Ghost 15 Recovery Problems

Archive
1

First, I have an HP Notebook, Win7 64-bit Home Premium with System Partition, HP Tools Partition and HP Recovery Partition. Booting into Ghost Recovery Environment using my Ghost 15 CD, I tried to restore the (C:) drive  from a One Time Backup of the (C:) drive only (no SRP). It restored OK except it now boots to Windows Boot Manager first with Win7 at the top of the list followed by four of these:

 

Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008/Windows 7

 

Per Brian_K at this link, I only need to restore the (C:) drive and Windows 7 needs the Original Disk Signature.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Ghost-15-options-for-recovery/m-p/218202/highlight/true#M21280

 

So, I only had it Verify first and restore the Disk Signature, nothing else. Any suggestions on how to get rid of Windows Boot Manager?

 

Second, I tried to restore a Cold Boot Image of the (C:) drive only as above, but at the end got this message: Please insert the recovery disk. Press ‘OK’ to continue or ‘cancel’ to abort. After pressing OK several times, including re-inserting the Ghost CD, I got this message: Error EA730002 cannot find the driver database directory. The solution appears to be use the Ghost 14 CD to restore the Ghost 15 Cold Boot Image here.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Norton-Ghost-15-issues/m-p/721134/highlight/true#M47807

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/quot-Insert-recovery-disc-quot-error-after-99-restore-followed/m-p/457732/highlight/true

 

Am I right? LiveUpdate has nothing to add to my Ghost 15 installation, so I can’t make a “fixed” Custom SRD. I’m surprised that Norton didn’t fix this via LiveUpdate. I have Ghost 14, but have not tried it for this. Does Norton have a Ghost 15 iso file I can download with this bug fixed? Thanks, OUgrad.

2

The second problem is because the Ghost recovery disk thinks that your restoring the image onto another system and tries to do a "restore anywhere".   That feature was disabled in the consumer version of Ghost but they seem to have forgotten to disable it in cold images made from the recovery disk. 

 

I can't figure out what makes Ghost think it's a different system although one one of my systems I can trigger the restore anywhere by restoring onto a different partition or location than the image was taken.

 

But if you use the SSR recovery disk from Brian's second link you can simply uncheck the option to do a "restore anywhere".

 

Dave

 

3

Thanks for the msconfig tip Brian_K. I tried your first link with the Ghost 15 SRD and confirmed it is not fixed for Cold Boot Image Restoration on a Win7 PC with SRP.

 

Tried to restore a Cold Boot Image and non-Cold Boot Image with my purchased Ghost 14 CD. The Win7 PC had an SRP. Both failed at 99% with the following error - Error EBAB03EE: Operating System API 10,004 failed. Error 00003F3: The configuration registry key could not be opened.

 

Next, I tried the same using the updated Ghost 14 CD burned from Norton iso download provided by Symantec Support years ago. The Cold Boot Image failed to restore from the start with an error I did not record. The non-Cold Boot Image failed at 99% with the same EBAB03EE error as above AFTER 12 hours.

 

Finally, I tried restoring a Cold Boot Image from my Win7 32-bit Home Premium PC that has no System Partition (SRP). It worked with my purchased Ghost 15 CD, but I still had to edit msconfig for Windows Boot Manager as described previously. Perhaps the Cold Boot Image only fails to restore if you have an SRP?

 

Based on my experience, Ghost 14 works perfectly with Win7 (no SRP) if you use Ghost 14 to create and restore the Images, so Ghost 15 is NOT required for Win7 with no SRP. Several others have posted the same here, but did not say whether or not their Win7 had an SRP. I used Ghost 14 extensively while helping Microsoft beta-test Win7 as well as after Win7 was released and still do with my non-SRP Win7 PC. Has anyone used Ghost 14 to restore a Win7 PC with SRP?

 

This is a real bummer as I bought Ghost 15 for the Cold Boot Image option which Norton highly touted in their Advertising but does not work if your Win7 PC has an SRP. Norton needs to fix this even though the product has been discontinued or let those who purchased Ghost 15 have a free upgrade to the new Symantec™ System Recovery 2013 Desktop Edition. They advertised it (“New! Cold Imaging”) on both of my Ghost 15 boxes, so they should make it good or offer a refund if your Win7 PC has an SRP. Come on Symantec, it’s time to do what’s right. Issue a recall notice to fix or something reasonable. Ghost 9 and 14 have worked well in the past for me. The Cold Boot Image was what I’ve wanted ever since Power Quest’s Drive Image had it.

4

OUgrad,

 

Maybe I'm lucky but I've never seen Ghost errors. Hot or cold images, SRP or not, the image/restore process always works. I don't even get the dual boot menu after restoring images. Sorry, but that doesn't help you.

5

I don't know if I would trust Ghost 14 on Windows 7 64-bit.

