Norton Ghost 2003, Win XP Pro SP2 and Missing Operating System

[Guest]

Norton Ghost / Win XP Pro users,

i've read several of the questions and replies for norton ghost related
problems (or solutions maybe) but i've not found a situation described as i'm
experiencing so i'm soliciting your input on this matter:

i have a dell inspiron 2500 laptop with an internal 11GB Hitachi drive
running Win XP Pro SP2 with all s/w (critical/security) updates as of
12/26/2005. I installed Norton Ghost 2003 on it and proceeded to execute the
backup operation. I connected my Datastor 20 GB Ultra external drive via USB
to the laptop prior to executing the backup operation. Norton recognized the
USB drive and accepted it as the destination for the backup *.gho file. Upon
reboot to what should have been the Ghost.exe application (under PC-DOS) the
program failed and displayed this error message upon reboot: "missing
operating system" on a black screen. only available option is ctrl-alt-del
keyboard sequence and the result is the same. I booted off of my WinXP Pro
installation cd and ran the recovery console program. The windows XP
installation is installed and valid on the hard drive and i can view the
files on the hard drive in the command line interface of the recovery
console. I have data on the laptop drive that in want to save onto the
datastor drive (which is enabled under the windows executive through the usb
port) but unfortunately, the recovery console only operates in Windows system
directories. I can't change directory to the Program files dir and the to the
application directory where the data is. I've about resigned myself to try
using the fixbr and fixmbr commands for repairing the boot record or the
master boot record on the drive but am concerned that will make the rest of
the data on the drive inaccessible.
Has anyone had experience using the recovery console and being successful in
restoring a missin goperating system? Thanks for your replies.

BL

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "bearded lizard" <[email protected]>

| Norton Ghost / Win XP Pro users,
|
| i've read several of the questions and replies for norton ghost related
| problems (or solutions maybe) but i've not found a situation described as i'm
| experiencing so i'm soliciting your input on this matter:
|
| i have a dell inspiron 2500 laptop with an internal 11GB Hitachi drive
| running Win XP Pro SP2 with all s/w (critical/security) updates as of
| 12/26/2005. I installed Norton Ghost 2003 on it and proceeded to execute the
| backup operation. I connected my Datastor 20 GB Ultra external drive via USB
| to the laptop prior to executing the backup operation. Norton recognized the
| USB drive and accepted it as the destination for the backup *.gho file. Upon
| reboot to what should have been the Ghost.exe application (under PC-DOS) the
| program failed and displayed this error message upon reboot: "missing
| operating system" on a black screen. only available option is ctrl-alt-del
| keyboard sequence and the result is the same. I booted off of my WinXP Pro
| installation cd and ran the recovery console program. The windows XP
| installation is installed and valid on the hard drive and i can view the
| files on the hard drive in the command line interface of the recovery
| console. I have data on the laptop drive that in want to save onto the
| datastor drive (which is enabled under the windows executive through the usb
| port) but unfortunately, the recovery console only operates in Windows system
| directories. I can't change directory to the Program files dir and the to the
| application directory where the data is. I've about resigned myself to try
| using the fixbr and fixmbr commands for repairing the boot record or the
| master boot record on the drive but am concerned that will make the rest of
| the data on the drive inaccessible.
| Has anyone had experience using the recovery console and being successful in
| restoring a missin goperating system? Thanks for your replies.
|
| BL

Please explain what you are doing.

Are you creating a Ghost image of the notebook hard disk to the External USB hard disk ?
If yes, are you using a Ghost Boot Disk ?

It would be best to state what you are trying to accomplish and the steps you are taking to
accomplish it.
Then, based upon those details, it can be determined if you are doing it correctly.

 

[Guest]

Dave,
in response to your query; yes, i'm creating a Ghost image of the notebook
hard disk to the External USB hard disk. Yes, I have a standard Ghost Boot
Disk but that is not supposed to be required present in the floppy drive as
Ghost 2003 creates a virtual partion of ~ 2 MB in SDRAM and is supposed to
boot into pc-dos and present the backup operation gui and proceed with teh
backup operation.

