ZiG said:
I used Norton Ghost 2003 to clone my current laptop 40gb hard drive to
a new 100gb hard drive by the same manufacturer. I used an external
usb hard drive enclosure to clone it. I then swapped the hard drives
and put the new one into the laptop. When I try to boot I just get a
blank screen. In bios it is recognizing the model of the new hard
drive. If I hit F12 and see boot options I see the cd drive the new
hard drive and a blank usb spot. I can boot to the ghost 2003 disk,
but it just goes to dos and the ghost program has very limited options.
It does not let me see anything on the hard drive or and external
devices. I've tried makeing a windows startup cd, but it didn't work.
I have also tried connecting the old hard drive using the usb
enclosure, but it would not boot off from that either.
I am out of ideas. Any help would be appriciated. I am on active duty
and do not have access to a store (other than by mail) or any desktop
computers.
Thank You,
Jeremy
Jeremy:
Rather than my diagnosing the problem in terms of why it happened and what's
the precise solution, let me give you some step-by-step instructions for
using the Ghost 2003 program and perhaps you can give it another try.
It goes (nearly) without saying that I'm assuming your laptop's HD boots
without incident and is completely functional. And that your USB EHD is
similarly non-defective and properly connected to the laptop. And that
following the disk-to-disk cloning operation you correctly install & connect
the newly-cloned HD in your laptop.
Let me first say that 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 using that media. But
there's no reason why you can't work within the Windows GUI should you
prefer to do so.
It is *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
of the Ghost 2003 program, you can use Symantec's LiveUpdate feature
available in the Ghost program to download & automatically install that
latest update. Note that the Ghost 2003 program is included in the Ghost 9
and Ghost 10 retail packages and to the best of my knowledge is the latest
(final) version - Ghost 2003.793.
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 (in case you haven't previously
done so)
1. Install the Ghost 2003 program on your computer. As indicated above,
make sure you're using the latest "build" - Ghost 2003.793. If not, use
Ghost's LiveUpdate feature to automatically download the latest version.
It's important that you be using this latest "build".
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 and in the future. 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, with the Acronis True Image
program).
Before undertaking the cloning operation ensure that the only storage
devices connected are the two HDs that will be involved in the cloning
process, i.e., your source and destination disks. Disconnect any flash
drives, ZIP drives, etc.
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 cloning speed to a USB EHD should be in the range of
about 450 MB/min to about 800 MB/min.
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.
Note that the USBEHD is *not* bootable (at least we haven't been able to
boot the XP OS from a USBEHD), but you could clone the contents back to your
internal drive for restoration purposes should the need arise. And, of
course, as in your case, as long as you can remove the HD from its USB
enclosure you can install it in your laptop.
Trust the above will help. Let us know how it goes.
Anna
