Ghost image to different hardrive problem

[HAG]

Hi All
This is proving to be a real pain !

My home built XP Pro system consists of 2 80GB drives.
The Main drive is partitioned in a 50 (OS), a 5 (Back Up) and a 20 (Ghost image area)
A Slave drive consisting of 60 & 15GB partitions.

I can quite happily make an image in the main drives 20 then copy it over to the slaves 15, then replace the main drive with the slave (make it the master) then use image to partition and the old slave drive fires up as the master without any problems.

Now the problem!

If I try to do exactly the same thing with 2 of my friends systems (as a back up in case their main drives die) everything is fine untill we try to fire the system up and it freezes at the light blue "Windows" screem

The only major differences are that their systems are HP (clean install not HP restore) and are running XP Home.

Does anyone have any ideas? I have looked at the Norton site without any luck.

Cheers
Hag

 

[ridix]

Check the IDE cables.
I have noticed on Dell,HP,etc that they are fans of the 'cable select' option. Some IDE cables are wired specifically for this and won't work right without the drive jumpers set appropriately.

Also, may be some limitation in XP Home. I'm not real familar with it except for the fact it is missing some features of Pro.

 

[HAG]

WOW now that was FAST !!!

Yep I think the drives were "CS" will the HP systems be happy if I just change the cables for "Standard" ATA 133 cables?
Also does it mess up Ghost if they are set to "CS"?

Many THX
Hag

 

[HAG]

Hi all
Well none of the above has made difference !
I still can not made an image that will reinstall to a different drive if their main drive dies.
I have tried all types of combinations with out any luck

Does anyone have any ideas ?

Hag

 

[CasperSnyman]

Did you make the WinXP image on a different computer and now trying to load it on another? If this is the case, check your motherboard chipset type (Intel, Via, etc). If it is different, you will have problems booting. There is a way to fix it though, so please let me know and I will give the solution.

 

[HAG]

Hi CasperSnyman

No same system

All I am trying to do is create an image that I can use to restore their entire set up if their hard drive should die.

I have followed the method I used on my system (see my first post above)

Hope you can help

Hag

 

[CasperSnyman]

Hi Hag,

This is quite strange. I've ghosted many machines before and laptops as well, and have never experienced this problem. I've even managed to ghost different types of machines with a single image I created to save time installing WinXP. Let me know if I can help you with this.

So, all I can say is good luck.

 

[HAG]

Yep this is really strange !
I've used this method lots of times without any problems
Help !!!
Hag

 

[bryceh79]

Hey, I know exactly how to fix your problem and you dont need norton ghost.

Just install windows to another partition or HD in the computer. You dont need to configure it in anyway, just install it and make sure it sees the other partitions and drives. Boot to the new install of windows. Then goto the start --> programs --> Accessories --> system tools --> Backup.

Then select the source hard drive or partition you want to back up (your primary OS's partition) then at the bottom where it says destination, select a different drive or partition. last start the backup process and let it run till it finishes.

When its done, reboot back into the primar OS and then run the backup program again from the primary OS. Select RESTORE from the tab menue and then select "Catalog a backup file" from the tools menue. Select the backup image you made of the first OS and then point it at the partition where you want the 2nd OS backup to be. Now simply restore the file to the desired partition or HD. Boot to the restored OS and modify the registry so that the C drive becomes drive Z and the drive with the backup OS becomes C.


The registry key is located under LocalMachine_SYSTEM_MOUNTED DEVICES. Now simply rename the keys so that C is Z and Z is C.

You may have to tweak the Boot.ini file on C:\ (its hiden) to take into account the new partitions OS at boot time.

Have fun and I hope this helps, I'm sorry for all the errors and gaps in the info, I had to type this fast while ON shift.

 

[allteltec]

Most HP's have a hiden first partition. your ghost should work if you are doing a drive ghost backup but will give you trouble if you only do a partition backup.
One problem is the boot.ini file, if the boot partition is partition #2
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

If this is the case try changeing your boot.ini to.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

 

[langleymass]

Microsoft has done a lot to sabotage Ghost in Windows XP, in the name of anti-piracy. I have had images not work when I have ghosted from one machine to another machine with the exact same hardware. Windows 2000 was not a problem.

 

[HAG]

Hi all
Please do not think that I have ignored your valuble assistance
I have not had access to the above 2 machines to try out your suggestions, as their systems are running fine it is not a critical problem, just an annoying one !!
I will post back once I get to play with the systems !

To bryceh79 - Man thats some workaround ! does the partition have to be the same size or can it be smaller ?

To allteltec - both systems have been formatted and a clean WinXP Home installed

To langleymass - Don't you just love MS !!!

Many THX
Hag

 

[smatel]

The system will only boot to the system boot drive. You can configure this in disk manager, or using gdisk.exe.

 

[bosanceros]

CasperSnyman
I do have problem with using ghost image with different computer. Can you help me with this?

 

[allteltec]

If you do a sysprep -pnp and do your ghost, Computer will shut down after the sysprep, ghost must be done without booting up windows on the computer you are ghosting. The sysprep -pnp will cause the computer that the ghost image is loaded to, to reloads drivers like on a new install.

 

[therip]

Hag and others,

I had the same problem with Ghost 9.0 and Windows XP, but found a SOLUTION that turned out to be pretty simple (finding the solution was hard, invoking it was easy).

Similar to you, I Ghosted my existing 30 GB drive to my new 80 GB drive and then cabled the drives to make the 80 GB the master and the 30 GB the slave. It booted up just fine and all the files from the old drive seemed to have correctly copied to the new drive. However, I found that the C: drive is still the 30 GB drive and the D: drive is the 80 GB. Huh? So, I unhooked the 30 GB drive and cabled just the 80 GB drive (setting the jumpers correctly, of course). Now on boot up it hung at the initial Windows blue screen and went no further.

I did some exploring on-line and tried fixmbr and fixboot and turning off System Restore. All with no luck. However, from this and other message boards I became convinced that the issue is that the 30 GB drive is "locked" as the C: drive and the 80 GB is locked as the D: drive. Of course, Norton or Windows XP doesn't even talk about this.

Now, here is what I found that worked. Using bryceh79's suggestion, with the 80 GB as the master and the 30 GB as the slave, I booted into Windows (of course, I am booting into the 30 GB drive). From there I modified the registry by running "regedit" from the command line and traversing to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> MountedDevices

Looked for \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D:

I changed these names by right-clicking on the Name, choosing Rename and changing the names as follows:

Renamed \DosDevices\C: to \DosDevices\X: (where X is not a disk drive that is in use).
Renamed \DosDevices\D: to \DosDevices\C:
Renamed \DosDeivces\X: to \DosDevices\D:

After booting up, the 80 GB is now correctly the C:\ drive and the 30 GB is the D:\ drive. Just to make sure, I unhooked the 30 GB drive and booted with just the 80 GB drive. It came up with no problems.

I am now using the 30 GB drive as my backup. I assume that I will need to do the same funky stuff if I ever need to restore the data from the 30 GB drive.

Hope this helps as this has caused me tons of grief this weekend. But, persistence does pay off.

Hats off to bryceh79 who pointed me in the direction of changing the registry. Since I had already purchased Ghost 9.0 for this purpose and performed the drive copy and because I was too lazy to go through the MS Backup route, just modifying the registry seemed the least intrusive solution. Luckily, it worked.