BL

 

[bxf]

Are you able to look and post here the contents of C:\boot.ini?
Depending on the present contents, it may be necessary to edit it so
that booting takes place from the appropriate OS files, rather than
Ghost's Virtual Partition.

I can't refuse an opportunity to repeat my claim that Ghost 2003 is
often a source of great headaches - at laest when used with USB devices
(are you there, Anne?) Do yourself a favour and try out Acronis True
Image.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Norton Ghost / Win XP Pro users,

i've read several of the questions and replies for norton ghost related
problems (or solutions maybe) but i've not found a situation described as i'm
experiencing so i'm soliciting your input on this matter:

i have a dell inspiron 2500 laptop with an internal 11GB Hitachi drive
running Win XP Pro SP2 with all s/w (critical/security) updates as of
12/26/2005. I installed Norton Ghost 2003 on it and proceeded to execute the
backup operation. I connected my Datastor 20 GB Ultra external drive via USB
to the laptop prior to executing the backup operation. Norton recognized the
USB drive and accepted it as the destination for the backup *.gho file. Upon
reboot to what should have been the Ghost.exe application (under PC-DOS) the
program failed and displayed this error message upon reboot: "missing
operating system" on a black screen. only available option is ctrl-alt-del
keyboard sequence and the result is the same. I booted off of my WinXP Pro
installation cd and ran the recovery console program. The windows XP
installation is installed and valid on the hard drive and i can view the
files on the hard drive in the command line interface of the recovery
console. I have data on the laptop drive that in want to save onto the
datastor drive (which is enabled under the windows executive through the usb
port) but unfortunately, the recovery console only operates in Windows system
directories. I can't change directory to the Program files dir and the to the
application directory where the data is. I've about resigned myself to try
using the fixbr and fixmbr commands for repairing the boot record or the
master boot record on the drive but am concerned that will make the rest of
the data on the drive inaccessible.
Has anyone had experience using the recovery console and being successful in
restoring a missin goperating system? Thanks for your replies.

BL

This "seems" to be normal since there are TWO Ghost 2003 disk (at least on my
version.) The first one is the DOS boot disk and the second is the Ghost
Program disk. DOS has/had a very annoying problem, it retains the location of
the COMMAND.COM start-up. Since there are two Ghost 2003 disk, it tries to
locate the program on the current floppy disk, which is usually the Ghost 2003
program disk. This does not normally have the COMMAND.COM file.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "bearded lizard" <[email protected]>

| Dave,
| in response to your query; yes, i'm creating a Ghost image of the notebook
| hard disk to the External USB hard disk. Yes, I have a standard Ghost Boot
| Disk but that is not supposed to be required present in the floppy drive as
| Ghost 2003 creates a virtual partion of ~ 2 MB in SDRAM and is supposed to
| boot into pc-dos and present the backup operation gui and proceed with teh
| backup operation.
|
| BL
|

I have always found that it always works best by creating a Ghost boot Disk. In your case
it would have to be build 793 so it Ghost best support USB and create a Ghost Boot Disk with
USB support and then boot from the Ghost Boot Disk and using the DOS Ghost, create an image
of "C:" on the "D:" drive.

 

[Anna]

Are you able to look and post here the contents of C:\boot.ini?
Depending on the present contents, it may be necessary to edit it so
that booting takes place from the appropriate OS files, rather than
Ghost's Virtual Partition.

I can't refuse an opportunity to repeat my claim that Ghost 2003 is
often a source of great headaches - at laest when used with USB devices
(are you there, Anne?) Do yourself a favour and try out Acronis True
Image.

Hi Bill:
I guess you're referring to me Bill. First of all, with respect to the OP's
problem, God knows what he's been doing as it relates to his problem.

Bill, I know you're probably tired and even possibly annoyed, of again
seeing my positive comments re using the Ghost 2003 program for the purposes
of cloning the contents of an internal HD to a USB/Firewire external HD, but
I can only reiterate my experience with this program.

