Hi:
I have used Ghost for years including version 9 where I had no problems.  I have had 10 for a while with no problems backing up to a hard drive but this is the first time I have tried backing up to a DVD.  After the 1st DVD fills, Ghost tells me to insert the 2nd disk but nothing happens.  I tried different disks including DVD-R and DVD+R and tried 3 different back ups and the 2nd disk never reads.  Any suggestions?  Thanks so much, Kent

One area to check with XP is the properties for your DVD drive. I've seen cases where Roxio or other software included with XP tries to grab control of the cd or dvd when one is inserted and hence the problem you describe.

My Computer
Highlight, then select properties for your dvd drive
In the AutoPlay tab, select no action for ALL different types of data.
In the Recording tab, UNcheck "CD Recording on this drive".

Ok, Ok, etc. then reboot.

(I'm assuming you've checked Symantec website to be sure your dvd is on supported list)

What software (Roxio, Nero, etc) do you use to burn cds and dvds?

Let us know if this helps and fixes your problem.

Hi Ghost4me.John:

I truly appreciate your help!  I tried what you suggested but it did not work.  "CD Recording on this drive" was already unchecked but I selected no action.  I also disabled DLA to see if that would help.  I rebooted my computer.  Yes my drive is an NEC that came with my Dell 8400 and it is supported by Ghost.  I have Sonic RecordNow on my system--this also came with the computer.

Once again, thanks for your help, Kent

Kent, sorry...darn.  I have seen several Dell pc's with that specific problem.  Usually it is some other cd/dvd software that is grabbing the drive before Ghost gets to it.

In one case I had to uninstall the RecorditNow software that came with Dell to resolve it.  (Maybe I could have just set one of the RecordItNow options to not allow drag-n-drop recording, but I didn't pursue that).

You can look on the Dell website www.dell.com for updates to your burning software and/or to the Ghost gear software that does the burning.

This is not the answer you asked for, but several people here including myself, take backups to another hard drive just as you do, but then later burn one of those (using Nero, etc) to DVD.  I check the option in Ghost 10 to limit sizes to 4400 megabytes (type over the number displayed to get 4400).  I take full/independent backups and every month or so I burn one of those to DVD.

Let us know the magic answer if you resolve it.  Look on some of the other threads here for DVD with Ghost 9 or Ghost 10 issues.

I cannot backup either to DVD. I even bought a new DVD drive but that doesn't help. To be honest i never experienced such a bad product, even in the W3.1 day's. To boot from the rescue CD takes hours and then your multiple DVD's backupped image is not recognizable. Product is for backup 's on DVD not reliable. Exit Ghost for me.

wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 5:18pm:

I cannot backup either to DVD.

Do you mean you can't burn files to your DVD using any method?  I didn't quite understand your "cannot backup either to DVD" statement.

Are these internet DVD drives or external usb drives?

You said you can successfully use Ghost 9 to backup directly to DVD, correct?

The main changes in Ghost 10 are drivers for SATA and some changes for Recovery Point Sets which are (in my opinion) not that signficant.  Ghost 9 does 99% of what I want/need.

wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 5:18pm:

To boot from the rescue CD takes hours and then your multiple DVD's backupped image is not recognizable.

You only need to boot from teh rescue CD if you have a hardware failure and no operating system.  Otherwise use the XP interface Ghost program to restore from your backup.

However, I'm confused because you said you were unable to create a backup onto DVD.  If that's true, then you wouldn't be able to restore from a corrupt DVD. ???  Am I missing something here?

Ok, i have to clarfy a lot (of my frustations;)

I have a new Dell Dimension 5150 with a Sonic DVD. .

And now, some more clarifying ;)

1. At first the rescue CD. It's true you only need it when things are realy bad. And that moment jou can wait more then half an hour to load it?

2. I wrote (burn) succesfully an image to DVD. No error messages, but when i tried to restore it, no succes (image not readbale or later last disk of set). I didn't trie it only once, i explored a lot of possibilities (differnet media, programs, drivers). Including buying another DVD drive (Freecom FX10, external USB2.0).

3. I didn't use earlier versions on this (new) computer. I never made a succesfull backup now.

Regards, TDVD.

TDVD,

Are you planning to ditch Ghost 10?

If not, do you have a second HD or an external HD or a networked computer?

How long (in minutes) does it take for the Recovery CD to load?

Kent,

In an effort to verify that Ghost 10 works on imaging directly to DVD (with multi-DVD's), I ran a test myself:

I created a Ghost 10 definition to image my c: to my Pioneer A105 (supported) DVD drive.

