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That is it - glad you have it 
(better English than German translation).

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yes but for me the warm reboot CTRL+ALT+DEL > taskmanager worked. Since it wasn't mentioned in the paragraph I did just that (by 'mistake'!) - the opposite of what was advised.
Maybe if I had relied on the 'paragraph' I would never have succeeded 

---> there is also a 'reset' button in front of my PC which I sometimes gotta use when windows freezes e.g.

Each PC is an induvidual and gotta be handled different.

My DONALD has an old board "ASUS A7N8X-X" (serial ATA) Phoenix Award BIOS v6.00PG.

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So it appears 

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Great! I will try that 

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I have to try that first 

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There you see how long it may take till you do something unexpected - and you got it  --> "the midnight ghost booooooooo!" 

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I admit 

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NOW I understand thanks to your detailed description - so the *.ghs is always being 'included' (to my better understanding)   

Thank you ever so much for helping me to understand.
My question marks have turned into  --> I got it.
I will try all that you told me.

henriette 

henriette

Well, still looks like Ghost is having a problem consistently recognizing your optical drive using its (Ghost's) built-in optical drive driver--you know Ghost is using its built-in driver when a.  you see your optical drive preceded by the *@CD...your drive description*, and b.  your optical drive is not being assigned a DOS drive letter when booted to DOS.

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Sometimes, you have to press and hold the power button down for 5-10 seconds before the system powers down--you might try that to see if it will eventually power off!

Based on your trials so far--looks like Ghost is more successful in creating and writing the Ghost image to optical media than it is in doing an integrity check.  An integrity check is supposed to be a *dummy* restore procedure that performs the restore without actually writing to the HDD!  So, if the integrity check is failing, you may also have a problem restoring because of the same failures. 

Ghost can also access you optical drives using the DOS optical drive drivers instead of the built-in Ghost optical drivers.  You might want to test to see if you are more successful by using a DOS boot disk that loads the DOS optical drivers rather than the Windows Ghost interface that uses the Ghost built-in optical drivers to do an integrity check.

(Note:  only Ghost's built-in drivers are able to *write* to optical media--the DOS optical drivers only allow *reading* from the optical drives--not writing!)

To test that, you would open the Ghost Boot Wizard that's found under the Ghost Utilities category.  Once you click on the Boot Wizard, you would select the bottom option (in the English version at least)--*CD/DVD Startup Disk with Ghost*.  Follow the steps.  You will need two floppy disks for this boot *set*--the first one has the DOS boot files, and the second one will have the DOS *ghost.exe* program on it.  The boot files take up too much space, and so the *ghost.exe* can not fit on the same disk as the boot files.

Once you have created the boot set, you would shut down your system.  Put the first boot floppy in the drive and restart the system (you may have to set your system (in the BIOS) to boot from the floppy disk first before your HDD--or you might be able to bring up a list of boot options by pressing F-8 just after the initial POST (beep) of the system, but before the system begins loading the boot files).  After the boot files have been read and loaded, you will be asked for the second floppy disk that will then load DOS Ghost.

At this point, put one of your Ghost created DVD in the drive and allow it to spin up.  In Ghost, select the menu item *Local*, then *Check*, and finally *Image File*.

In the next screen select from the drop-down menu box along the top that says *Look in:    * the DOS drive letter that is assigned to your DVD optical drive.  You should then be able to select the first image file.  Select that file and complete the steps to performing the integrity test.

Does Ghost recognize your optical drive using the DOS drivers (instead of the Ghost optical drivers that use *@CD.....*) that assign a DOS letter to your optical drives?

Is the Integrity test completed successfully?

Because this is all done in DOS and the Windows Ghost interface is not used--there will be no *Logfile* back in Windows for this procedure--just the final report in Ghost saying that the procedure completed successfully.

When the test is done--exit from Ghost, remove the floppy disk and press the *reset* button to boot back to Windows.

henriette

Ah...good results!

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That's normal.  It's a *universal* boot disk with several optical drive drivers being loaded--if they do not find a compatible controller and/or optical drive--it will give a failure notice.

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Well, you will have to see if the *hold power button down* procedure works consistently!  If not, then using the boot floppys looks like the better way to go--if the Integrity test works without errors--usually that means the actual restore will work the same!

As a possible additional test--when you boot from the above floppy disks--when you wish to *read* a Ghost file--the optical drive will be listed in the *source* drop down box with the *D:* drive letter.  But, if you tell Ghost you want to *create* a Ghost image, i.e. *Local > Disk > To Image* (or *Local > Partition > To Image*), you may still find your optical drive listed under the *destination* drop down box with the *@CD....*--meaning Ghost is recognizing your optical writer as a valid destination using its built-in driver for writing to optical media--give it a try and see if that works!

