements for the XP OS to
recognize large-capacity disks...
1. Your motherboard's BIOS must support large-capacity (> 137 GB) disks.
Your Sony motherboard most certainly does.
2. XP must include SP1 and/or SP2.

The reason "that XP didn't like this drive", meaning it didn't initially
recognize the full capacity of your 160 GB HD was surely because your XP OS
did not include SP1 and/or SP2 at the time of the installation. Had XP
included SP1 and/or SP2 at the time of the OS install, the full capacity of
your HD would have been recognized.

The Ghost 2003 program is a tried-and-true program to clone the contents of
one HD to another HD in order to create & maintain a near-failsafe backup
system. I've used this program with a wide variety of drives to perform more
than a thousand clones over the past few years and it's been a rare
occurrence that I encountered a problem that was due to a deficiency of the
Ghost program.
Whenever I've run into problems, it was invariably due to...
1. Defective disk(s)
2. Misconfigured disk(s)
3. System file corruption on the source disk, and, of course,
4. User error

I am at a complete loss to understand your comments that "the bios appears
to have changed" and "I'd like to redo the bios". At this point it's
impossible to tell how damaged your drive is in terms of system file
corruption and more importantly what process can be used to return it to a
bootable state. Hopefully, at the least, you'll be able to connect the drive
as a second drive on another machine and access its contents in order to
backup whatever critical files you need. Ultimately you may have to "zap"
the drive (in order to remove the traces of that drive overlay program)
using a program such as wipe.com or zap.com or similar programs and then
reinstall XP (with SP1 or SP2) on the drive.
Anna

 

[zibby]

Les...
Unfortunately "the big mistake" you made (possibly among others) is that you
used that accursed MaxBlast overlay program when you installed your HD. As
any computer repair technician will tell you, these third-party "drive
overlay" programs are curses. They install proprietary non-standard
modifications to your system that will invariably "rise up and bite you" one
day (as might have happened in your situation). And this is even when the
program comes from the manufacturer of the HD you're installing.

Simply stated -- there is *no* place for these types of programs in an XP
environment. The XP partitioning/formatting process during the XP install or
subsequently using XP's Disk Management utility is all you will, or should,
ever need in this area. There are two basic requirements for the XP OS to
recognize large-capacity disks...
1. Your motherboard's BIOS must support large-capacity (> 137 GB) disks.
Your Sony motherboard most certainly does.
2. XP must include SP1 and/or SP2.

The reason "that XP didn't like this drive", meaning it didn't initially
recognize the full capacity of your 160 GB HD was surely because your XP OS
did not include SP1 and/or SP2 at the time of the installation. Had XP
included SP1 and/or SP2 at the time of the OS install, the full capacity of
your HD would have been recognized.

The Ghost 2003 program is a tried-and-true program to clone the contents of
one HD to another HD in order to create & maintain a near-failsafe backup
system. I've used this program with a wide variety of drives to perform more
than a thousand clones over the past few years and it's been a rare
occurrence that I encountered a problem that was due to a deficiency of the
Ghost program.
Whenever I've run into problems, it was invariably due to...
1. Defective disk(s)
2. Misconfigured disk(s)
3. System file corruption on the source disk, and, of course,
4. User error

I am at a complete loss to understand your comments that "the bios appears
to have changed" and "I'd like to redo the bios". At this point it's
impossible to tell how damaged your drive is in terms of system file
corruption and more importantly what process can be used to return it to a
bootable state. Hopefully, at the least, you'll be able to connect the drive
as a second drive on another machine and access its contents in order to
backup whatever critical files you need. Ultimately you may have to "zap"
the drive (in order to remove the traces of that drive overlay program)
using a program such as wipe.com or zap.com or similar programs and then
reinstall XP (with SP1 or SP2) on the drive.
Anna

don't "zap" your drive like Anna suggests.

If data is critical, then try to recover it first.
Ontrack easy recovery will work great.
Get another HD and hook it up ad primary, and old HD as slave
(do it after you install windows, for your safety)
Use Easy Recovery to back-up your data to primary drive.

Once that's done do "low level format". Every HD manufacturer had this
utility on their website.
You will need to boot into DOS and use it. It will wipe out all "drive
overlay" garbage.

Then you can reinstall windows to your old drive (if you don't have
slipstreamed winxp w/sp1 or 2, then install windows with max size of 137Gb.
You can resize it later on after SP1 or 2 update)

 

[Anna]

don't "zap" your drive like Anna suggests.

