Hi.

I messed up my system by installing Notebook Hardware Control because I wanted to measure the temperature.
After I noticed that this program was bad I tried a System Restore but without luck.
System Restore is not working anymore with none of the restiore points not even in Save Mode.
Then I tried Complete System Restore with the Vista installation DVD and I also tried to restore with Ghost but the CD in both cases goes as far as the Windows loader bar on the black screen and when the loader stops it stays on  
a black screen and nothing happens further.
Please help my by telling me how to get the Vista installation DVD working again or get Norton Ghost CD to boot.
My DVD drive seems to be fine because it's burning and playing files and all but it won't boot all the way through from CD or DVD, the system itself still boots fine

Thanks in advance,
Tommy

cheng



Quote:

Please help my by telling me how to get the Vista installation DVD working again or get Norton Ghost CD to boot.

Did your Vista installation DVD boot successfully in the past?  Or, is this the first time you have tried it?

Does your system need special HDD controller drivers that are not on the installation DVD or Ghost CD by pressing *F6* early in the boot process when a message appears on the bottom of the screen telling you to press *F6* to load those drivers?  That can be common on newer hardware--the newer controller drivers lag behind installation discs fairly often!

The Ghost CD boot program may only allow a floppy disk with those drivers for loading them--the Vista installation DVD may allow loading those drivers from optical media!

Let us know if this helps and how you progress.

.......thanks for your reply.
I'm running this system for a couple of month and it's working well.
Everything is on Vista standards like drivers hardware everything.
I never got a problem to restore Vista Ultimate from the Vista Image Backup before using the Vista installation DVD.
And since Ghost 12 is out I'm using this as a 2nd option.
It was performing nicely as well, even faster than the Vista Image Backup.
As I said, I installed Notebook Hardware Control and made a Restore Point before that.
Right after installation I noticed that it wasn't running well on Vista and uninstalled it.
Then I noticed that my system was very hot, more than usual and I wanted to use the Restore Point but none of them was working.
So I decided for a Norton Recovery but the CD wouldn't boot all the way through.
Same thing with the Vista DVD.
In both cases it boots until right after the green Windows loader bar animation and it stops.
Isn't there a way to get this fixed?
If my system crashes now I can't do nothing.
Hope one of you guys can help out.......thanks again........Tommy.......

cheng


Quote:

I never got a problem to restore Vista Ultimate from the Vista Image Backup before using the Vista installation DVD.

So, you have or have not ever booted to the Vista installation DVD successfully before now?


Quote:

Hope one of you guys can help out.......

You need to re-read my previous post...


Quote:

Does your system need special HDD controller drivers that are not on the installation DVD or Ghost CD by pressing *F6* early in the boot process when a message appears on the bottom of the screen telling you to press *F6* to load those drivers?  That can be common on newer hardware--the newer controller drivers lag behind installation discs fairly often!

If both the Ghost Recovery Disk and the Vista installation disc will not boot--most likely your system requires HDD controller drivers that are not included on those boot discs.  When these two discs are first booting, they display a brief message at the bottom of the screen saying to press *F6* key in order to load needed HDD controller drivers.

What is the make and model of your system--probably the manufacturer's website has the needed drivers--or you may have a drivers system disc that came with the computer system that has those drivers on it.

Ghost usually has to load those special drivers from a floppy disk.  Vista may be able to read those drivers off a floppy, optical drive, or maybe event a USB *thumb* drive!

cheng wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2007 at 12:58pm:

Then I noticed that my system was very hot, more than usual and

cheng,

What do you mean? How was this measured?

.......hi and thanks again to both of your replies.
I did boot from the Vista DVD many times before and the same goes for Norton Ghost 12.
Press F6 when booting was an option in XP but I never seen it while booting from the Vista DVD.
I'ved got 2x160 GB SATA Raid drives in my notebook without Raid enabled and as far as I know there are no special drivers needed but if that's the case definitly is pressing F6 not the option to get them because there is no F6 option in Vista while booting.
My system is an Acer Aspire 9525WSMi and there are no HDD drivers available for this model from the Acer website.
I've asked around but it seems that nobody knows what to do in a case like that.
I thought about flashing the Bios but I'm not comfortable with that because I've got the latest version for it allready.
About your question how to measure the heat.
I just had the feeling that my system was more hot than usual and that's why I nstalled Notebook Hardware Control to measure the exact temperature, the rest is history.
I really don't know what to do next.
Hopefully one of you guys got an idea,
Thanks again.......Tommy.......

