Other Norton Products

[Brian_K]

Feel free to chip in if you disagree

For Copy Drive if a SRP is present

For the SRP

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Set drive active (for booting OS)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Copy MBR
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

For Win7

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Resize drive to fill unallocated space (ONLY if you want to)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

For Copy Drive if a SRP is not present

Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Resize drive to fill unallocated space (ONLY if you want to)
Set drive active (for booting OS)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Copy MBR
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

Restore to a new HD if a SRP is present

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

Restore to a new HD if a SRP is not present

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
Set drive active (for booting OS)
Restore original disk signature
Restore master boot record

Restore to the same HD if a SRP is present

For the SRP

No need to restore

For Win7

Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery

Restore to the same HD if a SRP is not present

Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
Set drive active (for booting OS)

[Brian_K]

Immediately after you have performed Copy Drive (before the shutdown) you won't see the new Win7 in Windows Explorer because it doesn't have a drive letter. This is appropriate. You will see the new Win7 partition in Disk Management.

[Teddy12]

Brian,

In regards to your instructions above:

We are having trouble applying a Windows 7 image to different hard drives that don't have SRPs.  Here is what we're doing:

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 PARTITION
Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
Restore original disk signature
Restore master boot record

After the restore, we get all the way to the "Starting Windows" screen and it just sits there forever.  What are we doing wrong?  Should we not even be restoring the SRP?  I noticed in your instructions for "Restore to a new HD if a SRP is NOT present" that you haven't broken it apart for the SRP and Win7 separately.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - these recoveries are driving us crazy!!!

-Ted

[Brian_K]

Ted,

I'm a bit confused. Where is the image from? Does that computer have a Win7 partition and a SRP or just a Win7 partition?

Are you restoring the image to the same computer? Or to a HD in a different computer?

"Restore to a new HD if a SRP is NOT present" that you haven't broken it apart for the SRP and Win7 separately.

By this I mean the original HD only had Win7. There was no SRP. The Win 7 image was being restored to a new (maybe larger) HD. I don't have a SRP in my Win7 computers. The booting files are contained in the Win7 partition.

After the restore, we get all the way to the "Starting Windows" screen and it just sits there forever.

So you never get to the login screen?

[Teddy12]

Brian,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly - I'm sorry my explanation was a little confusing.

Our images are all from Dell computers where we only have the SRP and the C: Drive partitions.

When we create the backup with Ghost 15.0, we include the SRP in the backup.

We are restoring the image to either the same computer or to a HD on an identical model & hard drive size.

Should we be using your recommended settings for "Restore to a new HD if a SRP is present"??

Thanks,

Ted

[Brian_K]

Ted,

I can see where my terminolgy is confusing. Yes, you should be using my "Restore to a new HD if a SRP is present". 

But I don't think you have been causing the issue with Ghost. See these pages re hardware issues.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255700-31-windows-setup-hangs-setup-starting-windows-displayed

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-installation-upgrade/8183-windows-7-starting-windows-freezes-han...

http://benosullivan.co.uk/windows/windows-7-freeze-booting-starting-windows-acpi/

[Teddy12]

Brian,

I have heard of these hardware problems - however, if there was no indication of hardware failure and the unit was booting up fine previously, I would think we are just selecting the wrong options in Ghost?

If we had chosen "Restore MBR" for the C: Drive image (non-system reserved), would that be causing our symptoms?  I recall instructions from Norton when I was on the phone with them and they told me to Restore MBR for both the SRP and the Win7 partition.  Perhaps that is causing all our problems?

Thanks for all your help and how quickly it has come!

-Ted

[Brian_K]

Ted,

I don't think I have encountered your error after a restore but I think I have seen it. But I can't recall under what circumstances.

Try my suggested options but I don't think they will work. The only difference between my suggestions and what you are doing is that you restored the MBR and Disk Signature twice. I doubt that is relevant.

Are you using a blank unpartitioned HD as the target for your restore process?

Where are your images stored? On an external HD?

Is there anything different about the target computers from the source computer? USB devices attached? I guess not or you would have told me.

One thing would be interesting. Go back to the original computer that you imaged and where Win7 is working properly. Replace its HD with an empty HD and restore the images. See if Win7 works. Or have you already done this?

What partitions are on the original HD (in Disk Management)? I thought Dell always had a Utility partition at the start of the HD. How large is the SRP? The few Dells I've seen recently had the booting files in the Recovery Partition.

[huwyngr Norton Fighter]

PMJI Teddy,

I'm not really knowledgable about disk structure but when I've been doing some system restores recently on a laptop -- however not with GHOST as it happens -- I had made an image of the hard drive initially onto an USB connected hard drive and then restored it to a blank larger hard drive in the laptop as a replacement.

It was a COMPAQ but with a SRP and I made the image of the whole drive -- C: and the SRP -- booting to the imaging software CD.

When I restored I just restored the image onto the out of the box new hard drive without any preparation and it did the job perfectly without any specific action on the MBR. The drive just booted up normally

All of which is a lead in to a question -- why did you take a specific action to restore the MBR? Was it because the system would not boot up after restoring the image or did not show the SRP? What "source" did you use to restore the MBR?

I'm sorry if this is answered already but if so ignore the question which I ask because it is my understanding that the MBR contains the code that tells the BIOS what to do and that would include recognizing the two partitions on the drive. So unless you restored it from a source that knew the original geometry you could in fact stop the system from booting up properly.

[Brian_K]

I haven't done specific tests with Win7 but with WinXP it is not essential to restore the MBR when restoring an image to a new HD. If you don't select the Restore MBR option a standard MBR is created by Ghost. But if you have a special MBR you will need to choose Restore MBR otherwise you will lose your special MBR. Dell computers and other computers that use a Recovery partition have a special MBR. Also certain boot managers have a special MBR. When you create an image with Ghost the First Track is backed up. LBA-0 to LBA-62. All these sectors are restored when you choose Restore MBR. However the Partition Table and the Disk Signature components of LBA-0 are not restored with the Restore MBR option.

Win7 requires the Disk Signature to be restored because a successful boot requires the Disk Signature to match the Partition Signatures in the Registry. WinXP doesn't really need the Disk Signature to be restored. It can cope by recalculating Partition Signatures to match the different Disk Signature.