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Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem (Read 14417 times)
DosInstead
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Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Mar 8th, 2011 at 3:50pm
 
Just moved to Ghost 15/win7 64 bit  and have a recovery error on my very first test.  I see references to this in a few forums around, but can't quite nail down what I'm doing wrong.

I've been using Ghost 2003, 9, 12 on systems from back in win98 days through xp. Can usually operate Ghost with my eyes closed and backups are reliable.

Anyway.. the setup .... Bought Ghost 15.  Did a fresh test install of win7 64 bit on an 80gb drive on a random gutted HP win7-qualified machine I have here, set up ghost 15, backed up the drive, choosing also the reserved partition from the Ghost prompt, and backed both up ( c drive and reserved partition which were both available to choose) at the same time in one step up to a second external data NTFS drive where other ghosts also usually are.  I used the "One Time Backup" task because .. .that's the only one I ever use for all the ghost versions I have (except 2003)

After the backup, I deleted the partition (actually all partitions as there were 2 made by Win7) on the 80gb drive to do a test recovery. Popped in the Ghost recovery cd and with the empty 80gb drive and Ghost data hard drive attached, started up the "recover my computer".  First time, I left the prompts as they were   (make drive active, restore disk structure etc), and recovered the new windows setup in about 6 minutes.

Rebooted with the recovered drive (only) and have a windows error message saying ... "The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible".   The prompt was to pop in the Win 7 installation cd and choose "repair" ... which I did.  And then windows started fine.

So I started all over again and got the same result.

What am I doing wrong in the backup or restore procedure?  This usually works so smoothly with old machines, old os, and old Ghosts.

By the way, when windows does its "repair".  the message is that it has repaired the windows boot manager, deleting one very long number and replacing it with a different very long number and something about a partition not being found until Windows repaired it.

Sorry this is so long a description.  I'm sure this is all due to a setting I'm using or not usiing at some stage.  No doubt having to do with that boot partition (something new apparently in the windows world)  I'm only use to seeing one single C drive when I have backed up in past machines. 

I'd just like to figure out the correct backup procedure before I start building out this machine setup.

Thanks guys
 
 
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Brian
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #1 - Mar 8th, 2011 at 6:52pm
 
@
DosInstead

Did you use these restore options?

Restore to an empty HD if a SRP was present on the original HD

For the SRP

Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
Set drive active (for booting OS)
Restore original disk signature
Restore master boot record

For Win7

Verify recovery point before restore
Resize drive after recover (unallocated space only) (ONLY if you want to)
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #2 - Mar 8th, 2011 at 10:28pm
 
Brian wrote on Mar 8th, 2011 at 6:52pm:
@
DosInstead

Did you use these restore options?

Restore to an empty HD if a SRP was present on the original HD
...... yep, no partitions, completely blank drive

For the SRP

Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
Set drive active (for booting OS)
Restore original disk signature
Restore master boot record

For Win7

Verify recovery point before restore
Resize drive after recover (unallocated space only) (ONLY if you want to)
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
....checked all that too.  It's almost as if the system reserved partition is being imaged during the Ghost backup, but is not being brought back when I recover the ghost to a fresh blank drive on the machine.  I'm still taking a closer look at the messages the win7 install disk shows me after it "fixes" what Ghost could not recover from the image each time
.


 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #3 - Mar 8th, 2011 at 11:03pm
 
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DosInstead

I don't think you are following my instructions. You must do two restores. SRP first. Win7 second.
 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #4 - Mar 9th, 2011 at 3:03pm
 
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DosInstead

Quote:
I've been using Ghost 2003, 9, 12 on systems from back in win98 days through xp. Can usually operate Ghost with my eyes closed and backups are reliable.

Why are you changing over to Ghost 15?  With appropriate steps taken as far as how Win7 is installed, Ghost 2003 can still work fine.

You can install Win7 without having the SRP also created--thus avoiding having to backup both partitions for a valid future recovery from a whole HDD failure (if your backup is not on the same HDD that just failed!).  And, you can change the boot manager settings so Win7 (same applies to Vista) *acts like* previous versions of Windows, and you avoid boot errors that require the *repair* process (although, that appears to be relatively painless).

Just so you know those options exist!
 

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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #5 - Mar 9th, 2011 at 9:41pm
 
Thanks for the tips so far.  I remember that I had some weird things with Ghost 9 the first few days I used it years ago and things straightened out.

I'm sorting through all the suggestions so far.  My original error was thinking that Ghost was going to recover both partitions in one step as all its little green lights and check boxes originally led me to believe was happening.

I've tried recovering just the 100mb partition and then the main c drive in two steps and ended up with a "boot mgr not found".  I'll try that again .

Tried the idea of deleting the 100mb partition as apparently that is only for bitlocker use.  So I thought. I popped the drive in another computer to delete that partition, then popped the drive back in by itself to its machine, and windows wouldn't boot at all.  Once again, I popped in the win 7 64bit dvd and it "fixed"  things ... by recreating the 100mb partition.  I'm thinking that any hacks to remove that just aren't worth it for only 100mb.

I could try Ghost 2003, but I really only use that on two win98 machines that still run.

I also tried that built in Windows 7 image feature.  That is not good at all for me on several levels.. but at least I know how that works.

