Dear Andreash_Utah:
Thanks so much for taking an interest in my problem.
I know I wrote a lot and seems from your reply there is some confusion about what I said. So I copied what you suggested and will comment on where I think I was not clear enough before and you can tell me how to modify your instructions to attempt to do what you suggest. (It's a Great Idea! Please don't take anything I write wrong, just making factual corrections so I know where I can go from here).
>Andreash_Utah wrote:
>After Ghost installs itself, it will attempt to start the related services.
>These services look at all of the drives in the system and attempts to
>enumerate them. This is where it sounds like it is failing.
Maybe my computer skills are not complete, but I did ask Dell and Microsoft as well as the Norton professional I contacted. As far as I know, I never successfully "installed" Norton as when it says "Restart is needed to complete the Installation process" the Windows never came back on again to display the message or any sign that "Norton has been successfully installed" and some window (Like I know does exist in other versions of Norton products) asking me if I want to "Run" Norton Ghost "now".
Everyone points to something in the process that corrupted the boot/start up process of the Windows operating program itself. Its not just merely Norton "enumerating" the drives because then its just "looking" & "examining" at the system directory structure and partitions, not effecting or changing the registry, or boot drive or start up drive [Thus, unless you tell me otherwise, Ghost 15 should not be doing that unless I told Ghost to make changes in any particular drive order or copying which I could not as I never got Ghost's version 15 to run on this computer.....ever.]
>My thoughts are that this is related to one or more of the following:
>1. A 3rd party service running on the computer (one of the many
>programs you have installed)
YES, my thinking is headed toward that. I was going to remove the programs that operate in the background, but you suggest I remove ALL third party programs? Even if not operating? That can be difficult as I did buy and install them until I get Norton Utilities 15 installed and have the ability to correct and fix registry errors. Once they have occurred and if I have no program installed, it is impossible to install one (after the damage has occurred, right), so I have these third party Avanquest programs which installed and run ok but certainly are not the usual "Norton" quality products I am used to.
(BTW: Norton's tech people now inform me that I should have installed Ghost before "any" other Norton product including Internet Security or Norton Utilities both of which might be useful to getting me out of these problems if I could boot to Windows in a Safe Mode, but not having them installed at all, and if Ghost Still fails to install, it leaves me little choice but to empty the drive and reformat and start all over again. So maybe this might be a reason for Norton/Symantec people to be convinced that a workaround solution should be offered for people like me who require installation of these protective programs before Norton Ghost goes in knowing that such programs can cause catastrophic failure of the entire Operating System.).
>2. The second hard drive and the many partitions, and possible
>partition corruption.
>3. Partition Commander.
But I do not have Partition Commander running unless I click on the icon.....I can remove it if that is what it takes.
Does installing it after Ghost is installed present any problems? (I do and have viewed in this Forum site (I never knew about or needed until now), many other problems with Norton that I also never knew existed, and most of the replies I've read seem to say as part of the solution to "remove and reinstall Norton Ghost"
So I would be asking, since its now quite a number of utility programs I'm being asked to remove before installing Norton Ghost, I wonder that in the future, if I find this method works, (sorry for long sentence!) if all this process now means all of these extra programs should be removed each and every time I need to (or am instructed to by tech or forum) to remove and re-install Ghost?
And of course what I can't predict if its just the ones I have so far or those plus any others that I get in future? In other words, are you suggesting that Norton Ghost has to be the very first program installed on a clean drive after Windows? (No where else have I read this suggestion and wondering why that would ever be so, as one would realize after a while I will have my 150 programs migrated from the old drive to here (either the original ones, or new ones with new product keys new versions of old ones I want to pay to improve). Then what you're suggesting as a solution really is a principle, that Norton Ghost has to be the first resident in the drive after Windows is installed? That can have serious consequences as many of the programs I use make proprietary data streams and removing them also (by those programs protocols) corrupts the data streams thereby rendering the data in those programs unusable even by the program themselves. They are not designed to be simply removed and reinstalled without paying for a new product key to preserve that company's "cash flow" I know all about those reasons. (Don't worry! Those missing "5" drives I keep mentioning here and there which duplicate letters S T U V W are really those drives and never entered into the picture as they have not yet been attached to this computer ever, as I never got time in all these problems to check if the programs work in their new computer home yet!) I will still have circa 900 GB to store away on that Terabyte drive (twice) whenever I get Ghost working and attach those missing drives in IEEE cases or USB cases later on.
>
>So here is what I recommend if you are feeling ambitious:
(What have i got to lose? Just time. As right now I have a very excellent giant black doorstop or Bookend as the computer is not being used for what I purchased it for).
>
>1. Boot up the system to the Ghost 15 CD (as BrianK suggested above)
Andreash: Sorry to inform you. I WANTED to have a physical copy of Ghost 15 for just that purpose! But I was informed that Norton no longer sends out Physical copies (It took several weeks to obtain the very "last" in my area of the country copy of Norton Internet Security 2011, so I'm able to install and remove and reinstall that one easily). Without Norton Ghost 15 installed I have no way to create that boot up disk as I know comes with Symantec products in the past, but as I mentioned back to BrianK, I did not see anywhere on the Norton Ghost Store download site to load a "program" or etc to make a bootable disk that would assist me if the Windows operating system fails again (remember I need a "bootable" disk. I had some "rescue disks" but they were not able to help as too many changes were made and at the time I did not save the changes (sorry! was just trying to get Ghost inside to use to save everything rather than using the cheeper systems to save in-between minor changes to the new "W" Drive (Raptor 300 GB SATA drive).