We use, as I've mentioned many times, the Ghost 2003 bootable floppy disk
(or Ghost bootable CD on occasion) to perform the direct disk-to-disk
cloning operation. We ordinarily do not use the Windows GUI for this
purpose. We simply prefer the simplicity and portability aspects of using
the media I've referred to.

During the three years or so that we've been using the Ghost 2003 program I
guess we've cloned to & from USB/Firewire drives hundreds of times. In doing
so, we've used hard drives from virtually every manufacturer on the market
together with dozens of different USB/Firewire enclosures. And rarely have
we encountered a problem in this area that we could attribute to a
deficiency of the Ghost 2003 program. What more can I say but relate my own
experiences with this program in the way we've used it?

Can I say the program is flawless? Of course not. But by & large it has
served us well for our purposes with the way we use it. As I have commented
many times before, I wish every piece of software that we use was as simple
to use, straightforward in design, and effective in what it does as the
Ghost 2003 program.

As David Lipman has pointed out, it is important to be using the Ghost
2003.793 (the latest version). There were problems with the initial releases
of the Ghost 2003 program as they related to disk imaging (cloning) certain
USB external hard drives, but that was rectified by the subsequent "builds"
including the 793 build in the early part of 2003 as I recall.

Again, as I've previously mentioned, while the program is not flawless,
whatever problems we've encountered in this area are invariably due to one
or more of the following...
1. Cloning corrupted system files from one drive to another. (If you clone
garbage, garbage is what you'll get).
2. Defective source or destination disk, or improper configuration of these
devices.
3. User error in improperly using the program.

I understand that for one reason or another you feel strongly about the
inadequacy of this program, and of course I'm not attempting to change your
mind about it. All I can do is simply relate to you and others my experience
with the program.
Anna

 

[bxf]

Hi Bill:
I guess you're referring to me Bill. First of all, with respect to the OP's
problem, God knows what he's been doing as it relates to his problem.

Bill, I know you're probably tired and even possibly annoyed, of again
seeing my positive comments re using the Ghost 2003 program ...

Not even a little bit.

(...snip...)

I understand that for one reason or another you feel strongly about the
inadequacy of this program, and of course I'm not attempting to change your
mind about it. All I can do is simply relate to you and others my experience
with the program.
Anna

Hi anna,

Apologies for not remembering your name correctly.

Let me assure you that my reference to you was made in jest. If I sound
as if I'm upset about your frequent favourable references to Ghost
2003, I assure you that I'm not. I accept what you say in that it has
been fulfilling its purpose for you. As I've mentioned in the past,
when it comes to USB devices this product can be a real pain, and I
take this post as being just another example.

Please do not take my post too seriously. At most, you can take it as
"see? I told you so", but all in good fun. Nothing harsh intended here.

Bill

 

[Guest]

bxf,

here are the contents of the boot.ini file: created 9/8/05 (when i first
installed XP I guess) and size is 221 bytes

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

thanks for your help
BL

 

[Guest]

Dave,

I successfully used my Ghost boot disk to image the C: drive to my USB D:
drive this morning. However, upon reboot I still have the "missing operating
system" message from the C: drive. I suspect then that I would have the same
problem if I restored the image from the D: drive back to the C: drive. Im
using Ghost build 2003.775

I have successfully imaged my home desktop, work desktop and several other
pc's with this build of Ghost and using the Ghost GUI to set all the
parameters up before restarting and Ghost starts up with pc-dos and away it
goes. Same thing I did when I went to image this laptop except it coughed on
the reboot.

Thanks fior your help.
BL

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "bearded lizard" <[email protected]>

| Dave,
|
| I successfully used my Ghost boot disk to image the C: drive to my USB D:
| drive this morning. However, upon reboot I still have the "missing operating
| system" message from the C: drive. I suspect then that I would have the same
| problem if I restored the image from the D: drive back to the C: drive. Im
| using Ghost build 2003.775
|
| I have successfully imaged my home desktop, work desktop and several other
| pc's with this build of Ghost and using the Ghost GUI to set all the
| parameters up before restarting and Ghost starts up with pc-dos and away it
| goes. Same thing I did when I went to image this laptop except it coughed on
| the reboot.
|
| Thanks fior your help.
| BL

You want to perform a LiveUpdate and update the Ghost build.

