I have been lurking for the last week and have been impressed with the knowledge of Ghost in all its good and bad aspects. I found this site because of my search for a solution to its bad aspects (and in extenstion, Symantec tech support!) I have not been able to find a thread that addresses my particular problem.

I apologize in advance for what may be a long post. I hope to give enough information that would provide a solution for myself, and for any other future users of Ghost 9.0 who may discover this site, as I did, searching for an answer.


I had been using Drive Image since Win '95/'98, and am familiar with its need to boot from floppy (or bootable CD) or reboot into a persistent recovery enviroment, so as to image or restore all drives. My most recent Drive Image was 2002. PowerQuest disappeared and I started hearing good things about Ghost, especially 9.0. Over the years I have upgraded, and then built my computers, so I am not a neophyte, though not fully versed in the underpinnings of operating systems, programs, and their relationship to the hardware.

I recently bought Ghost 9.0 to image my PC, especially my system drive. If I applied a bad patch, or installed a buggy program, I could restore to my previous clean optimal state. I was able to image my C: drive from Windows XP Pro (SP2) just fine, but have been unable to restore.

One thing I did not know before buying and installing this program, was the requirement to boot from the original CD, instead of rebooting into a persistent recovery enviroment from the installed Ghost, when wishing to restore a system drive that is not in catastrophic failure. But I would make do if that was all there was.

Windows and Symantec Ghost Live Update were fully updated, I had the current VIA chipset, and the last supported Highpoint RAID drivers on floppy. The saved system image was verified in the writing, and then confirmed in the Backup Image Browser, with individual files and folders easily accessible.

I then put in the Ghost CD, had my RAID driver floppy handy, and rebooted. I successfully loaded my drivers in F6, then launched the Symantec System Recovery Enviroment. I was able to scan disk (Disk Doctor) and anti-virus. Under Advanced Recovery, I was again able in Backup Image Browser to verify and read my saved system image, and copied and moved some files to experiment.

All four of my drives are visible, and accessible, and the images I made are readable. My C: drive is on one of the Highpoint IDE connectors, and my F: drive is on one of the Highpoint/Marvel SATA connectors, all in non-RAID array.

I tried to restore the saved image file, and immediately got the following error code "ec950001 the engine has not initialized". This happened no matter how many times I rebooted, or re-selected the image.v2i file, or snuck in by using the indexed x-123.sv2i file.

Symantec troubleshooting was vague and non-applicable.

1-Booting from a copy of the product CD can cause this error.
Try booting from the original Norton Ghost 9.0, Symantec LiveState Recovery 3.0, Drive Image, or V2i Protector CD.

I am using the original CD.


2-On some systems, changing the AGP setting in the BIOS resolves the problem.
Consult your user's guide or contact the computer's manufacturer for additional information.

Change the AGP settings from what to what?! The same AGP settings that have worked fine for the last year. I even made a matrix, to enable and disable different functions, and change the aperature size, to no effect. And motherboard and video card manufacturers are notorious for vague manuals and non-responsive tech support, with no suggestion for BIOS settings, as if it would incur liability for a system conflict or failure.


3-Loading incorrect SCSI drivers can cause this error.
When booting, press F6 to load the correct driver for the controller being used.

The same RAID drivers that are successfully loaded when booting from CD into the Recovery Enviroment, and that obviously allow access to all four drives in my non-RAID array.


4-If the computer is connected to more than one Fibre array, disconnect one of them and then boot again

I may be dim, but I'm pretty sure I don't have one of these, but just in case it was alternative terminology, I disconnected every external cable (including USB, ethernet) and just had my monitor and non-USB keyboard and mouse connected.

I engaged in a LiveChat with tech support, and after explaining my problem, and my attempts at a solution, would you believe the technician typed in the above solutions-verbatim! Even after I had just got done telling him they did not work or did not apply.

In followup chats, he fixated on my AGP settings, saying there were "known issues" involving AGP settings, but would not say what the wrong ones or the right ones were. As if my motherboard manufacturer (Abit) or my video card manufacturer (ATI) would dare to commit to a suggestion of BIOS settings. I searched anyway, but found nothing that would apply.