@NightOwl

quite a lot to tell:

1. Yesterday created image to HDD using floppies. Create + check successful  

2. a. tried to create image to DVD using floppies.
> DOS-mouse-arrow flickered - mouse-arrow 'irritated'
> outside of screen several arrows, wasn't able to catch mouse. Worked at beginning though.
Could it be that I was in 'there' for too long - thinking what to do ...  then mouse-driver mixed up somehow

note: exit ghost > let floppies load again > same with mouse when waited for too long ...

b. Only optical CD-drive was listed in drop-down

3. Created image to DVD starting in ghost interface
> let ghost begin to reboot into DOS > pressed 'power off'-button and held for 5 seconds > PC powered off > waited for 10 seconds > PC on > ghost booted into DOS > recognized optical DVD-drive + was writing image successfully 

Thanks to your 'power off' trick 

note: power off worked twice. This could not be called "to work consistently" could it 

4. Integrity check DVD-image > same way as above with power off > successful 

5. Today tried several things:
a. press 'F8' when initial beep to see if able to choose boot options > .

b. Trying if restoring + check both from HDD and DVD works:
Set floppy 1st in BIOS > put floppy in drive > reboot > let both floppies load > put DVD in drive
> local -> check -> image file --- in drop down exept floppy drive A:\ + both HDDs!
No idea what happened, cause worked last time.  

What do I have to choose in DOS to get 1. HDD 2. DVD- restore,
meaning: local > disc or partition > from image (both?) 

note: tried all today, no optical DVD-drive listed - in no case.

c.

So I asked myself this a.m.: "why did I create image to HDD with floppies ? It used to work in ghost windows interface (start) as well.
So what is the difference (security) between the 2 procedures ?"
"Also: why 'restored with errors' when restoring image from HDD starting in ghost windows interface - what's the difference
when restoring with floppies - why are there no errors in restoring (or could there be errors as well) ?"

Since I do create every image twice > both to HDD and to DVD. To make it easier for me concerning different procedures (power off + floppies) what is your recommendation ?

° For CREATING (both to HDD and to DVD) use ghost windows interface - DVD with power off method 

° For INTEGRITY CHECK DVD-image use power off method - HDD by just ghost interface 

° For RESTORING from HDD GENERALLY (!) only with floppies >>> as mentioned above.

So WHAT WHEN and HOW - after all I told you now.

Will you please be kind enough to help me again ....
henriette 

Hiya NightOwl 

extremely good news from the German "front" (thanks to your post!):

Set BIOS floppy 1st (will always set BIOS when using floppies - trying different "Fxxs" ... might end up in *PC-hell* LOL).

Put floppy in drive > POWER PC DOWN [instead of just rebooting which I did before !!!] > wait 10 seconds > PC ON > let boot from floppies & load (1+2).

NOTE:
Thanks for telling me about the bug 

1. Trying to create to / check / restore from

HDD

:

create: local > partition > to image --> works (abort)

check: local > check > imagefile --> checking ~ 30 seconds > "check successful"

restore: local > partition > from image --> works (abort)

2. Trying to create to / check / restore from

 DVD

:

create: local > now DVD in drive > wait for ~ 5 sec to spin up
> partition > to image --> "@CD-R2 blabla = CDR00001.GHO (since already image on DVD) ---> works (abort)

check: local > check > imagefile --> "D:[GHOST_001]CD-ROM-Drive" = CDR00001(+2+3 - shown in statusline during check).GHO doubleclick --> is checking ~ 18 mts > successful

restore: local > partition > from image --> "D:[GHOST_001]CD-ROM-Drive" = CDR00001.GHO --> works (abort)

Take DVD out of drive > take floppy out > reset > BIOS settings to normal.

As you see all went fine. 

I will use floppies for checking and restoring from now on with power off method 

Just creating to HDD starting in ghost windows interface and creating to + checking DVD with power Off method - should be ok. 

After floppies had loaded + my trying in DOS > took floppy out of drive > reset > back to windows > tried to open "config.sys" - "you can't open cause used by system blabla" > also was 0kB = empty - probably cuz of reset  - NO me goof, must have been cuz I took floppy out of drive ... how to do it then - MUST boot into windows to open config.sys with wordpad  - just leave floppy in drive but reset anyway (without reset wouldn't know what command to write in DOS - GHOST is waiting for a command there .. 

