Ghost 15 Makes Source Unbootable

Whenever I use “Copy My Disk” in Ghost 15 to back up my laptop’s HD to an external USB HD (actual disk, not a thumb drive), the source (C:) drive becomes unbootable. Windows 7 complains that there is a missing or corrupt “winload.exe” or “boot\bcd” file. I am not giving the backup partition a drive letter and have tried using it with and without “set active”. This strikes me as odd because the source drive should not be touched by Ghost and the C: drive should still be bootable.

Whenever I use “Copy My Disk” in Ghost 15 to back up my laptop’s HD to an external USB HD (actual disk, not a thumb drive), the source (C:) drive becomes unbootable. Windows 7 complains that there is a missing or corrupt “winload.exe” or “boot\bcd” file. I am not giving the backup partition a drive letter and have tried using it with and without “set active”. This strikes me as odd because the source drive should not be touched by Ghost and the C: drive should still be bootable.

chris319,

 

I agree, the source drive shouldn't be altered. Have you tested to see whether your target HD is bootable?

 

 http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=other&thread.id=16739

<< If you disconnect your external USB drive, does the system boot properly? >>

 

No.

 

<< What is your end goal in doing this? >>

 

Same as I've done for years since Windows 98 and PowerQuest's Drive Copy: make a bootable clone. I've been able to do this without a hitch as recently as XP SP 3 and Ghost 12. Both the source and destination drives boot right up. Granted, in that case I am making a clone to an HD which is a twin of the source drive (same make, model, geometry, capacity, etc.). Still, the source drive should be unaffected and should still be bootable.

 

<< Have you tested to see whether your target HD is bootable? >>

 

I'll deal with that after the source drive boot issue is solved. It is the case that I am copying to an external drive with a different capacity (geometry) than the source drive, so if I have to back up as an image rather than a sector copy, that's fine.

My sincere apologies – I see this topic has been discussed recently in another thread and there appears to be no satisfactory resolution and no indication of a resolution coming soon from Symantec. I am going to uninstall Norton Ghost 15 and resume my blanket policy of avoiding any and all Symantec software going forward. I am also going to look for another product to back up my HD, one which will not alter the source drive in any way, shape or form as a proper backup program should not do under any circumstances.