Ghost 15 - Schizoprenic Drives After Drive Copy

Archive
1

Hi,

I've purchased a Samsung SSD Desktop Kit with Norton Ghost 15 in order to copy the  C-drive of a PC with Windows XP Service Pack 3 to the Samsung SSD and to use the SSD as the new C-drive with faster performance. Both drives are connected at SATA ports.

 

I've followed the instructions in the Norton Ghost manual and the Samsung manual to perform a drive copy. The  drive copy finished successfully. I have then in the BIOS of the PC chosen the SSD as Boot-Drive. I left the "old" hard disk in the PC, since I wanted to still use it for data storage and as a drive for the Windows swap file.

 

Booting from the Samsung-SSD until the Windows Logon worked and was faster than before. After Logon, Windows continued to load in the old slow hard disk speed, however, and the Samsung - software, which I used for a performance test regarded the Samsung not as  C- but as G-drive. Apparently C still was my old hard disk and all software after the Windows boot was loaded from this drive.

In addition, after Windows had loaded there was an error message popping up that svchost / Generic Host Process for Windows had encountered an error and had to be terminated. Before the drive copy, I never had this message popping up.

 

I have then swapped the SATA-cabels of both disks (Samsung SSD and old Hard Disk) and in the BIOS I changed settings so that Samsung was the first drive and the hard disk second drive..

Unfortunately with the same result, only booting up to the logon was fast, afterwards the hard disk was used again. Also the error message svchost appeared again.

 

As a next attempt I disconnected the SATA-cable of the old hard disk, changed all BIOS settings to SAMSUNG SSD and booted again.. Then, Windows would not load successfully, stopping in the middle with a message saying that the desktop could not be loaded,  the file "dvinesasdgina.dll" could not be found. This file ist part of an update manager of a software installed on the PC by a company called DATEV and is required for update management of their business software. The PC is mainly used with this DATEV software.It is strange, though, that this DLL should be missing - because if you reconnect both the hard disk and the samsung ssd this DLL is found correctly. also this dll can then with both drives connected by found in the same windows32-directory on both the old hard disk and the copy on the Samsung and it appears to be the same file size and date. Apparently during bootup with only the Samsung connected, the dll is look for in a different place, probably the C-drive and Windows still considers for whatever reason the Samsung as G-drive.

 

Okay then, I thougth I'd give up for the day and disconnected the Samsung to boot from the old hard disk. I thougth that would surely work, after all I had not changed anything on the old hard disk. Wrong thought - with the Samsung cable disconnected and the BIOS changed to list only the old hard disk, Windows would not boot at all.

After a few second, I received an error message about ..\windows\systen32\HAL.DLL... not being found. Logging on to Windows was not possible. Again with both drives connected, HAL.DLL can be found on both drives in the correct directory.

 

So I have now as a result of the drive copy a "schizophrenic" Windows XP, which expects certain files on the Samsung and others on the old disk and will not boot successfully with only one of the drives connected. With both drives connected, not everything is well, either - only the boot until logon is fast and after booting, SVCHOST crashes.

 

What went wrong and why and what is the solution to this problem? And why does the manual not warn you that situations like this can occur? Had I known about this risk, I'd probably have stayed away from a drive copy. Reinstalling Windows and all software is not really an option, that would take a couple of days.

 

Best regards,

 

Carsten

2

Carsten,

 

You did everything wrong. Courtesy of a bad manual.

 

It is fixable. Can you disconnect the old HD and try to boot from the SSD. Tell me what happens and the errors you see.

 

Edit. ... You have half answered the above question. Before you did Copy Drive did you create a partition on the SSD? Which app created the partition?

How many partitions are on the old HD? Any hidden partitions? These are only seen in Disk Management.

 

How large are the SSD and old HD? How much used space and free space are in the old HD C: drive/

3

The following partitions exist according to disk management:

 

Disk 0 (this appears to be the "old" hard disk):

C: 48,83 GB (active), D: 78,13GB (swap file), E:22,08GB

 

Disk 1 (this must be the Samsung SSD):

G: 48,83 GB (system partition), without a drive letter: 10,79 GB (not assigned)

 

I have now in the meantime from a colleague been given the advice to swap drive letters around in the registry ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\DosDevices") - is that a sensible approach to solving the problem or could I make things worse by trying that? Worst scenario would be an unbootable pc, even though perhaps booting from the Norton Ghost CD could then help?

 

Many thanks,

Carsten

4

What's happening here?  I'm in a similar loop.  Ghost 15 copy to second identical HDD (disk1) in Dell Win7 and when I select the disk1 for boot in the BIOS I get a "bootmgr missing" message and no joy.

 

Thx, pjl

5

Carsten,

 

Can you ignore your mate's advice about the registry for the time being.

 

You missed a few questions...

 

"Before you did Copy Drive did you create a partition on the SSD? Which app created the partition?" My guess is you didn't create a partition but I need to know for sure.

 

"How much used space and free space are in the old HD C: drive"

 

Can you download this app and make a CD. It will help us fix the HD and the SSD.