However, you post "...upon reboot I still have the "missing operating system" message from
the C: drive"
I don't know if this is Ghost related.

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm

 

[Anna]

Not even a little bit.

(...snip...)


Hi anna,

Apologies for not remembering your name correctly.

Let me assure you that my reference to you was made in jest. If I sound
as if I'm upset about your frequent favourable references to Ghost
2003, I assure you that I'm not. I accept what you say in that it has
been fulfilling its purpose for you. As I've mentioned in the past,
when it comes to USB devices this product can be a real pain, and I
take this post as being just another example.

Please do not take my post too seriously. At most, you can take it as
"see? I told you so", but all in good fun. Nothing harsh intended here.

Bill

Bill:
No offense taken, I can assure you. We have different points of view on this
subject and you've expressed yourself clearly & forthrightly. While I may
differ with you, I respect your opinion. If I didn't, I wouldn't have
bothered to respond to your posting.

But without belaboring the situation - although I must confess it's probably
what I'm doing right now - take this present thread as an illustration of
why users have problems with this Ghost 2003 program when there really
shouldn't be any problem.

Would you not agree that based upon the OP's initial posting, his (I assume
he's a "he" since he calls himself "bearded"!) basic objective was, using
the Ghost 2003 program, simply to copy the contents from his laptop's HD to
a USB HD? Can you really comprehend the OP's description of what transpired
and how this "problem" has manifested itself? Why is there this discussion
about Recovery Consoles, "repairing the boot record or the master boot
record on the drive", and "restoring a missing operating system". What has
this all to do with using the Ghost 2003 program to perform a relatively
simple cloning operation?

And now, in response to your query "Are you able to look and post here the
contents of C:\boot.ini? Depending on the present contents, it may be
necessary to edit it so that booting takes place from the appropriate OS
files, rather than Ghost's Virtual Partition." he sets forth his boot.ini
file (see following post).

Why Bill, are we talking of "Ghost's Virtual Partition" or the contents of
one's boot.ini file? What now that he has a "run-of-the-mill" boot.ini file?
Where do we go from here? In circles, no doubt, and the OP is no further
along than he was at the beginning in solving his problem, whatever his
problem really is. I certainly can't tell at this juncture.

NOTE TO THE OP:
Forgive my comments above if they give offense to you. I know they sound
rather harsh, but I don't mean to offend you in any way and I apologize if I
so have. It's just that I'm confused as to the precise nature of your
problem, so let me ask you a few questions for my own clarification...

1. Is the root of your problem that you attempted to clone the contents of
your laptop's HD to your USB HD, but somehow during that failed attempt your
XP operating system, which was functioning without problems prior to using
the Ghost program, became corrupted and you no longer can boot to it? Or
you're experiencing other problems with the functioning of the OS.

2. Or is your basic problem simply that, using the Ghost 2003 program,
you're unable to clone the contents of your laptop's HD to your USB HD?

3. If there is a problem with your OS, could you spell it out in some detail
and perhaps give some indication how the Ghost 2003 program is involved?

4. And if I've misrepresented your comments and/or actions, please correct
me.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Anna,

As the OP here I'm actually finding it rather instructive with regards to
the debate on the merits of Ghost or Acronis or ??

I've not been offended by your replies either. I think we operate on the
same level in regards to observing the symptoms of the problem and then
correcting it as quickly as possible. Spelling out the problem in a coherent
manner is the key when you are soliciting solutions from others. So, in order
to help this along, here are my (and you're right, i is a "he") replies to
your questions:

1. Is the root of your problem that you attempted to clone the contents of
your laptop's HD to your USB HD, but somehow during that failed attempt your
XP operating system, which was functioning without problems prior to using
the Ghost program, became corrupted and you no longer can boot to it? Or
you're experiencing other problems with the functioning of the OS.

