Radified Community Forums - Ghost 2003 & PM8

E_Net_Rider

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Ghost 2003 & PM8
Nov 16^th, 2008 at 12:02pm

I was running multiboot with XP on third drive, SATA. Power interuption seemed to corupt making unbootable.
I ran Ghost making virtual partition to restore with image of partition. It failed, likely my inexperience.
Booting back to first drive, I see that PM8 shows the SATA as one large partition and bad. It looks OK under explorer, except I have the added "-VPSGHBOOT-" partition.
How do I fix this?

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NightOwl

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #1 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 12:42pm

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Quote:

I was running multiboot with XP on third drive, SATA. Power interuption seemed to corupt making unbootable.
I ran Ghost making virtual partition to restore with image of partition. It failed, likely my inexperience.
Booting back to first drive

How are you *multiboot(ing)*? Seems like the corruption should have something to do with the multiboot setup--not necessarily the WinXP partition (drive)!

Quote:

It looks OK under explorer, except I have the added "-VPSGHBOOT-" partition.

How do I fix this?

VPSGHBOOT (VirtualPartitionGHostBoot--not sure what the *S* stands for--maybe *slot* as in Master Partition *Slot*??? Wink

) is added to the Master Partition Table when you use the Windows Ghost interface to perform a Ghost procedure--the partition does not actually exist on the HDD--just as an entry in the partition table.

A file, *VIRTPART.DAT*, is created, as well, in the root directory of the boot partition--that is where the actual Ghost execution files are located for doing the Ghost procedure once booted to DOS--I don't know the technical details, but that file is called during booting to DOS to load Ghost, its included DOS drivers, and execution instructions as setup while in Windows.

You can simply use PM8 (PartitionMagic v8.xx) to delete the VPSHGHBOOT partition entry in the Master Partition Table.

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #2 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 1:30pm

After the power failure, it booted to a screen that said something like there was no OS.
That is when I tried to restore ghost image.
And since I've fumbled around with this for some time, I don't remember exactly what my config was at that time. I may have had the SATA set as first boot HDD then in BIOS.
Although the virtual partition is shown in explorer as a separate partition, and other partitions show as well on the SATA, PM8 will only allow format or set active.

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #3 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 2:17pm

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After the power failure, it booted to a screen that said something like there was no OS.

Were you in the middle of a Ghost procedure at the time? Sometimes when a person is attempting to re-boot from Windows to DOS using Ghost's virtual partition routine, one can get a *no OS* found if one gets trapped in the virtual partition and you are not properly re-directed to the correct partition by making the boot partition active and the VPSHGHBOOT partition inactive and deleted!

Quote:

I may have had the SATA set as first boot HDD then in BIOS

So, you are using your BIOS to indicate which separate drive is the boot drive from witch to boot?

Quote:

PM8 will only allow format or set active

Hmmm....well, I have PM8 pre-Symantec buy out from PowerQuest. In the Windows interface, I can highlight a given partition and then right mouse click and the 5th menu item down is *delete*! Or, I can highlight the partition and then in the menu bar at the top, select *Partition* and again the 5th item down is *delete*! Can not select *delete* for an *Extended Partition* until all partitions within the Extended Partition are first deleted! But the VPSHGHBOOT partition should be a Primary Partition.

Your PM8 is different?!

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #4 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 2:46pm

NightOwl wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 2:17pm:

Were you in the middle of a Ghost procedure at the time?

No, this was after the power failure.
NightOwl wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 2:17pm:

So, you are using your BIOS to indicate which separate drive is the boot drive from witch to boot

I was at that time, But to get back to the install on other drive, I had to change back to standard boot order.NightOwl wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 2:17pm:

Hmmm....well, I have PM8 pre-Symantec

It is there, just grayed. AS mentioned, the whole SATA drive shows as one partition in PM8 and yellow = bad. So options from PM8 are limited to format and set active. Set active does not work, booting back to other drive, and BM does not list the OS on SATA when reaching boot choice.
Yet, all partitions are visible within Explorer, per BM8 properties setting for each drive.

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #5 - Nov 16^th, 2008 at 3:58pm

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per BM8 properties setting for each drive

Is that a *typo* and should be *PM8*--or are you referring to PM's *BootMagic* program?

Quote:

It is there, just grayed. AS mentioned, the whole SATA drive shows as one partition in PM8 and yellow = bad.

Didn't see *yellow* mentioned before, but.....okay, I see that mentioned in your first post:

Quote:

PM8 shows the SATA as one large partition and bad

Quote:

I ran Ghost making virtual partition to restore with image of partition. It failed, likely my inexperience.

Probably not--more likely Ghost 2003 and its virtual partition creation does not understand your system's BIOS ability to boot from drives other than the HDD connected to the first, primary HDD controller--the problem is which partition is active and visible on that disk #3. The fact that the VPSHGHBOOT partition is present probably means Ghost set it active and visible and has hidden the WinXP partition and it is inactive. And you got trapped in the virtual partition and the way you got out was to switch your BIOS to another boot drive--but you left the status of that 3rd HDD with things set incorrectly for booting.

And, for some reason, PM8 also can not access that HDD in its present state.

It can probably be fixed--but we have to find out how, and using what utility.

