I have ghost version 2003.793. I have a Dell 1501 laptop with 80 gig SATA drive partitioned 60 nfts/ 20 fat32. I understand the problems with earlier versions of the 03 ghost with SATA drives so that is why I upgraded. I have used ghost many times with great success. When I try to backup to the 20 gig partition the computer shuts down and ghost trys to start then stalls at black screen. I can finally get it back to windows and ghost of course shows errors. I know this subject probably has come up here but I could not find the correct fix. The computer has the AMD CPU if that makes any difference.  I have tested the Hard drive and it tests good. Does anyone know the fix? after I have already upgraded this version to .793 . td

@ tdee

Just a few questions to help us understand your system.

How much Free Space is present in the C: drive?

How much Free Space is present in the FAT 32 partition?

In Disk Management, are there any hidden partitions?

Do you have a bootable Ghost CD or USB flash drive?

Thanks for your reply.
I included a picture of what shows in disk management
C: 42.17 gigs free  NTFS
D: 25.68 gigs free FAT 32
No hidden partitons
I do not have a bootable CD or flash drive but I can make one if that is whats needed. I assume that option is available in my version
Let me tell you about this computer. It did have the D drive with dells PC restore. The computer got a bad trojan that messed up the boot files and I could not use the F8 option to get PC Restore to work. It worked perfect before the trojan. It would get error when trying to use the factory image restore. I got tired of trying to fix it so I just wiped it clean and started over. I did as I always do with the partition thing and used D to for my ghost backup. It just will not get past the black screen. I am using the pc now to post here and like I said it works great. I just need to make n Image because I know my friend will trash this system in no time ::)

---

Thanks. That is extremely helpful.

I'd make a Ghost CD and try running Ghost from DOS rather than initiating the app from Windows.

http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/bootcdintro.html

That seems a little hard to do. Is there a better way of doing this or can I just buy a boot disk? I have probably used Ghost 100 times and never once had to do this. I though the updated version of 2003 would address the SATA problems? I have done this before on laptops almost like this and never had this problem before? Anyway thanks for you link on this, maybe I can figure this out, if not I will just leave it without a backup. Td

@ tdee


tdee wrote on Aug 31^st, 2010 at 3:56pm:

That seems a little hard to do.

If the laptop HD fails you will need a boot disk anyway to restore the image. So it is essential.

Do you have a bootable flash drive? If so, just copy ghost.exe to the flash drive.

I have a 8 gig usb drive. I will have to format it but I assume it will work. How would I copy the ghost.exe to it?
 

One of the old 32 MB flash drives is ideal. If you have one. I've had no success using Diskpart to create a bootable DOS flash drive. I like the HP tool and Google should find it. After creating the bootable drive you then need to add DOS files and ghost.exe.

NightOwl's guide is the easier way.

Like tdee I too have used Ghost 2003 for several years with no problems, but beginning a couple of years ago I had the occasional problem when starting Ghost from Windows.  Then I made a Ghost boot CD, and I've never had a problem running Ghost for the boot CD.

Like Brain says you'll need a boot CD, flash drive or floppy in case of OS failure to boot.  I also used NightOwl's guide to make a bootable flash drive which I found very easy to do.

@ Tator


Tator wrote on Sep 1^st, 2010 at 2:23pm:

used NightOwl's guide to make a bootable flash drive

Did you use the HP tool or another method?

Ok, I tried making a bootable CD and it booted but I got write protect error writing to drive A
Abort , Retry , Fail?
I can hit the A key and I get A:ghost.exe and then it goes to about norton ghost
I hit OK
I see Local
options
quit
I click Local, Partition, to Image and I see this
Select local drive source drive by clicking the drive number
I only see one
I click it
I see select source partitons from basic drive :1
I choose 1 Primary
I got to next windows and I see file name to copy image to
Under Look in I cannot see my D partition
I can only choose 1:1 NTFS
CD-R1 TssT corp CDRWDVD
A: Local drive
B:Local drive
C:Local drive

Where did I go wrong?
Tdee

tdee wrote on Sep 1^st, 2010 at 7:00pm:

I see select source partitons from basic drive :1 I choose 1 Primary

On this window do you also see

2 Logical 0b Fat32 extd Backup..........

I think I've worked it out. As your Backup partition is FAT32 it is showing in Ghost as C:Local drive

Try a backup to C:Local drive and when you boot into WinXP you should see the .gho files in your D: drive.

If D: drive had been NTFS it would have appeared in Ghost as 1:2 NTFS

I have nothing on the D drive so let me format it as NTFS and see if that works. Tdee

I prefer NTFS.

Well now I show 1:2 NTFS drive
I am doing the image now but I do not have a clue this is going to work. My Source partition is NTFS
49999 MB, 7438 used, no name from local drive 1
Destination file is Local file 1:2 today(that is what I named it).GHO
I hope it works

Ok, it worked. I now show three icons in the d drive that are ghost related. Now how would I transfer the boot files from the CD I made to my USB thumb drive?
  This is cool as how it works also. I want to thank you so much. Could I now restore in windows or would I have to still use the boot disk. I know the answer is probably boot disk but wanted to ask anyway. Tdee

tdee wrote on Sep 1^st, 2010 at 8:00pm:

to my USB thumb drive?

