Successful Ghost restoration of image!!

My attempt to have an optimized system may have backfired on me.

I have just restored an image from a RAID drive to a RAID drive, by loading an older version of the RAID driver.

Abit provided the v1.23 Highpoint HPT 374 RAID driver in 2004.

I, in my eagerness to have a clean setup with up-to-date drivers, etc., used the Highpoint Tech- provided drivers that were on the website two months ago v3.04.

I could not use the RAID BIOS update provided, because it could only be installed with a motherboard-provided BIOS update vEB with RAID BIOS v1.23 folded in. The drivers were unpacked to floppy and had been used successfully to install and run my Windows XP setup for the past several months.

What is so mystifying and frustrating is that those same new drivers were able to allow access in the Backup Image Browser, but halted the program.

After digging out the Abit-provided RAID driver v1.23 floppy, I was able to load the CD Recovery Enviroment, browse and verify the images, and choose and restore a system image.
It took 3 minutes.


I surmise two possibilities for my failure to previously restore.

1-The last Highpoint-provided driver v3.04 is partially buggy, and was pulled off the website not because Highpoint no longer wanted to nominally support this controller, but because of flaws.

or

2-The installation and use of the Windows XP operating system for the computer is more forgiving of the use of alternate drivers, but the Symantec CD Recovery Enviroment is particular that the drivers for the RAID controller have to match versions with the onboard RAID controller BIOS.

Unfortunately, the Abit Phoenix-Award BIOS only enables and disables the ATA133RAID option, and the Highpoint-Tech BIOS only detects disks, creates or deletes RAID arrays, and selects a boot disk or array. Any true RAID management is handled in the Windows enviroment with the RAID manager program, and if not using a RAID array, the operation of disks on the RAID controller act as standard IDE disks.


Conclusion:
Maybe the newest driver is not always the best, even when doing a clean re-install.

I am still disturbed by the lack of a rebooted persistent recovery enviorment, and the requirement of CD to restore an image drive, and the absolute requirement to have F6 drivers available on a floppy to load. And if I had continued with my thoughts to make this computer legacy-free, what would I have done without the floppy drive?

Will creating a Bart PE disk with Ghost and the correct F6 RAID drivers be a solution? (Along with any USB and network drivers?) A solution provided by you, and me as the operator, instead of Symantec as part of its provided program. As I said in a previous post, the operation of this program is a step backwards.

But I can't complain (too much!).

Symantec tech support web-site troubleshooting only states load the correct F6 drivers, but never states what would be considered incorrect F6 drivers, and the only BIOS reference was to AGP video settings. And as I had an F6 driver disk that allowed access, their tech supports insistence sent me off on a wild-goose chase for AGP BIOS  video settings.

Now that this works, I can play with the external USB and network drive functions of creating and restoring images. I have seen many posts here regarding that, and will be sure to find many answers.

I will attempt the Bart PE with Ghost procedure, because each unnecessary step removed from a procedure makes it easier.

Last thought, legacy free PC's with no floppy drives, and future Windows O/S installations that require RAID drivers, will any program ever ask for or look for a driver in anything other than an "A:" floppy drive in its booting, pre-operating system state?


I wish express my thanks for your postings. Each step I took from your directions, even in failure, circled in on the solution to my problem. It removed my doubt of my system configuration. And I hope my troubles may be an answer for someone else in a similar situation, for I cannot believe that I am the only one with this motherboard and program, and the desire to have up-to-date drivers.

I thank you once again.

Brian,
I do not yet know if either of the Highpoint RAID drivers work with the BartPE w/Ghost CD. My attempts at creation have failed, and I will have to scan other posts here for possible answers.


Just to let you know, the pebuilder would show no image built because of an error in finding the path of usbstor.sys. It was in the i386/cache folder, but not in the windows/system32/drivers folder. I have the Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 installed fresh, and had applied the USB 2.0 driver from VIA Arena. I don't know why this file was not there. I disabled the USB plugin and the pebuilder built the image just fine. But that is a hobbled solution. After looking around, I just copied and pasted the usbstor.sys from the i386/cache to the windows/system32/drivers folder, and the pebuilder built properly.


I tried several variations with this image disk. I built it with no SCSI (RAID) drivers, with v1.23, with v3.04, and with both in separate drivers folders. None of the variations booted, not even the driverless one. I had used the Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5 and chose the advanced option to create a bootable CD. It gave me only the option to create the CD with floppy disk emulation. I chose that, and the pebuilder.iso image and it burned and finalized the CD. But when I boot with it, I get a flash of the floppy disk recognition, and then continues straight into Windows. I am pressing any key all the while, just in case it was a "0" opportunity to boot, but no luck. 

