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[casualReader]

Hi,

I installed Ghost 12 on a fresh installation of Vista x64 with SP1.  After reboot, I'm no longer able to access my CD/DVD drive because the driver fails to load.  Under Vista's Device Manager, I clicked into Driver Details of the CD/DVD drive and saw that Windows' generic "cdrom.sys" now was listed along with Ghost's "GEARAspiWDM.sys".

Has anyone else experienced the same problem?  The CD/DVD drive in my laptop is of "Slimtype DVD A DS8A1P ATA Device".

Thanks for any insight, workaround, etc.

[casualReader]

After some time of dilligent web search, I came across a couple of pages on the net related to my problem:

  http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=35112&vforum=0c17d3

  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461

Following their direction to locate the registry key in question, I saw that the "UpperFilters" key was pointing to the value "GEARAspiWDM.sys" (I'm recalling from memory at this moment).  After I deleted the key and rebooted the computer, the CD/DVD drive came back to life under Vista.  The aforementioned web pages warn that CD/DVD-burning applications might misbehave afterwards and advise re-installation of those apps.  I'll test those programs in the coming days.

[casualReader]

Well, the CD/DVD burning program that came with my laptop appears to work without problem, but Ghost 12 won't copy a recovery point to my optical drive, giving "Error EC8F1C42" -- thinking that it is a "read-only location and not a valid destination".

I next tried the "Repair" option from the Ghost installation disk; however, that only got me back to the original problem of an inaccessible CD/DVD drive.

I'm out of ideas at this point...

[Johan_Jeffery]

Perhaps this will help.  Go to http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm and download the latest Gear driver.  After installing, make sure you reboot.

Ghost makes use of the Gear driver to write to CDs/ DVDs.  This problem was fixed in the latest drivers from Gear.  For most the LiveUpdate to Ghost 12.0.4 will also update this driver.  However, we have found that on rare occasion you need to install this driver using their download and update.

[casualReader]

Hi,

Thanks for reading my post and providing the suggestion.

In fact, originally I did try applying the latest driver from Gear's web site after Live Update on Ghost 12.  Unfortunately, it did not cure the problem.

Later, I re-installed the OS from scratch and then installed Ghost 12 again.  This time I saw that immediately upon installation (but before any Live Update), the optical drive was accessible.  But after the very first Live Update, the optical drive disappeared because the driver could not load.

I have re-installed the OS from scratch yet again, along with some essential apps; but now I'm using Vista's own Complete PC Backup and Restore to capture an image of my installation.  It is nowhere near as feature-rich as Ghost, but it seems to be working.

Hopefully, some future version of Ghost will work for me...

[Johan_Jeffery]

Still, I would like to see this problem solved, if not for you then for anyone else who might be in a similar bind.  Would you give me your hardware information, CD/ DVD drive information, and CD/DVD software you use?  I'll then pass it onto our specialist in these matters and see what he would suggest be done to resolve this situation or situations like it.

[casualReader]

This is what the computer tells me:

Manufacturer                            Acer, inc.
Product Name                            Aspire 5920    
Processor                               Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7500  @ 2.20GHz
System Memory                           4 GB
Hard Drive 1                            WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0, 298.09 GB
CD/DVD Drive 1                          Slimtype DVD A  DS8A1P ATA Device
Video                                   Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Total Available Graphics Memory         358 MB
Audio                                   Realtek High Definition Audio
Ethernet Card 1                         Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless LAN Card 1                     Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection

The computer has the following applications installed:

Acer Arcade Deluxe 

Acer VCM

Acer CrystalEye

Acer Empowering Technology

Cyberlink PowerProducer

Intel Matrix Storage Manager

Launch Manager

NTIBackup NOW! 4.7

NTI CD & DVD-Maker 7

[Johan_Jeffery]

Thanks!

Here is what I've been told.  Our expert believes that either the upper or lower filters have been hosed.  This can happen when CD/ DVD software goes in and takes over these filter drivers and does it in a way that messes things up for other programs. Vista itself can even to this to other programs.  There are two ways to fix this.  One is to nuke the entries in the registry for these filters and then reboot.  They then get recreated correctly on the boot.  The other way, and far safer way than nuking things in your registry, is to download the following utility from Roxio: http://tools.roxio.com/support/tools/DriveFixEZ_Installed.exe.  Run this utility and follow the directions.  It will do the Ratio work necessary to get things working again.  It also check for a few other things that could also be contributing to the problem.

[casualReader]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions.  I finally found the time to give Ghost 12 one more try on my computer.  As before, immediately after installation, the CD/DVD drive was available; but after the first Live Update and the mandatory reboot, the optical drive was no longer visible.

Your first suggestion is the same as what I had tried myself before (second and third posts of this thread) -- it succeeded in getting back the optical drive, but I had problem burning DVDs in Ghost afterwards.

I tried the second suggestion, downloading Roxio's Upper/Lower Filter utility from their site.  Unfortunately, the executable only runs on Windows 2000 and XP.

Oh well, I hope to have better luck with a future version of Ghost.

[JimboC]

---

Johan_Jeffery wrote:
Still, I would like to see this problem solved, if not for you then for anyone else who might be in a similar bind.  Would you give me your hardware information, CD/ DVD drive information, and CD/DVD software you use?  I'll then pass it onto our specialist in these matters and see what he would suggest be done to resolve this situation or situations like it.

---

Hi Johan_Jeffery,

           I have encountered the same issue as this person "casualReader" . I also use Ghost 12. My verion of  Vista is Vista Ultimate x64 edition with SP1. My optical drive is a SATA version. Specifically, a Samsung SH-S183L  SATA DVD Writer.

           I hope the following info is of some use. Perhaps as casualReader  points out, this could possibly be fixed in a future version of Ghost (maybe even Ghost 14).

My computer specification is as follows:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 Quad Core processor 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB

4 GB of PC3-10666 Corsair DDR3 RAM TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX G set to CAS
9-9-9-24-1T and 1.63 V

2 x Nvidia Geforce 8800 Ultra (Gainward) Graphics cards in SLI mode
(Nvidia 175.19 driver)

2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 2 hard drives (not in RAID configuration)

Asus Striker 2 Extreme mainboard (Nvidia nForce 790i Ultra) (Asus 9.46
driver and BIOS 0512)

1000W Coolermaster Real Power M1000 CMAST RS-A00-ESBA

Coolermaster Stacker 830 Evolution Silver Case

Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro (Creative series
Driver 2.18.0004)

Samsung SH-S183L  SATA DVD Writer

Creative Inspire 6.1 6700 Dolby Digital Extended Speakers

Microsoft Wireless High Definition Laser Mouse 8000 (Bluetooth)

Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard

Eizo Flexscan 24 inch HD2441W LCD HDMI Monitor

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit with SP1