I even tried things that I did not think that would work, such as enabling and disabling the DEP, and editing the boot.ini, etc. I did not see how they would apply, as the Recovery Enviroment is launched fresh from the bootable CD, with no persistent memory of previous Ghost instructions, as you would for catastrophic recovery, or installation of a larger replacement boot drive.

I am at my wit's end, and have restored my last good Drive Image 2002 image. Ghost 9.0 will stay filed away in its envelope unless anyone can advise of a similar problem and a possible recovery.

Please forgive my long post, but I wished to be accurate and complete in my report. I thank you for any assistance, or your patience in reading this.

mAdler


Quote:

All four of my drives are visible, and accessible, and the images I made are readable. My C: drive is on one of the Highpoint IDE connectors, and my F: drive is on one of the Highpoint/Marvel SATA connectors, all in non-RAID array.

I'm not a Ghost 9.x user, so can not say I have experience with your problem--but you might try putting the HDD with the saved image on the same controller as the HDD you want to restore to to see if it's a compatibility/timing error between the two different controllers/HDD formats.

Because you can not switch the HDD's from SATA to IDE, you may have to try copying the image to another IDE HDD first that you can connect with the C:\ HDD on the IDE controller.

Worth a try?

Welcome.

I found :
EC950001
This error occurs when the driver for the storage controller does not load in Symantec Recovery Disk. Reboot the computer using Symantec Recovery Disk and press F6 to load the necessary drivers.

You mentioned this in point 3 and as you say, your drives are visible.

I don't know the answer either. Why don't you try making a BartPE CD and see if you can do a restore from this environment. I'm interested.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1119240262

It may be! Would you be believe moments after posting my lenthy request, I saw the newest posting regarding the problem with drives restoring from faster to slower. I did not find it in my searches, as I had been focusing on the error code above, and the technician's insistence on AGP BIOS settings. All my drives are WD Caviar, the 167GB are SE with 8 MB cache, and all spin 7200 rpm. I can't remember which run UDMA 100 and which run UDMA 133. And as I had upgraded my motherboard after buying these drives, they are all IDE, and I am running the 167 GB's off an Abit Seriellel (sic?) SATA/IDE converter. Though the SATA spec was ATA 150, the support stated that drives on IDE converters would drop to UDMA 133. And all drives successfully wrote to each other when booting Drive Image 2002.
The big sticking point I have at all, is the visibility, writability, and verifiability in the Recovery Enviroment of that saved image. Would that not be affected by the same engine?

It has been a long and frustrating day. I will take another's advice and not attempt major Ghost surgery without any sleep, unless I want a real catastrophic failure. First thing in the morning (today!)
Thanks

Bart PE, I have heard of this, though did not see the need since my systems over the last several years were non-networked, IDE only on an onboard IDE controller set of connectors. As I have upgraded, however, my connections have grown in variety and complexity, but I had thought that in staying with onboard RAID and SATA connections, and in non-RAID array, that I was avoiding some of the problems. Dare I say that I might not be the only one with this or a similar configuration, and that Symantec should have addressed this in the program, the instructions for setup, the caveats for purchase, or even with tech support and their scripted decision-tree responses?
I have read some of the link's instructions, and will be most interested to attempt this, after I get some sleep!
Thank you for responses, I have hope again!!
Good night/morning!

You have NightOwl & Brian helping you. Lucky man.

Another thought. Have you tried booting into the Ghost RE without pressing F6 and not loading drivers? Then see if your drives are visible and see if you can restore.

Certain storage drivers are on the CD.

I am awake and disgruntled!

Hoping that the error was in the conflict of my onboard IDE/SATA RAID controllers or the faster/slower drive possibility, I tried again this morning.

I first tried to restore the Ghost image as before, just in case I was brain dead or my PC was being temperamental. No luck.

I had originally tried to launch the CD without the F6 drivers and tried again this morning, just in case, but no luck. All that was visible was the floppy, both of my optical drives and the RAM drive of the Ghost program.