Everything was progressing fine.  After about 10 minutes, I got a message:

File ... is being created. Insert Media 2 into drive s:

At this point the drawer opened, and I inserted the second DVD.

NOTHING HAPPENED !#@%$

It never continued on writing the rest of the image.  It was 76% complete before the message to change media.

(In the past as I mentioned I have always imaged to a spare hard drive and broken it into 4400 MB splits.  Then used Nero to burn each split onto a DVD.  I have even verified the DVD's and they are ok.)

So, now I'm looking for advice too!  >:(   >:(  

I don't have any kind of drag-n-drop software running; I've never had problems burning cd's or dvd's.  In fact my Pioneer DVD writer is a couple years old, 4x.

Also, I even opened the drawer again after waiting 5 minutes and closed it again.  I saw the hour-glass dvd icon come on and start up, but it was as if Ghost 10/gear software was waiting to be notified that the second DVD had been inserted.

I finally had to cancel the backup.

Hi All:

I still like Ghost, maybe because I have been using it for many years.  But I could not solve my DVD problem and do not want to spend any more time on it at the moment.  I really need a backup that I want to take off site so I bought an external drive and will just do it that way.  I don't like unsolvable problems so this does bother me and perhaps I will figure it out some time.  Thanks again for your help, John.

Kent

Hi again John:

I just noticed your new messages that you are having the same problem.  I am sorry!  That does tell me, however, that my system is not unique.  Maybe there will be an update.  I wonder if there are others with this problem.  

Thanks, Kent

I just tried again, but this time trying to image to my internal TDK CDR burner.  Same results.  Ghost 10 (gear software) appears to be just "waiting" to be notified that the second cdr has been inserted.

Brian (and anyone else), any ideas?

John, I'm no help. I just tried to write an image to DVD from Ghost 10 and it wouldn't even start writing to DVD 1. Error was "The media is not ready. It may be write protected". I tried two RW discs.

It worked in Ghost 9.

It doesn't bother me as I have no intention of imaging or restoring from DVD's. But others feel differently so I'd like to know the answer.

Brian,

If I recall correctly, I had to do FULL erases of CDRW's before using them with previous Ghost versions.  After prices of CDR's came down, I just started using CDR's.

I spent about 30 minutes with Symantec LiveChat.  This is where it ended up:
> Please note that we need to research the issue further.
John > ok
> Please provide me Belarc info and Msinfo. I shall e-mail. Please reply to the e-mail with the requested information.

I asked if there were any problems noted with Ghost.  No answer to that.  I doubt if Belarc with solve their issue.

I'll keep you posted.

John, I tried Quick and Full erase.

For what it's worth, Ghost 10 does write to CD-RW on my computer. But not to DVD+RW (Imation brand).

am having same problem backing up to dvd+r but i am using ghost 9.0 it never gets past the screen that sayd the "media is either write protected or need formatted"...i tried formatting and that did not work...my dvd burner is on the list (Philips DVD8631)..and gear.exe is running...if anyone ever figures this out i really want to burn to removable media...i do have 2 160gb hard drives but they are set up as Raid 0 ..should i just not use Raid and use the second hard drive to back up to????...thanks in advance for any help out there ..i will keep trying and will post any repairs if found...Dirt

Dirt,

DVD burning does work from Ghost 9 in my computer but not from Ghost 10. But as discussed elsewhere in this forum, it's much faster to image to your HD in 4480 MB (or less) splits and then burn to DVD with Nero (using UDF mode) etc.

I'm not familiar with RAID but most people image to a HD partition other than the OS partition. If there is only a single partition you can even write the OS image to the same partition (C drive). Burn the image and then delete the image from the C drive.

Because of its slow and unreliable nature in some computers, I'd avoid restoring from DVD's as well. Before the restore, transfer the image to another HD, if possible.



Quote:

the "media is either write protected or need formatted".

That was my error message too. The Gear software formats your DVD as it writes the image. You just need to insert a blank disc. At least that's what is supposed to happen.

Brian wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 6:43pm:

TDVD, Are you planning to ditch Ghost 10?

Not really, i paid for it, bought a lot of extra hardware to get it working and spent a lot of time.

Brian wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 6:43pm:

If not, do you have a second HD or an external HD or a networked computer?

I bought external disk cases for my old disks. Backup and recovery on those USB disk works fine but for the same money i could have bought a mirror disk. And i have to upgrade my old disks soon (they are 6 six years old).