The root problem is I attempted to clone the contents of my laptop's hard
drive to my USB external drive. I installed Ghost 2003 and then launched the
application from the systray icon and selected the Backup Wizard function.
During the steps of preparing the backup, all parameters were normal. The USB
drive was accessible, I made sure the USB 1.1 drivers were to be loaded upon
reboot and there weren't any other issues according to the wizard. The final
option is Run Now and Ghost restarts the pc and loads PC-DOS and then you get
the Ghost GUI and it automatically starts the imaging process. That's where
the problem started, upon reboot (restart) and after POST (which shows the
hard drive, cd-rom, ram, etc. are all recognized) there's a chug-chug sound
(like the sound you here when a floppy diskette is being read) and then the
message
"Missing operating system" is displayed on a black screen and it waits. The
options are turn off the laptop or ctrl-alt-del and it does it all over. The
Win XP OS was functioning normally prior to the Ghost restart. There aren't
any other problems with the OS. Note that I have successfully imaged my home
desktop, work desktop and several other pc's with this build of Ghost and
using the Ghost GUI to set all the
parameters up before restarting. Ghost starts up with pc-dos and away it
goes.

2. Or is your basic problem simply that, using the Ghost 2003 program,
you're unable to clone the contents of your laptop's HD to your USB HD?

Note that I successfully used my Ghost standard disaster recovery boot disk
(with USB drivers added) to image the laptop C: drive to my USB D: drive this
morning. However, upon reboot from the A:\Ghost prompt, I still have the
"missing operating system" message from the C: drive. I suspect then that I
would have the same
problem if I restored the image from the D: drive back to the C: drive. Im
using Ghost build 2003.775 by the way.

Also note that the reason "recovery console" and "fixing the boot record"
and "missing operating system" and other comments about the OS are in my
message thread about Norton Ghost 2003 is because that's the only way I can
even view the contents of the drive is through the windows XP recovery
console which I launched from my WinXP Pro installation CD. I might be
barking up the wrong tree thinking that Ghost is the source of the "missing
oiperating system" problem but what an amazing coincidence that the OS dumped
at the exact time that Ghost is supposed to have control of the pc.

3. If there is a problem with your OS, could you spell it out in some detail
and perhaps give some indication how the Ghost 2003 program is involved?

See above

4. And if I've misrepresented your comments and/or actions, please correct
me.

n/a

Of course all of this would be moot if the laptop user had done what you're
supposed to do anyway...make daily backups!

Thanks.
BL

 

[Guest]

Dave,

unfortunately I earleir miswrote the manufacturer of the laptop hard drive.
it's not a Hitachi but a Toshiba. I checked Toshiba support website and can't
find any diagnostic s/w for the drive (or any of their hard drives fvor that
matter).

Thanks again.
BL

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "bearded lizard" <[email protected]>

| Dave,
|
| unfortunately I earleir miswrote the manufacturer of the laptop hard drive.
| it's not a Hitachi but a Toshiba. I checked Toshiba support website and can't
| find any diagnostic s/w for the drive (or any of their hard drives fvor that
| matter).
|
| Thanks again.
| BL


If it is a Dell Notebook, you can use Dell Diagnostics and if it is an IBM use IBM
Diagnostics.

 

[bxf]

Bill:
No offense taken, I can assure you. We have different points of view on this
subject and you've expressed yourself clearly & forthrightly. While I may
differ with you, I respect your opinion. If I didn't, I wouldn't have
bothered to respond to your posting.

Thank you, and I can same the same about you.

But without belaboring the situation - although I must confess it's probably
what I'm doing right now - take this present thread as an illustration of
why users have problems with this Ghost 2003 program when there really
shouldn't be any problem.

Would you not agree that based upon the OP's initial posting, his (I assume
he's a "he" since he calls himself "bearded"!) basic objective was, using
the Ghost 2003 program, simply to copy the contents from his laptop's HD to
a USB HD? Can you really comprehend the OP's description of what transpired
and how this "problem" has manifested itself? Why is there this discussion
about Recovery Consoles, "repairing the boot record or the master boot
record on the drive", and "restoring a missing operating system". What has
this all to do with using the Ghost 2003 program to perform a relatively
simple cloning operation?