That is what really irritates me about this program. DI2002 would launch from CD or launch from Windows and reboot into a persistent recovery enviorment, without any need for me to manually load F6 drivers. Ghost 9.0 seems a step back in that regard, to restore a system drive by using the CD and manually loading F6 drivers, and not launching from Windows and rebooting into a persistent recovery enviroment.

Anyway, I documented that I have 2 40 GB drives on the SATA/RAID controller. Both are IDE UDMA 133 with 2 MB cache and 7200 rpm on the Highpoint SATA/RAID ATA150 connector using an ATA150/IDE Serillel adapter. My 2 180 GB drives on the Highpoint IDE/RAID UDMA 133 controller are IDE UDMA 100 with 8 MB cache and 7200 rpm.
All are configured master/single and are each alone on their respective connector. Highpoint BIOS shows all as ATA/100.

I went ahead and created Ghost images, on both the sister SATA/RAID drive, and on the IDE/RAID drive on the other controller. I browsed and verified these images both in the Windows Ghost Backup Browser and in the CD recovery enviroment's Backup Browser.
I then attempted my recovery.
Each time I entered Advanced Recovery, and chose to restore a single drive. I then browsed to the desired image. The moment I selected that image, I received the error "ec950001 the engine has not initialized. It did not matter if the image was on the drive on the same controller or the different controller. I even tried the .pqi image, as the program is supposed to be compatible with earlier versions of Drive Image and Ghost saved images, but no luck.

Trying the idea of the drives themselves being on the wrong controllers, I moved the boot C: system drive and its sister from the SATA/RAID to the IDE/RAID, and conversely the larger drives from the IDE/RAID to the SATA/RAID.
Windows launched cleanly, and all drives were visible. All images were also visible and verifiable in Windows and in the CD Recovery Enviroment. Using the same procedure, I tried to restore the image from the drive on the same controller, the drive on the different controller and even the .pqi image. Still no luck.

I am mystified and frustrated. The possitive attribute to hot-image on the fly is totally negated by the inability to restore a system drive.

I come back again to those words " the engine has not initialized". I don't even get to enter the recovery settings to choose active drives or MBR, or to fail in the writing of the restored image to disk. It stops me dead at the selection of the image. What engine, what is in conflict with it? What actions or settings can I take or make that can enhance or hinder its operation. Could that Symantec technician be right when he insists on the AGP BIOS settings? If so, what are the conflicts, and what are the correct settings. I had already done a variety of changes to the BIOS for AGP with no effect on this program. This engine has me stumped.

I hope that someone recognizes an element that I have missed, and can provide a possible solution. I will relunctantly put away this program until such time as it can be made to work, or be replaced with a program that does not encounter conflicts with my hardware.

Any thoughts would be welcome, and I thank you for your time.

mAdler

I could not tell for sure from your post, but did you try the image restore without the IDE HDD's connected to the SATA controller via the IDE-to-SATA converter connector?

I would try with HDD's connected to the IDE controller only, and physically disconnecting the HDD's from the SATA controller, and maybe even temporarily disable the SATA controller in the BIOS to see if that's were the conflict is coming from.

Yes, that was the second variation of the second set of image restoration attempts from IDE/RAID to IDE/RAID. The SATA/IDE converter is for the drives connected to the SATA/RAID connectors.

(First set:
Image from IDE/RAID to SATA/RAID
Image from SATA/RAID to SATA/RAID
PQI from IDE/RAID to SATA/RAID
Second set:
Image from SATA/RAID to IDE/RAID
Image from IDE/RAID to IDE/RAID
PQI from SATA/RAID to IDE/RAID)

However I did not physically unattach the SATA/RAID drives when attempting restoration from IDE/RAID to IDE/RAID. (And if that would be a requirement to make this program work, I would rather go back to Drive Image 2002. Each time the case is opened, the risk of physical damage is heightened (pins, cables, etc.)  I have to go to work shortly, and will have to attempt that variation tomorrow (or late tonight!)