 

Download BootIt BM. There is a 30 day trial usage. Unzip the file and make a boot CD.

 
 double click makedisk.exe, next
 dot in BootIt Bare Metal, next
 dot in I accept the agreement, next
 don't select Image for DOS (GUI), next
 dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next
 dot in VESA Video, next
 dot in Video Mode 1024*768 - 64K Colors, next
 dot in Partition Work (Don't put a dot in Normal), next
 don't choose any Device Options, next
 tick in Enable USB 1.1 (UHCI), next
 tick in Align partitions on Cylinders, next
 ignore Additional bootitbm.ini Options, next
 select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc)
 Finish

 

Let me know when you have the CD made.

6

paullady,

 

Can you start your own thread? It's too confusing trying to help more than one person in a thread. In the new thread, can you post a screenshot of Disk Management for your old HD?

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Forum-Feedback/Forum-Tip-How-to-post-screenshots-in-the-forum/td-p/254415

 

Did you Copy to Unallocated Space on the new HD?

Did you disconnect the old HD before the first boot from the new HD?

 

 

7

Sorry, did not mean to be intrusive.

 

Will do my best to get this done, but might come up short of time.

 

pjl

8

I think your fix will be easy.

9

Hi,

 

before the drive copy, I initialised the Samsung SSD drive using computer management as described in the Samsung manual. It was then shown as active but unallocated (no partition was created).

 

Used and free space on the drives is now:

 

C: (should be old hard disk, source for disk copy) total size: 48,8 GB. free: 22,3

D: (should be old hard disk, only used for 2 GB swap file) total size: 78,1 GB, free: 76,0

E: (should be old hard disk, unallocated)

G: (must be Samsung SSD): 48,8 GB, free 20,2 (the difference to C may be due to new files created since the disk copy two days ago - I think there was also a recent Automatic Windows Security Update)

 

I'll create the CD.

 

Best regards,

Carsten

10

Ok, I've created the boot cd.

11

Carsten,

 

OK. Let's fix the old HD first. Remove the SSD from your computer and put it in a drawer. Power on. Do you still get the hal.dll error? If so boot from the BIBM CD....

 

the CD boots to the Work with Partitions window
in the Drives field, make sure it is 0 - BIOS HD

select the WinXP partition

click Edit File

select boot.ini and click OK

can you post the text you see in boot.ini. Unfortunately you will have to write it down.

click View MBR

In the Name column, can you let us know the order of the partitions from top to bottom. BIBM will give them weird names. Also let us know the number of sectors in each partition.

 

 

12

Hi,

 

the "...HAL.DLL" - error is, as expected, still there when the ssd is disconnected.

 

Boot.ini on the hard disk windows partition reads:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

 

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

View MBR gives this output:

MBR 0 Active Starting 0 1 1 7h Ending 1023 254 63 LBA 63 Sectors 102398247

MBR 1            Starting 1023 0 1 Fh Ending 1023 254 63 LBA 102398310 Sectors 210162330

 

Regards,

Carsten

 

13

Carsten,

 

The "parttion(2)" is incorrect. Please change it to partition(1) in two places, using the Edit File function. Click Save for the new boot.ini and your WinXP will load correctly.

 

The number in brackets refers to the relative position of the WinXP OS partition in the partition table. Not the position of the OS partition on the HD, although usually they are the same. Your WinXP partition is in the first slot of the partition table.

 

Let me know the old HD is OK and we can move on to the SSD.

14

Thanks, this solution worked fine (for the old hard disk)! All applications that I've checked worked fine, no error messages during booting or afterwards.

 

What would you recommend for the SSD - remove the partition and do a new drive copy, this time making sure on boot-up only one drive (the copied ssd) is connected? Or fix the ssd?

 

Many thanks,

Carsten

15

Carsten,

 

Good news. Now remove the old HD from your computer and put it in a drawer. Install the SSD in the computer. Try and boot. I assume WinXP starts to load but it stalls somewhere near the Welcome screen stage.

 

Boot from the BIBM CD.

 

in the Drives field, make sure it is 0 - BIOS HD
click the "View MBR" button.
click the "Clear Sig" button. Then click OK on the Notice
click the "Apply" button.
click the "View MBR" button again and confirm the number in the left bottom corner is 0x00000000
click Cancel
click Close on the "Work with Partitions" window
click Reboot and remove the CD

 

Does the SSD now boot into Windows?

16

Carsten,

 

Any news for us?

17

Hi Brian,

 

thanks, the solution for the ssd worked as well!

 

Unfortunately, after I had changed a couple of system settings (deactivate search indexing, last date file accessed etc.), deinstalled some old automatic defragmentation software (sysinternals page defrag) and a Windows automatic update ran, the ssd could no longer boot - it hung during boot. I then performed a new drive copy using Norton Ghost from the original hard disk, this time disconnecting the old hard drive on the first boot. On booting up the Windows domain controller did'nt want to let me log in, for whatever reason. Even not when booting up with the old hard disk.. Today I could sign on to the domain without having changed anything. Perhaps some cache on the domain controller was flushed in the meantime.

 

Thanks again for your help!

 

Best regards,

Carsten

18

Carsten,

 

It sounds like you didn't delete the partition on the SSD before you did Copy Drive. Try Clear Sig from BIBM again. Please let us know what happens.

19

Hi Brian,

 

the SSD is working (almost) fine now. I had to log on locally as Admin and leave + rejoin the windows domain so that the domain controller accepted the pc again.

 

Consider the problem solved. Thanks!

 

Regards,

Carsten