If data is critical, then try to recover it first.
Ontrack easy recovery will work great.
Get another HD and hook it up ad primary, and old HD as slave
(do it after you install windows, for your safety)
Use Easy Recovery to back-up your data to primary drive.

Once that's done do "low level format". Every HD manufacturer had this
utility on their website.
You will need to boot into DOS and use it. It will wipe out all "drive
overlay" garbage.

Then you can reinstall windows to your old drive (if you don't have
slipstreamed winxp w/sp1 or 2, then install windows with max size of
137Gb.
You can resize it later on after SP1 or 2 update)

First of all, I did *not* recommend the OP *first* zap his or her drive. As
I stated, if the problem drive is unbootable, an effort should be made to
connect it as a second drive on another machine (or the same machine if the
OP has a bootable drive) and the contents of the problem drive can
(hopefully) be accessed and critical files backed up. There's no question
that an effort should be made to recover critical data. zibby's
recommendation of using a so-called recovery program such as the Ontrack one
is surely one to consider. Whether it will work "great" is another matter.
All these recovery programs are iffy at best in my experience but they're
certainly worth a try in this situation. In my opinion, at this stage, the
best course of action for the OP to take is to connect that unbootable drive
as a second drive on a booting machine and access the contents through that
means.

zibby's other recommendation to perform a "low level format" of the OP's HD
is nonsense. The days when a user could perform such a "format" are long
since gone. A true "low level format" can be done only by the HD
manufacturer under very controlled (read, "expensive") conditions. This
process is simply not available to the end user.

Assuming the user has done all that he or she can do to recover the data on
the HD and now wants to return the drive to a usable state so that a fresh
install of the OS can be made without experiencing further problems because
of the original installation of that drive overlay program, the drive *can*
be purged of that infamous program through a relatively simple & effective
means.

There are a number of programs available to do this. The one we have used to
good effect over the years is zap.com. It's a DOS software utility that
writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a HD, including the Master Boot
Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It's an effective tool for
eliminating those dreadful drive overlay programs offered by HD
manufacturers. It's also effective in purging the MBR of any virus
infestation.

zap.com was originally available from IBM; however, it is no longer offered
(AFAIK) by Hitachi-IBM. Fortunately, the Zap program (it's a freebie) can be
downloaded from http://www.tburke.net/info/utils/.

After running the executable file, two files will be created - zap.com and
zap.text, the latter file describing the program and its use. Since zap is
designed to work from a DOS environment, the two files (they total about 4
KB) are then copied to a bootable floppy, e.g., a Win9x/Me startup disk or
any DOS bootable floppy.

Using Zap is simplicity itself. At the A:\ prompt you invoke the zap command
together with the HD number, e.g., zap 0. After a confirmation message and
executing the command, the drive will be "zapped" in a moment or two. The
program works in a flash.

Understand that after using zap, all data on the hard drive is, for all
practical purposes UNRECOVERABLE. The drive is returned to a state ready to
be partitioned and formatted.
Anna

 

[zibby]

First of all, I did *not* recommend the OP *first* zap his or her drive. As
I stated, if the problem drive is unbootable, an effort should be made to
connect it as a second drive on another machine (or the same machine if the
OP has a bootable drive) and the contents of the problem drive can
(hopefully) be accessed and critical files backed up. There's no question
that an effort should be made to recover critical data. zibby's
recommendation of using a so-called recovery program such as the Ontrack one
is surely one to consider. Whether it will work "great" is another matter.
All these recovery programs are iffy at best in my experience but they're
certainly worth a try in this situation. In my opinion, at this stage, the
best course of action for the OP to take is to connect that unbootable drive
as a second drive on a booting machine and access the contents through that
means.

I used Ontrack easy recovery many times to recover unmounted, corrupted partitions.
Trust me, this software works.

zibby's other recommendation to perform a "low level format" of the OP's HD
is nonsense. The days when a user could perform such a "format" are long
since gone. A true "low level format" can be done only by the HD
manufacturer under very controlled (read, "expensive") conditions. This
process is simply not available to the end user.

Assuming the user has done all that he or she can do to recover the data on
the HD and now wants to return the drive to a usable state so that a fresh
install of the OS can be made without experiencing further problems because
of the original installation of that drive overlay program, the drive *can*
be purged of that infamous program through a relatively simple & effective
means.

There are a number of programs available to do this. The one we have used to
good effect over the years is zap.com. It's a DOS software utility that
writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a HD, including the Master Boot
Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It's an effective tool for
eliminating those dreadful drive overlay programs offered by HD
manufacturers. It's also effective in purging the MBR of any virus
infestation.

that's what low level format is

e.g. utility for maxtor ATA drives

Lot's of times it's the only way to remove "drive overlay" software.