Unfortunately the BIOS only controls the existence of the onboard RAID controllers, it does not affect them. It is either enabled or disabled. And when disabled, the motherboard has access only to VIA IDE connectors (my optical drives).
The enablement in BIOS then boots the Highpoint RAID BIOS which recognizes the drives, and if they were in RAID array, would confirm their arrangement.
The Highpoint BIOS controls two sets of connectors, the two Highpoint IDE UDMA 133 connectors set and the two Highpoint/Marvel SATA ATA 150 connectors. All 4 can be configured together into a mirror and/or striping RAID array, with a total of 6 physical drives (though the BIOS shows 4 channels with master and slave for each, the SATA channels can only be single/master).
I have only four, each attached to one connector and running as master/single, in standard IDE function.

I will try that variation with unattaching SATA/RAID cables/drive when restoring from IDE/RAID to IDE/RAID.

I just don't see how the program can see the drives and the images in browser, then stop dead when attempting to restore same image. The engine, the engine!! She canna' take anymore, Capt'n!!

Gone to work,
Thank you.

Disappointment so far.

I still think that BartPE is worth a try. BartPE is not about networking and is totally different from the Bart boot discs of old.

In BartPE, Ghost 9 runs as the Windows GUI and you can create images which you can't do from the Ghost RE. So it is different from the standard RE. You are the only person who can answer whether the Restore function is different.

mAdler

Oh!  You have a third controller!

Well, that gives you another option to test--connect the HDD's to the IDE controller that your optical drives are on, and disconnect any HDD's on the other two controllers--again, possibly disable the HighPoint RAID and SATA controllers temporarily in the BIOS--to see if you can succeed with a restore.

Well, I agree with you that it will not be convenient to be switching cables and disabling controllers on a routine basis--my suggestion was more of a trouble shooting effort to isolate the problem so you can possibly address it with Symantec, or motherboard maker, or ....

Once you know where the incompatibility is, you can then pass it on to Symantec and see if they are able/willing to address the issue.

http://www.911cd.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t3332.html

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=7089&hl=ec950001

These pages suggest it is a software problem. BartPE is looking good.

Sorry for the one day delay. I had family and work obligations and could not devote the time to this investigation.

I hope that what I report may suggest a solution, because its current ramifications are unacceptable.

I did go back and attempt the restore from the IDE/RAID drive to IDE/RAID drive with no SATA/RAID drives connected.
The boot time was slow (Highpoint BIOS looking for drives no longer there) and the same ec950001 error occurs.

I had also read a posting that was mentioning page files.
I had not mentioned that I had moved my page file to the sister drive to its own partition. This sounded so right. So, I had gone back and created several Ghost images
1-C: system only (D: page file not copied)
2-C: system and D: page file (multi-partition image)
and then restored the page file to the system drive
3-C: system w/page file

I attempted each restore and still immediately got the same error upon selection of image.

The last suggestion was to attempt the restore off the onboard native VIA IDE connectors. I had my optical drives on single connector cables, each to a connector in single/master mode. I had to go out and buy a multiple drive IDE connector to try the last attempt. I then connected the system and backup drives as master and slave on the primary IDE connector and one of my optical drives on the secondary as single/master.

I still had the slow boot time due to the Highpoint RAID BIOS searching for drives that were no longer connected, and could not boot into Windows XP, but just hung in the black Win XP logo screen, no moving blue bars. I did not really expect to, though, as my operating system had not been adjusted for the change in hardware configuration, though it was accessible in safe mode.

To my great suprise and chagrin, when I booted the Symantec CD Recovery Enviroment, and attempted to restore the images, each of variety of my images was loaded.
No more ec950001!!

I did not go through with the restore process, as I did not know what restoring a system drive based on one hardware configuration would do when placed into a different configuration, even if it is the same physical drive.

This clue is not one I wanted.
If this program cannot work on my onboard Highpoint SATA/IDE RAID controllers, but only on my VIA IDE controller, I have gone back in time and function. The old days of running a master and slave drive on one connector with the optical on the other. The idea is to go to faster connectors with no conflicts, and I have taken a step backwards. And to have two optical drives on their own IDE controllers, which cannot be run on the RAID controllers (IDE or SATA converter, not withstanding).


I just had a thought. I will try my operating system drive on the onboard VIA IDE controller and attempt the restore from an image saved on the drive connected to the RAID controller.

