My system is Windows XP Home.  My backup is Ghost 2003.

When I first started up my computer I performed backups as I went along and stored them in hard drive #2.  Now I need the space on the hard drive and I would like to move the backups to DVD’s.

I transferred the 4 files from one of the backups to two DVD’s.  Then I booted up with the floppy to the DOS program and tried to verify.  The files on the hard drive verified OK, but the files on the DVD’s produced an error box which stated that they were not created with Ghost and would not verify.

Am I trying do something that can’t be done?  I would appreciate help or suggestions.

Stu Culp

It makes NO difference where you store the image files,,,,,moving and storing them won't change them, but to ever do a restore from them, they first need to be copied back to a hard drive.

Take this scenario for instance:
You have just one HD but its partitioned into two parts.
You make a ghost image and save it to the second part.
Now you copy that image to a DVD for safe keeping.
So far so good.

Later, the hard drive crashes and you have to install an new HD.

FDISK and format the new HD into two partitions, like the old drive.
In DOS, you can copy the files from the DVD back to the second part.
I'd do all this with a boot floppy made on a Windows ME system.
Then boot up again with your Ghost boot disk, locate the old Ghost files and restore them.

I've actually done this so I know it works.  

Where you put those Ghost backup files for safe keeping is up to you and what hardware you have available.  

Good luck and Happy Ghosting,

Shadow  8-)

sdculp


Quote:

When I first started up my computer I performed backups as I went along and stored them in hard drive #2. I transferred the 4 files from one of the backups to two DVD’s.  Then I booted up with the floppy to the DOS program and tried to verify.  The files on the hard drive verified OK, but the files on the DVD’s produced an error box which stated that they were not created with Ghost and would not verify.

You must have booted to DOS Ghost without using the boot disk that load DOS drivers that assign a DOS drive letter to your optical drive.

If you first create your images to a HDD, and later use a third party burning program to place those images on an optical disc(s), then DOS Ghost, which has built-in drivers to access the optical drives that it recognizes, will *choke* on those files because they were not burned by Ghost directly to the optical disc--you can tell you are using Ghost's built-in drivers if your optical drive is listed in the *select a source drive* drop down box after the *@CD.....your drives name* designation.

Go to the Ghost Boot Wizard and create the two floppy boot disk set *CD/DVD Startup Disk with Ghost*.  This boot disk set should load DOS drivers for you optical drive that assign a DOS drive letter to the optical drive.  Now, you should be able to access those image files on the optical disc by choosing the optical drive by its drive letter in that source drop down selection box.

Thanks for the responses.  Gives me a lot of info to work on.

Stu

The original boot floppy made by Ghost used (I think) DRDos.
In my own Ghost boot floppy, I used a floppy disk made on a Windows ME PC.
When ME makes a boot floppy, it automatically puts the CD rom drivers on the disk.
Then I just removed the other BS it puts on there and added Ghost.exe, Mouse.com and my cleanup batch files and I've got a Ghost boot disk far superior to the original one made by Ghost.

Just a thought.

Shadow  8-)

The more I mess with Ghost 2003 the more it seems like I shouldn’t mess with it at all—just use it in the simplest way and not push my luck.  For instance:

If I make the “Standard Ghost Boot Disk”, everything seems to work as it should but for a couple of screwy things:  If I wanted to use MS-DOS instead of PC-DOS (Push the “Get MS-DOS” button)  (I don’t really know why I should, so I just take the default) the instructions say “Please ensure that a Win95 or Win-98 system-formatted floppy disk is inserted into the A: drive.  Disks formatted by other operating systems are not supported.”  If I try to continue, I get the message “The version of MSDOS supplied is not suitable for using with Norton Ghost.  Please insert a floppy containing MSDOS from either Win95 or Win98”.  So, I guess whatever version of MSDOS that is in Windows XP is not  suitable—maybe because of the NTDS file system?  So if I put an old copy of MSDOS on the floppy, why would I want to “Get MS_DOS”?  And if I had it, what would I do with it”.  All this seems to make Ghost too complicated.  I went ahead and created the boot floppy and then transferred it to a bootable CD and it worked OK.  Except that:---

The verification program only recognized one of my CD/DVD drives.  All my other software recognizes both of them.  All I need is one recognized, but why doesn’t it recognize both?  I haven’t tried to make backups with both drives yet—don’t know whether that will make it recognize both, but I doubt it.  Messing around with various kinds of backups and experiments takes a lot of time!!!  Also, as before, it wouldn’t verify a file on DVD because “it was not created with Ghost”.

So, then, what I tried to  do is  use the “CD/DVD Startup Disk With Ghost”  method.  The implication here is that it will create a CD or DVD disk for use with backups which were not made using DVD’s—in other words,  a backup file which was transferred  from HDD to DVD.  It doesn’t create a CD or DVD.  It creates two floppies instead.  I tried transferring them to a bootable CD as in the “Standard Ghost Boot Disk” approach and it would not work at all.  Probably because each floppy has it’s own Autoexec.bat file, or whatever.  Anyway, I tried booting up with the two floppies and after showing more errors of the “can’t find” variety than I care to list it finally came up with the DOS screen.  But with this method it didn’t recognize either one of the CD/DVD drives.  So much for that method.

I guess Ghost 2003 was created before NTDS and CD/DVD’s were in common use.  And, of course, unless you specify a floppy drive you don’t even get one with your computer these days, so that doesn't help matters.  I haven’t had good luck with Acronis at all—too many bugs.  Maybe I would be better off if I went to Ghost 12, although folks in the Ghost 12 forum don't seem all that happy.

I would appreciate any comments you might have regarding the above experiences and also your opinions of Ghost 12.

Stu Culp

to copy the images on the DVD you need to boot with a windows 98 boot floppy
http://www.postbox.wanadoo.co.uk/benwin98boot.exe
then choose option 1 ->Cd rom support
once you get to A:| prompt
take the floppy out and put the floppy with ghost.exe
in floppy drive (assuming it is on the root of floppy
type
ghost and enter on key board
this time ghost
from drop down list will see 2 Cd rom drives one with @ sign in front
which is internal drivers and as Night Owl explained ghost.exe do not like it
as images were made on HDD
but if you choose the other cd rom drive(which is physically the same)
and drivers has been installed by (Oak MS) it will show the images and
will recover them from CD/DVD(note only ghost 8 can see DVD also 7.5 can see DVD
not previous versions.
try if and just before confirming restore back down
then you see if it is true or not .

regards Ben
:)

Thanks, Ben,

I hate to sound lame, but is the exe file to be opened in Windows and the contents transferred to a floppy or is it to be opened in a floppy?

Stu

you can use any windows 98 SE Boot Disk make one up if you still got some system with win 98 OS on.

the one i have posted the link to is an image
you down load it to desk top on XP
then have a formatted floppy handy
then double click on icon on desk top to make a win 98 bootable floppy.
boot with that floppy

:)