I am missing something, something obvious, and will have to discover the solution.
I will then report if the BartPE with Ghost and the RAID drivers works for my setup.
Thank you.

You are most likely right! I went back and checked and the Advanced functions of Creator Classic of Easy Media Creator 7.5 from Roxio lists only "create bootable cd" and only gives "floppy drive emulation", but I went back and looked and on the side bar under "other tasks" it lists "burn from image file (.iso)". I may have been working at cross purposes here. I guess that tells you the last time I wrote a bootable CD!
I will now create the variations of pebuilder with and without the various RAID drivers. I hope to report back shortly.
Thank you!

mAdler

I have an 'older' Abit motherboard with a AMD northbridge and a VIA southbridge, and an integrated HighPoint RAID IDE controller.

Because your system is newer, maybe this information does not apply--but just in case--

Compared to what I have read and understand for my system--you seem to be very aggressively 'updating' system drivers from individual component makers' websites rather than your motherboard's website:

1.  HighPoint's website says that the drivers and BIOS updates are for their add-on controller cards, and advises going the the motherboard website for any integrated controller drivers or BIOS updates. 

A website specific to my motherboard stated that the BIOS version number for the HighPoint controller should match the Windows driver version number to avoid possible compatibility issues between the BIOS specified functionality vs the driver functionality--may be a more critical recommendation if using RAID functionality.

2.  VIA's website indicated for my system that the built-in USB driver for WinXP should be used, and their USB driver was only for certain systems

3.  You did not mention it, but I will--VIA's 4-in-1 driver--again for my system--they recommend using the default WinXP drivers unless certain performance problems for specific hardware components are a problem--basically, if you don't have the hardware, then don't use their 4-in-1 driver.

Again, the above may not apply to your system, but you have reported two instances that suggest that the driver updates that you have installed are effecting the ability to run certain software that seems to be expecting to find specific system drivers or configurations that apparently are not there.

I've run into this myself when 'tweakin' WinXP Pro with non-default configurations--my first install was an unstable disaster that made me wait another 6 months while testing and exploring the 'fixes' for the various instabilities before trying again (I wasn't in any hurry!).  The result--some default settings should not be messed with  !

mAdler

The last BIOS update for my Abit motherboard was 3/06/2003!  They have not posted anything since then.

But the system is doing fine with WinXP SP2 and all the attached USB card reader, scanner, HDD, and USB Hub--and all the internal PCI cards, etc.

Well, I am done for the week.
I have gone from despair to joy, thanks to you all.
I have today created 5 variations of the BartPe with Ghost to cover the RAID driver situation.
RAID driver v1.23 in the SCSI Adapter folder
RAID driver v3.04 in the folder
Both RAID drivers in the folder
No RAID driver in the folder but manually F6 loading of each driver in a separate trial.
No RAID driver in the folder and no F6 drivers.
And lastly, even though warned against in the posting, I used the AutoDriver program not only to find my network adapter, but also the SCSI (RAID) adapters and create a plugin (with no manually created RAID driver in the SCSI adapter folder).

Each time, with the exception of the variation of no RAID and no F6, I was able to see all my IDE/SATA/RAID drives on the Highpoint controller.
Apparently Ghost is strict, but BartPE is forgiving with the conflict between RAID bios and RAID driver versions.
I will reinstall my clean XP setup with Abit provided 4in1 and RAID drivers, just to be safe.

Now that I can cleanly backup and restore images, and especially with the flexibility of the BartPE disk, I will experiment with further options, all thanks to you.

Unfortunately I have to go to work tomorrow, and will have to sign off now.

Your assistance has been appreciated, and I will visit again soon.

Thank you.

I was extremely glad to run into this thread while searching for an answer to this problem. Symantec is just as helpful with me as with you (I've been waiting for a decent reply for a month now!)

Unfortunately, my ICH7R SATA controller drivers don't work in ANY version. I tried them all, from the original to the most recent version. The EC950001 code just keeps popping up. In the end, I created the Reatogo cd with Ghost and it seems to work ok.

All in all, it took me SO many hours just to find ONE solution that worked, that it seems Ghost's goal is completely void for me: didn't I buy Ghost so that I could restore an image in a matter of minutes?!

I guess this boot cd will help me through for now. Until I upgrade my hardware. I just wish Symantec would have created a program without the SATA/RAID issues. From what I've heard, upgrading to version 10 doesn't help one bit.

Thanks for writing all this down for people to find on the internet! And if there's anything new on this topic - please share!