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Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE (Read 122929 times)
John.
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #15 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 2:32pm
 
John. wrote on Apr 8th, 2006 at 1:32pm:
I should probably test this case #2 with BartPE as well and see what BartPE does.


I retested case #2 (no IDE drives attached at all):

1.
Using BartPE
, the external USB2 drives were not recognized.  This is not too surprising because I believe that BartPE is based upon WinPE.

2.
Using Ghost 9 RE
cd:  Using the Ghost 9 RE cd, both external USB2 drives were enumerated.  The Ghost 9 Recovery Environment is from a different proprietary vendor (not WinPE) I understand.  This probably explains why case #2 works correctly for that PE.

 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #16 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 3:11pm
 
NightOwl, the data structure for a Disk Signature does not appear to contain a drive letter designation.  The same can also be said for the Partition Information data structure.

In addition, note that the Microsoft article How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters says "the drive letter is … located in the system's registry."  The same insight is repeated in How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows.

Therefore, is the drive letter corresponding to a partition stored exclusively in the active operating system registry - and nowhere on the physical disk drive itself?
 

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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #17 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 3:26pm
 
Summary:

Case #2 (no IDE drives present)
clearly shows that a PE does not need to have an internal physical disk drive present to function.

The Preinstallation Environment is created and exists as I stated before:  needing only the cd (and a memory ms-ramdrive which it creates).

That is true with WinPE, BartPE, and Proprietary PE which I tested and confirmed all three.
 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #18 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 4:14pm
 
Everyone, don't forget about the missing internal HD partitions as well.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11420...
 
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #19 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 4:22pm
 
Ghost4me

You're getting *warmer*  Wink !

I'm at work and can not spend enough time right now to post the tests and the results I have--which I think will start to explain all--hopefully I'll get to that this evening...

But, do these tests:

1.  Use Disk Management to change your USB HDD to, say, letter Q:\ .

Reboot the Ghost 10's RE and see what drive letter you see for your USB HDD--I'm betting it's going to be Q:\ !

(Before you do the next test, create an image backup of your OS partition so you can recover if something goes awry--that's what I did just in case  Wink ! )


2.  Now boot back to WinXP, use *regedit* and delete the values on the right side for the *MountedDevices*.

Reboot the Ghost 10's RE and see what drive letter you see now for your USB HDD--I'm betting it's the next available drive letter.

The only thing you changed is the registry values for *MountedDevices*--Ghost 10 is *reading* the registry's *MountedDevices* values and using that key's value(s) to assign drive letters in the RE--
if it does not find values in the *MountedDevices* key, then it simply assigns the next available drive letter in the order WinPE *enumerates* the devices during boot when you boot to the RE
--I never said Ghost 10 would not work properly if the drive letter assignment values were not present for Ghost 10 to *read*--what I've been saying is that if the *MountedDevices* values conflict with the way Ghost 10 *enumerates* the devices during boot--then your external HDD's will not show up correctly for Ghost 10 functions--if there is no conflict--then everything will show up without a problem!

As you have shown, if you have a blank, new HDD with no OS on it--Ghost 10 in the RE will have no *Registry* to *read*--so there will be no conflicts!

But the real problem occurs if there is an OS, there is a Registry, and there is a conflict with Ghost 10's RE so you will not *see* your external HDD that has your OS partition image backup on it--now, if your OS is not booting properly and you want to boot to the RE and restore that image from your external HDD--but because Ghost 10's RE is still able to read the Registry of that OS system that will not boot--you're in trouble--because your external HDD will not show up for you to select that backup to restore!!!!!!
 

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are  Wink !
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #20 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 4:25pm
 
Ghost4me, I believe the assessment of the statement "The RE does not read any partition's registry" is still an open question, pending input from NightOwl and Dan Goodell.

