I'm new to this forum. I hope someone can help me!

I have regularly been creating backup drive images with Ghost 9.0 of my computer onto an external H/D for some time. I created the images while Windows was running. I always check "verify" when creating these images.

Yesterday, the H/D on my computer failed and could not be fixed with Windows Install Disc repair routine. I got a new H/D and tried to Restore the image onto the new drive via the Recovery Environment. I selected all the "Advanced" settings such as "make bootable", "copy drive signature" and "restore MBR". It looked like it was doing something for about 1-1/2 hours. When it was done, I tried to reboot and only got a black screen and "Disk Read Error" message.

I then went into Restore Files and Folders instead of Restore Drive Image. Again I verified the image and it passed. However, when I tried to browse the image, I got a message saying "Error EC8B0022: Browsing this V2i drive is not supported.". I also tried installing Windows XP Pro (like before) then Ghost 9.0 and tried browsing the image from Restore Files & Folders with the exact same error.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

As you can imagine, I'm having a mild coronary fearing that I may have lost all that data that I thought I had religiously backed up. I am also very frustrated by the fact that Symantec no longer supports this product.

hi. i moved you to the ghost 9/10 board, where some of the gurus there should be able to help. let's hope it's a simply mistake. i always recommend doing a test-restore *before* you really need to (restore).

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

but that doesn't help you now.

wanderer,

I hope we can help you access this image. First, a lot of questions.

How many backup images do you have?
Are all your backup images on the external HD?
Can you run chkdsk /f /r on the external HD to see if there are any bad sectors?
From your current setup can you right click the .v2i file and click Mount? Does it mount with a drive letter?
How much data was on your old C: drive? How large was the HD? How large is the backup image?
How old is the backup image?
Is the backup image a single file or is it split into multiple files?
Do you have a BartPE CD?
How large is the new HD?
How large is the external HD?
Do you have Partition Magic?

Rad, I thought I posted my question in the Ghost 9/10 board. Am I missing something? MC

Brian, Here are the answers to your questions:
How many backup images do you have?
--- One
Are all your backup images on the external HD?
--- Yes
Can you run chkdsk /f /r on the external HD to see if there are any bad sectors?
--- How do I do this?
From your current setup can you right click the .v2i file and click Mount? Does it mount with a drive letter?
--- I get an "Error EC8B0023: Mountin this V2i drive is not supported.", but it looked like it was trying to assign it to "G:".
How much data was on your old C: drive? How large was the HD? According to the Mount V2i Drive window the size is 39,070,049KB and it was a 40gb HD, no partitions.
How large is the backup image?
--- There are 6 image files. First 5 are 4,194,176KB each, last one is 4,106,880KB. There is one Recovery Disk file which is 1KB in size.
How old is the backup image?
--- 1 week
Is the backup image a single file or is it split into multiple files? Multiple files:
--- C_Drive.v2i, C_Drive_s01.v2i, C_Drive_s02v2i, C_Drive_s03.v2i, C_Drive_s04.v2i, C_Drive_s05.v2i, CSLAP.sv2i (CSLAP was the computer name with that drive).
Do you have a BartPE CD?
--- I don't think so.
How large is the new HD?
--- 40GB.
How large is the external HD?
--- 160GB.
Do you have Partition Magic?
--- Yes v8.0

wanderer wrote on Jan 31^st, 2007 at 9:47am:

Can you run chkdsk /f /r on the external HD to see if there are any bad sectors? --- How do I do this?

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/powerquest.nsf/docid/2004066687571562?Open&src=con_ols_nam&docid=2004010648203262&nsf=powerquest.nsf&view=docid

If your external HD was E:   at the E:\ you would type chkdsk \f \r   (note the two spaces)
This is Step 6. Bad sectors are one cause of your problem. Let us know the result.

One thing I'd suggest is to transfer your image to an internal HD and restore from the internal HD instead of the USB HD. Can you borrow a HD and install it as a second HD? Or can you remove the external HD from its case and install it as an internal HD?