I understood that the OP was doing a backup operation (his words),
which completed. Keep in mind that I haven't looked at this in awhile
(since I started to use True Image ), but as far as I remember,
after the backup is completed, the process invokes GHOST.EXE, as the OP
mentions (though his wording "reboot to what should have been the
Ghost.exe application (under PC-DOS)" loses me a bit, but never mind).
Again, if I remember correctly, GHOST.EXE initiates a REBOOT process,
which eventualy takes us back to Windows. Instead, he gets a "missing
operating system" message.

And now, in response to your query "Are you able to look and post here the
contents of C:\boot.ini? Depending on the present contents, it may be
necessary to edit it so that booting takes place from the appropriate OS
files, rather than Ghost's Virtual Partition." he sets forth his boot.ini
file (see following post).

Why Bill, are we talking of "Ghost's Virtual Partition" or the contents of
one's boot.ini file? What now that he has a "run-of-the-mill" boot.ini file?
Where do we go from here? In circles, no doubt, and the OP is no further
along than he was at the beginning in solving his problem, whatever his
problem really is. I certainly can't tell at this juncture.

Yes, I thought this would be somewhat cryptic, so let me explain.

Several months ago I tried to perform a Ghost 2003 backup on somebody
else's computer. The process failed (I don't recall exactly at what
stage), and I ended up with a non-bootable system. I eventually managed
to see that BOOT.INI had a Ghost-related entry in addition to the
normal Windows one. I deduced that this entry referred to Ghost's
Virtual Partition. That is, Ghost appears to control the entire
boot/backup/reboot process by manipulating BOOT.INI. So, I thought that
if the OP is having problems rebooting, it could be due to an incorrect
entry in BOOT.INI. Seeing now the file as provided by the OP, it
appears that there is nothing there related to Ghost anymore, so my
"guess" was not applicable. I thought it was worth a try.

Just as a point of information, in the case I mention above, BOOT.INI
contained an entry with a reference to a fictitious drive, and this
entry was set as default. At that stage of the boot process there was
no way to select the Windows entry, so it just kept on booting into
Ghost, failing, and so on, infinitely. Although I haven't pursued it
much, I believe the original Ghost failure related to the presence of a
SATA drive.

(They actually have some work for me today at the office - the nerve of
some people - so my responses to any posts, should they be called for,
may be slow to arrive. Even the above was typed somewhat in a rush.
Sorry.)

 

[bxf]

As I explain in my response to Anna, I was thinking that perhaps
BOOT.INI contained a bad entry (created by Ghost), which could be
responsible for your failure to boot. However, it does not apear that
such is the case.

bxf,

here are the contents of the boot.ini file: created 9/8/05 (when i first
installed XP I guess) and size is 221 bytes

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

thanks for your help
BL

Are you able to look and post here the contents of C:\boot.ini?
Depending on the present contents, it may be necessary to edit it so
that booting takes place from the appropriate OS files, rather than
Ghost's Virtual Partition.

I can't refuse an opportunity to repeat my claim that Ghost 2003 is
often a source of great headaches - at laest when used with USB devices
(are you there, Anne?) Do yourself a favour and try out Acronis True
Image.

 

[Anna]

BL:
Thanks for your detailed description of your situation. Frankly, at this
distance it's hard, if not impossible, for me to determine with any degree
of accuracy why the problems occurred in the first place and more
importantly, what can be done to rectify them at this late date. So in lieu
of any comments I might make that bear upon the problem at hand and suggest
to you precise courses of action that you can take to overcome that problem,
let me make a few generalized comments and then provide you (and others who
might be interested in this subject, including, I hope Bill (a/k/a "bxf")
with step-by-step instructions for using the Ghost 2003 program to clone the
contents of one hard drive to another hard drive. I must emphasize at the
outset that this is the way *we* use the program; I fully understand that
others might have different needs & objectives.

1. We use the Ghost 2003 program for one purpose, and only one purpose. And
that is to *directly* clone the contents of one hard drive to another hard
drive. We are not interested in "incremental or scheduled backups", nor are
we interested in creating "disk images" on removable media, e.g., DVDs. Our
sole interest & objective is to create & maintain a near-failsafe backup
system for restoration purposes.

