I'm suddenly new to imaging and Ghost due to my girlfriends harddrive giving up the ghost (pardon the pun).  I've just bought a copy of N S&R and was wondering if anyone knows exactly what version of Ghost it is that comes on the CD?

Just to clarify, if you use the boot disk in the user recovery environment on the recover tab there is the Ghost program avaliable it says 'for recovering old ghost images'.  This loads a GUI version of ghost to use.  I noticed however as well as recover old ghost files you can create new images with this version of Ghost as well.   I just like to know exactly what version of ghost these images are created under...anyone?
Cheers,
CH

Craghopper, please see this thread.

Post again with any additional questions you may have.

craghopper


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there is the Ghost program avaliable it says 'for recovering old ghost images'.  This loads a GUI version of ghost to use.

The GUI that loads--at the top--does it have a *title bar* line--most likely this is the Windows based 32 bit version of Ghost that is/was part of the Corporate release of Ghost 8.xx.

My version from Ghost 10, the version prior to *Norton Save and Restore* says *Ghost32 8.2* in the DOS window box's title bar, and the opening splash screen of the program says *Symantec Ghost 8.2 ....* in its title bar, and the information box that appears that you have click on *Ok* to continue from says *Product:  Symantec Ghost 8.2 Corporate Edition*!

Does your version have any of these screens?

http://nightowl.radified.com/forumimages/Ghost32v8.2Splash.GIF

Thanks for that.  I'm getting the general drift that people think it could be 8.2; and that is equivalent to 2003?

I first queried this because in your NS&A section which is on the home page it says NS&A doesn't come with Ghost 2003.  So is this statement incorrect or just slightly inaccurate?

I've been able to create an image with the copy of Ghost on NS&A; and can read it as if it was a zip file using NS&A in Windows which seems quite nifty to me.  Not tried to restore it so can’t say if that works fine but would seem to be likely.

Another reason I’m querying this is because I’ve read on the website about 2003 being the most reliable Ghost version and was considering getting it as a second back-up but if it's indeed in the NS&A box then I needn't bother?  Can you confirm this?
Thanks again!!

Ah, in answer to NightOwl, yes it does look very much like that.  It's actually reminded me that i'd answered my own question a few days ago by looking at that, doh.  Now i feel quite stupid :o(.

So finally could someone clear up briefly is version 8.xx = 2003 if not why?

Cheers again again,
CH

craghopper


Quote:

So finally could someone clear up briefly is version 8.xx = 2003 if not why?

The Corporate version of Ghost typically has/had more functionality than the *retail* Ghost 2003 version--usually the Corporate version had features that showed up in the *next* retail version release!

The DOS version of Ghost 2003 and Corporate Ghost is *ghost.exe*--the Corporate version that most resembled Ghost 2003 was Corp. Ghost 7.5.

The Ghost version on Norton Save and Restore is *ghost32.exe* (on the Ghost 10 installation CD, it is under this name, *RESTOREGHOST.EXE*, and is found in this sub-directory, *X:\I386\SHELL\GHOST\RESTOREGHOST.EXE*) and can only run under some flavor of a Windows OS--and not under DOS!


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I've been able to create an image with the copy of Ghost on NS&A; and can read it as if it was a zip file using NS&A in Windows which seems quite nifty to me.

Not a *zip* file format that I'm aware of--you must have *Ghost Explorer* for legacy *.gho and .ghs* files (DOS based Ghost), and *Ghost Browser* for Ghost 9 and 10 format files (.v2i ? ).

craghopper

Here's a useful resource:

Which Ghost versions can restore image files that were created by other Ghost versions

These versions are technically the DOS versions--not the *ghost32.exe* version--i.e. the Windows 32-bit version that can only run under Windows--but the information is probably accurate for that version also.

The one thing the *ghost32.exe* can not do--if you run it from your current active Windows OS--you can not restore an image of your current OS to that active system--must be done from the Recovery CD--and you can not make an image of the OS partition if it is active--again can only be done from the Recovery CD!  In other words--you can not do *hot-imaging* of the OS from the active Windows OS with *ghost32.exe*!

Yeah i pretty much had the idea that the ghost32 was a recovery cd only tool but just want to clarify if it was a suitable replacement/equivalent to ghost 2003?  Despite not being dos based etc or would you recommend ghost 2003 as well?  I'm happy that it is not a 'hot-imaging' tool as i think the idea sounds prone to mistakes and I’m sure NS&A will cover my needs in that area.

As for my ZIP mention i simply meant that it gave the feeling of looking into a ZIP file not that it could create or was one.  I think NS&A does have Ghost explorer or something of that ilk that i was using but i did like the feature.
Thanks

craghopper


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I'm happy that it is not a 'hot-imaging' tool as i think the idea sounds prone to mistakes and I’m sure NS&A will cover my needs in that area.

Yes, N S&R covers the *hot-imaging*.


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but just want to clarify if it was a suitable replacement/equivalent to ghost 2003?  Despite not being dos based etc or would you recommend ghost 2003 as well?

The *ghost32.exe* will work with Ghost 2003 image files--but you do not have the ability to save images to optical media--but can read images from optical media.

Only reason to recommend the DOS Ghost 2003--if you want to avoid the long boot time for the Recovery Environment of Norton Save and Restore!

That's great, thanks!  Hope that wasn't too painful for you but i am a "Noob" ;)

Now if you have any ideas for recovering a hards drive that no longer thinks it has Windows installed, cannot list the files but still knows it's 75% full please clue me in  :)!!

craghopper


Quote:

Now if you have any ideas for recovering a hards drive that no longer thinks it has Windows installed, cannot list the files but still knows it's 75% full please clue me in

Start a new thread--maybe in the *General* forum unless it is specifically related to Norton Save & Restore--state the details of the problem, error messages during boot, etc.--we try to help folks with problems such as this!

