I recently purchased an HP Pavilion computer. I tried to clone the hard drive with ghost 2003 but in the process the computer locked up and I got an error message "Internal Stack overllow system halted.. I talked to HP support but they told me that ghost 2003 was not compitable with this computer and I had to use a recovery disk to get the computer back in operation. I can't believe that this system is not compatible with ghost 2003 (I have used it on an older computer with xp pro and it worked ok), but since I don't know just what the error message ment, I am afraid to try it again. Can someone advise me as to what this error message ment and how to get around it?

Jerry Cothran


Quote:

I tried to clone the hard drive with ghost 2003

That phrase can mean a number of different things--what exactly were you doing (i.e. what procedure were you doing), using DOS or the Windows interface of Ghost2003, source and destination of the cloning, how many partitions, etc.?

I was using the ghost program I had installed on the C drive. I was going to clone the C drive to an external hard drive so I was going disk to disk. When doing this it automatically goes to DOS or that is how it appears to me.  I could probably  work from the ghost program disk but I am worried about this internal stack overflow stuff. I don't want to reinstall a bunch of programs if I can help it.

wrote on Aug 27^th, 2005 at 2:39pm:

"... I was going to clone the C drive to an external hard drive so I was going disk to disk..."

Two questions: (1) a "purpose-built" external HDD or an external enclosure kit with an internal HDD mounted aftermarket; and (2) how connected - USB 2.0, FireWire, SATA, et cetera?

[glb]El Pescador[/glb]

Jerry Cothran


Quote:

I was going to clone the C drive to an external hard drive

Enclosure kit so HDD is removeable?

USB or Firewire?

Did WinXP see the external HDD before you started the operation?  (Shouldn't be a problem if you do a disk-to-disk clone as far as drive letter assignments--but make sure you do not re-boot to WinXP at the end of cloning until after you have shut down and disconnected the cloned external HDD--see *Pesky's Trick*.

Using the Windows Ghost interface forces the use of a *virtual partition*--and not all systems function properly with that.  Using the DOS Ghost version often solves that issue.

Not all enclosure/external USB setups are supported by Ghost's built in USB drivers--may have to try the Panasonic DOS USB drivers:

A Better USB 2.0 DOS Driver for Ghost + More!

I am using an external Iomega usb 2.0 hard drive as the to disk. I have cloned my c drive on my old computer to this hard drive on a couple of occassions so I know it works. I guess I will just try again-booting from the ghost program disk and see how that works (or not). The problem has only been with this new computer and that just the one time.

NightOwl wrote on Aug 27^th, 2005 at 3:06pm:

"... Shouldn't be a problem if you do a disk-to-disk clone as far as drive letter assignments--but make sure you do not re-boot to WinXP at the end of cloning until after you have shut down and disconnected the cloned external HDD--see *Pesky's Trick*...

CLICK HERE to view *Pesky's Trick* - and while you are over there be sure to vote in the poll right above it ... LOL !!!

BTW, this afternoon I intend to clone the MASTER 160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ HDD on my Dell Dimension 8300 to a 160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 IDE HDD mounted in a Metal Gear Box combo USB 2.0/SATA external enclosure kit via USB 2.0 - and you can bet I will be using my eponymous "trick".  Before I remove the non-bootable removable media to reboot in XP Pro, I will turn off the power to the Metal Gear Box.

Then, after I reboot I will restore power so that I can go into Partition Magic 8.0 to delete the 31MB Dell Utility partition on the cloned external HDD.  Next, I will reformat the bootable primary active partition formerly assigned the drive letter C: and then convert it to a logical drive to wind up with a 160GB extended partition with two NTFS logical drives plus a single FAT32 logical drive.  Ghost 2003 is friendly with the Metal Gear Box in USB mode but is very tricky with SATA because the IDE-to-SATA bridge causes CRC32 errors during Restores and Integrity Checks.  

[glb]El Pescador[/glb]

Jerry Cothran

If the external HDD is not a *enclosure* kit that allows removal of the HDD and then placement in the computer system as an *internal* HDD, then *cloning* is not the best backup option--using a backup to *image* file would be the better way to do things.

wrote on Aug 27^th, 2005 at 3:41pm:

"... I am using an external Iomega usb 2.0 hard drive as the to disk..."

I am not real keen in the least with the notion of performing a Ghost 2003 "disk-to-disk" Clone on a sealed "purpose-built" USB external drive, and most particularly an Iomega product.  To my detriment, I learned in due time that my Iomega External 80GB HDD was preformatted as a single active primary FAT32 partition of a non-standard character.  Too late to do any good, I read the PDF users manual to see the advice against any partitioning of my device.  Later on, I learned that Windows XP systems will not generate FAT32 file system format volumes much over 32-to-35GB (CLICK HERE to view a thread on my Iomega travails).