NightOwl's Case 3 suggests that the recovery environment does in fact read from the registry on an active partition containing the Windows XP operating system.  Additionally, the citations I supplied in Reply #16 suggest that the registry is the only store in which the drive letter designations are located.  Therefore, if the recovery environment is retrieving the drive letters assigned by Windows XP, it must be reading from the registry – correct?
 

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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #21 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 4:26pm
 
Brian

Quote:
Everyone, don't forget about the missing internal HD partitions as well.

*Wait for it.....wait for it......*

I think I have that worked out, too--stay tuned!
 

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are  Wink !
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #22 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 5:40pm
 
NightOwl
Quote:
1.  Use Disk Management to change your USB HDD to, say, letter Q:\ .
Reboot the Ghost 10's RE and see what drive letter you see for your USB HDD--I'm betting it's going to be Q:\ !

That is the workaround I previously posted to avoid or correct an external USB2 drive letter conflict.

NightOwl
Quote:
2.  Now boot back to WinXP, use *regedit* and delete the values on the right side for the *MountedDevices*.
Reboot the Ghost 10's RE and see what drive letter you see now for your USB HDD--I'm betting it's the next available drive letter.

I just ran that test.  However, the only registry entry I deleted was the \DosDevices\K: entry because my external USB2 drive had been hard-assigned to K.  Note, the key value is/was the same as the DiskID on my external usb drive.  I left the rest as is.  When I rebooted into the Ghost 10 RE, the USB2 drive was assigned f: which was the next available drive letter.

Deleting the Mounted Devices registry entries seems to accomplish the same thing as Erasing the DiskID but is easier to accomplish.

If you have multiple problems with multiple usb devices as reported by Brian, then deleting all the the Mounted Devices entries would probably clear everything up.  Not necessary in my case.

From this test I would have to say that the WinPE (or Ghost 10 RE) has a serious design flaw in loading the registry hive file, if it is present.  As Brian and others reported, the Ghost 9 Proprietary Environment doesn't have this flaw.

Not sure how to get this information to Microsoft tech, but at this point I would say that is the bottom line on the issue.
 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #23 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 5:54pm
 
Ghost4me, I suspect that the behavior of the Ghost 10 recovery environment is intentional rather than a "design flaw" – despite the fact that it clearly has some issues that will (hopefully) be fixed in the next version.

It is not difficult to believe that most naïve PC users could easily be confused by drive letters in the recovery environment that are inconsistent with those displayed while using Windows XP.  Under these circumstances, the user could inadvertently restore an image to the wrong partition while in the recovery environment.  My guess is that Symantec Technical Support had too many such complaints with Ghost 9, which may have served as the impetus for the change with Ghost 10.
 

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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #24 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 6:26pm
 
Pleonasm wrote on Apr 8th, 2006 at 4:25pm:
Ghost4me, I believe the assessment of the statement "The RE does not read any partition's registry" is still an open question, pending input from NightOwl and Dan Goodell.

No RE should rely on nor read anything on the hard drives, in my opinion.  The purpose of an emergency recovery CD is to build a minimal operating system without depending upon anything except the bare essentials (the CD in this case).  You're trying to repair a corrupt disk drive contents, not depend upon its contents.

Whether that's an emergency recovery DOS diskette, emergency recovery WindowsPE CD, or emergency recovery Linux diskette or CD, the intent should be to not rely on anything except the CD or diskette to bootstrap the system.

Considering the amount of discussion here and elsewhere regarding Ghost 10's inability to find your external usb2 drive, all over many many months, I would say that Symantec has done more user harm than good by its RE design on this specific point.  There's probably been more frustrated users than happy users.

I gladly compliment Symantec on other areas of the Ghost 10 recovery process because I think they are well done, but not external USB2 hard drive logic.



 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #25 - Apr 8th, 2006 at 11:50pm
 
John's question about a multiple boot system prompted me to do a test on my son's computer which doesn't have a drive letter problem with the card reader and USB external HD. He has two WinXP partitions. In the main WinXP the external HD was assigned G and H. The other WinXP has different internal HD partition letters and the external HD was assigned E and F on its virginal connection.

