This forum thread needs a solution.
Kudos1 Stats

Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 20-Jun-2010 | 5:52PM · 14 Replies ·

I am using Norton Ghost 15 on a Windows 7 32 bit operating system.

Ghost cannot see my C: drive so I cannot back it up. It can only see my external hard drive (G:\).

I am running Ghost version 15.0.1.36526.

I have read two previous posts on this issue and they both mention a problem with partitions. 

I ran Partinfo.exe and am attaching the partinfo.txt file.

I see that it says WARNING: Partition above extends beyond the end of disk.

Can anyone help?

File Attachment: 
Plain text icon partinfo.txt

Replies

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 20-Jun-2010 | 6:54PM · Permalink

drumeli wrote:

I see that it says WARNING: Partition above extends beyond the end of disk.

drumeli,

Nice work. I assume you have a Dell computer with Win7 and the booting files in the Recovery Partition.

See... http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Partition-Magic-8-0-and-Vista/m-p/126831?view=by_date_ascending#M12227

As your Win7 is a 2048 sector aligned partition, when BING first starts click Close on the Work with Partitions window and Click Settings. Make sure there is no tick in..

Align on End

CHS Alternative

Make sure there is a tick in..

Align MBR End HS

Align 2048

Then click  OK and click Partition Work. Adapt my above post.

Every time BING starts, check those settings.

 Any questions?

Edit.... Is it an XPS 9000 or Alienware?

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 21-Jun-2010 | 5:51AM · Permalink

Hi Brian,

I created the BottIt NG (BING) boot disk as instructed and booted from the CD. I clicked Close on the Work with Partitions window and clicked Settings. I changed the settings you listed.

Then I went back to the Work with Partitions window and saw no errors or E partitions on the main screen. Three partitions were listed:

DellUtility-0    39MB     Dell Utility

Recovery-1    15000MB   HPFS/NTFS

OS-2                461899MB    HPFS/NTFS

When I clicked on Properties it showed a warning for the DellUtility-0 partition. It said: * Warning * File system ends at LBA 80321. The LBA Start field said 63 and the LBA end field said 80324. I copied 80321 to the LBA end field and the warning message went away. Still no errors when I went back to the main screen.

Then I rebooted my PC but Ghost still cannot see my C:\ drive. The same problem as before.

My PC is an OEM Dell Vostro 430.

What do you suggest next?

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 21-Jun-2010 | 2:09PM · Permalink

drumeli,

Confusing. Let's try moving the end of the partition. It will only take a few seconds and is safe to do.

Boot from the BING CD, attend to the ticks again. Select the Win7 partition (OS-2) and click Resize (in the Actions column)

OK (it will then check for errors)

In the New Size field, reduce the value by 10 MB, OK

Continue

Close

Close on Work with Partitions, click Reboot and remove the CD

Does Partinfo still have the Warning? Can you see your C: drive in Ghost?

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 21-Jun-2010 | 6:29PM · Permalink

Brian_K,

Interesting. By the way, my PC is an original Dell (not OEM).

I followed your instructions and here are the stats on the OS-2 partition.

Min Size:     New Size:      Max Size:
60831 MB       461899 MB      461899 MB

I resized to 46189 MB.

After that it said I had 11 MB free space (not 10 MB) and Max Size changed to 461900.

I rebooted after that.

Success! Norton Ghost can see the C:\ drive now.

But what caused this behavior?

Is there anything else I should do to clean up the partitions on my drive? Or just leave sleeping dogs lie?

Thanks again!

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 21-Jun-2010 | 6:37PM · Permalink

Excellent!

Dell's partitioner seems at fault. There were two partitions that weren't correct. I wouldn't do anymore although you could use the BING CD again, click Resize and set the Win7 New Size field to the Max Size. Ghost will still see the C: drive.

I'm not sure why BING didn't report a Win7 partition error.

All OK?

Edit.... Would you like to get the booting files into the Win7 partition? It will make backup easier.

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 22-Jun-2010 | 4:48AM · Permalink

Brian_K,

Actually, I had that idea myself. After my initial success, I used the BING CD again and changed the New Size field to the new Max Size of 461900. I expected Ghost to be able to see the C: drive... But it could not! 

So I went back again and changed New Size back to 461889 and it again said I had 11 MB free space. When I rebooted, Ghost could see the C:\ drive again.

The 11MB "wasted" space is not much. It just isn't really clean and the behavior doesn't make all too much sense to me. Could there by a minor hardware issue?

(I never did see a partition error in BING. Just the one warning message in the DellUltility-0 partition that went away when I updated the LBA end field in my reply to your first post.)

Yes, getting the booting files into the Win7 partition sounds like a good idea. How do you recommend doing that?

Thank you! 

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 22-Jun-2010 | 1:30PM · Permalink

After my last post, I went back into BING again.

I noticed that before changing the ticks as you had instructed, the main screen said there was only 8 MB free space. After changing the ticks, the main screen again said there was 11 MB free space. I decided to change New Size to 461897 (8 MB more than the current 461889 and 3 MB than the Max Size of 461900).

I rebooted and Ghost could still see my C:\ drive.

Then I went back and changed New Size to 461898 (after changing the ticks) to verify whether my previous setting was the threshold. After rebooting, Ghost could NOT see my C:\ drive. So I changed New Size back to 461897 and everything was fine again.