Are you familiar with booting to DOS? Do you have DOS utilities on a boot disk--such as PM8's DOS-based partitioning program?

Do you have the Windows interface for Ghost 2003 installed on the boot disk that you are currently booted from?

Depending on your answers--we may be able to fix the problem from within Windows using Ghost 2003's *gdisk* program--Ghost's partitioning utility--or we may need to boot from the 3rd HDD to a DOS prompt and attempt to fix it from there. Let me know the above answers and we'll take the next step.

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #6 - Nov 20^th, 2008 at 6:03am

NightOwl wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 3:58pm:

PM's *BootMagic* program

Yes
Sorry about the long delay. I was tired to the point of not thinking, but I have tried a few things from your writing.
I have managed to get the SATA fixed so I can see it.
BUT!
I decided to try to get access to it via BM8. I was having no success and thought perhaps the small hidden partition I put at the beginning might be the problem. I merged it with the OS partition W/ PM8.
I since have realized that was not the reason. And that small partition was why I could boot it when setting the BIOS to boot the SATA first.
It likely had something to do with the boot.ini.
My intentions witht he SATA drive was to use the fastest drive and do some testing concerning installing WME in an XP shell to see if that would take care of some software that does not work properly in XP. Then I could discard the WME on Drive 0 which has XP on second partition. Also, WME does not understand SATA since I don't have drivers for it. This requires disconnecting SATA drive to boot into WME. Hiding it does not seem to help.
Attempting testing, I cloned the XP from Drive0 part2 to SATA, Drive2 part2. Thus the boot.ini.
But as mentioned, I still can not boot to SATA using BM8.
And suspect reason may be related to recovery console issue which I installed to drive0 part2. If attempting to run it from boot menu, it starts with loading and then when it gets to screen saying it is starting, screen goes blank. No HDD activity.
I have also attempted running it from CD and after it goes through the loading part, again a blank screen.
I'll have to reboot, attempting going to the SATA install for the exact message I had been getting.

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	Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8 Reply #7 - Nov 20^th, 2008 at 6:47am Error I see is: Preparing machine to load "WinXP/2000/XP" And it just stalls there. Also I note that when booting to BM8 from CD, only choices are on HDD0. Maybe I need to look for PM8 forum.
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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #8 - Nov 20^th, 2008 at 9:10am

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Quote:

And it just stalls there.
Also I note that when booting to BM8 from CD, only choices are on HDD0

Sounds like your system is not supporting SATA in DOS--and you probably need to press F6 to load SATA drivers when attempting to boot to Windows installation or the Recovery Console.

Usually, there is a BIOS setting regarding this issue--you have to select access through the HDD controller that is for *legacy OS* (i.e. DOS)--vs the *optimized* access that is designed for more recent NT based Windows.

PM8's Boot Magic program I think depends on being placed on a FAT partition and may require DOS access to the HDDs in order to work--so that may explain the problems there...

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #9 - Nov 21^st, 2008 at 5:45am

NightOwl wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 9:10am:

Sounds like your system is not supporting SATA in DOS

That does sound like a real possibility. I have turned system restore off for all partitions except C: in XP, actually part.2. That should allow PM/BM8 to make necessary changes within windows. Yet, I have noticed that both this partition and the SATA XP partition show as active, so it is not deactivating the current C:
The DOS issue would explain why it does not show SATA drive when booted to BM8 maybe. But, it also does not show the WME OEM (second license) on drive (1) part 1. Thus I thought that in this mode it was only capable of showing bootable partitions on first drive (0).NightOwl wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 9:10am:

and you probably need to press F6 to load SATA drivers when attempting to boot to Windows installation or the Recovery Console.

That I am doing, but still no joy. I am now suspecting that it is a USB issue. Mouse & KYBD are USB.
NightOwl wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 9:10am:

PM8's Boot Magic program I think depends on being placed on a FAT partition and may require DOS access to the HDDs in order to work--so that may explain the problems there...

FAT or FAT 32, I think, unless you only have NTFS OS and then there are instructions to install BM8 to a small FAT partition at the beginning of first drive. That instruction was my reason for creating the small partition at the beginning of my second and the SATA drive, in preparation for a possibility. But, no where does it state what that might do if I had a mix of FS and tried to boot FAT32 and NTFS from an install of BM8 outside any OS at that small partition at the beginning of drive0. It would seem that it could only operate in some DOS mode and then I'd not see the SATA again, or advanced setting would not be available and thus preventing booting from any but the first drive.
It is beginning to look like PM8/BM8 has some definite short-comings. And something that would be worth investigating against alternatives.

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Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8
Reply #10 - Nov 21^st, 2008 at 9:21am

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It is beginning to look like PM8/BM8 has some definite short-comings. And something that would be worth investigating against alternatives.

Dan Goodell has mentioned the boot loader XOSL in his webpages on advanced multi-booting: Understanding MultiBooting and Booting Windows from an Extended Partition

Useful Tools and Utilities

XOSL - Boot Manager by Geurt Vos

Installing the Boot Manager

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	Re: Ghost 2003 & PM8 Reply #11 - Nov 27^th, 2008 at 6:26am does anyone know of a forum for pm8 ?
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