Could it be the source of the image file?? Would CD-R or DVD-/+R work? But then you get into the whole swapping out disks for large images, and saving to a separate hard drive is faster and cleaner.  


In the hopes that the conflict could be in a flaw in the Symantec CD Recovery Enviroment program, for dealing with RAID controllers, I am also following the Bart PE with Ghost slipstreamed (sic?) instructions to create a recovery disk.

I just can't get over the fact that throughout all these attempts, that each image on each drive on each and every controller, was visible, verifiable and browseable and restoreable with individual files and folders, with my existing F6 RAID driver. And that only in the attempt to choose the image in the restoration program while on the RAID controller was the program halted by error.

Re: trying the system drive on VIA IDE with an image from SATA/RAID
then trying system drive on SATA/RAID with an image from VIA IDE
(I will take the IDE/RAID choices as understood to be the same as the SATA/RAID attempts)
and will report back shortly.

Thank you

Okay, I have done the last set of variations.
I have placed the system drive on the onboard VIA IDE controller, and placed one back up drive as a slave on the VIA IDE and the other backup drive on the Highpoint SATA/IDE/RAID.
Images from both the VIA IDE and the Highpoint IDE were rejected ec95001.
I then placed the system drive on the onboard Highpoint SATA/IDE/RAID controller, and had one backup drive on the VIA IDE, and the other backup drive on the Highpoint IDE.
Images from both the VIA IDE and the Highpoint IDE were rejected ec950001.


So apparently, the only way I can use this program is if I have no SATA or IDE RAID drives connected, even if both the system and restoration image drives are on the VIA IDE controller, and have system and restore drives on the VIA IDE controller only, just like the old days!!

What is in the conflict in the Highpoint RAID controller? How can a driver that allows access in Backup Image Browser, fail in the System Recovery?


I will attempt to create a Bart PE disk with Ghost installed, but that will take some time. I will have to restore my system to my original desired hardware configuration and operating system set up.

Conclusions:

Faster to slower or slower to faster drives and/or connectors had no effect on the RAID drives.

Page file separate or included in the image had no effect on the RAID drives.

Restoring from RAID or IDE to RAID had no effect.

Restoring from RAID to IDE had no effect

Restoring from IDE to IDE when RAID was connected/drivers loaded had no effect.

Restoring from IDE to IDE with no RAID connected/drivers loaded was the only time I was able to get past the point of error ec950001 to the rest of the restoration program (but did not go further).

I am using the last Highpoint-Tech HPT 374 drivers that were available on the site 2 months ago v3.04.

Last thought, I will download from Abit the Highpoint HPT 374 drivers provided by them for my motherboard v1.23.

After that, I will try to create the BartPE disk with Ghost to see if that works.

Back soon after the RAID drivers v1.23 attempt.

mAdler

A couple points:

1.  The 'page file' issue appears to be related to Bart's PE and loading plug-ins for that--it's not the page file that your regular WinXP is using and not the page file in the image file.  Symantec's Recovery Disk probably loads the page file it uses while in the Recovery Environment in the RAM-disk that it creates during boot.

Having said that, how much system RAM do you have?  The Recovery Environment needs a minimum of 256 MB.

2.  'Why the problem when doing a restore and not an 'image browse'--just guessing--when doing the restore, I suspect there may be additional commands being sent to the controllers to 'lock' the HDD's or the I/O buss so other devices can not interfer with the procedure--and somehow those commands are not being properly executed.

3.  Possibility--I've seen several posts where the SATA controllers have several compatibility settings located in the BIOS--you might want to see if those type of options exist in the BIOS on your system, and what the different settings may and may not do regarding the issue you're having.

Successful Ghost restoration of image!!

My attempt to have an optimized system may have backfired on me.

I have just restored an image from a RAID drive to a RAID drive, by loading an older version of the RAID driver.

Abit provided the v1.23 Highpoint HPT 374 RAID driver in 2004.

I, in my eagerness to have a clean setup with up-to-date drivers, etc., used the Highpoint Tech- provided drivers that were on the website two months ago v3.04.