One offhand possibility that does occur to me with this issue is a hidden utitlity partition being included during a Clone that could cause the Iomega HDD to go awry.  If that or any other weirdness were the case - and the Clone process achieved a certain degree of completion - the Iomega's ability to function with the stock USB 2.0 Norton/Iomega drivers could be irretrievably altered with some Intel USB 2.0 host controllers.  Nothing short of a "low-level format" and reinitialization will rectify the situation - or an adaptation of NightOwl's Panasonic Universal USB Driver routine, come to think of it.

[glb]El Pescador[/glb]

I noticed that Iomega now has a download of a program for back up AND system recovery for their desktop external hard drives.  Do you know anything about it. Will this do much the same as ghost clone? I thought I would try it and see what comes out.

wrote on Aug 28^th, 2005 at 11:45am:

"... I noticed that Iomega now has a download of a program for back up AND system recovery for their desktop external hard drives.  Do you know anything about it. Will this do much the same as ghost clone? I thought I would try it and see what comes out..."

My confidence in Norton Ghost 2003 - based on real-life experience and not just testing - is so high that I would not be vaguely interested in the Iomega backup software that did come with my 80GB HDD.

Got to go, Katrina has me in her crosshairs.  She looks to be either the Perfect Storm or the Storm of the Century - nay, Storm of the Millenium - for those poor folks living down in the 'bowl-below-sealevel called the  Big Easy'.  They will be at DefCon 1 by nightfall.

EP

I tried to do  a clone with ghost 2003 from the program disk. After getting to pc dos it gave me a choice of the following:
proceed without loading any drivers
load cd-rom drivers
load usb 1.1 drivers
load usb 2.0 driivers

I tried them all with out good results. The first just gave me the A prompt. since I didn't know how to proceed from there, I reloaded and tried the "load cd-rom drivers"
This also failed but gave me the following two entries: 1. "Unable to find any AIC-78XX/AIC-75XX ASPI8dos. sys instalation failed.
2. "adaptec ASPI Device Driver not available  CD-ROM driver not loaded: no valid adaptec host adapter

I then tried the "Load usb 2.0 drivers. This took me to the initial page of the ghost program but would not proceed from there.

When i did clones on my old compaq with usb 1.1, i simply selected the "load usb 1.1 drivers" and everything went fine from there.  I am beginning to think that there is something with this new HP pavillion computer that is not quite right.

Jerry Cothran

Probably Ghost's built-in USB drivers are not compatible with the HP's USB controller.

Might try this option mentioned before:

A Better USB 2.0 DOS Driver for Ghost + More!

What can you tell me about Acronis True Image?  And El_PRESCADOR did you survive Katrina?

I mention TI here:

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1a.htm

.. about halfway down the page .. along with other alternatives to Ghost.

I've never used it personally, but I have friends who use it and like it.

Any imaging prgm is better than no imaging prgm.

El Pecador has survived. He can be found here:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=Extra_Rad_Forum;action=display;num=1125185854;start=15#15

Jerry, you may be interested in a recent review of Acronis True Image 8:
  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1847470,00.asp

The problems encountered by PC Magazine during the review process of True Image 8 are simply frightening.  If you wish to use a Windows-based imaging solution, you might be better served by employing Ghost 9.0 (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1847478,00.asp).

I also encourage you to 'force' HP technical support to specifically state what about Ghost 2003 makes it 'incompatible' with your PC.  If there is a consideration known to HP, then conveying that information to you (and this forum) would assist greatly in crafting a solution to the problem.

Gerald, please be informed that you can not mirror the operating system
on the preinstalled hard drive to another hard drive.  The operating
system that you have received with HP computer is a OEM version and
cannot be copies to another hard drive.  I understand your concern with
the above issue, however it is not possible to mirror the operating
system to another hard drive.  

The above was in response to a  rather pointed email I sent to HP support concerning this problem.  I find this hard to believe but at this point I am not sure where to go from here. Does this sound real to anyone?

Gerald, HP's reply is hard to understand. Are they talking imaging or RAID?

Why don't you download the Acronis TI trial app and see if you can image your C: drive to your internal or external HD. Do an image, not a "clone". If you can do an image then a restore is almost certain.

How many partitions do you have on your internal HD?

Using Ghost 2003 from the Ghost Boot Disks, I have cloned (Disk to Disk) a HP Pavilion as a precaution prior to deleting all partitions, including the recovery partition. I subsequently partitioned, formated and installed a retail version of WinXP.

The clone worked fine when tested. (It is important to not let Ghost restart the computer with both HDDs connected. That will mess up the volume identifier and make the clone not bootable.)

Christer