2. It is *vital*, repeat *vital*, that you work with the latest version of
the Ghost 2003 program. That's the Ghost 2003.793 build. Should you have an
earlier version, you can use Symantec's LiveUpdate feature available in the
Ghost program to download & automatically install that latest update.

3. We prefer to work with the Ghost 2003 program rather than its successor
Ghost 9 & Ghost 10 programs. For our purposes, we find the 2003 version more
straightforward in design, simpler to use, faster in carrying out its
function than the newer versions. And, I might add, just as effective for
the purposes indicated. Again, I emphasize that we use the program solely
for the *direct* cloning of the contents of one HD to another HD.

4. In using the Ghost 2003 program, our preference is to work with the Ghost
2003 bootable floppy disk (or on occasion the Ghost 2003 bootable CD). We
find that media simpler to use in comparison with the Windows GUI and we
enjoy the portability aspects of that media.

5. We are aware, of course, that there are other fine disk imaging products
on the market, e.g,, Acronis True Image, and I do not mean to suggest that
the Ghost program is superior to them. If practical, a user should try as
many out as he or she can, and make their own decision as to what works best
for them.

So, here are step-by-step instructions for using the Ghost 2003 program
(using a Ghost 2003 bootable floppy disk or bootable CD) to directly clone
the contents of one HD to another HD...

Creating the bootable Ghost floppy disk:
1. Install the Ghost 2003 program on your computer. Make sure you're using
the latest "build" - Ghost 2003.793. If not, use Ghost's LiveUpdate feature
to automatically download the latest version.
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.

After creating the Ghost bootable floppy disk, you can create a Ghost
bootable CD from it using the Roxio or Nero CD burning programs, or most
other CD burning programs that allow you to create a bootable CD.
Unfortunately I know of no way to *directly* create this bootable CD from
the Ghost program (as you can do, for example, in the Acronis True Image
program).

Here's how to perform the cloning operation...
1. With both drives connected, boot up with the Ghost bootable floppy (or
Ghost bootable CD). You'll get an initial screen that displays "License
agreement warning". Right-arrow (or tab) over to the "Continue without
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. The data transfer speed will vary
depending upon the speed of your processor and the HDs involved. On a medium
to high-powered system you should get transfer speeds ranging from 800
MB/min to 1.5 GB/min should you be cloning internal drives. It will be
considerably slower if you're cloning to a USB external HD.
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. 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
following arriving at your Desktop, XP's "System Settings Change" window
will (usually) 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 one must be patient. On rare occasions the system will fail
to reboot - the system will hang before reaching the Windows XP Welcome
screen. It's a rare occurrence, but you may experience 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. 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.

Just one other point I wish to emphasize with respect to the cloning
operation involving internal drives. Immediately following the cloning
operation and the shutdown of your machine, disconnect your source drive and
boot ONLY to the newly-cloned drive (as indicated in step 13. above). DO NOT
BOOT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE CLONING OPERATION WITH BOTH DRIVES CONNECTED.
Doing so is likely to cause future boot problems with the cloned drive.
Obviously there is no problem in this area should a USBEHD be involved in
the cloning process since that device is not bootable in an XP environment.

I trust the above will be of use to you and others who might be thinking
about using the Ghost 2003 program for a routine backup system.
Anna

 

[bxf]

Anna,

God, you are patient (to write all that)!

The OP indicates that he was using an "external drive via USB", and
doing a "backup operation". He also mentions "*.gho file", which, from
my use of Ghost, I took to mean he was doing a partition backup (i.e.
image).

As well as Ghost is working for you, you can see that the above, which
corresponds to MY use of the program, is very different from the way
you use it. My backup strategy does not include the need to clone a
drive. Really, it is not difficult to accept that it works for some
functions but it screws up (or at least used to) for others.

B.

 

[ghost4me]

There is a terrific Ghost user-to-user support forum with extensive
help, reference info, and experts at the Radified Forums:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general