Other Norton Products

[rakingman]

I have Ghost setup to execute batch files (.cmd) pre & post backup of four partitions.  I have been running this way for years.
Starting about 6 weeks ago, I started getting:

    Error EC8F17B7: Cannot create recovery points for job: SERVICEV001 (*:\).
    Error EC8F0401: The command file (before data capture) failed to execute.
    Error E0BB009C: External command "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Norton Ghost\CommandFiles\BeforeCapture.cmd"  returned an error.
    Error EBAB03F1: OS error 3221225794.
    Details: 0xE0BB009C
    Source: Norton Ghost

Rerunning the backup SOMETIMES works.

Has this been corrected in Ghost 15?

[DaveH]

Is your command always valid?

If you run the cmd file does it always complete without errors?

Do you mind telling us what it does? 

Dave

[rakingman]

For the last 4 weeks the .cmd file has been:

@ECHO OFF

@EXIT  0

I still got errors unpredictably.

Today I changed the exit to "@EXIT  /B  0" just to see if there would be a difference.

I started out with the following and it ran for may months without a problem.

@echo off

@net send xxxxxxxx Backup complere.

@exit 0

[DaveH]

I not a expert in DOS or commands, but I never seen the @ used unless it is used with echo on or echo off.

It's used just so that the "echo" command is not echoed (displayed).

So, I'm not sure if you need that in any other line.  It shouldn't matter anyway because I'm assuming your not at the system at the time of the backup anyway.

I'm also not sure if you really need the exit line either.  All my .cmd files exit by themselves and I'm also unsure if 0 is a valid error level.

For your original command I would say that since it ran fine most of the time and still works sometimes, that maybe it only needs a little more time to finish before Ghost starts or exits.  I myself have had to put a delay in batch files and I have seen some others here that also needed a delay before running a shutdown command after the image was made.

There is a free tool called "Nircmd" that can be used to "wait" for a certain amount of time.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

I also believe there is a free tool in one of the windows resource kits that can be used to "wait" or "sleep" in the same way.

Or a free way to do it without any extra tools is:  ping -n 30 localhost

(thats a sloppy way to make an approx 30 sec delay).

Since your running XP I would first try nircmd, it would be really easy to use.  Anyone else reading this and using windows 7 would have to put it into a user file and/or reset the permissions on it to make sure it can be run without a UAC or administrator prompt.

Put nircmd.exe in the windows directory or just click it and it will offer to do it for you.

Then try one of the following:

@echo off

echo Hello World

nircmd wait 30000

(Time is in milliseconds, thats a 30 second pause)

Or try your original command again:

@echo off

net send xxxxxxxx Backup complere.

nircmd wait 30000

If you find that it consistantly runs you may be able to trim the delay down to maybe 5-10 seconds.

Best of luck,

Dave

[redk9258]

Are we just trying to shutdown the PC? What's wrong with the shutdown command?

C:\Windows\System32>shutdown /?
Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e] [/f]
    [/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

    No args    Display help. This is the same as typing /?.
    /?         Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.
    /i         Display the graphical user interface (GUI).
               This must be the first option.
    /l         Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.
    /s         Shutdown the computer.
    /r         Shutdown and restart the computer.
    /g         Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
               rebooted, restart any registered applications.
    /a         Abort a system shutdown.
               This can only be used during the time-out period.
    /p         Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.
               Can be used with /d and /f options.
    /h         Hibernate the local computer.
               Can be used with the /f option.
    /e         Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.
    /m \\computer Specify the target computer.
    /t xxx     Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.
               The valid range is 0-315360000 (10 years), with a default of 30.
               If the timeout period is greater than 0, the /f parameter is
               implied.
    /c "comment" Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               Maximum of 512 characters allowed.
    /f         Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
               The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is
               specified for the /t parameter.
    /d [p|u:]xx:yy  Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.
               u indicates that the reason is user defined.
               If neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is
               unplanned.
               xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).
               yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).


Reasons on this computer:
(E = Expected U = Unexpected P = planned, C = customer defined)
Type    Major   Minor   Title

 U      0       0       Other (Unplanned)
E       0       0       Other (Unplanned)
E P     0       0       Other (Planned)
 U      0       5       Other Failure: System Unresponsive
E       1       1       Hardware: Maintenance (Unplanned)
E P     1       1       Hardware: Maintenance (Planned)
E       1       2       Hardware: Installation (Unplanned)
E P     1       2       Hardware: Installation (Planned)
E       2       2       Operating System: Recovery (Planned)
E P     2       2       Operating System: Recovery (Planned)
  P     2       3       Operating System: Upgrade (Planned)
E       2       4       Operating System: Reconfiguration (Unplanned)
E P     2       4       Operating System: Reconfiguration (Planned)
  P     2       16      Operating System: Service pack (Planned)
        2       17      Operating System: Hot fix (Unplanned)
  P     2       17      Operating System: Hot fix (Planned)
        2       18      Operating System: Security fix (Unplanned)
  P     2       18      Operating System: Security fix (Planned)
E       4       1       Application: Maintenance (Unplanned)
E P     4       1       Application: Maintenance (Planned)
E P     4       2       Application: Installation (Planned)
E       4       5       Application: Unresponsive
E       4       6       Application: Unstable
 U      5       15      System Failure: Stop error
 U      5       19      Security issue
E       5       19      Security issue
E P     5       19      Security issue
E       5       20      Loss of network connectivity (Unplanned)
 U      6       11      Power Failure: Cord Unplugged
 U      6       12      Power Failure: Environment
  P     7       0       Legacy API shutdown

[DaveH]

No, it was someone else that wanted to run the shutdown, and we found it only worked when adding a time delay.

When Ghost runs the "after image" command, it still needs a little time to close out properly.

The OP here originally was using it to send a message to another system.