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Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer (Read 10625 times)
ericfree1
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Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Aug 7th, 2008 at 8:51pm
 
For Ghost 2003:

I created a backup, with five segments (main file plus four spanned files.)
I could open up the backup in Ghost Explorer, no problem.

Then, I moved all of these files into another directory (on same drive.)
Then, I could no longer open the backup in Ghost Explorer.

I moved the files back to their original location, and then it worked again.

I certainly may need to move the backups to other directories (or other drives.) Can this be made to work, or can Ghost 2003, only handle backups in their original directories?
 
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #1 - Aug 7th, 2008 at 9:27pm
 
ericfree1 wrote on Aug 7th, 2008 at 8:51pm:
can Ghost 2003, only handle backups in their original directories?  

It doesn't particularly care where they are located. Something else must be going on for this to happen.

Working out what is wrong with your system that is stopping Explorer working will likely need a tool like Process Monitor to see what Ghost Explorer is doing as it tries to open the image files, and why it isn't working (Process Monitor will log all the low-level OS errors).


 
 
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TheShadow
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #2 - Aug 8th, 2008 at 8:28am
 
I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to many people, but I've said it over and over again, "Ghost knows!".

It just knows where it put a backup file and that's where it expects to find it.
It sounds like Nigel isn't agreeing with me on that, but that's ok too.
I just know what works, not the technical "WHY" of it.

Check those moved files to make sure they've not picked up some unwanted attribute in the move process..

Try just a "Copy" instead of a "Move" and see if you get different results.

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
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ericfree1
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #3 - Aug 8th, 2008 at 11:53am
 
I did a new ghost backup to a directory in which I had an old ghost backup. I gave the new backup a different filename that the old backup's filename.

However, ghost used the same spanned filenames, and overwrote the spanned files for my old backup! What the heck?!?!
 
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #4 - Aug 8th, 2008 at 3:56pm
 
ericfree1 wrote on Aug 8th, 2008 at 11:53am:
However, ghost used the same spanned filenames

That's not exactly what happen. You have Ghost a starting filename that was mostly the same, and Ghost 2003's spanned file names were being generated from that to fit the old DOS 8.3 naming convention.

If your name isn't unique in the first few characters, Ghost can't give the spans unique, sequentially numbered 8.3 names. It's impossible.

Now, these days it wouldn't be a good idea to force the creation of 8.3 names this way any more, but in 2003 it was because Ghost only created images in DOS and usually be restoring these things from a DOS environment where only the 8.3 names were available.

It does kinda suck that it overwrites the spans without warning, for sure, and I've tried to get these behaviours changed in subsequent releases. But it's really pretty simple common sense that the span naming system produces clashes and so it's best practice to put large images in different directories.
 
 
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ericfree1
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #5 - Aug 8th, 2008 at 4:48pm
 
Nigel,

OK, well thanks for explaining that.  Good to know you tried to have it changed, but very disappointed that such a high-profile software would overwrite files without warning.

Can you please tell me the exact rules for where ghost backups and their spanned files must reside? For Ghost 2003 specifically.
They all are created in the folder you specify. But then are you allowed to move them to a different directory or different drive? I don't mind keeping them all in the same directory, but I might have to move them all over to another physical drive.

I did make one backup, and then I moved all the files into another folder on the same drive. Ghost explorer couldn't open it anymore. Then I moved it back, and it opened fine.

Then I moved the main file to another folder, but left the spanned files in the original folder and it worked. It seems as though the main ghost backup file has the path hard coded in it pointing to the spanned files. Is this true?
 
 
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Nigel Bree
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Re: Can't open spanned Ghost image in Ghost Explorer
Reply #6 - Aug 8th, 2008 at 7:41pm
 
ericfree1 wrote on Aug 8th, 2008 at 4:48pm:
Then I moved the main file to another folder, but left the spanned files in the original folder and it worked. It seems as though the main ghost backup file has the path hard coded in it pointing to the spanned files. Is this true? 

No, it's not true.

However, one of the things about Explorer back in 2003 was that it and Ghost weren't yet completely able to work around was all the many complexities of the fact that files have two completely independent names in Windows systems. The long name is the only one you will normally see in a modern Windows system, but in addition there is a short file name in the 8.3 scheme, and every file has one of these as well.

[ In Windows XP, probably the easiest way to see the short names of files is via "dir /x" from a command line. ]

Normally, most programs that are aware of this fact will take the proper steps to preserve both names together. Now, it may be that what is happening to you is that the method you are using to copy the files is not preserving the short name. Explorer's default system for forming the names of the span files in 2003 is identical to Ghost's and so the names of the span files it will be looking for will be those short names (newer versions of Explorer aren't dependent on this, but ancient ones are).

If you do something that throws away the short names of the files, then Explorer (in that old version) won't be able to automatically find the spans any more, because instead of being given short names like IMAGE003.GHS if you let Windows select a short name it could be IMAGEX~3.GHS or something useless like that instead, and Explorer won't find it because it's using the algorithm Ghost uses (which was originally designed for 8.3 file names) to derive the span file names from the base GHO name.

All this is old history, of course, the current Ghost code has these minor details sorted. It wouldn't be an issue for any customers if real Ghost was still sold to consumers instead of to businesses. Remember, genuine Ghost was cancelled outright in 2003 by a VP from PowerQuest who then used our brand on their product to save it from extinction, and a lot of people here ended up leaving (and those of us who stayed were absolutely put through the wringer saving the product and bringing it back from that).
 
 
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