I have used Ghost 9 for a long time on this machine to back up to CD / DVD directly without any problems. About January, the option to back up to CD / DVD disappeared. The loss of the CD / DVD option did not correspond to any change in the applications loaded to the machine. However, with hindsight I do vaguely recall seeing an update to Ghost being installed by Norton Live Update about this time.

Since January I have tried a number of solutions to try to get the CD / DVD write option back (I far prefer the “completeness” of writing directly to CD / DVDs than writing to a hd then copying the files to DVD subsequently). In all attempts to get Ghost to work, any change in s/w has also included registry and temporary file clean ups using Norton Systems Works 2005 Premier, Ultra Win Cleaner and Reg Cleaner before a reboot. The solutions tried without success include:-

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Removing and re-installing Ghost from CD (now done 3 times in different circumstances).
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Loading latest Gear configuration files / drivers
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Removing Nero Suite 6 / InCD.
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Removing Virtual CD 5.0.6

Whilst I did not expect it to solve the problem, I have also done a Repair rebuild of the XP operating system. The machine is kept patched up to date for XP.

Anyone any ideas on where else to look to get the direct writing to DVD option back?

All help greatly appreciated,

Nick P

NICK_P,

DVD option missing

This is all I could find. I guess it doesn't apply to you. Your frustration is understandable but most folks here prefer writing a backup image to the HD first and then burning to DVD.

NICK_P

Does the optical drive show up in Windows Explorer okay?

It's a long shot, but you might try going into *Device Manager* and deleting the optical drive from there.  Then re-boot and let Windows re-detect the optical drive and re-install it's drivers afresh.

Results?

Thanks for postings - they provided the kick start need to get a solution.

NightOwls comment re the optical drives being visible; they both were visible. However since the latest serious attempt to cure the problem the DVD drive kept on changing its drive letter from “W” to the earliest available drive (K) at a reboot. This problem went away when the Ghost problem was cured.

Having tried everything, I decided the only answer was to delete everything related to Norton / Symantec. Already had proved using the normal uninstall had no effect on problem so manually deleted entries in Program folders then deleted C:/Documents and Settings/USER/Application Data/Symantec — where USER was each of the defined users including “All Users” and “Default User” (had to drop into Safe mode to get rid of some files).

Then made sure registry was clean using a combination of Ultra Win Cleaner and then RegCleaner (an old utility which still finds registry entries others miss). Also made sure all temporary files were deleted from the system.

After rebooting and reloading Norton Systems Works 2005 Premier, Ghost was showing with both the optical drives and even showing the correct drive letters! Only problem left to solve is that Norton AV refuses to load (both 2005 and 2006 version) so have changed to another product to protect the machine at the moment.

Re Brian’s comment about burning to a HD first, it is an option I use but with a number of data drives to backup, I prefer the direct creation of DVDs as it is very easy to forget to create all the disks having created the Ghost image to a HD. Direct writing creates the automatic “nag” to insert another disk and only records that a backup has been created if it completes the burn.

Many thanks to everyone - hope the solution that I have found helps others.

Nick P