Anyway, thanks for the tips so far.  I'll take a look at Brian's steps in more detail tomorrow.

So far, the FASTEST way to make a reliable backup has been to have Ghost recover the entire backup images in one step (like in my first post) , and then throw in the windows 7 dvd to make its' 8 second repair of whatever I didn't have right with the Ghost settings.

Just out of curiosity for you Ghost users.  When I do select recover and Ghost shows the main c drive and the 100mb partition ... why does it show a green light next to each and a check mark next to each ????  To me, that's like saying "here is everything I'm going to slap back on the hard drive in one step for you".  I've been checking through the Ghost 15 manual and can find no references to what the little green lights even mean.
 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #6 - Mar 9th, 2011 at 9:53pm
 
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DosInstead

DosInstead wrote on Mar 9th, 2011 at 9:41pm:
to what the little green lights even mean. 

I've no idea either.

DosInstead wrote on Mar 9th, 2011 at 9:41pm:
ended up with a "boot mgr not found". 

That means you set the wrong partition active.

After you have sorted this out I'll help you remove the SRP so you don't have to backup and restore two partitions. If you aren't using BitLocker (and that only works on Win7 Enterprise and Ultimate) then the SRP is just a pain. Better without it.
 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #7 - Mar 10th, 2011 at 6:44pm
 
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Brian

Quote:
After you have sorted this out I'll help you remove the SRP so you don't have to backup and restore two partitions

If DosInstead is in the early phase of installing/using Win7 and Ghost--wouldn't it be better to avoid having the SRP created in the first place--rather than going through the steps to *remove* it--the number of steps and the time involved may be about equal either way--but just a *thought* question--what do you think?
 

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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #8 - Mar 10th, 2011 at 8:03pm
 
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NightOwl

I couldn't agree more. If you install Win7 into an established partition (rather than unallocated space) you don't get a SRP. If you want the Win7 partition to be 2048 sector aligned, don't use Partition Magic to create the partition. It's a good idea to ask the Win7 install process to format the partition again if it wasn't created by diskpart (Disk Manager). A NTFS partition created by Acronis Disk Director will fail to install Win7 unless Win7 does another format. I don't think this applies to Partition Magic.

 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #9 - Mar 11th, 2011 at 9:05pm
 
In order to keep my workflow somewhat consistent with all the xp, 98 (and now win 7 pro) systems, here's what I got to repeatedly work fine in the past day -

Installed a new win 7 64 bit setup.  Started a one-time backup with Ghost to an external hard drive, selecting the c drive and hidden partition to image.

Once the backup finished, I deleted the partitions on the drive and started a recovery from the restore cd and external drive only THIS time, I didn't choose any ghost options (no restore signature. mbr, make active etc).  I saw that some options were already checked so I just left everything as Ghost had it.

THIS time, Ghost recovered the entire drive in one step and everything started up fine on the newly recovered drive.  I deleted the partitions again and tried the recovery a few times and it worked.  I did a restore from the earlier image from a few days ago, again without selecting any options other than what the Ghost recovery had pre-checked, and that one restored fine too.

So at least I know to not mess with the recover options at all and leave the defaults ..I guess.

I also tried a recovery a few times to a larger 250gb drive and set the 'resize drive" option ... and that failed every single time.  No bootup.   For sure, it's operator error, but I'm getting tired of tracking it down .. SOO...

So instead, I restored to the 250gb drive .. again with me not changing any of the Ghost recover options... and everything was fine .. although now I had about 158 of extra unallocated space on the new drive.

So I used the free little home version of Minitools partition wizard to .. move the 100mb srp over to the end of the drive and then resize the c drive to grab the unallocated.  The "extend" feature in windows 7 wouldn't do it since the 100mb partition was in the way of the unallocated.  The little freebie tool worked great for everything.

Now all is fine for the larger 250gb drive too.

Maybe I'm making this harder than it has to be .. but the overall steps only take about 10 minutes tops to do a full recovery now to any drive.  And at least i don't have to think much about it since it's sort of in the same workflow I use for earlier machines.

I'm all for not having to use that srp at all.  Dunno why that's not an option to "not create" during win 7 pro setup,
 
 
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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #10 - Mar 12th, 2011 at 1:32pm
 
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DosInstead

Quote:
I'm all for not having to use that srp at all.  Dunno why that's not an option to "not create" during win 7 pro setup,

There does not appear to be an *option* to select, but there are ways to avoid it:

How to Prevent Windows 7 from Creating a Hidden /Recovery /System Reserved Partition during Installation

Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7

Is it possible to install RC1 without the 100mb bitlocker partition?

Partitioning in Windows 7 is made easy...
 

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Re: Just moving to Win 7 64 bit and Ghost 15 - problem
Reply #11 - Mar 13th, 2011 at 4:06pm
 
Hey Nightowl and Brian ... thank you guys !!!!!

After sludging through, I did a fresh win 7 pro 64 bit install, THIS time removing the srp during installation based on the links and suggestions you gave earlier. 

PERFECT !!  One Partition.  Ghost backups and recoveries are flawless on any drive I try it on.  Wish MS would simply add a "do not create srp" option on those advanced settings at setup.  Oh well.

Thanks again guys !!  Glad I checked here before I got too far into things.

 
 
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