Tommy,

So the Ghost 12 CD and the Vista CD booted in the past but not anymore. Your system seemed hotter than normal. Do you have a Diagnostic partition or CD to check your hardware? Which brand laptop?

.......hi again.
Sorry but I don't have a diagnostic CD.
The system seems to run much better now exept a few flaws like System Restore won't work, can't boot from CD or DVD and I noticed that Disk Defragmataion won't open as well.
Attched a zipped PDF file with my system details.
Hope that helps to figure something out.
I created a new Ghost CD which is also adding system drivers that are not present on original CD but while booting from it the same thing as before.
Also I can't beleive that the DVD drive is defekt because it's working in every aspect and it starts to boot as well but not all the way through.
I booted Acronis which is not installed anymore but I wanted to see if the CD boots and it did but it's a different boot procedere than Ghost and Vista as it just boots into the Acronis Recovery Environment and Ghost boots as same as the Vista installation DVD with Loading Files bar on the bottom.
Tried the DVD and CD on another PC and they are ok.
I wonder if I get this fixed myself.
Thanks again.......Tommy.......

---

cheng,

You don't need an OS or even a HD for the Recovery Environment to boot. If you don't have SATA drivers the Recovery Environment still boots but then you can't see the HDs.

I think it's a hardware problem. Can you try Memtest to check your RAM?

http://www.memtest.org/

.......ok will do.
Is it ok to the memtest by booting it fron CD because this is working by the way.
I downloaded the - Memtest86 v3.3 ISO image (zip) from here:
http://www.memtest86.com/
Is this correct and is it normal that this test goes on for hours?
Where I will find the test results afterwards so I can send them to you?
Hope that you can find out from the results was is wrong.......Tommy.......

cheng


Quote:

Is it ok to the memtest by booting it fron CD because this is working by the way.

So, you have booted from the DOS boot CD successfully?!  That's a good sign!


Quote:

Is this correct and is it normal that this test goes on for hours?

If you do not specify the number of times the test runs, it will be continuous until you cancel the process.


Quote:

Where I will find the test results afterwards so I can send them to you?

The results should be listed on the monitor when the test completes, or the continuous testing is canceled--you can then write down the results--or it may offer to save them to a text file--but it might be looking for a floppy disk to save to, and you will not be able to save to the boot CD!

.......memtest86 didn't show any errors and the Vista memory test is fine as well.
What I don't understand is I can boot memtest and I can boot into the Acronis Recovery Environment but Ghost and Vista installation boots only half way through.
The DVD and CD is working fine on another PC and DVD drive plays every file and writes data to CD and DVD etc.
So I don'tthink that the DVD drive is defekt but when I can't boot Vista or Ghost?
I hope you another suggestion on what I can try to fix this........

cheng,

This page is interesting although it doesn't answer your problem.

http://www.ozzu.com/ftopic73477.html

As a test, could you remove the HD from your laptop and try to boot from the Ghost and Vista CDs. If they boot it suggests "something" in the HD is the problem.

I've booted BartPE without a HD but I haven't tried it with a Ghost CD. Maybe it won't work. Try it and see.

I can now confirm that the Ghost 12 CD boots normally with the HD disconnected. The Recovery Environment works as expected although it can't find a HD.

cheng,

Did you pay for your Memtest? The one I posted is free, Memtest86+ ver 1.70, and is the one most people use. It should be run for at least 4 hours or even overnight.

.......I didn't pay for it but I downloaded it from another website and it seems to be a different version.
Anyway I got the version you suggested by now and I'll let it run for at least 4 hours and post back.
From your last posts I 'm getting the feeling that my DVD drive is defekt after all but why it can boot Acronis and memtest but not the Vista installation or Ghost 12.
Also it's working well in every other aspect.
Thanks a lot to all of you for trying to help me get this done.......Tommy.......

Tommy, what problems did Notebook Hardware Control create? I'm not familiar with this app.

Tommy, it's possible Notebook Hardware Control has done something to your HD that interferes with WinPE booting. Both Vista and Ghost 12 are based on WinPE 2. See my earlier link. I still think you should remove your first HD and try booting from the Ghost 12 CD. If the CD boots then we can work out a way to restore your Ghost 12 recovery point.

Hi again.

1st of all I'm certain that NHC caused me all this trouble so I don't recomment it at least not on Vista.
This program measures your core temperature and lots of other stuff.
I should have go just for CoreTemp which is a neat program to measure your core temperature and won't do you any harm.
It's a standalone tiny little program but I made the mistake and went for the more advanced NHC and totaly regret it.