I could not use the RAID BIOS update provided, because it could only be installed with a motherboard-provided BIOS update vEB with RAID BIOS v1.23 folded in. The drivers were unpacked to floppy and had been used successfully to install and run my Windows XP setup for the past several months.

What is so mystifying and frustrating is that those same new drivers were able to allow access in the Backup Image Browser, but halted the program.

After digging out the Abit-provided RAID driver v1.23 floppy, I was able to load the CD Recovery Enviroment, browse and verify the images, and choose and restore a system image.
It took 3 minutes.


I surmise two possibilities for my failure to previously restore.

1-The last Highpoint-provided driver v3.04 is partially buggy, and was pulled off the website not because Highpoint no longer wanted to nominally support this controller, but because of flaws.

or

2-The installation and use of the Windows XP operating system for the computer is more forgiving of the use of alternate drivers, but the Symantec CD Recovery Enviroment is particular that the drivers for the RAID controller have to match versions with the onboard RAID controller BIOS.

Unfortunately, the Abit Phoenix-Award BIOS only enables and disables the ATA133RAID option, and the Highpoint-Tech BIOS only detects disks, creates or deletes RAID arrays, and selects a boot disk or array. Any true RAID management is handled in the Windows enviroment with the RAID manager program, and if not using a RAID array, the operation of disks on the RAID controller act as standard IDE disks.


Conclusion:
Maybe the newest driver is not always the best, even when doing a clean re-install.

I am still disturbed by the lack of a rebooted persistent recovery enviorment, and the requirement of CD to restore an image drive, and the absolute requirement to have F6 drivers available on a floppy to load. And if I had continued with my thoughts to make this computer legacy-free, what would I have done without the floppy drive?

Will creating a Bart PE disk with Ghost and the correct F6 RAID drivers be a solution? (Along with any USB and network drivers?) A solution provided by you, and me as the operator, instead of Symantec as part of its provided program. As I said in a previous post, the operation of this program is a step backwards.

But I can't complain (too much!).

Symantec tech support web-site troubleshooting only states load the correct F6 drivers, but never states what would be considered incorrect F6 drivers, and the only BIOS reference was to AGP video settings. And as I had an F6 driver disk that allowed access, their tech supports insistence sent me off on a wild-goose chase for AGP BIOS  video settings.

Now that this works, I can play with the external USB and network drive functions of creating and restoring images. I have seen many posts here regarding that, and will be sure to find many answers.

I will attempt the Bart PE with Ghost procedure, because each unnecessary step removed from a procedure makes it easier.

Last thought, legacy free PC's with no floppy drives, and future Windows O/S installations that require RAID drivers, will any program ever ask for or look for a driver in anything other than an "A:" floppy drive in its booting, pre-operating system state?


I wish express my thanks for your postings. Each step I took from your directions, even in failure, circled in on the solution to my problem. It removed my doubt of my system configuration. And I hope my troubles may be an answer for someone else in a similar situation, for I cannot believe that I am the only one with this motherboard and program, and the desire to have up-to-date drivers.

I thank you once again.

I'm glad you have got it working.

My first post to this group was about adding SATA drivers to the Ghost 9 CD. No answer yet. It can be easily done with the BartPE app. Just copy your floppy files into the SCSIAdapter folder before building the .ISO.

Certainly BartPE/Ghost will work with your v1.23 drivers but I'd be interested to know if it will work with the v3.04 drivers.

Brian,
I do not yet know if either of the Highpoint RAID drivers work with the BartPE w/Ghost CD. My attempts at creation have failed, and I will have to scan other posts here for possible answers.


Just to let you know, the pebuilder would show no image built because of an error in finding the path of usbstor.sys. It was in the i386/cache folder, but not in the windows/system32/drivers folder. I have the Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 installed fresh, and had applied the USB 2.0 driver from VIA Arena. I don't know why this file was not there. I disabled the USB plugin and the pebuilder built the image just fine. But that is a hobbled solution. After looking around, I just copied and pasted the usbstor.sys from the i386/cache to the windows/system32/drivers folder, and the pebuilder built properly.


