Other Norton Products

[alanb]

>  It's a geometry issue. USB HDs have different geometry from internal HDs.

Really?  Interesting.  Maybe you could point me to an online resource where I could learn some particulars?

I suppose that I could (1) install a bare "temporary" OS on a new HD, (2)boot the main computer off of the "temporary" OS drive, (3) install Ghost on the "temporary" OS drive, (4) run Ghost in the "normal" Windows environment to restore the image to the original HD, which I will have mounted in another internal bay , (5) remove the "temporary" drive and (6) put the restored HD back as the primary/booting drive.

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But wait a minute:  I saved the image to an external USB-connected hard drive.

I opened Ghost's "recovery point browser" and asked it to "verify" the recovery point on the external USB-connected hard drive. 

The image failed the verification test on the same drive to which it was initially backed up — that test would have nothing to do with comparing the image file to the same file (or its constituent files) as they would appear on an internal drive...

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I am wholly unable to express my hatred for Ghost and my anger towards Norton at this moment.....

[Brian_K]

My son is visiting. His Win7 laptop has 8 GB RAM. The Ghost CD boots fine.

[alanb]

> But did the CD boot? It should boot in the absence of HDs.

No it didn't.

That's the point — according to Norton, it can't and won't.

The computer saw no bootable device, period.

[Brian_K]

OK. Well we know the 4 GB issue is not relevant.

Don't quote me on this but you may have a bad RAM module. Leaving the other computer result aside, bad RAM is the commonest cause of Verify and Restore failures but I'm not sure about failure of the CD to boot.

I suggest removing all RAM except 2 GB. See if the CD boots. If not, try a different 2 GB, etc.

Good luck.

[alanb]

>  OK. Well we know the 4 GB issue is not relevant.

I know nothing of the sort.  So far, everyone @ Norton with whom I've spoken says that it is a problem.  The only two people I've read about who say that they could boot and restore (one in this thread, the other in the Newegg comment that I quoted earlier) acknowledged seeing errors of various types (and of varied real-or-perceived significance) . . . which is exactly what the last Norton guy said to me.  So I'm still waiting for something definitive on that front.

>  Don't quote me on this but you may have a bad RAM module.

They've all been tested.  No errors.  Using both Dell's testing apps and third party apps.  Believe me, by now I would love for it to be due to a hardware fault that I could identify and remedy.........

[Brian_K]

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alanb wrote:

I know nothing of the sort........

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Please read Message #42

[DaveH]

I think the confusion. between you and the norton reps is that they are saying it doesn't support more than 4GB of RAM.

It doesn't, no 32 bit operating system can.

But I doubt they are telling you that it's not going to work at all.  It will work fine, it just can only use up to 4GB of your RAM.

Dave

[alanb]

I saw that.

But, as I pointed out in Message #37, "Even if I were able to successfully boot, I was told, there would be unspecified "errors" in the image recovery."

And, per Message #45, the warning of "errors" is consistent with two of the folks who have reported being able to boot from their SRDs.

It's cool that your son can boot from his SRD, but (how) can he trust that his restorations will be true and complete?

Also, does his laptop have a SATA III MOBO?  That might be the deciding factor; I won't know until Norton gets back to me.......

[Brian_K]

My advice is unchanged. Try swapping out RAM modules.