Ghost 2003: Cloning the Entire C: Drive to Another Drive’s G: Partition Gives Error Message, “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services encountered a problem and needed to close”

Bought the PC below with the 80 GB C: drive on it. The C: drive has XP Pro, Service Pack 3 already installed and seems to work fine.

Installed, partitioned and formatted the new 1.5 TB drive as below and want to clone the C: drive onto the new drive’s G: partition. 

The cloning process seems to work OK and the image is installed on the G: partition successfully.

After a Shut Down, use the menu from the Windows boot.ini file on the C: drive to select the G: partition to boot from.  The boot up into XP Pro on the G: partition seems to work. 

But then, always get the same error message:

“Generic Host Process for Win32 Services encountered a problem and needed to close”

Do not get that error message when booting from the original C: drive.


How to clone the C: drive to the G: partition without getting the ‘Generic Host Processor...” error message when you boot up from G:?


Thanks very much for your help.


Dell Precision 470 Workstation
3.2 GHertz, 2 GB RAM
XP Pro, Service Pack 3

Seagate SATA 80 GB
  C: drive         80 GB  XP Pro OS and data

Seagate SATA 1.5 TB
  G:  NTFS            40 GB  XP Pro OS
  H:  FAT32           30 GB  Ghost images
  I:   FAT32      30 GB  Ghost images
  H:  NTFS   1,297 GB  data

Hello AnotherUser,
welcome to RADIFIED!


Quote:

The cloning process seems to work OK and the image is installed on the G: partition successfully.

That's a bit unclear. Are you cloning C: directly to G: or are you creating an Image (disk-to-image or partition-to-image) of C: and then restore the Image to G:?

@ AnotherUser


Quote:

After a Shut Down, use the menu from the Windows boot.ini file on the C: drive to select the G: partition to boot from.  The boot up into XP Pro on the G: partition seems to work.

As you have noted, this setup *seems* to work--but, your original WinXP's registry that you cloned to G still has all it's references to the *C* drive--if you remove that drive--or it's contents--I think you will not be able to boot from your cloned copy of WinXP--the registry of your *G* copy will still be pointing to original *C* instance of WinXP!

Here's a possible answer from a Google search--but I have no personal experience to offer:  How to Fix "Generic Host Process For Win32 Services Encountered A Problem and needs to close."

Make sure your data is backed up and/or you have a system *restore* point to revert back to if the *fix* doesn't work!

Let us know if it helps!

@ AnotherUser

I did a simulation of your method. The new WinXP loaded but I also received, “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close”.

I agree with NightOwl. You have broken the first rule of cloning and have a "schizophrenic" system.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

Christer wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2010 at 5:34am:

Quote: The cloning process seems to work OK and the image is installed on the G: partition successfully. That's a bit unclear. Are you cloning C: directly to G: or are you creating an Image (disk-to-image or partition-to-image) of C: and then restore the Image to G:?

Sorry for the lack of clarity. 

Have tried the following with the same result each way:

1.  clone the C: partition directly to the G: partition

2.  create a Ghost image file of the C: partition and save it to a FAT 32 partition on the new drive (either H: or I:), then use Ghost to clone the image file onto the G: partition.

As you will have two identical WinXP, the only way to avoid a schizophrenic system is to use a third party boot manager (not the Microsoft boot.ini method) and hide each OS from the other. That way each OS will be C: drive when it is booted.

Before you use Ghost, while you are still in WinXP, delete the G: partition. The old XP must know there is no partition with a drive letter in the space for the future new XP. In Ghost, do a partition to partition clone to the unallocated space. Don't boot either WinXP until the boot manager is set up.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm

@ AnotherUser


Quote:

use the menu from the Windows boot.ini file on the C: drive to select the G: partition to boot from

I'm curious--did you manually edit the *boot.ini* file to add a menu choice that pointed to the second HDD, 1st partition?

What is your actual goal here?  Are you wanting to transfer your WinXP to the new larger HDD, and remove the old HDD--or keep the old HDD as a second HDD on the system--but, not the *main* HDD?  Or, are you wanting to have two instances of WinXP on the same system and keeping the old HDD and copy of WinXP in place?

I don't know the answer--but, given this current setup--when booting from the *G* WinXP--which is depending on the *C* WinXP files--when you make registry changes (i.e. settings changes) using the *G* WinXP--I assume those changes are written to the *G* WinXP registry--but are there changes being made to the files on the *C* WinXP because the *G* WinXP registry entries point to the *C* WinXP files?