6

As noted by DaveH and others, there is clearly a bug in Ghost 15 that does not allow you to un-check Restore Anywhere. Both of my Ghost 15 CDs boot with Restore Anywhere checked but dim so you can't change it. My Ghost 14 CDs boot with the option to check/un-check Restore Anywhere. Cold Image Restore does not work in many cases as noted here and by other Ghost 15 users, so for those who have Cold Image Restore problems, Norton/Symantec should do what I suggest above.

7

redk9258 wrote "I don't know if I would trust Ghost 14 on Windows 7 64-bit."

 

My Win7 PC with Ghost 14 is 32-bit, so I'll keep it that way unless I hear otherwise.

 

Thanks for the warning,

 

OUgrad

8

First, I have an HP Notebook, Win7 64-bit Home Premium with System Partition, HP Tools Partition and HP Recovery Partition. Booting into Ghost Recovery Environment using my Ghost 15 CD, I tried to restore the (C:) drive  from a One Time Backup of the (C:) drive only (no SRP). It restored OK except it now boots to Windows Boot Manager first with Win7 at the top of the list followed by four of these:

 

Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008/Windows 7

 

Per Brian_K at this link, I only need to restore the (C:) drive and Windows 7 needs the Original Disk Signature.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Ghost-15-options-for-recovery/m-p/218202/highlight/true#M21280

 

So, I only had it Verify first and restore the Disk Signature, nothing else. Any suggestions on how to get rid of Windows Boot Manager?

 

Second, I tried to restore a Cold Boot Image of the (C:) drive only as above, but at the end got this message: Please insert the recovery disk. Press ‘OK’ to continue or ‘cancel’ to abort. After pressing OK several times, including re-inserting the Ghost CD, I got this message: Error EA730002 cannot find the driver database directory. The solution appears to be use the Ghost 14 CD to restore the Ghost 15 Cold Boot Image here.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Norton-Ghost-15-issues/m-p/721134/highlight/true#M47807

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/quot-Insert-recovery-disc-quot-error-after-99-restore-followed/m-p/457732/highlight/true

 

Am I right? LiveUpdate has nothing to add to my Ghost 15 installation, so I can’t make a “fixed” Custom SRD. I’m surprised that Norton didn’t fix this via LiveUpdate. I have Ghost 14, but have not tried it for this. Does Norton have a Ghost 15 iso file I can download with this bug fixed? Thanks, OUgrad.

9

Lest there be any doubt, I have two HP Notebook PCs with Ghost 15 installed, 2012 models, Win7 64-bit, one with AMD CPU and one with Intel CPU. Ghost has the same problems described above with both. Both have the same HDD partition structure described above. I have a third PC identical to the one with AMD CPU that I purchased a download copy of Ghost 15 for on April 1, 2013. I haven’t tested that one yet because it’s identical. I would guess this problem is yet to be discovered by many users who have never even tried creating a Cold Image. Or if they have, they are still waiting for a reason to restore one as I did recently for the first time and discovered the bug. One might ask why those who have used Hot Imaging with Ghost for years would even try the Cold Image feature. It could be this problem hasn’t surfaced yet with most Ghost users, but it’s there.

 

OUgrad

10

Just discovered this Norton Community 15-page 2010 discussion thread with a multitude of Ghost 15 users having similar problems, including a failed Win7 Cold Image restore on page 13 from Computercpr.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/quot-please-insert-the-recivery-disk-quot-when-use-norton-ghost/td-p/179737/page/13

 

Then this from Eric Carlstrom, Product Manager, Symantec Corporation on page 13 in reply to Computercpr: "It has not been fixed yet. Ghost 14 will restore a Ghost 15 image. Please send me a private message with your email address and I'll have the ISO sent to you." There was no response from Computercpr after this.

 

On page 9 note this comment by Eric : "An update is being worked on right now, but it will be several months before it is available. What's happening is that something on the system is incorrectly setting the Restore Anywhere Option flag when the backup is created. This is leading to the prompt that comes up on restore in most cases."

 

I just tried to send Eric a Private Message requesting the ISO and status of the fix. Hopefully, his ISO is different from the two I used. His Private Messages are not enabled. Can anyone else please contact him about this?

 

OUgrad

11

I haven't seen Erik here in a while now.

But there is no updated Ghost 14 recovery disk, you have the latest version.

 

Your listed 2 different problems and they are not related to each other,

The first problem with the "restore anywhere" being triggered and asking for the driver disk is different then the error message you listed later. 

 

If we could please go back to the start here.

In your first post you said the HP laptop had 3 partitions: System Partition, HP Tools Partition and HP Recovery Partition

 

Please look in disk management and verify if that is correct or not.