The memtest didn't show any errors and sorry I couldn't save the results.
But I figured something out and that is that my DVD drive is not defekt because I added Norton Ghost onto a USB key and booted from there.
It didn't work on my system but it worked on another PC.
This tells me that not only the USB key boots allright but also that 99% my DVD drive isn't defekt.
That leaves me with my first conclusion to flash the BIOS but I won't do this myself.
I made an appointment with Acer and let them flash the BIOS because if the motherboard gets messed up in the process they have to take responsibility.
If someone of you guys have a better solution please let me know because if I can avoid to flash the BIOS I will.
Thanks again for all your help.
I really do appreciate it.

Tommy

PS.
I'll take my C:\ drive out of the notebook right now and then try to boot from CD again with only my other backup drive in it and if that also goes bad I take them out both and let you know the outcome.
But I think if I' right about the BIOS it probably won't boot even without the hard drives.

.......in addition to the message above.

You were right !!

I took out my C:\ drive and the Vista DVD booted right away.
The way I see it, now I need to formate my hard drive somehow so I can boot the Ghost CD and restote a backup to the formated C:\ drive or is there another way to do it.
The way it looks like flashing the BIOS wouldn't fixed it as well.
Hope you can help me out on how to procede.

Thanks a lot for your expertise.......Tommy.......

Tommy, I wonder if this will work. Change your usual second HD to the first HD position. Put your usual first HD in the second HD position. Boot to the Ghost 12 CD. Restore your recovery point to the OS partition on the new second HD (your old first HD).

You don't need to format prior to this procedure.


Quote:

tick Verify recovery point before restore tick Check for file system errors after recovery put a dot in Primary partition tick Set drive active (for booting OS)

Don't reboot. Swap HDs back to the original positions. Boot.

.......ok thanks.
I'll try this out and post back.......

cheng wrote on Jul 25^th, 2007 at 12:48am:

.......ok thanks. I'll try this out and post back.......

Tommy, Please do keep us all informed! It would be great to see the issue resolved.


Brian wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2007 at 10:37pm:

... Both Vista and Ghost 12 are based on WinPE 2. ...

I was thinking along the same lines as Brian. The thing in common with the two DVDs that won't boot is the new(ish) WinPE 2.0 Operating System, which is a scaled-down version of Vista designed to load entirely into RAM. I have read of quite a few cases where people have suffered a "black screen" with a functioning white Pointer when booting WinPE 2.0 - whether from DVD or USB Flash Drive. Like so many problems posted on the Web, there does not seem to be a reliable resolution. (This WebSite is different...   ;) )

I know very little about boot management in Vista. And I don't think that I am alone in this. I have found someone who knows what they are talking about, and who seems determined to get to the bottom of booting with Vista.

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/       [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Well written, but extremely heavy going for a noob like me! I have read it and re-read it... it's not sinking in!  :-[  And I have no idea if the information would be helpful in the current situation.

Here's a sample of some of the confusion around:

Quote:

You say Tomato Microsoft calls the partition with the boot files the System partition, and the partition with the operating system the Boot partition. Everyone else refers to them exactly the other way round. The boot files on the boot partition. The operating system on the system partition.

Have a read...

To all reading this thread

Any thoughts on what change(s) can be made to a HDD that freezes the ability to boot to a WinPE based installation or recovery disc?

This is a *bad* situation--if you can't boot a recovery disc--wonder if this happens to the BartPE and its variants as well?

Does the Vista installation disc have the *Recovery Console* like the old WinXP--so this would prevent booting to the *Recovery Console* as well!!!

Can anyone confirm if the Vista installation disc has a similar *Recovery Console* function like WinXP?

Any insights would be welcomed!

Hi Everybody.

Sorry for posting back late but my notebook is with Acer.
Had to get a new one to work with and set it up before doing other things with it.
Acer is puzzled as well about the issue.
I was working 5 hours with the guy and then I left it there.
A BIOS flash didn't do it and I have no idea what it is because we put in a brand new hard drive and this didn't solved the problem as well.
As soon as I know what caused it I'll let you guys know.
Thanks again for all your help, I really do appreciate it.
It seems to me that most of the guys here are not quiet that familiar with Vista as yet.
It's a great OS and I'm not sure that Vista got anything to do with this but we will know for sure soon I hope.

Thanks again.

So long,
Tommy

Tommy, we are very interested in the outcome.

To summarize.

With both HDs installed, your computer used to boot to the Vista CD.

"Something" happened recently and your computer would not boot to the Vista CD with both HDs installed.

However your computer would boot to the Vista CD if the primary HD was removed.