I guess your USB HD is FAT32. What about your WinXP?

Brian wrote on Jan 31^st, 2007 at 2:44pm:

If your external HD was E:   at the E:\ you would type chkdsk \f \r   (note the two spaces) This is Step 6. Bad sectors are one cause of your problem. Let us know the result. One thing I'd suggest is to transfer your image to an internal HD and restore from the internal HD instead of the USB HD. Can you borrow a HD and install it as a second HD? Or can you remove the external HD from its case and install it as an internal HD? I guess your USB HD is FAT32. What about your WinXP?

Brian,

OK, ran chkdsk {you had your slashes going the wrong way, btw} and here are the results:

- 7 bad links in lost chain at cluster 4226512...18
- 1 lost chain cross-linked at custer 4226519. Orphan truncated.
- Convert lost chain to files (y/n)? y
- 256kb in 8 recovered files.
- Windows made corrections to the file system.
- 156,250,144kb on disk
-  14,174,080kb available
- 32, 768 bytes in each allocation unit
- 4,882,817 allocation units on disk
- 442.942 allocation units available

That's it! I don't see anything out of the oridinary on that drive, especially with the drive image files.

I'm working on a laptop - can't add an another internal drive.

External HD is Fat32, laptop is NTFS.

Mark

wanderer wrote on Jan 31^st, 2007 at 9:10pm:

{you had your slashes going the wrong way, btw}

Doh.

Mark, I'm getting worried as we are running low on options. Could you try and restore the image again. It's promising that it does verify and I certainly wouldn't give up.

Are you working from the same laptop now? With Ghost 9 installed on the new HD? If the restore doesn't work, could you connect the external HD to another computer, install Ghost 9 on that computer and see if you can mount the image. If it mounts then you can at least get at your data.

Regarding the restore, you probably did it this way but just to make sure.


Quote:

Boot to the Ghost CD Set the Time Zone Advanced Recovery Tasks System Restore dot in Restore drives          ,Next dot in Single drive            ,Next Browse to your image file      ,Next Select a destination           ,Next tick Verify backup tick Check for file system errors after restore tick Resize drive to fill unallocated space (Y or N) Will be greyed out if partition is correct size tick Set drive active (for booting OS) tick Restore original disk signatures tick Restore MBR (for a new HD) Next tick Reboot after finish Finish Check computer clock after OS boots. May be out by an hour or two.

If you are working from the laptop at present you should make a backup image of your current OS partition before you do the restore.

Mark, I just noticed that your external HD is 91% full. This may be causing read errors. Any way you can move some data to another computer so that the external HD is less than 85% full.

Brian,

I can easily do that and I will try it. However, it is the "Error EC8B0023: Mounting this V2i drive is not supported." message that bothers me most. It comes up instantly, before it could possibly have time to discover there isn't enough scratch room on the drive. "...supported" makes it sound like there is a program setting that is not allowing browsing.

Do you think Ghost 2003 would be able to access these image files through DOS?

Btw, do you know of any programs that can resurrect intact files from disks where Windows won't boot and can't be fixed but the disk is physically OK?

Wanderer

Mark, much of what I'm saying is theory. I haven't experienced your problem.

You are getting the same error message from Windows as from the Recovery Environment. But the image does verify so that is positive.


Quote:

Do you think Ghost 2003 would be able to access these image files through DOS?

Afraid not.


Quote:

Btw, do you know of any programs that can resurrect intact files from disks where Windows won't boot and can't be fixed but the disk is physically OK?

Yes, BartPE. But let's leave that for a while. What I had considered was to look at your HD with BartPE if the restore seems successful but the HD doesn't boot.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Brian,

Hmmm, I no longer have a h/d that I tried restoring onto. I loaded windows on it and am using it now. I do have the original failed disk where Windows is trashed but mechanically it is OK. I also have another drive that I've loaded Windows onto, but haven't updated or anything. I suppose I could try to restore onto that one then BartPE it.