In the Ghost 10 RE, when the main WinXP was active, the external HD was G and H. The same as Windows. The internal HD partitions had the same drive letters as in Windows.

In the Ghost 10 RE, when the other WinXP was active, the external HD was E and F. The same as Windows. The internal HD partitions had the same drive letters as in Windows.

So either the external HD has two DiskIDs or the RE is accessing drive letter information from the active OS partition. I suspect the latter.



PS The internal HD drive letters of each OS when active and their respective RE drive letters are consistent with this hypothesis.
 
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #26 - Apr 9th, 2006 at 1:18am
 
Part 4:  The Testing Results


To All

So, let me set the stage--I have two internal HDD's--the primary has C:\ thru H:\, and the secondary has I:\, J:\ and K:\.  In all the tests, these never varied (unless I specifically change them)--so we can ignore those for now.

I added my Iomega USB HDD first--I chose to format it as a single partition, and WinXP assigned L:\ .

Some time later, I added a memory stick multi- USB Card Reader, and it was given four drive letters in WinXP--M:\, N:\, O:\ and P:\ .

And, recently, I got an Adaptec USB/Firewire Enclosure Kit--so I can make it either a USB or Firewire external HDD--I formatted it with two partitions and WinXP assigned it Q:\, and R:\ .

These drive letters in WinXP are *sticky*--I can plug and unplug any or all and re-plug any or all and they always get the same drive letters.

To round out the setup--I always assign my DVD-Rom as X:\ and that's the unit I usually boot my bootable CD's from, and I assign my CD-RW as Y:\ .

L:\ = Iomega USB

M:\ = Card Reader
N:\ = Card Reader
O:\ = Card Reader
P:\ = Card Reader

Q:\ = Adaptec Firewire
R:\ = Adaptec Firewire

X:\ = DVD-Rom
Y:\ = CD-RW

Test #1:
 I plug everything in (I chose Firewire for the Adaptec enclosure kit), re-booted to the Ghost 10 Recovery Environment (RE)--both the Iomega USB and the Adaptec Firewire HDD's were missing from the *Explore My Computer*--also, my second optical drive is missing as well.  So this is what I saw:

Drive letters L:\, M:\, and N:\ were not used, and notice the Card Reader drive letters have been bumped up two drive letters from what's seen in WinXP:

O:\ = Card Reader
P:\ = Card Reader
Q:\ = Card Reader
R:\ = Card Reader

X:\ = DVD-Rom  (boot drive)

Z:\ = MS-RamDrive

But, in Ghost32 v8.2, both the Adaptec Firewire HDD and the Iomega USB HDD were listed, L:\, M:\, and N:\ drive letters are not used, and the second optical drive is not present:

1:1 = Adaptec Firewire   (no drive letter assigned)
1:2 = Adaptec Firewire   (no drive letter assigned)
2:1 = Iomega USB HDD   (no drive letter assigned)
7:2 = Win98se   (hidden--no drive letter assigned)
7:1 = C:\ WinXp
7:3 = D:\
7:4 = E:\
7:5 = F:\
7:6 = G:\
7:7 = H:\
8:1 = I:\
8:2 = J:\
8:3 = K:\
3:1 = O:\ Card Reader
4:1 = P:\ Card Reader
5:1 = Q:\ Card Reader
6:1 = R:\ Card Reader
------- X:\ DVD-Rom  (boot drive)
------- Z:\ MS-RamDrive

Test #2:
 I then shut down, un-plugged the Card Reader and left the Iomega USB HDD and the Adaptec Firewire HDD hooked up, and re-booted to the Ghost 10 Recovery Environment (RE).

