Dell Dimension 2400 P4 with XP Pro SP1
40gb HD,NTFS
Ghost 2003
At this point, there's approximately 2.7gb used on the HD.

Have tried creating backups of the C drive, first via the boot floppy, and then via Windows to completely fill 4 CDs. Prior to the actual burning of the CDs, Ghost gives me the following warning:

Question (1845)
Warning - Spanned NTFS images on removeable media may result in excessive media swaps if used with Ghost Explorer - continue?

I answer "yes" and Ghost continues, and I change out CDs as needed, until Ghost declares a successful dump. As I watch the creation of the image across the 4 CDs, I note that each takes about 25% on the bar graph (as you would expect). My problem occurs when I do an integrity check; the bar graph gets about halfway between 0 and 25% (12% or 13% approximately?), and stops with the following:

Span Volume [1] Done (1660)
Norton Ghost needs to open the next part of the image. Please either insert the next disk and choose OK, or choose Browse to select the next part of the image.

I've hit OK while leaving the first CD in, realizing that the check shouldn't be finished with the first CD (since it consumed 25% during the dump), and I've tried putting in the second CD, then clicking OK, both failing with the following:

Error
Not a valid spanned file (522).

My understanding, from reading this forum and other websites, is that Ghost 2003 will automatically span and split across multiple CDs (please excuse if incorrect terminology), but I've even gone into the options portion, clicked span, and after finding another web suggestion, I added the switch "-split=700". Nothing worked, at least as far as the integrity check is concerned.

I keep thinking there's got to be something simple that I've missed. On my recently-expired HP computer with WinME, I figured out and successfully used Ghost 2002 to create numerous backups and several restores. I don't know all the ins and outs of partitions and images but I was functional. It was a wonderful feeling to know that if a system update or software download hosed my computer, I could use Ghost to restore things to a known, working state. I've even tried to create the image on a second (slave) HD, but that's been unsuccessful too, telling me it can't find the image file, but that's another story to address in another post once I get past this problem.

I've spent a lot of time searching this forum for clues, but 20 CDs later (5 attempts) and frustrated, I decided it was time to post and see if someone can point me in the right direction.

TIA,
Nolan

Nightowl,

Sorry for the delay; had to go out of town for a bit.

Regarding your questions:
Have used the DOS floppy, "Standard" boot disk for my first attempts.

Being unsuccessful after several tries, then tried via the Windows interface. Same results.

Had not tried the "CD/DVD Startup Boot Disk" till this morning.

Being used to Ghost 2002, I started out with the DOS "Standard" boot disk, created via the Ghost Boot Wizard. In G2002, I was used to using one floppy for creation and a second for restore or integrity check, but for G2003, my reading of the user manual and Rad's forum made me think I only needed the "Standard" to accomplish all. Also, the description for the CD/DVD Startup Boot Disk stated it was "...for CDs/DVDs not created by Ghost", so did not initially even consider that as a possibility.

Reading your response about the CD/DVD Startup disk, I created one and tried an integrity check on one of the sets of CDs originally created. Things *looked* more promising in that there were some differences in what the program reported as it prepared to dump. In using the "Standard", the name of the image was a generic "Ghost CD/DVD image" and their was no file description. When running CD/DVD Startup, it had the more familiar "CDR00001.GHO" name and a file description. I thought, this time it's going to work. Disappointingly, it too stopped about the same place, this time with a new error message:

Application Error (437)
Cannot read from file. If this problem persists contact Symantic Technical Support...". I tried another set of CDs, thinking maybe the first attempt actually had a bad CD...same result, same message, same place.

Any other ideas? And I'm curious...is it normal to use separate diskettes for the creation and restore/check operations in G2003, just like G2002?

Nolan

Nightowl,

First, a little more background: as earlier mentioned, my previous machine, an HP/WinME, died with a motherboard burnup. It had a CD R/W drive, DVD/CD-Rom drive, floppy drive, and 60gb HD. I salvaged all. I now have a bare-bones refurbished Dell (money is tight, I've been out of work for a while) which originally had only the new DVD/CD R/W 16x drive, floppy drive, and 40gb HD. I added my older DVD/CD-rom drive and the 60gb HD as a slave for extra space. I chose the DVD/CD-rom driver as the second because it was 16x also; the CD R/W drive is 8x.

