Hi,

I took an image of a PC. After the image completed, the computer
rebooted and now it boots PC-DOS everytime and just sends requests andacknowledgements to the server continuously. This computer has very specialized software on it and cannot be down (which was why I took animage of it) and now it will not boot into windows XP at all.  Using GSS 2.0.

Please help!

Thanks.

KDawg44

Sounds like you are trapped in the Ghost *virtual partition*--see here for discussion:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1171950993

Thanks for the advice.

I am using Ghost Solution Suite and GHREBOOT was not on the CD.  I downloaded it from the links you provided and put it onto a bootable CD made by Nero.

When I try to run GHReboot I get the following Error:

Warning!  This disk does not contain any active, non-hidden, primary partitions.  The computer will not restart correctly if the Virtual Partition is removed.  Please enter the number of hte action you wish to take:
[1] Exit to DOS.
[2] Remove Virtual partition.
[3] Activate the first, non-hidden, primary partition
Double Fault at eip=2e190; flags=3246
eax=00000000 ebx=001043a0 ecx=0000041c edx=0000001e esi=001043f0 edi=00104360
edp=00104278 esp=00104274 cs=af ds=b7 es=b7 fs=a7 gs=bf ss=b7 error=0000


and so GHReboot will not run.  

There is a program called SRFIXMBR.exe on the GSS2.0 CD.  Do you know if this is for a similar purpose?

Thanks for all your help.

KDawg44

Do you have a DOS partition tool like PartitionMagic?  What partition(s) are on that disk.

Or, could us Ghost's *gdisk* to see what partitions are listed.

Or, MBRWizard - The MBR utility you've been looking for! has a DOS based program to *list* the partitions.

I would love to use GDisk but it is not on the GSS 2.0 CD.  Is there a place I can download it from.  I cannot find it on the Symantec website.

Thanks a lot.

KDawg44

I have never used Ghost Solution Suite v2.x (GSS v2.x)--so I have no personal knowledge of what's on the CD, or where files are stored on the HDD where GSS v2.x has been installed--but the GSS v2.x Implementation Guide has a whole chapter on using *GDisk.exe* for DOS and *GDisk32.exe* for Windows--see Section 8, Chapter 24!

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 Product Manuals

This is where the Implementation Guide says the files are located:


Quote:

2 At the DOS prompt, type progra~1\symantec \ghost\GDisk followed by the required disk and switches. To run GDisk32 in Microsoft Vista, you must run the command prompt as an administrator. To run the command prompt as an administrator 1.  On the taskbar, click Start > All Programs > Accessories, right-click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator. 2.  In the User Account Control dialog box, type the administrator credentials. 3.  Click OK. To run GDisk32.exe 1.  On the Windows taskbar, open a DOS window. 2.  At the DOS prompt, type progra~1\symantec \ghost\GDisk32 followed by the required disk and switches.

Of course, you will not have access to files in DOS to a directory on a NTFS partition unless you have a DOS based NTFS reading utility loaded.

But, I'm sure *GDisk* has to be on the GSS v2.x installation CD somewhere!

Also found this in the Implementation Guide:


Quote:

Getting out of the virtual partition If your client computer is stuck in the virtual partition, you can use the executable Ngctdos.exe to restart your computer back into Windows. To restart your client computer back into Windows: 1.  At the command line, type ngctdos -hide 2.  Press Enter.

GSS v2.x must be using a different recovery program than *ghreboot.exe*!

Thank you so much for all your help!  I will do just that.  I took an image of a computer that needs to go into production as our shipping PC by tomorrow.  I took the image because it is so vital that this computer be recoverable ASAP if a problem occurs.  I started sweating when an error occurred after this and I needed it into production.  

I will follow up with this once I have tried it.

Thanks!

Thanks for all your help.  MBRWIZ did the trick to get back the main partition.  Now, it says that hal.dll is missing.  That's not good.  All because I took an image of a stable system.  I hesitate to continue using Ghost when this kind of stuff occurs.  

THanks.

KDawg44

That error occurs most commonly when your Master Partition Table does not have the partitions in sequential order to match the physical layout of the partitions!

MBRWiz will show you the sequence of how your partitions are listed in the Master Partition Table--non-sequential listing occurs usually if you have made multiple changes in the partition structure over time--or it is a system that had *hidden* utility partitions like what comes on Dell systems, etc.

The *list* command shows the physical layout and the Master Partitiion Table sequence order--if they are not matched, you get the above error--depending on how well Ghost handles (or fails to handle) the situation!

The problem can be *easily* fixed--Ghost tries to *adjust* the *boot.ini* file when you perform a Ghost procedure such as *cloning* direct, disk-to-disk, or when you use an image to clone a backup image to a replacement HDD, etc.--but Ghost does not properly sort out the partition table if the sequence is non-linear--physical layout does not match the Master Partition Table sequence!

MBRWiz has a command to re-order the Master Partition Table.

Or, you can edit the *boot.ini* so the correct partition is listed for booting:

TeraByte Unlimited Freeware--See *EditBini*

Thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately for me I was playing around in the repair console first and thought a bootcfg /rebuild might accomplish a similar thing.

THis caused it to boot but then say it wanted to install windows.  

I then used the fixmbr /sort and rebooted.  Then it gave me the hal missing error again.  I redid the bootcfg /rebuild and it is again booting and saying it wants to install windows.

Is there a way to fix this or should I just push the image that I took back out to the PC?  With the given errors i had, can i be sure that the image was taken correctly?  (it said it was at the server console)

Thanks

KDawg44


Quote:

Is there a way to fix this or should I just push the image that I took back out to the PC?  With the given errors i had, can i be sure that the image was taken correctly?