I tried several variations with this image disk. I built it with no SCSI (RAID) drivers, with v1.23, with v3.04, and with both in separate drivers folders. None of the variations booted, not even the driverless one. I had used the Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5 and chose the advanced option to create a bootable CD. It gave me only the option to create the CD with floppy disk emulation. I chose that, and the pebuilder.iso image and it burned and finalized the CD. But when I boot with it, I get a flash of the floppy disk recognition, and then continues straight into Windows. I am pressing any key all the while, just in case it was a "0" opportunity to boot, but no luck.  

I am missing something, something obvious, and will have to discover the solution.
I will then report if the BartPE with Ghost and the RAID drivers works for my setup.
Thank you.

mAdler, I'm not familiar with Easy Media Creator.
In Nero its Recorder, Burn Image. Then choose the .ISO. After burning you finish up with 3 folders and 7 files in the root directory of the CD. Check your CD as it sounds like the .ISO isn't being burnt as an image but as a file.

You don't have to press "any key" it just boots on its own.

DVD Decrypter (no longer available) will burn the image too. I use UltraISO.

Apologies if I'm on the wrong track.

You are most likely right! I went back and checked and the Advanced functions of Creator Classic of Easy Media Creator 7.5 from Roxio lists only "create bootable cd" and only gives "floppy drive emulation", but I went back and looked and on the side bar under "other tasks" it lists "burn from image file (.iso)". I may have been working at cross purposes here. I guess that tells you the last time I wrote a bootable CD!
I will now create the variations of pebuilder with and without the various RAID drivers. I hope to report back shortly.
Thank you!

Almost there. I've revised my instructions for burning the .ISO. They weren't clear enough.

mAdler

I have an 'older' Abit motherboard with a AMD northbridge and a VIA southbridge, and an integrated HighPoint RAID IDE controller.

Because your system is newer, maybe this information does not apply--but just in case--

Compared to what I have read and understand for my system--you seem to be very aggressively 'updating' system drivers from individual component makers' websites rather than your motherboard's website:

1.  HighPoint's website says that the drivers and BIOS updates are for their add-on controller cards, and advises going the the motherboard website for any integrated controller drivers or BIOS updates.  

A website specific to my motherboard stated that the BIOS version number for the HighPoint controller should match the Windows driver version number to avoid possible compatibility issues between the BIOS specified functionality vs the driver functionality--may be a more critical recommendation if using RAID functionality.

2.  VIA's website indicated for my system that the built-in USB driver for WinXP should be used, and their USB driver was only for certain systems

3.  You did not mention it, but I will--VIA's 4-in-1 driver--again for my system--they recommend using the default WinXP drivers unless certain performance problems for specific hardware components are a problem--basically, if you don't have the hardware, then don't use their 4-in-1 driver.

Again, the above may not apply to your system, but you have reported two instances that suggest that the driver updates that you have installed are effecting the ability to run certain software that seems to be expecting to find specific system drivers or configurations that apparently are not there.

I've run into this myself when 'tweakin' WinXP Pro with non-default configurations--my first install was an unstable disaster that made me wait another 6 months while testing and exploring the 'fixes' for the various instabilities before trying again (I wasn't in any hurry!).  The result--some default settings should not be messed with  ;) !

I am writing you from inside the BartPE with Ghost enviroment. I have already successfully backed up and restored my c: system drive from within this enviroment.
And just to continue to mystify me, both the manually loaded v1.23 and v3.04 drivers work. Oh, my brain!!

I will write the pebuilder later with the various combinations of these drivers preloaded under the scsi adapter folder and see what happens.

This enviroment does take a long time to load, but it gets the job done.

Seeing as how I was able to boot by CD and enter this enviroment, and get onto the internet, I wonder if a generic BartPE with generic network settings would work for anonymous web-browsing? Or is it system specific? If it would work, with anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware, and generic CD-R and network drivers, it would be better than those USB flash drives for browsing on someone else's computer. You would not even have to have access to the computer's own hard drives. Secure all around!! Just no access to anything other than CD-R or floppy (or separate USB device?) for saving your own stuff.

