norton ghost

[TINY]

Having recently tried to copy one hard drive to another using Norton Ghost although it tells me that it has copied successfully when I replace the original HDD with the new copied HDD it will not boot - it gets to the pale blue windows screen and xp logo but no further.

I have changed the slave HDD to primary HDD and re-connected but to no avail.

Does anyone have experience of doing this and more to the point am I doing something wrong?

Both HDD's are identical Maxtor 80 gig disks.

Any help gratefully received as this is beginning to annoy me!

Best wishes to all members :-?

[Backdated]

What version of Ghost is this? I discarded v10 and went back to v9 after a very short period.
To be honest, I've never used Ghost to directly clone; I always clone to an image on CD, DvD or another drive if it's temporary.

Before cloning, a little "housework" is necessary. Ensure that the drive/partition to be cloned is virus/malware free, has been checked for integrity and that all extranous rubbish is cleared out.

[TINY]

hi, backdated

Not sure which version it is but will check and report back but why did you have to revert to a previous version?  

I cannot figure out what is going wrong as I am copying from a fairly new 80gig Maxtor HDD to an identical brand new HDD and when I do Norton tells me it has copied OK.

The benefit of being able to clone the HDD is obvious so I don't want to give up on this - yet!!

Cheers,

Tiny

[realrox]

let's start with the basics. did you format the new drive? as a sysem disk? if you didn't, the restore from ghost disk to disk might not make the disk bootable.   ansd i would use the new drive's own utility software to format.

[Flame]

Let me get this straight... You have backed-up a hard disk onto your external, and now you want to boot your computer using the external, right?

Flame

[TINY]

Hi, folks.

Thanks for the replies.

What I have are two Maxtor 80 gig HDD, a primary and a slave and both are virtually new. I have used Ghost to copy XP and all the other stuff on the C : drive to the F: drive carefully following the instructions given in the Ghost manual. Norton tells me the copying has been successful.

Having then disconnected the original C: drive and replaced it with the F: drive and changed this from slave to primary the PC will boot up only as far as the windows logo on the pale blue screen background.

I did not get any software with the Maxtors but both have been recognised by XP and the bios settings are OK. The F: slave drive has been formatted using Windows.

Forgot to check last night which version of Ghost it is but cannot see that this should be an issue.

It is rather puzzling as I cannot figure out what I can be doing wrong. I have asked a mate to see if he can get it to work on his system and maybe that will solve the problem. Although it will probably take him weeks to get around to it!!

Thanks to everyone for trying to help and if you have any other suggestions please keep them coming, I don't want to give up on this.

But has anyone out there actually done this using Ghost?

Cheers,

Tiny

[Flame]

So you are trying to boot your computer using your external hard drive. Ok, I think I got it    How old is this computer? It's possible that your computer does not support booting from an external device (like my old computer).

Flame

[TINY]

hi, flame

I am not using an external drive I have two HDD fitted both 80gig Maxtor Diamond max and I have copied everything from one drive to the other.

As I have a poor memory I can't remember what kit I have now with certainty but roughly it is as follows : ASUS Mobo, AMD 2.8 processor and other extraneous hardware, built about 18 months ago running on XP Pro.

Still baffled, I must be doing something so simple (and wrong) that it hasn't hit me yet!!

Cheers,

TINY

[realrox]

try putting back your original drive order, go to www.maxtor.com & download maxblast. use maxblast to format your new drive properly as a system disk.  then go to ghost & backup disk to disk.  or disk to partition or partition to partion or partion to disk (whichever the syntax is according to your version of ghost). then change the drives.  if the drives are different sizes, you would probably have to do a scandisk after you get back up on the new drive (after it finds new hardware, etc).  it should work if your computer setup doesn't have serious errors on it.  

[Backdated]

The thing I don't really understand here is why you want to remove one hard drive and exchange it for an identical hard drive. :-?

[TINY]

realrox,

Thanks for the advice I will give it a go.

Backdated,

Reason is that if I suffer a complete failure of one HDD I have a cloned copy with all the my settings, XP and everything else already there which I can use immediately without spending half a day reloading everything. Having had two SATA drives which both failed within twelve months I do not want to get caught out again. Given up on SATA drives now anyway!!

Cheers folks,
TINY

[Backdated]

But Ghost is rarely used like that if it ever has been!
Let's get this right....
What you're after is a complete backup of your system drive
That backup must be simple and fast to reinstall

If the above is correct, you're using the correct tool.... But wrongly!

Basically, Ghosts primary function is to take an image of a partition and store that image elsewhere for easy retrieval. It can be stored on a network drive, on CD or DvD or another partition or hard drive on the same system. There are other options as well, but those already mentioned will suffice for now.

Rather than clone a partition "file by file" as it were, it's much easier to read in all the necessary data and parameters etc and store it all in a single "image file". If you've heard of CD ISO images, it's exactly the same idea and very similar to a zip file.