> and create an image of the operating system partition (drive >C:\).
Interesting point you have raised with me without knowing it. I wonder.....Since Drive "C" (actual drive C for the computer) was corrupted and locked by Microsoft using their WGA program, I have had two new installations over the years. Other than "P" Parallel Windows Home XP edition is only one working in Drive 1 and the new Drive 0 (SATA Drive) has its operating system forced by Microsoft to take the only open drive letter "W" available to it. I could change it by using Partition Commander or even Windows Disk Manager if I "dare" but please remember!
EVERY one of these programs (and Microsoft) cautions me against doing such changes until I "save" all programs and data first!
Which is the chicken/egg cart/horse problem I seem to have here that I would and should (after 6 years) need a safety "saved" copy of all my programs and files (at least on Drives 0 and 1 if not everywhere else), before I change or attempt to change or install new programs. I always take a chance when installing those Utility programs but they are there one hopes to prevent such disasters (such as de-fragmenting the registry, or fixing the disks or checking the disks as well as Norton, best one for copying the disks using Ghost
>Save this off to another drive.
(Got to buy one unless I reuse that brand new Maxtor by Formatting it first so its empty again?) I have to get some type of enclosure for it first? Unless I install it internally to transfer back to Drive 0 in case it fails again? Just my own complications of not having free space on any drive to save "300 GB" and don't have the versitility of Ghost which I know I can ask it to just "save" the filled sections of the drive, i.e. just a measly 9.6 GB as you can see in Drive "W" above. So I know it sounds simple, but again without resources to make these things happen right at this time. But I'll try to work around it. OF course Ghost can "save to" and "restore from" a partition, which the other programs might or might not be able to do and I've never tried it before so being "untested" I'd not want to experiment with those systems.
I do have earlier versions of "Ghost" on the older way it functioned on DOS level, so by floppy or CD Drive, but unfortunately they all had the 32? (I forget) 32 GB size limit which answers your question if I have so many prior versions of Ghost lying around, (last one is 2006 sold to me in 2005), why don't I just try using one of the older versions to make a one time 9.6 GB copy of Drive W before I begin so it makes everything easy like 15 minutes after anything goes wrong I'm back in business again with the drive restored rather than taking weeks to restore all programs and wireless internet keyboards mice data tablet, etc. Thus the older ones were not even programmed or aware of the current 250/300 GB drives I now have, let alone my two new 1 terabyte size drives.
>This ensures that no matter what
>we do, we have a backup and can restore from the SRD if necessary.
Right now, I only have other third party "proprietary" types of saving programs, which means I am unhappy that I cannot "view" the contents of the drive to confirm that they were actually "saved" before I attempt to make these modifications or installation attempts at Ghost 15.
>2. Turn the computer OFF and unplug it.
>3. Disconnect ALL drives in the computer (USB, Firewire, IDE, SATA,
>etc) except for Drive 0.
>4. Boot up the machine and you should be able to get into the operating system.
Yes, got your plan it so far. I tried installing Ghost this way for the third try, after that and even with Norton's help/assistance, it failed, so lets try your additions to that method below:
>5. From here, uninstall Partition Commander and any other software
>that might have anything to do with partitions or partition/drive >management. Reboot after all changes are made.
>6. Install Ghost 15.
>7. If the install fails, we can boot to the SRD and restore the C:\ drive
>back.
I thank you all for reading this far. Here is a good question for those who can check inside Ghost as to how it physically "works":
When it starts up again, does it check for the "C" drive as standard? If it does, it will find a non-operating C Drive (just as when I had both Drive 0 and Drive 1 installed) or
If Ghost will find only a Drive labeled "W" when it boots up into WIndows XP Professional system in Drive 0. No where does it find "Drive C" I know you may have written "Drive C" meaning to have me substitute my correct drive letter for the "C", but it set me to wondering if the program would know and look for the real physical booting drive (P) in Drive 1 or (W) in Drive 0, or does its basic commands upon being "installed" and asked to restart include it looking for the hierarchy of drive letters beginning with Drive C? If so that could explain much, but again the solution is always listed as "Save" all your programs and data before attempting any changes or corrections to your drive lettering or partitions or sizes or content!
Exactly the purpose for which Ghost 15 does so well!
(As a Symantec Employee, can you suggest that there is still a need for those of us who prefer to have a bootable installable CD drive that even could be used (albeit temporarily) to copy drives/partitions without actually installing the program, i.e. operating as the older Ghosts did from the floppy/CD Drives?
>Brian_k, thoughts?
(Yes, please tell me your thoughts as well with this added information).
Thanks again to all!
A Peter Norton Fan
Long term, I would suggest considering consolidating all of the partitions into a few partitions, such as an operating system partition and some data partitions. With Microsoft Windows, as you have experienced, sometimes less is more.