 

[Kerry Brown]

There are a number of programs available to do this. The one we have used
to
good effect over the years is zap.com. It's a DOS software utility that
writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a HD, including the Master Boot
Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It's an effective tool for
eliminating those dreadful drive overlay programs offered by HD
manufacturers. It's also effective in purging the MBR of any virus
infestation.

that's what low level format is

e.g. utility for maxtor ATA drives

Lot's of times it's the only way to remove "drive overlay" software.

Overwriting the boot sectors is not in any way a low level format. As Anna
stated on modern drives a low level format cannot be performed by anyone
without very sophisticated equipment. A low level format would rearrange
where the tracks are located on the disk. Overwriting the boot sectors, by
any one of numerous programs, and then partitioning and high level
formatting the drive, again by any one of numerous programs, is what is
required to remove "drive overlay" programs.

Kerry

 

[Richard Urban]

It is NOT the same thing at all!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

First of all, I did *not* recommend the OP *first* zap his or her drive.
As
I stated, if the problem drive is unbootable, an effort should be made to
connect it as a second drive on another machine (or the same machine if
the
OP has a bootable drive) and the contents of the problem drive can
(hopefully) be accessed and critical files backed up. There's no question
that an effort should be made to recover critical data. zibby's
recommendation of using a so-called recovery program such as the Ontrack
one
is surely one to consider. Whether it will work "great" is another matter.
All these recovery programs are iffy at best in my experience but they're
certainly worth a try in this situation. In my opinion, at this stage, the
best course of action for the OP to take is to connect that unbootable
drive
as a second drive on a booting machine and access the contents through
that
means.

I used Ontrack easy recovery many times to recover unmounted, corrupted
partitions.
Trust me, this software works.

zibby's other recommendation to perform a "low level format" of the OP's
HD
is nonsense. The days when a user could perform such a "format" are long
since gone. A true "low level format" can be done only by the HD
manufacturer under very controlled (read, "expensive") conditions. This
process is simply not available to the end user.

Assuming the user has done all that he or she can do to recover the data
on
the HD and now wants to return the drive to a usable state so that a fresh
install of the OS can be made without experiencing further problems
because
of the original installation of that drive overlay program, the drive
*can*
be purged of that infamous program through a relatively simple & effective
means.

There are a number of programs available to do this. The one we have used
to
good effect over the years is zap.com. It's a DOS software utility that
writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a HD, including the Master Boot
Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It's an effective tool for
eliminating those dreadful drive overlay programs offered by HD
manufacturers. It's also effective in purging the MBR of any virus
infestation.

that's what low level format is

e.g. utility for maxtor ATA drives

Lot's of times it's the only way to remove "drive overlay" software.

 

[zibby]

Overwriting the boot sectors is not in any way a low level format. As Anna
stated on modern drives a low level format cannot be performed by anyone
without very sophisticated equipment. A low level format would rearrange
where the tracks are located on the disk. Overwriting the boot sectors, by
any one of numerous programs, and then partitioning and high level
formatting the drive, again by any one of numerous programs, is what is
required to remove "drive overlay" programs.

Kerry

both of you need to get up to speed.

what you describe and think low level format is correct and was preformed by
users long time ago.
current hard drives are LLF at factory only due to their precision and
complexity.

Well term 'low lever format" was carried to now days and "MEANS" Zero-Fill
hard drive.
It will overwrite "everything" on hard drive including any drive overlay,
boot crap or whatever you want to call it. Every HD manufacturer offers this
tool as part of their diagnostic utility.
High level format most of the time won't be able to fix issue.

And just for your record, High-level formatting is the process of writing
the file system structures on the disk that let the disk be used for storing
programs and data
..

 

[zibby]

After running the executable file, two files will be created - zap.com and
zap.text, the latter file describing the program and its use. Since zap is
designed to work from a DOS environment, the two files (they total about 4
KB) are then copied to a bootable floppy, e.g., a Win9x/Me startup disk or
any DOS bootable floppy.

Using Zap is simplicity itself. At the A:\ prompt you invoke the zap command
together with the HD number, e.g., zap 0. After a confirmation message and
executing the command, the drive will be "zapped" in a moment or two. The
program works in a flash.

Understand that after using zap, all data on the hard drive is, for all
practical purposes UNRECOVERABLE. The drive is returned to a state ready to
be partitioned and formatted.
Anna

And make sure to use stun gun. It will give HD best "zap" you ever can get.
After you "zap" HD all data along with hard drive itself will be
UNRECOVERABLE

LOL!!!