Brian wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 6:43pm:

How long (in minutes) does it take for the Recovery CD to load?

To be honest not hours, but 8 minutes. To restore a 6 GB recovery point from external hard disk 12 minutes.

Regards, TDVD.

TDVD,

8 minutes is a long time but mine takes 4 to 5 minutes. All Preinstallation Environments are slow to load. I'm not sure, but some CD drives seem to work faster than others, although it's marginal. At least you have seen our alternatives which I think are better than writing to DVD directly.

Have you seen this thread to make sure it doesn't apply to you.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1131831389;start=0

Brian wrote on Jan 8^th, 2006 at 3:18pm:

8 minutes is a long time but mine takes 4 to 5 minutes. All Preinstallation Environments are slow to load. I'm not sure, but some CD drives seem to work faster than others, although it's marginal.

To be honest another time, 8 minutes isn't that long in comparison with installing XP, but for restoring i don't  need windows. The floppy / DOS way is faster.

And ofcourse recovery of a 6 GB disk isn't bad. That's why i stuck to Ghost. And the work-arounds are reliable to, but i bought Ghost with the presumption i could backup directly to DVD's (like they advertise) and that isn't reliable working.

wrote on Jan 8^th, 2006 at 4:31pm:

And ofcourse recovery of a 6 GB disk isn't bad.

In 12 minutes i forgot to wrote.

Quote:

but i bought Ghost with the presumption i could backup directly to DVD's (like they advertise) and that isn't reliable working.

I was surprised that it didn't work on my computer. Usually everything does work on my computer.

Your restore times are good. And "restore" is why we use it. Yes, stick with Ghost 10. Mostly it's working.

I finally succeeded to backup and recover from spanned  DVD backup. I'll advice NOT to use it, the way it works it cannot be reliable.

1. I had to buy another DVD+RW  drive (my first, windows certified, drive was not on the list, but driver test said it was ok, not so);
2. I had to update GEAR drivers wich resulted in not working Ghost at all.
3. I had to reinstall Ghost and after solving a lot of problems with Live Update and protection (for what?).
4. Backup went quite well, 30 minutes for 10Gb on 2 DVd's.
5. Restoring it is a crime, you have to swap disks every 30 seconds about more than 20 times. They even warn you for that  :o BTW mounting for spanned drives is not supported (nice they document that).

I wonder what idiot approved selling the product with advertising the spanned DVD backup. I'm sure he or she didn't try it by him/her self.

TDVD,

Thanks for the update. Which step do you think worked?

I've already stated that I don't want to use DVD's for the restore process. Say you have five discs, then the restore order is:
1 5 1 5 1 2 3 4 5 1

It's interesting that I can use Ghost 9 to write images to DVD but not Ghost 10.

TDVD, glad to hear you got it working.  Once the price of external USB drives came down, DVD backup is not a practical as you noted, unless your backup only uses 1 (or 2) DVD's because of the swaping.  But in an emergency, something is better than nothing.

With double-layer media prices falling, DVD backup could be more usable.  This same logic used to apply to backup tapes--once you got past one tape, restore was not pretty!

Brian wrote on Jan 11^th, 2006 at 6:54pm:

It's interesting that I can use Ghost 9 to write images to DVD but not Ghost 10.

Brian, I bet it is the gear software on the Ghost 10 CD, but unfortunately you can't easily update that.

Of course if Symantec would post a Ghost 10.1 update on the ftp website, well, . . . well, that's another story . . . (I meant dream).

I'm not impressed with Symantec not openly acknowledging the problems with Ghost 10. External HD, DVD.

I almost went back to using Ghost 9 when Ghost 10 didn't do an incremental backup. But it was probably my fault as I had restored an image the previous day and I should have started a new backup set.

As I stated before backingup and restoring from external hard disk works fine and I didn't encounter any problem. But as a olf-fashioned guy i have to get used to the fact that hard disks in this era are more reliable than "off-line" media. To be honest Symantec Norton Ghost taught me a lesson.

But they shouldn't advertise with the multiple spanning DVD backup burining option. Better if they would sell external hard disks with their software ( like others do, but with less capable software).