And you are so right about the drivers. I was ambitious in creating a clean reinstall of Windows, and chose to use the VIA 4in1 and Highpoint RAID drivers from the manufacturers, instead of the Abit motherboard manufacturer site. I thought that the newer driver, straight from the makers would be better, stronger, faster!
In my defense, the last motherboard BIOS and the last RAID driver provided by them was in 2003 and 2004, respectively. And they don't even have the USB 2.0 and LAN 10/100 drivers. So I, in essence, went straight to the horse's mouth.
VIA and Highpoint both have/had the drivers for each of my onboard controllers.
I will go back to the RAID and 4in1 drivers provided by my motherboard, and the next upgrade will include a motherboard/CPU/memory combo.

Your help has assisted in my restoration of my system drive. And I will cautiously tweak and upgrade with Ghosted backup from now on.
Thank you.

mAdler

The last BIOS update for my Abit motherboard was 3/06/2003!  They have not posted anything since then.

But the system is doing fine with WinXP SP2 and all the attached USB card reader, scanner, HDD, and USB Hub--and all the internal PCI cards, etc.

Quote:

I am writing you from inside the BartPE with Ghost enviroment

Now that's impressive. I'm really pleased that it works.
There is so much more to explore in the PE. There must be generic NIC drivers on the CD. I tried my CD yesterday on a friend's four year old Inspiron and it networked. The only NIC drivers I had added were for my Dell Dimension desktop.

As both of your RAID drivers work, this "variety" of Ghost must be different from the one on the Symantec CD. It's the Windows variety.

You will be my hero if you can get wireless networking operational from the CD. I can't get past entering the SSID.

Well, I am done for the week.
I have gone from despair to joy, thanks to you all.
I have today created 5 variations of the BartPe with Ghost to cover the RAID driver situation.
RAID driver v1.23 in the SCSI Adapter folder
RAID driver v3.04 in the folder
Both RAID drivers in the folder
No RAID driver in the folder but manually F6 loading of each driver in a separate trial.
No RAID driver in the folder and no F6 drivers.
And lastly, even though warned against in the posting, I used the AutoDriver program not only to find my network adapter, but also the SCSI (RAID) adapters and create a plugin (with no manually created RAID driver in the SCSI adapter folder).

Each time, with the exception of the variation of no RAID and no F6, I was able to see all my IDE/SATA/RAID drives on the Highpoint controller.
Apparently Ghost is strict, but BartPE is forgiving with the conflict between RAID bios and RAID driver versions.
I will reinstall my clean XP setup with Abit provided 4in1 and RAID drivers, just to be safe.

Now that I can cleanly backup and restore images, and especially with the flexibility of the BartPE disk, I will experiment with further options, all thanks to you.

Unfortunately I have to go to work tomorrow, and will have to sign off now.

Your assistance has been appreciated, and I will visit again soon.

Thank you.

It seems that the paging file is the problem, ie. a registry entry that needs to be fixed in windows, may work for further backups...ouch

See forum :
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=7089&hl=ec950001

AlexKov

Drive Image 7.03

I was extremely glad to run into this thread while searching for an answer to this problem. Symantec is just as helpful with me as with you (I've been waiting for a decent reply for a month now!)

Unfortunately, my ICH7R SATA controller drivers don't work in ANY version. I tried them all, from the original to the most recent version. The EC950001 code just keeps popping up. In the end, I created the Reatogo cd with Ghost and it seems to work ok.

All in all, it took me SO many hours just to find ONE solution that worked, that it seems Ghost's goal is completely void for me: didn't I buy Ghost so that I could restore an image in a matter of minutes?!

I guess this boot cd will help me through for now. Until I upgrade my hardware. I just wish Symantec would have created a program without the SATA/RAID issues. From what I've heard, upgrading to version 10 doesn't help one bit.

Thanks for writing all this down for people to find on the internet! And if there's anything new on this topic - please share!

Michel,

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1119240262;start=45#55

See Reply #55

As there is no BartPE plugin for Ghost 10 yet, stick with Ghost 9.

Brian wrote on Jan 30^th, 2006 at 3:55pm:

Michel, http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1119240262;start=45#55 See Reply #55 As there is no BartPE plugin for Ghost 10 yet, stick with Ghost 9.

Will do! Thanks!