After the good results above think I don't need to look for "himem.sys" + "emm386.exe" in "config.sys" (if loaded).
Wouldn't know when to open to get access + when datas in there ....   

Could not reproduce mouse-arrow-flickering.

P.S.: Quote:

No my DVD drive is supporting ROM, but is an optical drive.
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=20651&PageId=0

henriette is a very happy Duckie 

Here's to my hero NightOwl       

henriette

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When you create the boot floppy set, the Boot Wizard usually put the DOS *autoexex.bat* on both floppies--in DOS, programs refer back to that sometimes to complete the *batch file* process.  So, it should have been either floppy--but obviously something went wrong somewhere!  I would try both floppies--usually the floppy #2 is in the drive--pop it out and put the other in and press *enter*--and if that doesn't solve the error state, then you have to reboot.

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Only if you wanted your DVD to be bootable--but, with a two floppy boot disc you will have to make other arrangements for this to work--because Ghost can only put up to 1.44 MB in the hidden boot sector of a bootable optical disc--so the contents of the second floppy will not fit!  If you want to know how to make this work, I can help--but don't have time here today to explain it.

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There's two things that happen when creating a Ghost image--*splitting* and *spanning*--and those terms get misused even by Symantec's technical writers!  Ghost 2003 has the DOS files size limitation of a max of 2 GB.  If your data is larger than 2 GB, then Ghost has to *split* the file into two or more files of 2 GB or less.

If the Ghost files are a greater size than will fit on the storage media--CD (approx. 700 MB)or DVD (approx. just under 5 GB), then Ghost must *span* the image over multiple discs.

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Yes--and you will not have any control--Ghost's ability to write to optical media takes control and you can not change how Ghost will proceed!

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Sounds like there was a *glitch* in the original writing process to the DVD--things happen!  That's why it's important to do the Integrity test--especially on optical discs (they tend to have more *glitches*)--because sometimes everything seems to have gone okay--but there's actually a problem that was not detected by the writing process to the optical media--so it reports *success* incorrectly!

I'm going to be out of town until next week and without computer access--so if you post a question--that's why I'm not able to answer right away!

@NightOwl

good news 

2nd try create image to DVD (used exactly same brand) - same procedure using floppies in DOS.

Create: compression "middle" > successful 

Check:  total size of image 3.9GB > started with 'CDR00001.gho' > changed to 'CDR0002.gho' at 1500MB ~ 39% > changed to 'CDR00003.gho' at 3000MB ~ 77% --> finally SUCCESS 

note: was just curious about the %age when changed. That's why mentioned (not that easy for 2 eyes to watch %age, written size + in statusline reads 'CDR00001 + 2 +3 (.gho)') 

So image _n_ is both on HDD and on DVD by now 

Happy Duckie henriette 

@NightOwl 

JUST thought of you and wanted to post when I detected that you had also posted 

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Yes, had Ghost 5.1 (?) or so before ghost 2003, worked only in DOS.

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meaning that image with a single DVD is bootable - not so when  spanned to two DVDs - how can the single DVD be bootable without "ghost.exe" 
(sorry, still hard in understanding - thought the "ghost.exe" was needed to make a DVD bootable).

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I don't think that's necessary - do you 
As long as my DOS works I wouldn't have to worry.
If my DOS doesn't work anymore for some tragical reason 
then bootable media wouln't work anymore anyway.
So what is your opinion to this   

Boot devices:
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Had this idea, too - have to set HDD-O as first cause System boots faster, that's the point. 

Just for images (with floppies) I set BIOS different.

That's doesn't matter to me thinking of the long time that an image takes to create to HDD + DVD and check.

Split and span:
You are really most patient with me explaining so detailed.
My printed "Ghost NightOwl book" won't fit in 1 folder anymore  .... and I'm learning and reading.

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Hehe, now here my report I wanted to post:

Today ~ 3hrs ago:
Successfully created + checked new image in DOS both to HDD and to DVD using floppies. No errors and all in a row - success, success ... 

It may be of interest that after creating image to DVD - when tray of optical drive opens auto - I waited for some minutes to let DVD cool down a bit, then closed tray again for integrity check - waiting again before started.

My experience in writing audio-CDs showed me that letting cool down before playing makes a real difference in sound.

Might help with images as well insofar as a just written CD/DVD should not be "touched" for a while since extremely sensitive. So it MIGHT avoid possible reading-errors IMHO.

At least I take my time and care for good results.

In DOS Ghost works really accurate.

This report also for users who may have experienced problems, too.
 
This was made possible by the help and endless patience of NightOwl - the *Ghost-hero* 
henriette