Find the HP tool, make your flash drive bootable and get back to us.


tdee wrote on Sep 1^st, 2010 at 8:00pm:

Could I now restore in windows or would I have to still use the boot disk.

Only the boot disk.

I have the utility on my hard drive now. What next?  thanks again

---

Stand by. I have a better way to make the Ghost USB flash drive. First you need to fix your CD. I just made a NightOwl CD and I don't get those errors. Mine boots directly to Ghost. Check your method.

I will try and see where I messed up. It works but I did not get the ghost.exe like you did. I will double check my work and maybe I can see where I goofed up

I forgot to mention the mouse would not work. Not sure what I did wrong there but I will see. tdee

After you have sorted it out, download

BBIE v1.0 from http://www.nu2.nu/bbie/

MKBISO from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm#mkbiso

grub4dos-0.4.4-2009-06-20.zip from http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/


EDIT..... What is the drive letter of your CD drive?

@ tdee

Are you ready for the bootable USB flash drive instructions?

I finally got a CD thats works with mouse support. This is so cool. I am ready for more instructions on the flash drive. THANKS THANKS THANKS
also E is my CD drive letter
I have not yet downloaded the programs. I guess I got so excited about the ghost.exe working in dos I forgot. ;D

Ok, I have the programs downloaded. Waiting for more great instructions. Tdee

@ tdee

I think the following is better than the HP tool method. You can have multiple ISO files on the one flash drive. Each being booted from the menu.

Create a new folder containing these 3 files

bbie.exe
bbie.lic
MKBISO.EXE

Create a New Text Document (Notepad) in this folder and copy/paste/save this into the document

bbie X:
ren image1.bin nightowl.bin
mkbiso nightowl.iso nightowl.bin
del nightowl.bin

Change X: to your CD drive letter. As your CD drive letter is E: change X: to E:    So your first line would be bbie E:

Rename New Text Document.txt to makeusb.bat. Accept the warning.

Now you have 4 files in the folder.
Put your NightOwl CD in the CD drive
Double click makeusb.bat and a few seconds later you will have..

NIGHTOWL.ISO (in the same folder)

After you have prepared your USB flash drive, NIGHTOWL.ISO will be copied to the drive.

Now to prepare the flash drive. See http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php

MudCrab is one of our members. In Section 1 you have already downloaded and unzipped Grub4DOS - ver. 4.4 2009-06-20 . Don't get the Official Release.
Download Installer (ver 1.1)
Follow the instructions in Section 1.

Ignore Section 2. In Section 3, start at "Second, create the Grub4DOS menu.lst file with the entry to start...."   

Instead of downloading MudCrab's menu.lst file, copy/paste/save the following text into a New Text Document.txt and rename it to menu.lst



timeout 10
default 0

title NightOwl boot CD
map --mem (hd0,0)/NIGHTOWL.ISO (hd32)
map --hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title CommandLine
commandline

title Reboot
reboot

title Halt
halt


Now copy NIGHTOWL.ISO and menu.lst to the flash drive. grldr should already be there.

Boot from the flash drive, choose "NightOwl boot CD" (up/down keyboard arrows and press ENTER) and Ghost will open. What do you think?

It may take me a while to do this. I will be back and let you know. Thank
tdee

In Ghost, the flash drive appears as Drive 1. The internal HD is Drive 2.

Here is something useful to add to the flash drive when you are ready. The Ubuntu Netbook Edition ISO (rename the downloaded file to ubuntu.iso)
http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

Put this in menu.lst

title Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition
find --set-root /ubuntu.iso
map /ubuntu.iso (0xff)
map --hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper persistent iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso splash initrd /casper/initrd.lz

You can surf the internet from your USB flash drive even if there is no HD in the computer. In addition, you can see all your Windows files and folders as Ubuntu is a full OS.

For others using NightOwl's tutorial and who have made a 'bootcdp1.ima' file.

Another way of making a CD from this file (and getting a NIGHTOWL.ISO) is....

Download these 2 files from http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm

BURNCDCD
MKBISO

Put them in a new folder. Copy bootcdp1.ima to the same folder. Create a batch file containing this text in the same folder...

@ECHO OFF
COLOR 0A
CLS
echo Don't insert CD-R/RW disc until after clicking "Start"
echo The CD tray opens after you click "Start"
echo.
mkbiso nightowl.iso bootcdp1.ima
burncdcc.exe /O /F /V /S=8 /I=nightowl.iso

Double click your batch file and you will create..

NIGHTOWL.ISO and a NightOwl boot CD.

Brian, it worked great. I now have a USB Boot drive. I want to thank you for all this great help. I could have never got this done without it. Thanks again and I will probably be back asking questions. tdee

@ tdee

Excellent. I'm pleased I could help.