Craghopper, for an alternative and empirical viewpoint on "hot imaging," please consider reviewing this thread.

craghopper wrote on Nov 21^st, 2006 at 11:43am:

"... if you have any ideas for recovering a hards drive that no longer thinks it has Windows installed, cannot list the files but still knows it's 75% full please clue me in..."

My eldest daughter has an eMachine PC with XP Home Edition, and she recently experienced an anomaly strikingly similar to yours.  My dual goal in helping her was: (1) primarily to secure the entire JPEG library of family photos on her single MASTER HDD which were not backed up anywhere; and (2) secondarily to restore the functionality of her eMachine.

The first thing I did was to dismount her OEM Seagate HDD and install it in a Macally PHR-100A USB 2.0 external enclosure kit (a device with a USB 2.0 hardware/software setup proven friendly to Norton Ghost 2003).  Then, I hooked up her HDD in the enclosure kit to my Dell Dimension 8100 so as to transfer all critical file folders via USB 2.0 to the SLAVE HDD on my Dell for safekeeping.  Once that was complete, I fired up Norton Disk Doctor - included in my Norton SystemWorks 2003 Professional OEM CD - and performed an indepth diagnosis on the external HDD which revealed corruption in the folder C:\WINDOWS\System32.  I responded in affirmative to the Disk Doctor prompt seeking permission to repair the error, which was immediately performed - and successfully, I might add.  In your case, you may be forced to run Norton Disk Doctor or its equivalent before being able to address the files directly.

I reinstalled the Seagate device as MASTER HDD in the eMachine, and it booted up to function in a totally normal manner.  My daughter immediately commenced to burn CDs of her photo library, and thanked me for my gifts of both an USB 2.0 external HDD enclosure kit with a 60GB Maxtor installed and a copy of Norton Ghost 2003 to merge in with her Norton SystemWorks 2005 Standard.  Whether or not she will ever employ Norton Ghost 2003 to backup her MASTER HDD on a periodic basic in the future certainly remains to be seen.

EP :'(

El_Pescador

Thanks, for your tip had this been a desktop it would have been the first thing i would have done but with it being a laptop i was hesitent to start pulling it apart with it not being mine.  

However in my other tamperingings i found that from the windows recovery console the dir command was "unable to enumerate file list" which with some uneducated guessing led me to run fixboot and a fixmbr which i now think was unwise of me as it seems to be the reason the system no longer knows windows exists.  

I have managed to install windows on the second partion and can now view the old C drive but it is blank and thinks it is 10mb in the properties window.  (However Computer Management knows the partion should be the full 17GB).  I now fear that due to my 'thingy-ups' the pointers to the old files have been lost for good.

I also ran Seagates bootable diagnostics which did find errors on the old c: drive but doesn't seem to have helped after i let it fix them.

If anyone knows how i may be able to restore the pointers to the old files please post.

craghopper


Quote:

I have managed to install windows on the second partion and can now view the old C drive but it is blank

If it was just a *corruption* of the boot files that point to the correct location, then you should see all your original files in that C:\ partition when viewed from the new installation of Windows on the other partition.

Based on your report of *it is blank*--I suspect that something went wrong in the *Recovery Console*--it sounds like the partition has been wiped clean--i.e. all the files have been deleted.


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However in my other tamperingings i found that from the windows recovery console the dir command was "unable to enumerate file list"

Sounds like the files were deleted by some event that led to the problem in the first place--they were already *gone* by the time you did that *dir* command.

If you really want to recover data on that partition--you may have to consider partition recovery software, or recovery services that may be able to help--usually expensive for the services--software may be reasonable.  Make sure you have a backup to restore--or better yet--clone to a backup HDD and make sure it boots, etc.--before using recovery software--it may cause loss of everything if things go wrong!  

It would be best if you did a clone that forces Ghost to do a *sector-by-sector* clone--such as *image disk* so the *bit-by-bit* is copied, including *blank* space--so if the data is there it will be transferred.  Then use the cloned HDD for testing with the recovery software, keeping the *original* off the system for safe keeping.

If the data is not there and can not be cloned--then you would probably have to rely on a recovery service--they can recover data that *no longer exist* by being able to detect the faint magnetic *shadows* left by the deletion process.

Thanks, Nightowl.  

Just for a bit more background on the original windows crash it was hal.dll missing or corrupted please replace error. So then i booted into recovery console to try and replace the file and obvoiusly i tried to do a dir just to see where i was once in the dos prompt which returned the enumeration error.

I'll try and do the image using the Ghost tool on SN&R, it should be possible?  I think i'll buy a new hard drive for the computer and keep the old one to work on in future.

As for recovery software, sorry to ask this but is there any you would recommend and especially any free software?  

Thanks,
CH

craghopper wrote on Nov 25^th, 2006 at 2:05pm:

"... As for recovery software, sorry to ask this but is there any you would recommend and especially any free software?..."

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1164415841;start=0#0

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to finish this forum of with an update.  I managed to find a tool called R-Studio 3.0 Demo which has turned out to be a brilliant for me.  It scanned the whole harddirve and found everything that i knew should still be on there, even data my girlfriend had deleted during normal use!

I've now managd to use the ACER recovery disk (which uses Ghost incidentally to restore the HDD image) on a new harddrive (i don't trust the old one).  Everything is great and i'm sure i've earned lots of brownie points! :)
Cheers those who've helped.
CH, out....[glb]until next time[/glb]