So, let's say you take an image of your boot drive which is C: and store it as a file called backup.gho on the second hard drive which is D: In other words, you've cloned C: to D:\backup.gho

One day, your C: drive gets trashed and you need to reinstall. Depending on which version you have you can either boot the computer from the Ghost CD or from a floppy disk which of course, you have previously created and safely stored.
Once the computer has booted via the CD or floppy and Ghost is loaded, choose to write an image to a hard drive, navigate to D:\backup.gho and choose to write the image to the first hard drive which is of course, C:.
Go and make a coffee! On any half decent system you won't have time to drink that coffee before your system is returned to it's pristine condition!
All in all, on average, I would say the restoration process is around a 12 minute operation with under half a dozen mouse clicks involved.
It really couldn't be easier or quicker.

Many other image creation options such as compression ratios, split file creation, automatic restore etc. are available.
Before we go any further though, I'll really need to know what version of Ghost you are using and whether you've understood my feeble attempts at explaining this.

[TINY]

Hi, Backdated.

Thanks for your comprehensive reply - I shall need to read it a couple of times I suspect.

As for Guost I shall have to check what version it is and let you know.

I am only attempting to carry out what the manual seems to imply Ghost that will do ie copy everything including XP from Disk A to Disk B. One advantage they mention is that if you have a 40 gig disk and want to replace it with a 120 gig disk you can do so by simply copying everything onto the 120 disk using ghost and use it immediately. They even tell you it does not need formatting.  I will copy you the actual wording from the manual if I can.

It may be of course that as I am only a novice I am completely misunderstanding the manual
and what it says!!

Thank you for taking the trouble and time to help me out it is appreciated.

Will be in touch.

Best wishes,

TINY

[TINY]

Hi, Backdated.

I am using Norton Ghost 9.0. I have copied some of the wording here from the manual supplied with the software. Part of the manual reads as follows "You can use the copy drives feature when you upgrade to a larger hard drive or when you add a second hard drive and keep the original. When you have your new hard drive installed you are ready to copy your old hard drive to the new one. The new hard drive does not need to be formatted". It goes on to say ..."After you have copied the old hard drive to the new hard drive do the following ......

: remove the old hard drive or keep it as a slave drive
: change jumper settings to make the new hard drive the master drive before re-starting the computer.

It all sounds straightforward and indeed Ghost tells me it has been successful it's just that it won't boot up beyond the XP logo on the screen with the pale blue background.

Any ideas?  Am I misunderstanding what the manual is saying?

Views appreciated.

Cheers,

TINY

[Backdated]

Re your quote from the manual. I've never used Ghost in that way as in the situation quoted, I generally use the software provided by the drive vendor.

Using Ghost in the traditional way, as I described earlier, has quite a few advantages over what you are attempting - Not least of which is the ability to use both hard drives and still retain a backup which is completely restorable in minutes.
Your proscribed method requires that one hard drive is removed and safely stored somewhere thereby losing the potential to use it in everday use. When it comes to a restore, you have to open the case, remove the hard drive and replace it with the backup, bacckup the new to the old, remove it and then put everything back together.
Your method is also fraught with the pitfalls of cross contamination should the in situ drive be infected.

If you want to use Ghost for backup purposes, use it as it was intended - It's much easier.

[TINY]

Hi, Backdated..

Thanks for your reply.

It isn't necessary to remove the original or new HDD as you can more easily leave it in situ and simply disconnect it thereby ensuring that it is always ready for use very quickly - by re-connecting it.  Disconnected it won't suffer a virus attack, either.  

Also, if your original disk fails completely you just re-connect your copied "slave" drive change the jumpers and off you go.  

Simple - if only I could get it to work!!!!!!

I think I might ask Norton if they have ever got it to work.

Cheers,

TINY

[Backdated]

You are missing the point entirely though. Even if the drive is still in the case, it's still redundant and you still have to go through all the rigmarole of reconnecting it, swapping cables or jumpers, making another backup and putting the case back together. In the event of a virus or malware being present, you are unnecessarily introducing a risk of cross infection.
By creating an image of your boot drive, which is what Ghost was primarily intended for, none of this is necessary! If you have CD or DvD burning capability, the task is even easier!

Using the method I describe, I can reinstall that system a darned sight faster than you can using your method. Not only is my method quicker, easier and less risky, but I won't need a screwdriver.

[TINY]

Hi, Backdated.

You may be right but it is now a matter of me not giving up on this come *censored* or high water - if Norton claim their software will do this I aim to prove it - or otherwise.

Just a small minor observation on your reply I don't need a screwdriver to open the box and changing cables takes only seconds.

I am, however,  going to try your method anyway - as Norton's doesn't seem to work - so your help and advice has not been lost on me.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers,

TINY

[walter]

has the new drive been recognised in the bios as the primary master device, this may be tghe fault.