I have a feeling you really have 4 primary partitions in this order:

 

system reserved partition (active)

Windows partition (C drive)

HP tools partition (small FAT32 partition)

Recovery partition

 

Dave

 

edit- While your at ir, please go into the: Norton Ghost\Utility folder and run partinfo.exe.  It will create a text file in the same location called partinfo.txt.  Please attach that to a reply here by using the browse button below the text input box.

 

How is your system booting into windows?

If the recovery failed with an error did the system still boot or did you run the recovery or restore it some other way?

 

12

Yes Dave - meant to imply that I had 4 partitions with the C: drive as the fourth. Here is a previous Post I made with screen-shots from Disk Management and Ghost.

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Product-Suggestions/Ghost-User-Guide-amp-KB-Article-Enhancements/m-p/902241#M3167

 

My system is booting into Windows 7 normally after removing the additional msconfig boot entries. When I attempt to Recover a Cold Image booting with my Ghost 15 CD, it always says what I posted initially above, but the system will boot OK via Windows Boot Manager after the apparent failed Recovery is cancelled. Since I don't trust the possibility the error is bogus and it worked, I then do a Hot Image Recovery which always works without the error/messages above except for the msconfig boot entry created by Ghost during each Recovery (Hot or Cold).

 

Is there a way to determine when my Ghost 15 CDs were produced? There is an 09/09 20098659 at the bottom of both my boxed CDs. Copyright is 2009. My Ghost 15 LiveUpdate had no updates after install. If these are 2009 CDs then the fix initiated by Eric in 2010 never was implemented.

 

OUgrad

 

P.S. Eric's link shows a recent Post on 5/7/13 and Kudo on 6/5/13.

 

Edit - forgot the PartInfo now attached. Hmmmm...I click Browse to the text file, click Add Attachment but it doesn't work.

13

Dave, the Partition Info File Ghost saved from Utilities in Recovery Mode has no file extension. When I open it with Word Pad, with or without adding a .txt file extension, this is what displays - mostly Jibberish. Should I try running partinfo.exe from Program Files (x86)?

 

OUgrad

 

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…ƒÅâñ͈V�UÆFÆF�´A»ªUÍ]rûUªu ÷Á�tþFf`€~�t&fh����fÿvh��h�|h�h�´BŠV�‹ôÍŸƒÄžë¸»�|ŠV�ŠvŠNŠnÍfasþNu

€~&#0;€„Š&#0;²€ë„U2äŠV&#0;Í]랁>þ}Uªunÿv&#0;è&#0;uú°Ñædèƒ&#0;°ßæ`è|&#0;°ÿædèu&#0;û¸&#0;»Íf#Àu;fûTCPAu2ùr,fh »&#0;&#0;fh&#0;&#0;&#0;fh&#0;&#0;&#0;fSfSfUfh&#0;&#0;&#0;&#0;fh&#0;|&#0;&#0;fah&#0;&#0; ÍZ2öê&#0;|&#0;&#0;Í · ë ¶ ë µ 2ä&#0; ‹ð¬<&#0;t » &#0;´Íëòôëý+Éädë&#0;$àø$ÃInvalid partition table&#0;Error loading operating system&#0;Missing operating system&#0;&#0;&#0;c{šC×=*&#0;&#0;€ !&#0; ~%&#0;&#0;&#0;&#0;8&#0;&#0;~& þÿÿ&#0;@&#0;&#0;ÀH&#0;þÿÿ þÿÿ&#0;&#0;H&#0;@i&#0;þÿÿ

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Dave, just in case, I booted with my Ghost 15 download CD purchased April 1, 2013. The PartInfo file is the same as my boxed CDs produce. BTW, it will not save the file to Desktop - points to X: drive as Desktop - another bug. Had to save it to C: drive. The save as file extension options are blank too - bug, bugs, bugs.

 

OUgrad

15

Yes you want to use the partinfo.exe under the Program Files (x86) folder.

The link in post #2 will give you the most recent version of the Ghost 15 recovery disk, it has "1501" in the name, that means Ghost 15 SP1.  Although I'm not sure if your "bug" was fixed or not but you can try making another cold image with it.

The reason why the Ghost 15 recovery enviroment is the X drive is because your using the version of Windows on the CD, the desktop is obviously not the "real" system desktop.

 

Now that you know you have 4 partitions and one of them is the SRP, please go back to Brians instructions in your first post and note that you do not need to restore the disk signature.

I think that will get you past the error about not being able to open the confguration registry key.

 

Make a cold image with the Ghost 1501 disk.

Boot the CD and click "recover my computer".

On the next screen change the drop down box to "recover by filename"

Manually browse to the location of the image and select it.

On the next screen click the "edit" button and verify that the Windows partition (C drive) is highlighed as the destination for the image.  Remember, since you have 4 partitions the windows partition is the second partition.

