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[spudz3]

I'm running Windows XP on a PC with two internal hard drives from Western Digital, each one is 1 TB. These are both Caviar black drives, Western Digital's highest reliability drive. Neither drive is a RAID drive. I've been using Ghost 15 for a year with no problems. I do automatic backups 3 times a week. I successfully restored a backup 3 months ago. Last week Ghost hung on a backup. It was stuck at 1%. It ran all night, but never got beyond 1%. I rebooted, but still had the same issue. After googling this problem, I learned that sometimes this is due to a corrupt backup. I was doubtful that the backup was corrupt, because I always check "verify backup" when I do a backup. And the Norton log showed no error messages. Even so, I deleted the backups on backup Drive, and reran Ghost. No problem - it made a backup in the normal amount of time. It did not get stuck at 1% However, a strange problem occurred when I tried to restore an image a week later. When I was in the recovery environment using the System Recovery Disk, Ghost could not see the backup drive. But when I was in the regular Windows environment, I could easily see the backup drive with Windows Explorer, and with Device Manager. I even used the Norton browser tool to open the backup files. Everything was there, and it was not corrupt. I ran Norton Disk Doctor on the backup drive with no problems. I used Norton to check the partition structure - no problems. I ran Norton anti-virus, and 2 anti-malware tools to check the drive. No problems were found at all. So I cannot find any problems with the backup drive. Ghost can even make additional incremental backups to the backup drive with no problem. In regular Windows environment, Ghost shows all the recovery points, and says they are "available". But if I go to the recovery environment, the drive cannot be seen. So I can make lots of incremental backups, but I cannot restore anything! Again, I was able to restore images 3 months ago with the same hardware. No new software was installed. What could be stopping Ghost from seeing my backup drive? Any advice from you experts would be much appreciated. Partinfo.txt attached. Thanks!

[Brian_K]

spudz3,

Nice post. Clearly expressed.

Your partinfo is unusual. The HD numbers are reversed. We often see this with Win7 but I can't recall it with WinXP. The OS drive is usually HD0. Can you check whether the OS HD is plugged into SATA port 0.

Also look in Disk Management. Are the HD numbers reversed? Are there Drive Letters in Disk Management?

The OS partition is 2048 sector aligned and the backup partition is cylinder aligned. Unusual but shouldn't cause problems.

[spudz3]

Very interesting observation - you have a real eagle eye!  The drives are reversed in device manger also (the OS is 1).  But the device manager does not show drive letters.  If I recall correctly - my OS ends in 3AO, my backup ends in 9AO.

I'll power down and check the SATA connection.  Does the OS always have to be plugged into SATA port 0?  I haven't changed the SATA connections so this is a bit weird.  But I'll definitely check and get back to you.  Thank you!

[spudz3]

Just checked Computer Management.  Unlike Device Manager, Computer Management shows drive letters.  The OS has drive letter C, the backup has drive letter H.

[Brian_K]

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spudz3 wrote:

the device manager does not show drive letters. 

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Can you check

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Does it contain an UpperFilters key? It should be present. I deleted the key in my test computer, restarted and the drive letters are missing for all 3 HDs in Disk Management. "My Computer" is fine with drive letters..

No, HD0 doesn't have to be SATA port 0. It just need to be a port number less than HD1.

Edit..... just saw you recent post. I misread your earlier post. I thought you meant Disk Management.

[DaveH]

You also might want to check the BIOS settings for each drive.  (Actually each SATA port).

They may have different settings and the data drive may be using a different driver.

Some of the different settings are IDE Mode, SATA, RAID, and AHCI.

But don't go changing anything on your system drive right now, just check and see if they are the same or different.

Dave

[spudz3]

Hi Brian - I just checked the SATA ports, and your hunch was correct.  Turns out the OS drive (0) was connected to SATA 4.  And the backup drive was connected to SATA 1.  I reversed them, and rebooted.  Now the OS drive is on SATA 1, and the backup drive is now on SATA 4.

I will next try the SRD to go into the recovery environment.  Do you still need me to check

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

If so I may need a little guidance as I have never edited a registry before.  For a newbie like me, that's pretty advanced!!!

[spudz3]

Brian - I also just checked Disk Management after switching the SATA ports.  They are not reversed - C is the system OS, and H is the backup drive.  So that looks OK.

[spudz3]

Hi Dave - Thanks for the reply.  I just checked the BIOS for each drive, and both hard drives are shown in BIOS as SATA.  Settings for both drives are exactly identical.  Does it make any sense for me to make another SRD? 

[spudz3]

Hi Brian - I just tried entering the recovery environment with my SRD, and no joy.  I still cannot see the backup drive in that environment.  Is there anything else I can try?  Shall I make another SRD?