Is there any way we could use BartPE on the original failed disk?

Wanderer

wanderer wrote on Jan 31^st, 2007 at 11:24pm:

Is there any way we could use BartPE on the original failed disk?

Sure. Well worth a try.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Build the CD as per instructions. You don't need any plugins at present. Boot to the CD (it takes several minutes to boot), click GO, Programs and then A43. I think it is in the Program menu. A43 is like Windows Explorer. Hopefully you will see your internal HD. You will certainly see your external HD.

Any questions?

Brian,

I installed the program, ran it and put in my original XP install disk. It read all kinds of files then immediately tried to burn the PE disk without giving me a chance to eject the XP disk and put in a blank disk. What do I do now?

Wanderer

In the BartPE folder will be a file called pebuilder.iso (I think that's the correct name). It's a few hundred MB in size. Burn it with Nero etc. It must be burnt as an image (not as a data file) eg Recorder, Burn Image. That's the file that would have been burnt anyway.

OK, I have the BartPE disk done!

Good. I'd test it on your current setup. Use A43 and you will understand what is going on in about 10 seconds. Then install that problem HD and boot to BartPE for the real test.

Brian,

Shoot, I just happened to think. I may have used a different XP install disk to create Windows on the disk I'd like to get the files off than I used to create the BartPE. I'll make another one with the same install disk.

Wanderer.

No problem. That doesn't matter. Just use the current Bart CD. That CD will work on any computer with "any" OS. Even Win 95.

So I have to reboot to that CD, correct?

Yes, just use it like your Ghost 9 CD. It takes a few minutes to boot into the preinstalled environment.

Brian,

OK, I'm back. I used BartPE on my current drive and did the A43 file management. I could see everything, all drives, etc. So far so good.

Then I swapped the current HD for the bad one. Booted up with BartPE, went to A43 and had to wait quite a while for the window to come up. Unfortunately, I could see everything but the C: drive. I could see the Ghost image files on my external HD, however.

Any ideas?

Wanderer

Mark, that indicates hardware failure of the HD. If Windows was just corrupted you would see the files.

I'd try to restore your image again but get the used space on your external HD less than 85% before the restore.

Brian,

I was afraid you'd say that. But a computer store here said they checked the integrity of the drive and it was OK. Oh well...

OK, I'll try restoring, but it's getting late (almost 3am) here. I think I'll do that tomorrow. Were you thinking to look at the restored drive with BartPE to see if it actually wrote anything? I'll try that.

Thanks for all your help. I'd appreciate your checking the board again tomorrow to see how I made out.

Wanderer

I'm hoping the restore works. Naturally. If it progresses normally (as before) but doesn't boot then check it with BartPE.

It's 7 pm here in Australia.

Brian,

I've been busy since I spoke with you last. I've also been very successful in recovering most of the files off the bad disk with a program created by a firm in Canada near here. It is called Active@ File Recovery (www.lsoft.com). It was able to show me the entire file structure of the bad drive and enable me to copy folders and/or files to another external drive. BartPE was not able to do anything with it. Since I have a laptop, I did have to get a USB external drive cradle for the bad drive.

This company has all kinds of programs like this and they are great to work with, too. I would recommend them highly!

At this point, restoring the Ghost drive image of the bad drive is on a back burner since I have most of the files off of it.

Just wanted to advise you of all this and thank you very much for all your help last night. I really appreciated the time you spent with me!

Wanderer

Mark,

What a relief. I'll have to check out Active@ File Recovery. It certainly saved your data when we were struggling with alternatives.

Please keep us informed of any new findings and especially if you can get that image to restore, or not. I think you have the dubious "honour" of being one of the few, if not the only one, who couldn't restore a verified Ghost 9 image. I don't like that. My gut feeling is that it's related to the overfull external HD. Not very scientific, I know.