My point being--when you later boot to the *C* WinXP--will some of its files now reflect changes that you made earlier when booted to the *G* WinXP?

And, after making changes in the *C* WinXP settings--will those show up when booted to the *G* WinXP once again?

@ AnotherUser


Quote:

Seagate SATA 1.5 TB   G:  NTFS            40 GB  XP Pro OS   H:  FAT32           30 GB  Ghost images   I:   FAT32           30 GB  Ghost images   H:  NTFS        1,297 GB  data

You do realize, that having your Ghost images saved on the same HDD that your OS is on, reduces your *safety net* considerably!  If the HDD dies, you also loose all those images with it!  You will only have half the benefit of making image backups--i.e. able to restore images if you have a corrupted system.  But, if the old HDD dies--you will not be able to restore those images from the old HDD to a new HDD and be up and running.

NightOwl wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2010 at 8:53am:

Here's a possible answer from a Google search--but I have no personal experience to offer:How to Fix "Generic Host Process For Win32 Services Encountered A Problem and needs to close." Make sure your data is backed up and/or you have a system *restore* point to revert back to if the *fix* doesn't work! Let us know if it helps!

Thanks for your reply.

Based on Brian’s being able to duplicate the “Generic Host Process For Win32 Services” error message on his system, decided to postpone the possible repair above and pursue fixing the "schizophrenic" system error.  Plan to keep the repair in mind for possible use as needed later...

NightOwl wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2010 at 8:56am:

I'm curious--did you manually edit the *boot.ini* file to add a menu choice that pointed to the second HDD, 1st partition?

Yes, the boot.ini file on the C: drive was manually edited here.  It currently is

[boot loader]
timeout=60
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Pro, new" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Pro, original" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

NightOwl wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2010 at 8:56am:

What is your actual goal here?

Good question. 

1- The overall goal is to use the C: partition’s OS and its already installed device drivers on the new G: partition.  This would save doing a new install of XP Pro on G:

The new drive will be the main drive to boot from and for storing data.

2- Keep the original 80 GB drive as a backup OS if needed.

Would of course like to have the OS on the new G: partiton completely independent of the contents of the original C: drive once all is set up.

In a sense, these seem to be simple goals,  But the implementation appears to be tricky...

Brian wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2010 at 2:08pm:

I did a simulation of your method. The new WinXP loaded but I also received, “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close”. I agree with NightOwl. You have broken the first rule of cloning and have a "schizophrenic" system. http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

Thanks for doing the simulation.  It’s a relief to hear that it’s a problem with how the cloning is being done, rather than some more dire problem with the PC itself.


Brian wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2010 at 3:40am:

the only way to avoid a schizophrenic system is to use a third party boot manager (not the Microsoft boot.ini method) and hide each OS from the other. That way each OS will be C: drive when it is booted.

Is there a third party boot manager you particularly like or would care to recommend?  Have not actually used one so far.

Sounds as if the boot.ini method won’t work because the two OS partitions are not hidden from one another, as they would be with a third party boot manager?

NightOwl wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2010 at 9:13am:

You do realize, that having your Ghost images saved on the same HDD that your OS is on, reduces your *safety net* considerably!

Quite right.

Once the new drive is fully running, all apps installed (or maybe sooner), plan to repartition the old drive.  It would have an NTFS partition for the OS and any data and two 30 GB FAT 32 partitions to receive Ghost image files for backup from the new, large drive, hopefully resulting in a better “safety net”, as you say.

@ AnotherUser

I use and recommend BootIt NG. There is a 30 day trial period and if you decide to purchase I suggest spending a few more $ and getting the Bundle. It is well worth the $.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm

Instructions on how to install BootIt NG, clone WinXP and multi-boot are here...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/index.htm

A free boot manager is XOSL and here is a recent thread...

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1282694439/0

I prefer BootIt NG.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Brian wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2010 at 11:40pm:

I use and recommend BootIt NG. There is a 30 day trial period and if you decide to purchase I suggest spending a few more $ and getting the Bundle. It is well worth the $.

Thank you for your recommendation.

Just now found a copy of Norton PartitionMagic 8.0 hidden away here, which includes a copy of BootMagic.

Is BootMagic worth considering or not really?  Would value your view very much.