But your computer would not boot to the Vista CD with a blank HD in the primary HD position.

Is this information accurate?

.......not entirely correct.

With both HDs installed, my computer used to boot to the Vista DVD or Ghost CD.
I made a mistake about the drives and found out at Acer that the hard drive which is causing the problem wasn't the primary C:\ drive it was the secondary drive, which is strange as it got nothing to do with the booting I beleive.
Switching the secondary drive to a brand new one didn't help.
While I was switching the drives myself I forgot to boot Vista as I was only concerned with booting from DVD drive but the guy at Acer did and Vista was booting with the primary drive in the other slot but still no boot from the DVD drive if both drives were unserted.
Boot from DVD was only possible with the secondary drive removed which makes me beleive my hard drive is not defekt as well.
Flashing the BIOS didn't help.
Looks like a hardware problem to me (Motherboard maybe?) but I'm not sure of anything anymore in this case.
Anyway as soon as I know what it was you guys are the 1st to know.

Tommy

Tommy,

In Reply #19 you wrote..


Quote:

I took out my C:\ drive and the Vista DVD booted right away

Did you have both HDs removed?

.......yes and I'm sorry but I made a mistake.
It wasn't the C:\ drive and no I didn't tried with both drives removed.
Today is a public holiday in Thailand so I can't reach Acer but tommorrow I'll call them up to see if they found the problem.
I'm interested myself and I want my notebook back.
Right now I'm using the new flagship Acer notebook but I must say that my previous version rig was running faster even though the new one got the new Core 2 Duo 7300 processor.
Anyway, as soon as I got details I'm back in here.......Tommy.......

NightOwl wrote on Jul 25^th, 2007 at 9:40am:

Does the Vista installation disc have the *Recovery Console* like the old WinXP--so this would prevent booting to the *Recovery Console* as well!!! Can anyone confirm if the Vista installation disc has a similar *Recovery Console* function like WinXP?

In Vista the "recovery console" (aka "Repair Your Computer" in Vista) is part of the F8 boot option, already installed, so you don't need a working dvd drive to access it.  There are more F8 boot options, as explained here:

What are the system recovery options in Windows Vista?

You can also boot from the Vista dvd and select the "Repair Your Computer" option.  The repair options and tools are slightly different from XP.

.......to clear uo a few things as far as I know.
The whole boot process has changed compared to XP.
Then the Recovery Console is not there anymore.
This has also changed and to repair your boot manager in Vista by choosing F8 is not always available.
Recovery Console in XP was only available if you activated it from inside Windows XP as far as I remember.
To enter Repair Your PC via F8 is available on preinstalled versions like I have it on my new Home Premium notebook right now but it wasn't available on the notebook with the problem where I got rid of the preinstalled Home Premium and replaced it with Ultimate.
Then the Repair Your PC option was only available while booting the Vista DVD but I think it can be activated that this is available via F8 as well from inside Vista but I'm not sure about that.
Anyway, many things are different in Vista and many old things like in XP are changed after giving them a new makeup.
I'm not so good explaing these things but one thing is for sure and that is that you have to work with Vista a while to get the hang of it.
I'll post back tomorrow and let you guys know what Acer came up with.......Tommy.......

Tommy,

Any update for us?

Hi.

Sorry, that I did not get back to you earlier but I was out of town without internet.
My laptop ist still with Acer and I've been told that the motherboad is defekt.
Now they have to get a new one from Germany because this notebook with 2 separate HD's is only available over there.
I for myself still can't figure it out because windows was running with one drive removed and also was booting from CD/DVD with only one drive.
The drive that was removed was the secondary one not the master slave.
I recon that you guys know better if it is possible that it is realy the motherboard or not.
As soon as I get the machine back I'll share all the details with you.
For now I'm using the latest Acer 5920 -Gemstone.
It's a nice rig but my other one was faster and I hope to have it back soon and working again as it was.
Until then thanks for all your concern and help.

Tommy

Ghost4me


Quote:

In Vista the "recovery console" (aka "Repair Your Computer" in Vista) is part of the F8 boot option, already installed, so you don't need a working dvd drive to access it.  There are more F8 boot options... You can also boot from the Vista dvd and select the "Repair Your Computer" option.  The repair options and tools are slightly different from XP.

Thanks for the information.

A member in the Acronis True Image forum experienced a similar problem. He couldn't boot to the Vista CD after installing a different video card (new drivers too). All other CDs booted OK but he wasn't a Ghost 12 user. The Vista CD booted when he reinstalled the original video card.

Strange how hardware changes can prevent certain CDs from booting.