Brian,

I'll try again, soon. But I've wasted so much time on this now, I've got to get some work done right now.

You'll be the first to know if it works.

Mark

I understand. I'm interested in the good and the bad.

Brian,

Tried restoring from the Ghost 9 disk image on one external HD to a new 60gb HD in a USB HD cradle using Ghost 9.0 running on the laptop. I started out OK giving me a few messages, but then at 31:54 minutes it hung with the message "Waiting...". After about 2 hours of this I shut it down. It never wrote anything to the drive so I think it just couldn't read or process the disk image files.

Do you think I should try it via booting from the recovery environment? If so, I have some questions:

1) The last screen I get before restoration begins asks a bunch of questions that I'm not totally sure how to answer:
   a) Make disk bootable (y/n): ?
   b) Copy Disk Signature (y/n): ?
   c) Restore Master Boot Record (y/n): ?
   My gut feeling is that I shouldn't have to do any of these because all of these features should come back from the disk image. I've tried it both ways and nothing worked prior to my emptying the external 150gb HD (now only 60% full).

2) If it fails again & I get the same black screen "Disk Read Error":
   a) I will try running either BartPE or Active@ to see what, if anything, has been written the disk.
   b) Will I still be able to reload Windows using the Windows Install CD?

Thanks.

Mark

Mark,

It's not looking good. Thanks for moving files off the external HD and I note the restore still doesn't work from Windows and I suspect it won't from the RE either.

Is it possible to eliminate the USB HD from the restore process? Ghost 9 is not much use to you if you can't restore an image. This is what I'd do. Copy the image to a desktop computer. Install Ghost 9 on that computer. See if you can mount the image. If it mounts then you would be concerned about your USB "system". Now restore the image to your laptop internal HD over the network.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1120798529


Quote:

Restoring an image from the Recovery Environment Boot to the RE Click Yes for Networking Click and adjust Time Zone Click Advanced Recovery Tasks Click Utilities Click Map Network Drive (this maps a drive on the other computer) Don’t click Browse In the Folder field, add your network share as \\computername\share  (The other computer) Instead of the computername you can type the NIC IP address of the other computer (if it has a static IP address) eg \\192.168.1.6\share   Enter Username and password when requested Click “System Restore” Choose Restore Drives Choose Single drive (or other choice) Click Browse Click the drop down arrow in “Look in” Don’t click My Network Places Choose your Mapped Drive and navigate to your image Choose Restore Destination Continue the wizard PS If you aren't using a router to connect your computers for the RE operation, then a few changes are needed. First, have a static IP address for the NIC in your other computer.   After clicking Utilities Click Configure IP Address (this is for the computer containing the Ghost 9 CD) Click Modify (for IP#1) and assign an appropriate IP address and subnet mask address (not the same address as the other computer) If it won't let you modify #1, then modify #2 with an IP address. If your present computer has a static IP address, use that number, but it doesn't have to be the exact same number, just in the same range.   Click Map Network Drive   In the Folder field type the NIC IP address of the other computer eg \\192.168.1.6\share   ( \\computername\share doesn't work without a router) Continue as above

You still need to do this


Quote:

Boot to the Ghost CD Set the Time Zone Advanced Recovery Tasks System Restore dot in Restore drives          ,Next dot in Single drive            ,Next Browse to your image file      ,Next Select a destination           ,Next tick Verify backup tick Check for file system errors after restore tick Resize drive to fill unallocated space (Y or N) Will be greyed out if partition is correct size tick Set drive active (for booting OS) tick Restore original disk signatures tick Restore MBR (for a new HD) Next tick Reboot after finish Finish

Another workaround would be to borrow an 80 GB laptop HD. Partition it into two 40 GB partitions and copy the image to the second partition. Install the HD in your computer. Boot to the Ghost 9 RE and restore the image.

The above tests would at least tell you if your USB "system" is a problem. If the USB "system" is the problem then other backup software should be affected too.

Ghost 9 may be the problem.