If you use multiple DVD disks with Ghost to store your HD backup image, as I do, you may encounter the problem I just had during a HD restore session. I use Ghost 9.0 but it would apply to any version of Ghost on any machine.

Recovering from a HD failure (or from any other need to restore) is an anxious time, and when you receive error messages saying that the restore is ended due to read and cycling errors, it can make you anticipate the worst and wonder if there is anything you can do without a major expense and a prolonged search for help.

Before doing anything else, you might try what just saved me from either of those routes.

Clean the disks carefully (use gentle radial strokes) with a lens cleaning fluid and special cloth you can get from an optician's store. (You could probably use Windex and Kleenex but this is a time to be very careful.)

Because the error messages are generated when one disk is in the drive DOES NOT MEAN that it is the one disk that needs cleaning, which is what I first assumed. It turned out to be not so in my case, and I went through more agony before discovering which disk actually needed cleaning.

The only way to be sure that cleaning is (or is not) the problem is to clean them all. It's best to do a 5-minute cleaning as a regular practice at the beginning of any restore session, because on a 60 G HD such a session can last 4 - 5 hours and if it aborts with Ghost, you are all the way back at the beginning and have to start over.

I am one relieved user right now because of finding these things out.

Harold

Probably not an infrequent problem...and one we here have not mentioned very often.  Thanks for sharing your experience!


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It's best to do a 5-minute cleaning as a regular practice at the beginning of any restore session, because on a 60 G HD such a session can last 4 - 5 hours and if it aborts with Ghost, you are all the way back at the beginning and have to start over.

This is the *painful* reason most of us recommend a 2nd internal HDD or at least an external HDD--optical media is really slow!!!  And each new disk needed in a complete image set increases the possibility of failure by 100%!

On my system, an external HDD is 4 times faster than my optical burner, and my internal HDD is at least 8 times faster!

Thanks Harold.

I broke up your large, single block of text into smaller, bite-sized pieces for better readability. Hope you don't mind.

Thanks Rad for making my post much easier to read.

I did want to mention that I have used rewriteable DVD disks (+RW) as HD backup media for several years and have done a number of restores from them without any problems except this one of needing cleaning. It is a slow method compared with a speedier hard drive but it is mostly unattended, just requiring that you check back periodically to change disks. I would like to read others' thoughts on risk, convenience, cost, etc., between this method and other methods.

Harold,

Good to hear from you again. Interesting observation.

I don't write images to DVDs because it's so slow. I'd expect restoring to be slow but you have obviously adjusted to the time frame.

I'd be concerned about storing your images on DVD+/- RW. There are anecdotal reports about their unreliability and I've had two of these discs "die". DVD+/- R are more reliable.

Hello Brian,

Maybe I'm kidding myself but I have felt that if I use the Verify feature in recording the backup DVDs that it will ensure that the image on the disks is without problems and, except for subsequent smudges, etc., that the disks will be read without problems by Ghost in doing a restore. I have read complaints at various sites on the Web that some brands of DVD disks are lower in quality and Ghost sometimes balks at reading them. These factors plus the speed consideration are probably going to lead me to switch to using a backup HDD before long.

There is nothing like the cold reality of a failed restore and the prospect of losing years of work, customized settings, etc., to make one grasp the importance of a very reliable method.

Harold

Harold, I like having my eggs in two baskets. I store some backup images on different media. Most are on my second internal HD but some are copied to an external HD and the rare one is on DVD. Occasionally I backup using a different imaging program.


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There is nothing like the cold reality of a failed restore and the prospect of losing years of work, customized settings, etc., to make one grasp the importance of a very reliable method.

Exactly.