The only setting you need is "Partition type : Primary"

The 2 settings for verify recovery point and check file system for errors are recomended but you can skip them for your test.

 

Do the recovery and see what happens.

If you get prompted to put in the driver disk you should be able to just reboot your system into windows, or do the recovery process again using one of the other recovery disks.

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

16

Be aware that on a MBR partitioned hard drive you are only allowed 4 primary partitions.

So you cannot do your tests by trying to restore into a 5'th, you have to use the original C drive partition to restore into.

 

I actually bought a HP windows 7 laptop for a friend last week, thats how I was sure about the partition configurations.

It caused me a lot of work to create a data partition. :(

 

Dave

17

Thanks Dave. Just to clarify so I don't break anything :-)

 

In Brian's instructions above, if I read Message 10 at the bottom of page 1, Brian says this; "Win7 requires the Disk Signature to be restored because a successful boot requires the Disk Signature to match the Partition Signatures in the Registry." Then in Message 12 at the top of page 2, Brian runs some tests and concludes that Ghost 15 restores the Disk Signature even if he does not select that option during Recovery. So, that's why I've been having Ghost restore the Disk Signature. That's also the default setting Ghost is giving me in Recovery Environment to Recover my C: Drive only. Am I missing something?

 

OUgrad

18

If you note the first post with Brians instrutions you will see the required settings are different when restoring to a new hard drive or the same hard drive.

 

I think Brian and I are in agreement that you do not need to restore the disk signature when restoring an image to the same partition it came from.  Normally it should not matter if you used the option or not but I'm curious if that is what caused the second error you had about it not being able to open the registry key.

 

I'm more inclinced to think something else caused that error, but I was waiting to see if you no longer get that error when you don't use that option and actually verify the restore is going into the correct partition by using the edit button.

 

Keep in mind that you said your "hot image" always works so if you run into a problem here you just need to do another restore.

 

Dave

 

 

19

 

OK Dave, here are my results with no Disk Signature restored at any step below in Recovery Environment. I used the Ghost 15 SRD created from Brian’s link above and skipped the Verify step to save time – not skipped before.

 

 

1) Restored Hot Image of (C:) drive only with no errors, restarted, removed extra msconfig boot entry as above.

 

2) Created Cold Image of (C:) drive only, no restart after Image created.

 

3) Restored Cold Image of (C:) with same errors reported in my first Post.

 

 

Next, I could try the same sequence as above with a boxed Ghost 15 CD and report back. I could also do a Factory Image Recovery from the HP Recovery Drive, skip all the updates to save time, Hot Image that Factory starting point and try the Cold Image sequence with it.

 

 

There have been no hardware changes on this PC other than adding an external USB 2.0 modem for Dialup Networking several months ago, using external HDDs and USB Flash Drives. I do Hot Image backups with my wireless card off since I rarely use it. I have two external HDDs that I use for backups, but can only have one connected at a time for Recovery because of my single USB 2.0 port (Ghost only sees USB 2.0 in Recovery Environment). I never do Image backups with the modem connected because it’s USB 2.0. The sequence above used the same Toshiba external HDD for each step. My Toshiba external HDD is USB 3.0. I always Hot Image it connected to my USB 3.0 as it's much faster creating the Hot Images.

 

 

I have also learned when I click Finish to start the Recovery if it will work or not depending on the message I get immediately after clicking Finish. If it’s a short message (always Hot Image Recovery), it will restore without errors. If it’s a long message (always Cold Image Recovery), I get the errors as above. The long message has details about Restore Anywhere. The short message does not. Either way, the Restore Anywhere option is checked and dim so it cannot be changed.

 

 

Another question - when I don’t remove the msconfig boot entry and do another Recovery with the SRD or one of my boxed CDs, the Recovery adds a second msconfig boot entry, then a third, etc. When I first mentioned this I had four of these to delete (see my initial Post) because I had tried four Recoveries in a row without deleting the msconfig boot entries. Are these being added to the MBR? I thought the MBR was in my SRP. I’m not restoring the SRP, but each Recovery seems to be modifying my SRP, correct? Is Windows Boot Manager in the SRP or elsewhere? That's what it boots to before I clean up msconfig after each Recovery.

 

 

The PartInfo file with Jibberish is a concern as it indicates Ghost 15 is not seeing what it should with my PC. Maybe I should try working with the HP Factory Image Recovery next?

 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

OUgrad

 

20

P.S. to the above - maybe I should create a Hot Image with my Toshiba external HDD connected to my USB 2.0 port, restore it, create a Cold Image and try to restore it - all connected to USB 2.0? Maybe my Hot Images created via USB 3.0 are part of the problem?

 

OUgrad

 

Edit - forgot to mention my USB Printer in Hardware changes - my last Post above. It's only connected when I use it.