Now, when I first go into BING (witnout changing the ticks) it says there is no free space. After changing the ticks, it says there is 3 MB free space.

3 MB was also what I had reduced the LBA end field by to get rid of the warning message for the DellUltility-0 partition.

Not sure what to make of this, but I thought I would relate that information.

I still would like to go ahead with getting the booting files into the Win7 partition.

Again, thank you!

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 22-Jun-2010 | 2:00PM · Permalink

drumeli wrote:

I rebooted and Ghost could still see my C:\ drive.

drumeli,
That is ingenious. Could you post another partinfo so I can think about this. Using those ticks enables cylinder aligned or 2048 sector aligned partitions. The former changes size in 8 MB increments, the latter in 1 MB increments.
Anyway, the booting files. In Disk Management you will see the Recovery Partition is System, Active. Win7 is not Active. This means you have to make a backup image of your backup partition in addition to a backup image of the Win7 partition. It is a silly arrangement if you aren't using BitLocker. This page shows you how to fix it. It is the same method used for removing a SRP except that as you don't want to remove the Recovery partition you don't do Part 2 or Part 3.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

If you would like to use a batch file (a bit faster), assign the drive letter of P: to the Recovery partition (instead of E:) and right click on this batch file and Run as Administrator.

@echo off
reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000
robocopy p:\ c:\ bootmgr
robocopy p:\Boot C:\Boot /s
dir c:\ /ah
bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device partition=c:
echo.
pause

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 23-Jun-2010 | 3:59AM · Permalink

Here is the new partinfo.txt.

File Attachment: 
Plain text icon partinfo.txt
Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 23-Jun-2010 | 4:55AM · Permalink

Ok, I followed the instructions and ran the batch file to migrate the booting files to the Win7 partition (named OS on my PC.) I am attaching a new partinfo.exe reflecting the new status.

What would I have to do to reverse the process?

What is the purpose of the recovery partition? How do you recover from it? Does Win7 require this partition?

So now I only have to back up the C:\ drive with Ghost (OS patition.) If I changed my hard drive configuration at some later time to be just one big partition and then recovered from the Ghost image, would the recovery work on a larger partition? Would this be the best way to change the hardware configuration to be one partition?

Sorry for all the questions. I am not a guru on hardware configurations and am just trying to learn as I go. And I like to keep my configurations simple. Thank you for your continued assistance!

File Attachment: 
Plain text icon partinfo.txt
Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 23-Jun-2010 | 2:19PM · Permalink

drumeli,

I should have mentioned the 39 MB DE partition (Dell Diagnostic) is cylinder aligned so when you do left Shift/Properties you must have the ticks in

Align on End

CHS Alternative

So do that one again and the partinfo should then be OK. The C: drive looks fine in partinfo.

What would I have to do to reverse the process?

Simply make the SRP Active (the Recovery Partition in your case).

What is the purpose of the recovery partition? How do you recover from it?

It contains a backup image to roll your HD back to how it was when it left the factory. The recovery procedure is in the Dell book. It is simple. Somethink like press F10 etc.

If I changed my hard drive configuration at some later time to be just one big partition and then recovered from the Ghost image, would the recovery work on a larger partition?

Yes. You may or may not have to do a Repair from the Win7 DVD but that only takes a few minutes. Or use a BING BCD Edit.

Partitioning is a personal matter. If this was my computer I would delete the Recovery Partition. You have Ghost. You don't need the Dell image. I'd leave the 39 MB DE partition. It is handy for diagnostics but the Dell CD does the same job so the DE partition can be deleted if you are happy to use the CD for diagnostics. I'd slide the Win7 partition up to remove the unallocated free space left by deleting the Recovery Partition. I'd resize Win7 to 50 GB (maybe larger if I planned on installing large apps). I'd create a Data partition in the large block of unallocated free space following the Win7 partition.

Personal preference again but I only use Ghost to image OS partitions. Data partitions are backed up with data backup software.

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 24-Jun-2010 | 7:59AM · Permalink

Cool, thanks!

But what did you mean by... 'so do that one again and the partinfo should then be Ok''?  I can't make out what I am supposed to do again with the 39 MB Dell Diagnostic partition (?)...

I ran BING with the ticks in 'Align on End' and 'CHS Alternative'. There were no errors or warnings, both on the main screen and under properties. So I did not do anything.

I think I am going to leave the partitions as they are for now. I run most of my data files (My Documents, etc.) from an external hard drive and use the C:\ drive as my backup drive! That way, if my system crashes, I can just plug the external drive into my backup system. If the external hard drive fails, I can replace it and copy the backup data from the C:\ drive.

I like your method of using Ghost only for image OS partitions. I think I am going to go with that, too!

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 24-Jun-2010 | 12:51PM · Permalink

drumeli wrote:

I ran BING with the ticks in 'Align on End' and 'CHS Alternative'. There were no errors or warnings, both on the main screen and under properties. So I did not do anything.

Those ticks only apply to the 39 MB DE partition. If left Shift/Properties is OK on the DE partition then your have finished with BING partition edits. Great.

Happy Ghosting. If ever you want to change your partitions and need some help, just ask.

Kudos0

Re: Norton Ghost 15 can't see C: drive

Posted: 25-Jun-2010 | 3:10PM · Permalink

Awesome! Thank you!

This thread is closed from further comment. Please visit the forum to start a new thread.