Now, both HDD's appear in *Explore My Computer* with the WinXP assigned drive letters, and the second optical drive also is present:

L:\ = Iomega USB

Q:\ = Adaptec Firewire
R:\ = Adaptec Firewire

X:\ = DVD-Rom  (boot drive)
Y:\ = CD-RW
Z:\ = MS-RamDrive

So, there's something about the Card Reader that is causing a problem--notice that the drive letters in *Test 1* of the Card Reader match the drive letters of the Adaptec Firewire HDD in *Test 2*!  So in *Test 1*, the Card Reader is being assigned drive letters that are not from WinXP's *sticky* drive letters, but they now conflict with drive letters that are part of the WinXP *sticky* drive letters!

Test #3:
 Shut down, re-connected the Card Reader, booted with a floppy disk so I could change my active partition from my WinXP OS to my Win98se OS--and then re-booted to the Ghost 10 RE.  Now in the Win98se OS there's no *sticky* drive letters, so no registry to *read*--here's the results:

L:\ = Adaptec Firewire
M:\ = Adaptec Firewire

N:\ = Iomega USB

O:\ = Card Reader
P:\ = Card Reader
Q:\ = Card Reader
R:\ = Card Reader

S:\ = CD-RW

X:\ = DVD-Rom  (boot drive)

Z:\ = MS-RamDrive

Everything showed up and was assigned a drive letter!

Note--the order of the drive letter assignments in this test compared to the *Disk #* in Ghost32 v8.2 listed in the *Test 1* results--first available drive letters assigned to the Adaptec Firewire L:\ and M:\ (Disk #1 in Ghost32 v8.2), next available drive letter N:\ assigned to the Iomega USB HDD (Disk #2 in Ghost32 v8.2), and then drive letters O:\, P:\, Q:\ and R:\ assigned to the Card Reader (Disk #3, #4, #5, & #6 in Ghost32 v8.2)!

Test #4:
 Re-booted and hide the Win98se partition and un-hide the WinXP partition--re-booted to WinXP.

Now, deleted the all the values in the Registry Key *[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]*.  Still with the Firewire HDD, USB HDD and Card Reader hooked up, re-booted to the Ghost 10 RE.

The results were exactly the same as *Test 3* above!

Well, based on the above, I was convinced that Ghost 10's RE was *reading* the *MountedDevices* registry key if it had values present to read--if not, it would choose it's own order to enumerate the various USB devices, and they would show up fine.  But, if the registry values in some fashion did not match some specific sequence that the RE needed *to see*--then there were drive letter conflicts and things would then not show up in the Recover Environment as they should.

The various HDD's had the same drive letters in Ghost 10's RE as they did in WinXP as long as they showed up in the RE and WinXP's *MountedDevices* values had not been deleted, but the Card Reader's drive letters did not remain the same as seen in WinXP--critical observation!
 

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are  Wink !
(This is an old *NightOwl* user account--not in current use.  Current account is NightOwl without a dash at the end.)
 
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #27 - Apr 9th, 2006 at 12:47pm
 
Ghost4me, I understand the perspective you stated in Reply #24, and it has much merit.  Based on "Case 1" by NightOwl, however, we now know that if the active operating system partition containing the registry is unavailable (missing, corrupt or absent), then Ghost 10 will nonetheless properly run.  In fact, under these circumstances, the Ghost 10 recovery environment appears to function the same as that of Ghost 9, with respect to the assignment of drive letters.  Therefore, the current methodology used by Ghost 10 does not place the user "at risk", but may cause some headaches as noted throughout this thread.
 

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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #28 - Apr 9th, 2006 at 1:43pm
 
Part 5:  Interpreting the Test Results


To All

I have listed only a few tests above--I have done quite a few more test--just to illustrate--I now can tell you what USB port on my USB 2.0 PCI card will assign a drive letter first if I have two or more USB HDD's hooked up--as well as which USB port on my 4-port USB hub will get assigned drive letters first--but that's not important to this discussion.

The above results should have enough data to understand my conclusions.