Given that background, I tried your test with 2 sets of backups. Copying the CDR00001.gho file (simple drag and drop) from the first CD, it chugs along for a while, noting the minutes left, then around the 3 or 4 minute mark, it hangs, just reading and reading. After watching it do this for 5 minutes without change, I abort. Next, I try the same thing with my older Pioneer DVD/CD-rom drive. It apparently has more smarts...at the 3/4 minute point, it stops with a Windows error box stating "Cannot copy CDR00001: Data error (cyclic redundancy check)". I repeated both with the second set of backup CDs to try and rule out a bad CD; the results were the same. Guess something's really flaky with the new drive and Ghost.

I was aware of the "acceptable" drive list that works with Ghost, but I made two (obviously erroneous) assumptions which (till now) made me think the newer drive should work: 1) It completed a successful dump, and 2) although this generic, no-name brand new drive wasn't listed, my older CD R/W drive (a Misubishi, I think?) on my HP machine was also not listed, and it worked fine through all my backups/restores with G2002. Looks like I ought to replace the DVD/CD-rom drive with the CD R/w drive and see what happens.

Answers to your other questions:
1. I'm using PC-dos.
2. Am vaguely aware of "himem.sys". I'm not exactly sure what would need to be added/changed in the config.sys file. I "typed" the config.sys file on the "Standard" Ghost diskette and its only line was "LASTDRIVE = Z". The config.sys on the CD/DVD diskette had the following:

[menu]
menuitem=FROMFLPY, This computer was started from a Ghost boot disk
menuitem=FROMCD, This computer was started from a Ghost bootable CD

[FROMFLPY]

[FROMCD]

[COMMON]
DEVICE = oakcdrom.sys /D:cd1
DEVICE = btdosm.sys
DEVICE = flashpt.sys
DEVICE = btcdrom.sys /D:cd2
DEVICE = aspi2dos.sys
DEVICE = aspi8dos.sys
DEVICE = aspi4dos.sys
DEVICE = aspi8u2.sys
DEVICE = aspicd.sys /D:cd3
LASTDRIVE = Z

3. Yeah, it's not listed (DVDRW IDE 16X).
4. Yeah, my next test will be the earlier-mentioned swap-out.

I'm going to trade out drives and see what happens, then report back the results. A few questions:
1. Do the copy tests indicate that the new drive is bad, or just incompatible with writing/reading in Ghost? It seems to work ok with other things.
2. Given my results on the testing, do you have any other conclusions or observations?
3. If the himem.sys thing is required, what would I need to add to config.sys?
4. Would updating the driver (if there's a newer update) to the new DVD/CD R/W drive possibly make things work, or is this a kinda it-works-or-it-don't with Ghost and this model drive?

Thanks for your perserverence,
Nolan

Nightowl,

It's taken me  a while to get there but thought I'd give a final post to let you know what finally worked.

Did your -ver suggestion to find that I did have the latest G2003.

Finally found on the internet and installed the latest firmware version for the optical drive. Was strange in that it changed how the integrity check failed, but it still failed.

Replaced my second drive, a DVD-Rom with an 8x CDRW drive from my earlier, older machine, the one that always worked fine with G2002. It had the same "spanned images" warning, but it worked like a charm on the first attempt. I was SO satisfied! 30 CDs later, I *finally* have a working backup. You were right...the newer DVDRW just wasn't compatible.

It's a shame that I won't be able to use the 16X DVD drive for ghosting but I'm willing to live with that for now. Maybe I'll find a compatible replacement in the future. I may also just try out a DVD for jollies since it wouldn't have to span to additional DVDs for the current smallness of my system.

Thanks again for all your insight. Eventually I'll document and post again with my problems to make a G2003 image on my second hard drive.

Nolan