Not knowing more details of how things are set up--I don't have an answer.

What does MBRWiz show as far as the physical layout vs the sequential listing in the Master Partition Table?

And, what does *EditBini* show for the boot.ini listing as to what partition is supposed to boot Windows?

Quote:

What does MBRWiz show as far as the physical layout vs the sequential listing in the Master Partition Table?

MBRWIZ shows the following listing:

Disk: 0 Size= 76G
Pos  MBRndx  Type/Name  Size  Active  Hide  Start Sector  Sector
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
0             0           07-NTFS       76G    Yes    No     63            156,280,257
1             1           0E-FAT16X    15M   No     No  46,299,330           32,130

Before the MBRWiz /sort the MBRndx was switched.



Quote:

And, what does *EditBini* show for the boot.ini listing as to what partition is supposed to boot Windows?

Editbini for the NTFS partition looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=""
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=""
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

When opening the disk with editbini, it lists the above partition as partition 01 and the FAT16 partition as 02:

[hard drive 0]
MBR Entry 0        partition  (01)     76309 MB   HPFS/NTFS
-VPSGHBOOT--1  partition  (02)          16 MB   FAT-16

Thanks for any and all help.  I am down to crunch time now...

Thanks for your support

I know everything is there because when i boot in with a bootdisk, I can pull up the C drive and see everything there (old directories, WINDOWS directory, so on) but when I boot up, it takes me to an install windows.  It looks like a Windows installer (MSI) screen, not the normal looking windows install.

If I boot into system repair from the Windows CD, can I use something like sfc /scannow to see if some system files were corrupted in all this?  grasping at straws now....

thanks.

KDawg44

Everything *looks* okay--perhaps your previous attempts to recovery has *corrupted* one of the boot files!?

Can you create a *emergency boot floppy for WinXP* using this outline:  How to use System files to create a boot disk to guard against being unable to start Windows XP

It's okay to create the floppy on a different system as long as it is WinXP.

Cut and paste this *generic* boot.ini file content--replace whatever is in the boot.ini file with this:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /SOS

If the above will boot to your OS successfully--then replace your boot files on the HDD with the boot files on the floppy--does that solve the problem?  (I'm grasping at straws too!)

Booting with the floppy unfortunately found the same result.  Its the Setup Windows XP Professional Screen.  It wants me to agree to terms, input a product code, etc.  I of course do not want to reinstall.  Any other suggestions before i try pushing the image that i dont even know if it works (since the problems started right after).

THanks.

KDawg44


Quote:

It wants me to agree to terms, input a product code, etc.

Sounds like you may have inadvertently already initiated a new installation, and Windows has placed an install file asking for the product activation code or something!

I'm afraid I don't know what the status of your system is in at this point--I've never run into what you are dealing with...

THanks for all your help.  Perhaps I should just push the image back.... I appreciate all your time and effort.....

Thanks for the help.  This has been crazy.  Now it will not boot into Windows at all.  It boots up, gives me errors about not being able to load the filesystem, and reboots.  I pushed the image to a different PC to make sure the image was okay and it appears to be fine.  I tried pushing this image back to this computer twice and I still get these unable to boot filesystem.  I am just going to have to swap out the PC.  Does this sound like a hardware failure of any kind? I guess i could reinstall a fresh copy of XP and see what happens to that.  

Thanks for all your help.

KDawg44

If I understand correctly, you are restoring an image that you made from this same machine--if you are able to create an image and restore it without error messages--usually, but not always, of course, then hardware failure is a less likely issue.

Because everything was working fine until you used Ghost and its *virtual partition* routine--I would look at Ghost incompatibility with the virtual partition on that machine set up--so a hardware/software incompatibility.

Have you performed an *Integrity* check on the image set just to be sure Ghost does not report any errors with it?

Because you have been doing a number of procedures that alter the Master Partition Table, etc. in the boot tract--unless you have cleared that problem that may be there--in the default mode, Ghost does not specifically over-write that area if the HDD has prior partitioning present and an existing Master Boot Record.

I would use either MBRWiz or Gdisk to wipe the disk's boot tract--sectors 0 thru 62--before restoring the image to that HDD--this will force Ghost to restore the boot tract when you restore the image and any prior corruption in the boot tract will be gone--i.e. a fresh start from when you created the image.

Because there appears to be a *virtual partition* incompatibility issue--you might want to restore the image using a boot to DOS without using the Windows based Ghost server that is calling the *virtual partition* on the local client.

You could do this a number of ways--the image could be placed on a separate HDD that is then hooked up to the local client as a secondary HDD, and then booted with Ghost boot floppy.  

Or the image could be put on a USB external HDD, and then boot with an appropriate boot disk on the client with USB support.  

You could burn the image to optical media and then boot the client machine and restore from the optical media.  

You could run Ghost32.exe on the source computer under Windows, and boot the client system with a boot disk with peer-to-peer network support and transfer the image peer-to-peer--this also avoids using the *virtual partition*.

Or the client HDD could be installed as a secondary HDD on another system that has the image file, boot to DOS on that system and restore the image to the secondary HDD, and then transfer the destination HDD back to the original system.

Of course--each of the above may have its own issue(s) that you have to work out in terms of getting everything to work correctly.


Quote:

I guess i could reinstall a fresh copy of XP and see what happens to that.

That's a good test to see if there are *other* issues besides how Ghost is performing--but at this point--I'd make sure I wipe the boot tract to all zeroes before proceeding!

Thanks for the advice.  I pushed the image to another PC (same model and everything) and all is working.  However we are doing a few software updates and once that is done, i will need to take a fresh image which I am now nervous about.  I have taken several images of other PCs that are the same model and never had problems until this really important one.  Damn that Murphy!

Thanks for all your help