And Brian, baesd on my experience (with 2 DVD's) the restore order (for 5 DVD's) would be something like this:
1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 2 1 5 2 1 5 1 5 3 1 5 3 1 5 1 5 4 1 5 4 1 5 1 5 1 2 1 5 2 1 5 1 5 3 1 5 3 1 5 1 5 4 1 5 4 1 5 1 5

You would only do something like that once.

wrote on Jan 6^th, 2006 at 7:28pm:

In an effort to verify that Ghost 10 works on imaging directly to DVD (with multi-DVD's), I ran a test myself I created a Ghost 10 definition to image my c: to my Pioneer A105 (supported) DVD drive. Everything was progressing fine.  After about 10 minutes, I got a message: File ... is being created. Insert Media 2 into drive s: At this point the drawer opened, and I inserted the second DVD. NOTHING HAPPENED !#@%$ It never continued on writing the rest of the image.  It was 76% complete before the message to change media.

Brian,

I opened a problem a couple weeks ago about this with Symantec.  Here is their *solution*:

John, I understand the difficulties that you are currently facing. Please note that this issue can occur due it the following reasons.

-- The source drive may contain errors, or it may be damaged.
-- Norton Ghost is not compatible with the CD drive or DVD drive.
-- Programs that run in the background may cause a conflict.
-- The level of compression may be too high.

For more information regarding this issue please refer the document below:

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/powerquest.nsf/docid/2005080204323162?Open&src=con_ols_nam

>:(   >:(  

(I feel so much better now that they solved it . sigh . .  )

John, that wasn't worth waiting for.

Brian, I was thinking that the gearsec cd/dvd burning software included with Ghost 10 could be the cause.  I extracted the data1.cab from the Ghost 9 and Ghost 10 cd's and looked at the gearsec and gear*.dll files.  They have changed from Ghost 9 to Ghost 10, probably to support newer cd/dvd drives.

However I was looking at the Gearsoftware website and found this interesting article about the gearsec software and service, which appears to be old/outdated now.

http://www.gearcdr.com/support/knowledgebase/articledisplay.cfm?articleid=52

John, keep working on it. I can't understand what the article means as gearsec.exe is used by Ghost 10.

Ghost 10 failed to do a scheduled incremental image last night. This was the second time in 10 days. I've had no problems with image integrity or with restoring but I have had DVD problems and potential USB HD problems so I've reverted to using Ghost 9.

Never had a problem with Ghost 9.

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to add that I'm having the exact same problem with Ghost 10 not recognizing the second medium. Weird thing is, when Googling this is the only place where this issue has been mentioned that I can find. Is backing up directly to DVD really that rare?

nevermind, see john's post below for more accurate info.

wrote on Dec 30^th, 2006 at 5:17pm:

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to add that I'm having the exact same problem with Ghost 10 not recognizing the second medium. Weird thing is, when Googling this is the only place where this issue has been mentioned that I can find. Is backing up directly to DVD really that rare?

ricelius, many have pulled their hair out trying to get Ghost 9 and Ghost 10 to reliably backup directly to DVD (or CD) and it is a hit a miss proposition.

A better technique is to create backup-image files onto another hard drive or external usb2 hard drive.  After the backup is complete, use Nero or other software to burn the files to DVD.  Much better.  In fact I just completed my "year-end" copies of my backup files to DVD's which I am planning to put in the safe deposit box next week.

There is a free program called Filter Driver Load Order (devfilter.exe) from
http://www.bustrace.com/products/devfilter.htm

which will display the software chain of programs that get invoked with CD/DVD creation.  Gearsec is the Ghost program.  Symantec claims other installed software interferes with the CD/DVD i/o but frankly I have yet to hear of anyone really getting Ghost 10 to work with direct to DVD.  

Maybe someone else has the magic formula, but I haven't seen it.  If you find it please let me know.

Thanks for the info. I did a little more experimenting, and believe my surprise when Ghost suddenly told me to click "OK" once I had inserted the new medium. Now, instead of just giving the usual passive message in the status window, it pops up a new message box with OK/Cancel buttons telling me to insert a new disk. The most amazing thing is, it seems to be working. At least for now.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can tell you exactly what I did to get it working, because I don't know what made the difference. These are more or less the things I did:

- Install Ghost, reboot, etc.
- Install new Gear driver (http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm) and reboot. At this point it didn't appear to work
- Reinstall Ghost, reboot, etc.
- The Gear documentation says that the new driver makes gearsec.exe obsolete, so I tried renaming gearsec.exe
- When running Ghost after renaming gearsec.exe, it started the setup program by itself and installed gearsec.exe again. It prompted to restart the computer. I told it no.
- At this point Ghost seems to work with my DVD+RW disks.

It'll be interesting to see if it still works after a reboot. Looking at the above, I have no clue why it makes it work, but I hope it'll be a little help to others.

As a side note, I understand and agree why it's better to back up to an external hard disk. But it's nice to get this to work as well.