Hi,

I've been imaging my system for a while now using the method outlined in the Radified Guide to Norton Ghost.  I've restored images on many occassions and have run from them without any perceivable problems.  Well the other day I had some time off so I decided to try the -crc32 switch and it worked fine (sorta) but also brought some questions to mind.

Does a Ghost image need a .crc file to be 100% accurate when creating/restoring the image?  I mean I've had no problems with restored images so far  but the fact that this option exists makes me wonder if I should be using it.  What approach does Ghost 2003 use to ensure that it images the source partition/disk verbatim if I don't use the crc32 switch? 

On Symantec's site it states:
     For FAT partitions and Linux EXT2 partitions, Ghost 
     records the CRC value and DOS attributes for each 
     file. For NTFS partitions, Ghost records the CRC 
     value of the MFT table. 
Why is there a difference in the way Ghost treats FAT and ext2 versus NTFS?

Do you use the -fcr or -crc32 switch?

Also when I tried the -crc switch I encountered the following error;that is when I tried to create a crc for the whole disk. 
     Error Number: (18030)
     Message: BrGenCRC32Head: Bad fopen: 22
     Version: 2003.793 (Dec 17 2003, Build=793)
     Command line arguments: -
     crc32,action=create,src=1,crcfile=a:\test.crc
However, when I create a crc for just one partition, Ghost was successful in creating the crc file.  Could the reason for error message be because I have one FAT32 partition and four NTFS partitions on that disk? 

TIA 8)

Rad wrote on Jun 24^th, 2006 at 3:24pm:

Last year I successfully cloned the MASTER 160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ HDD of my Dell Dimension 8300 to a 160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 IDE HDD mounted in a Metal Gear Box combo USB 2.0/SATA external enclosure kit via USB 2.0 - and you can very well bet I used my eponymous "trick" (CLICK HERE).

After I rebooted, I used Partition Magic 8.0 to delete the 31MB Dell Utility partition on the cloned external HDD.  Next, I reformatted the bootable primary active partition formerly assigned the drive letter C: and then converted it to a logical drive to wind up with a 160GB extended partition with two NTFS logical drives plus a single FAT32 logical drive.   .

Whether these errors are genuine or are instead "false-positives", I simply don't know.  However, I am reluctant to employ the IDE drive so created as a MASTER HDD because like Rad I value reliability.  In the SATA mode, the cloning process executes in a perfectly normal manner, but it bombs out in Integrity Checks and it will fail when attempts are made to perform a Ghost 2003 Restore from it.    

xertech wrote on Jun 25^th, 2006 at 12:44am:

No matter what switches I set - or failed to set - during several repetitions, I received CRC32 errors. When I am finally out of my FEMA-spec travel trailer and my Katrina-battered house is livable once again, I intend to replicate my trials employing Norton Ghost 8.2 by using a BartPE-XPE (reatogo edition) CD to function in a Windows Preinstalled Environment (as opposed to the "Windows-to-DOS-to-Windows" mode of Norton Ghost 2003).