 

[Kerry Brown]

both of you need to get up to speed.

what you describe and think low level format is correct and was preformed
by
users long time ago.
current hard drives are LLF at factory only due to their precision and
complexity.

Well term 'low lever format" was carried to now days and "MEANS" Zero-Fill
hard drive.
It will overwrite "everything" on hard drive including any drive overlay,
boot crap or whatever you want to call it. Every HD manufacturer offers
this
tool as part of their diagnostic utility.
High level format most of the time won't be able to fix issue.

And just for your record, High-level formatting is the process of writing
the file system structures on the disk that let the disk be used for
storing
programs and data
.

Lets agree to disagree. It's all semantics. I prefer to think of writing
sectors as just that, you like to call it a format. As long as the boot
sector is overwritten the overlay is gone. If you'd bothered to read either
Anna's or my post both us said the boot sector had to be overwritten. There
are many programs other than those supplied by the manufacturer that do
this.

Kerry

 

[Richard Urban]

Well term 'low lever format" was carried to now days and "MEANS" Zero-Fill
hard drive. It will overwrite "everything" on hard drive including any drive
overlay,
boot crap or whatever you want to call it. Every HD manufacturer offers this
tool as part of their diagnostic utility.
********************************
In your mind maybe!


--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Anna]

(Irrelevant portions of prior postings snipped...)

First of all, I did *not* recommend the OP *first* zap his or her drive.
As
I stated, if the problem drive is unbootable, an effort should be made to
connect it as a second drive on another machine (or the same machine if
the
OP has a bootable drive) and the contents of the problem drive can
(hopefully) be accessed and critical files backed up. There's no question
that an effort should be made to recover critical data. zibby's
recommendation of using a so-called recovery program such as the Ontrack
one
is surely one to consider. Whether it will work "great" is another matter.
All these recovery programs are iffy at best in my experience but they're
certainly worth a try in this situation. In my opinion, at this stage, the
best course of action for the OP to take is to connect that unbootable
drive
as a second drive on a booting machine and access the contents through
that
means.

zibby's other recommendation to perform a "low level format" of the OP's
HD
is nonsense. The days when a user could perform such a "format" are long
since gone. A true "low level format" can be done only by the HD
manufacturer under very controlled (read, "expensive") conditions. This
process is simply not available to the end user.

Assuming the user has done all that he or she can do to recover the data
on
the HD and now wants to return the drive to a usable state so that a fresh
install of the OS can be made without experiencing further problems
because
of the original installation of that drive overlay program, the drive
*can*
be purged of that infamous program through a relatively simple & effective
means.

There are a number of programs available to do this. The one we have used
to
good effect over the years is zap.com. It's a DOS software utility that
writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a HD, including the Master Boot
Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It's an effective tool for
eliminating those dreadful drive overlay programs offered by HD
manufacturers. It's also effective in purging the MBR of any virus
infestation.

zap.com was originally available from IBM; however, it is no longer
offered
(AFAIK) by Hitachi-IBM. Fortunately, the Zap program (it's a freebie) can
be
downloaded from http://www.tburke.net/info/utils/.

After running the executable file, two files will be created - zap.com and
zap.text, the latter file describing the program and its use. Since zap is
designed to work from a DOS environment, the two files (they total about 4
KB) are then copied to a bootable floppy, e.g., a Win9x/Me startup disk or
any DOS bootable floppy.

Using Zap is simplicity itself. At the A:\ prompt you invoke the zap
command
together with the HD number, e.g., zap 0. After a confirmation message and
executing the command, the drive will be "zapped" in a moment or two. The
program works in a flash.

Understand that after using zap, all data on the hard drive is, for all
practical purposes UNRECOVERABLE. The drive is returned to a state ready
to
be partitioned and formatted.
Anna

zibby says...
that's what low level format is (Anna's note: referring to zap.com and
similar programs)

e.g. utility for maxtor ATA drives

Lot's of times it's the only way to remove "drive overlay" software.


zibby:
You're absolutely wrong about the program I mentioned (and similar ones)
being "low level formats". They are *not*, and your saying they are does not
make it so. I have directly witnessed low-level formats of hard drives
undertaken by HD manufacturers and it is a completely different (and
involved) process from simply using programs such as zap.com to (in effect)
overwrite the MBR. You should *not* use that terminology when discussing
these types of programs.

It is true that zap.com and similar programs can be useful in purging a HD
from a corrupted MBR and returning that HD to a state where the drive can
then be effectively reartitioned and re:formatted. But it is *not* a
low-level format by any means.