Understand--I'm *making all of this up*--I have no *insider knowledge* as to how Ghost 10's RE really works, how it *reads* the Registry key *MountedDevices*, or what sequence of events occur while the RE is booting--I have just *created a model* that seems to explain what happens based on the observations (there are several points that I really *stretch* to make the model work  Wink because I don't have a good explanation for the behavior! )

So, it appears that the Card Reader does not inherit the *sticky* drive letters from WinXP.  Even though WinXP can assign and remember the Card Reader's drive letters in WinXP, in Ghost 10's RE the Card Reader appears to be assigned the next available drive letters after the RE has mounted the various external HDD's and internal HDD's, but apparently before the RE has assigned the drive letters to those external and internal HDD's.

Ghost 10 RE appears to mount the devices in this order:

1st  Firewire HDD's
2nd USB HDD's
3rd USB Mass Storage Devices (non-HDD's)
4th Internal HDD's

(Look back at the test results in *Test #1* for the Ghost32 v8.2--this is the order of the disk #'s assigned to the various above devices.)

Ghost 10 RE now knows how many partitions will need drive letters assigned (having mounted the various devices--but has not *automatically* assigned drive letters yet--it has to *read* the Registry for that if it wants to make the drive letters in the RE match the drive letters as seen in WinXP!)

But, again, Ghost 10 RE *knows* that it is not going to give the Card Reader the *sticky* drive letters from WinXP (? because it's not a HDD volume ?), so it assigns the *next available* drive letters to the Card Reader, having set aside enough drive letter *slots* for the number of HDD partitions present.

Again, look at my setup in *Test #1*--I have C:\ thru K:\ on internal HDD's--so that many drive letters can not be used--so none of those can be *next available*, I have 2 partitions on the Firewire HDD--so L:\ and M:\ would not be next available, and I have 1 partition on the Iomega USB HDD--so N:\ would not be next available.  

So, the next available is O:\--and look what drive letters are assigned to the 4 slots of the Card Reader:  O:\, P:\, Q:\ and R:\ !

Now Ghost 10 RE moves on and assigns the two *hard wired* drive letters required by the WinPE--X:\ for the *optical boot drive*, and Z:\ for the MS-RamDrive.

Now it's time to *read* the *MountedDevices* Registry key in order to assign *sticky* drive letters.  C:\ thru K:\--no problems--they can be assigned to the internal HDD partitions without any problems--no conflicts.  Next, Ghost 10 RE wants to take care of the Firewire HDD--its sticky drive letters in WinXP are Q:\ and R:\--but that's a problem--the Card Reader has already been given those drive letters and the assignment of the *sticky* drive letters will not work--so the Firewire HDD does not get a drive letter assignment and so it does not show up for Ghost 10 RE functions (but it still shows up in the Ghost32 v8.2 listing because that program will *see* partitions by disk # even when a drive letter does not exist!).

Next, Ghost 10 RE moves on to the next device--the Iomega USB HDD--well, here's where I'm really *stretching* my explanation  Wink , when Ghost 10 RE tried to assign drive letters to the Firewire HDD, the Firewire was in line to take the next available drive letters L:\ and M:\, but the *sticky* drive letters for the Firewire HDD were Q:\ and R:\, so Ghost 10 RE sees there is a drive letter conflict with the drive letters it has already assigned to the Card Reader, and simply notes that L:\ and M:\ were *not available* due to conflicting drive letters--and the next available drive letter is N:\--so, now reading the *MountedDevices* drive letter assignment for the Iomega USB HDD--it's L:\--but that drive letter has been *discarded* as having conflicting drive letter assignments--so Ghost 10 RE again refuses to assign the *sticky* drive letter that's found in the Registry key, and the Iomega HDD too is not *seen* by the Ghost 10 RE functions because no drive letter was successfully assigned (but it is seen by the Ghost32 v8.2 program).