@ AnotherUser

Yes, BootMagic should work. It is fairly basic but I think it can boot an OS on the second HD. I used it years ago without problems.

Edit.. This is from the Readme.


Quote:

1. Installing under Windows 2000/Windows XP ------------------------------------------- When Installing BootMagic from Windows 2000 or Windows XP, it is recommended that you install to a FAT16 partition.  If you install to a FAT32 partition, the rescue diskettes will not see the BootMagic partition.  If you do install to a FAT32 partition, you can create rescue diskettes from a Windows 98 or Windows Me machine; then the disks will see the FAT32 BootMagic partition correctly. 2. Booting from Secondary Hard Disks ------------------------------------ To boot from a partition that is not on the first hard disk, you must enable advanced partition hiding.  When you select this option, BootMagic hides all primary partitions except for the one you are booting from.  This option is turned off by default. To enable advanced partition hiding, click Options > Advanced Partition Hiding from the BootMagic configuration program.

So it should be fine.

@ AnotherUser

Brian is probably going to respond soon--but, what Ghost procedure are you attempting?  Disk to Disk, or partition to disk, or partition to partition?

So you know, Ghost 2003 has a size limit of just over 1 terabytes--so it will not correctly work with a 1.5 TB HDD!  So, the TeraByte imaging program may be your best way to go given you HDD size!

You do not need a boot manager for what you appear to want to do:


Quote:

1- The overall goal is to use the C: partition’s OS and its already installed device drivers on the new G: partition.  This would save doing a new install of XP Pro on G: The new drive will be the main drive to boot from and for storing data. 2- Keep the original 80 GB drive as a backup OS if needed.

You just need to delete all the partitions that are on the new 1.5 TB HDD.  Use Ghost to do a direct clone of the 80 GB HDD to the 1.5 TB HDD  (disk to disk)--make sure you don't go the wrong way!  Tell Ghost to make the destination size whatever size you want the new WinXP to be on the 1.5 TB HDD.

Now, remove the old HDD, and place the new 1.5 TB HDD in place of the old one.  Should boot.  Once booted, use WinXP's disk management to partition the rest of the 1.5 TB HDD the way you want.

Still some confusion here. You only need a boot manager if you plan on having two WinXP in your computer. That's what I thought you wanted.

Brian wrote on Oct 24^th, 2010 at 1:49am:

Still some confusion here. You only need a boot manager if you plan on having two WinXP in your computer. That's what I thought you wanted.

Yes, that's what I'm hoping to do.  Even though the two OS partitions may wind up being about the same, having the ability to boot into a good OS on each hard drive seems like a nice amount of backup to have...

Yes, I like multiple OS in the one computer. I have 3 WinXP, 4 Win7, etc, etc.

I was just playing around with Ghost 2003 partition to partition. I'd forgotten that you can only clone to unallocated space if the whole target HD is unallocated space. If a partition is present the remaining unallocated space can't be used as the target.

You can however clone to a partition without a drive letter (previously removed in WinXP) and this gets around the drive letter issue we have been discussing.

So recreate a 40 GB partition in Disk Management and remove the drive letter. Now partition to partition will work.

@ AnotherUser

Here's the reference that talks about Ghost 2003's HDD size limitation:

Ghost 2003 Destination Drive Size Limits?--see Dan Goodell's Reply #3!


Quote:

Yes, that's what I'm hoping to do.  Even though the two OS partitions may wind up being about the same, having the ability to boot into a good OS on each hard drive seems like a nice amount of backup to have...

Okay, so I *read the tea leaves* incorrectly!  But, wanted to make sure what you were attempting to do--that's why I asked what your *goals* were!  ;)

So, I agree, you need a boot manager other than Microsoft's if you want *independent* bootable OS's on same system on different HDD's.  You might be able to accomplish the same thing *sort of* if your BIOS lets you select which HDD is booted from--but, if you don't *hide* the other non-booted OS partition from the active boot OS, it will be *seen* by the active OS, and probably various things will be written to that non-booted OS partition--not sure if that would be a problem going forward or not--probably not--but left to its own, WinXP is constantly writing restore point system data to various partitions, as well as using them for its paging file, indexing, etc. ......

Thanks very much for the time, attention, and very useful information from this forum.  I understand the issue so much better, and know what needs to be done, because of your good help.  Much appreciation.

Glad we could help. Please keep us informed of your progress.