Correct terminology *is* important in the computer world. It's the way we
can effectively communicate with each other. This is *not* an "Alice in
Wonderland" world where a word "means just what I choose it to mean-neither
more nor less."
Anna

 

[zibby]

(Irrelevant portions of prior postings snipped...)





zibby says...
that's what low level format is (Anna's note: referring to zap.com and
similar programs)

e.g. utility for maxtor ATA drives

Lot's of times it's the only way to remove "drive overlay" software.


zibby:
You're absolutely wrong about the program I mentioned (and similar ones)
being "low level formats". They are *not*, and your saying they are does not
make it so. I have directly witnessed low-level formats of hard drives
undertaken by HD manufacturers and it is a completely different (and
involved) process from simply using programs such as zap.com to (in effect)
overwrite the MBR. You should *not* use that terminology when discussing
these types of programs.

It is true that zap.com and similar programs can be useful in purging a HD
from a corrupted MBR and returning that HD to a state where the drive can
then be effectively reartitioned and re:formatted. But it is *not* a
low-level format by any means.

Correct terminology *is* important in the computer world. It's the way we
can effectively communicate with each other. This is *not* an "Alice in
Wonderland" world where a word "means just what I choose it to mean-neither
more nor less."
Anna

If that makes you happy, he needs to zero-out hard drive.
Zero-out is correct terminology for this process.

 

[Trent©]

I've had XP Home running on a Sony Vaio for a couple of months. The
main hard drive is a 160 gig Maxtor 6Y160P0. I remember when I
initially struggled to install the OS, that XP didn't like this drive
because it was larger than 137 gig or 127 gig (I don't recall, off
hand). However, Maxtor's MaxBlast software installed bios that allowed
using the drive and booting to it.
Today, I tried using Ghost 2003 to do a backup to CD. This was a big
mistake and I'll never use Ghost again.
Ghost gave no indication of anything wrong. It's supposed to reboot
into DOS and run without windows so that it can properly backup the
primary boot drive. Well, it wouldn't boot at all. There was some
problem with Ghost, which I never figured out. I just tried rebooting
back to my hard drive, but the bios appears to have changed. It will
no longer boot to my hard drive either.

Use a utility program to make sure the boot partition is still set to
'active'.

I've heard that other people have had this problem, but I've not seen a
detailed solution. I'm hoping I haven't lost the information on the
drive. I'd like to redo the bios, if possible and just reboot to the
hard drive. If I want to do a backup again, I'll try something
besides Ghost.

Ghost is a fine program...use it all the time. But DON'T use it from
within Windows. Boot into a Ghost floppy...then do your cloning.

There is NOTHING wrong with your BIOS. Don't mess with it.


Have a nice one...

Trent

Budweiser: Helping ugly people have sex since 1876!

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Richard

Have you ever tried Western Digital's OnTrack? I did just one time in 1992..
NEVER EVER AGAIN..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user

 

[Richard Urban]

Yep! On Track is right up there with MaxBlast. One must remember that the
overlay concept was developed during the 90's, before there were things that
needed a reboot to perform (defraggers etc.)

Both prevent other programs that run on reboot from activating OR, in the
case if a boot time defragmenter, the defragmenter may kick in without the
overlay. What a mess that causes. Time to start fresh.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Kerry Brown]

Lets agree to disagree. It's all semantics. I prefer to think of writing
sectors as just that, you like to call it a format. As long as the boot
sector is overwritten the overlay is gone. If you'd bothered to read
either Anna's or my post both us said the boot sector had to be
overwritten. There are many programs other than those supplied by the
manufacturer that do this.

Kerry

I did some checking on this and at least one manufacturer (Maxtor) is
calling zeroing a drive a low level format. It's easy to see where the
misconception is coming from.

Kerry

 

[Sunny]

Use a utility program to make sure the boot partition is still set to
'active'.




Ghost is a fine program...use it all the time. But DON'T use it from
within Windows. Boot into a Ghost floppy...then do your cloning.

True for Ghost 8 and earlier.

Ghost 9 (previously known as Drive Image 7) works well within Windows. I
have it configured to clone my system onto my Samba file server every
night while I'm asleep, and have successfully restored onto a test
system (same hardware) several times, so I know it works.

Data partitions can be restored from within Windows, system partition
restores require booting the Ghost 9 CD (into a customized WinPE).

IME it works as advertised, and even sends me an email if a scheduled
backup failed due to my son filling up the file server with music videos

Sunny