As for my second optical drive--it is assigned the *sticky* drive letter in WinXP as Y:\--that drive letter does not *conflict* with any other drive letters--as noted in *Part 2....*, Brian's second optical drive conflicts with the Z:\ MS-RamDrive drive letter assignment--and his second optical drive simple shows up in the drive letter assigmnet *game* as the next available drive letter in the RE after all HDD and Card Reader drive letters have been assigned--on my system--if there are any drive letter conflicts anywhere--my second optical drive just simply never shows up--if there are no conflicts--it shows up as Y:\ !

*********************************************

Brian, you mentioned this above:

Quote:
Everyone, don't forget about the missing internal HD partitions as well.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11420...


So, here's your setup:

Quote:
I plugged in the card reader, G H I J and then the USB HD, K L.  My hard drive partitions are C D E F M N P.

In the RE the card reader was L M N O. The external HD wasn't seen and neither were most of my HD partitions. The only HD partition seen was C: drive. The spare optical drive was P (the one I'd made V in Windows).


Okay, so your internal HDD has 7 partitions, and your external HDD has 2--so 9 altogether--that's C:\, D:\, E:\, F:\, G:\, H:\, I:\, J:\ & K:\--so Ghost 10 RE gives your Card Reader the next four drive letters that are not being *set aside*--L:\, M:\, N:\, & O:\ .

Then it tries to *read* the *MountedDevices* sticky drive letter assignments for the USB HDD--and it finds that the WinXP sticky drive letter for the USB HDD L:\ conflicts with the drive letter it has assigned to the Card Reader in the RE (I have found that if a device has two or more partitions--and at least one of the partitions has a drive letter conflict--then the whole device is failed by Ghost 10 RE, and none of the partitions are assigned drive letters), so no USB HDD is seen in the RE.

Next, it tries to assign the sticky drive letters to your internal HDD's, but your sticky drive letters for your internal HDD of M:\ and N:\ conflict with the drive letters Ghost 10 RE has already assigned to the Card Reader--so that fails and I would expect partitions M:\ and N:\ to not show up.

But, you say D:\, E:\, F:\ and P:\ also do not show up--well, my model does not predict that--but when I set this similar situation up on my system so the Card Reader drive letters would be bumped up to conflict with an internal HDD partition drive letter--the results did make the internal HDD partition not show up, but it also effected other drive letters further up that should not have had drive letter conflicts--but the internal drive letters before the Card Reader/HDD partition drive letter conflict were not effected like you have stated--so the only thing I can say is different systems react differently when a conflict occurs.

In my test--all the missing partitions in Ghost 10 RE *Explore My Computer* showed up just fine in Ghost32 v8.2's listing of *seen* partitions!  But, of course, Ghost 32 v8.2 does not help you if your Ghost image is created by Ghost 10--and your images can not be accessed by the Ghost 10 recovery tools!


Continue to
Part 6:  Conclusions and Recommendations
 

No question is stupid...but, possibly the answers are  Wink !
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Re: Missing External HDD's in Ghost 10's RE
Reply #29 - Apr 9th, 2006 at 2:00pm
 
Pleonasm

Quote:
however, we now know that if the active operating system partition containing the registry is unavailable (missing, corrupt or absent), then Ghost 10 will nonetheless properly run.  In fact, under these circumstances, the Ghost 10 recovery environment appears to function the same as that of Ghost 9, with respect to the assignment of drive letters.

But, as I noted in reply #19 above:

Quote:
But the real problem occurs if there is an OS, there is a Registry, and there is a conflict with Ghost 10's RE so you will not *see* your external HDD that has your OS partition image backup on it--
now, if your OS is not booting properly and you want to boot to the RE and restore that image from your external HDD--
but because Ghost 10's RE is still able to read the Registry of that OS system that will not boot
--you're in trouble--because your external HDD will not show up for you to select that backup to restore!!!!!!

 

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