Ghost and Multi-Booting

Archive
1

Hi Dave,

Let me just start by saying that I am not a computer "Geek" my background is mechanical maintenance, leading to auto electro hydraulics, and finally computer control.The biggest part of my career was a fault finding specialist, hence the move to home computing. I am self taught on building and repairing pcs and a bit of programming thrown in and at the age of three score and ten the frame is weaker but the brain is still active.

 

Now the introduction is out of the way I would like to restrict this topic to dealing with Ghost 12 and 15 and hopefully the results of which will benefit Ghost users that I notice on the public forum are having problems. I have found over the years that Ghost is the best backup and recovery software on the market.

My philosophy is to keep things simple and then it becomes easy to fault find and repair.

 

My setup is as follows:- 4 physical drives of 80 gig C:, D:, E:, and F: all are sata drives and each one has an operating system installed,  XP Pro, Vista, Win7(1) and Win7(2) in that order. I have an external Data drive (internal drive dropped in a docking station) coupled with an eSata connection.

Win7(2) has Ghost 12 installed that means that I can test on the other three drives with no Norton software installed. The three test drives only have the minimum amount of software installed and No data installed on any of them.

 

Backup Procedure as follows:-

Using Ghost 12 (or 15) installed on F: because of the multi boot configuration I highlight all 4 drives to backup the computer operating systems, and run through the necessary settings.

I then create a new folder on my backup drive ( Maxtor 3 - 300 gig) and direct the recovery points to that folder, I am not into automated backups, takes up too much room.

This means that I only use Ghost to "Copy" my computer ( C:, D:, E: and F:) the data on the docking station is backed up automatically on a daily basis by Retrospect 7.5.

 

Recovery Procedure as follows:-

Using Ghost 12 srd I can recover All 4 drives in one go by selecting the recovery point from the folder on the external Max 3 and it takes 25 minutes to do it. In the same way I produce my test platform and every now and then load the latest updates from Windows and run another backup copy.

 

Problem with recovery:-

The above system works well and has been very successfully for me since I started testing for Norton some 5 years ago.

When Ghost 15 was introduced there lies the problem with recovery.

I can copy my pcs 4 drives with G15 in the same way as G12 but G15 srd will not recover the 4 drives as G12 does.

Without a doubt G15 will recover a Dual boot both on individual drives(2) and on a single physical drive with 2 partitions.

But it will not recover a multi boot (3 or more drives).

I have not tried it on a single physical drive with multiple partitions, yet.

 

SRDs :-

Dave,

There has to be some differences in the programme code between G12 and G15 srds because when I look at the two disks together there is more code on G12 than G15 .

I didn't get any satisfactory answers from Tony and the team on this because I think they didn't fully understand what I was doing, my backup procedures are as simple as it gets, highlight all 4 drives and hit the button. Then I recover all 4 drives and it is as simple as that.

Can I suggest that you take your time and read the above procedure and try and digest it and then together see if we can make G15 work like G12 and if anybody wants to chip in with some suggestions feel free.

I would dearly like to try and get this issue resolved with G15 ( it's only the srd that is at fault here in my opinion) and maybe go on and test the next version of Ghost.

 

Deric.

 

2

I was actually suprised to lean that you could recover all the partitions at once with Ghost 12 using the recovery disk.

But we both know that Ghost 15 only lets you recover one partition at a time.

 

It's been a while but if I recall correctly, one of the problems you had was that when recoving with the Ghost 15 SRD the system would either not boot and give you an error.

Or, it would recover the drives in the wrong order?  it would recover Vista and Win7 version 1 into the wrong places even though you restored them in the correct order?

 

Dave

 

 

3

Yes Dave,  the latter is correct, It is weird I can copy with Ghost 15 all 4 drives together as I do with G12 but G15 SRD will not recover properly it is the second drive that is recovered out of order and it will see Win 7 in other words it will only recover XP and Win 7 as a dual boot if you see what I mean, I then finish up without Vista. That results in Xp and 3 Win 7s,I can then insert the G12 SRD and it will recover all 4 drives in the correct order even if it was copied with G15. Does that make any sense to you?

 

A correction-Ghost 15 will allow recovery of a dual boot together, I don't have to recover individually, try it, it is easy to set up, you see, that, to me was the most obvious way to work it.

Back in the days of Ghost 2003 you had to recover individually that was by design but G12 and I suspect G14 will recover the drives together.

Now bear in mind I am talking about individual drives Not partitions on a single drive, that is a different kettle of fish ( sorry about the English sayings) but you know what I mean.

 

Deric.

 

 

4

OK, so it's like this:

 

Drive 1- XP

Drive 2- Vista

Drive 3- Win7

Drive 7 Win7 #2

 

Using the Ghost 15 SRD, you restore each drive one at a time and you end up with

XP and 3 drives with windows 7?

 

If thats the case, do you know what install of windows 7 gets duplicated and overwrites Vista?

And if you only recover each OS once, how could it happen?

Are you sure that each image only contains one operating system?

 

Dave

5

Deric,

 

4 Hard Drives. I wish my computer box was large enough. I've got 3 HDs in my test computer but I had to remove an optical drive to create the space.

 

I assume you are using the Microsoft boot manager. I use a third party boot manager but Dave and I have discussed the Microsoft boot manager in the past. Depending on how you install your OS results in differing drive letters for the operating systems. Dave and I installed the second OS differently and got different drive letters. I had two WinXP which were C: drive when booted.

 

When each OS is booted does it see itself as C: drive? Or do you only have one OS that sees itself as C: drive?

Are all OS visible to each other at all times?

6

Hi Brian,

This where it gets complicated, I do use Microsoft boot manager because that is an integral part of Windows, I didn't know of any other.I do remember Dave though talking about a third party boot manager some many moons ago, like I say I ain't a "Geek".

 

Now let me see if I can explain in a more precise manner and I do know it is difficult to fault find at a distance so bear with me.

My main machine has an Antec case with space for 4 hdds. and 3 optical drives, which I built from scratch, you don't want the full build spec do you?

 

Ghost 12 :- This is my main computer backup/recovery software, briefly, highlight all 4 drives (all with an O/S installed) and Ghost will copy all 4 one at a time and create a recovery point in the designated folder on the external drive.

Recovery :- Select the recovery point saved on the external drive as explained in the fist report and the G12 SRD will recover all 4 drives one after the other- perfect.

When I look in the folder on the external drive there are 5 entries the first is "Turnberry" recovery point and C: D: E: F:. Turnberry being the name of my Host computer on the network.

 

Ghost 15 :- as above to copy.

Recovery :- As above but Vista is missing and I have 3 Win 7s instead of 2.

Results :- G12 SRD recovers as follows:- C: XP, D: Vista, E: Win7 and F:Win7(2) G12 installed on Win7(2)

G15 SRD recovers as follows :- C: XP, D: Win7 (?) E: Win7(1) and F:Win7(2). G15 installed on Win7(2)

I can't explain it any better than that.

 

If you want me to I will do a fresh copy of my pc with G15 and use G15 SRD to recover the pc to give you a more upto date result and identify the drives as you request. Also if you point me in the right direction I wiil try and use a third party boot manager,it has been a while since I did a copy/recovery with G15 and my memory needs a jolt.

This setup enables me to test on 3 operating systems on the same machine, that means I can flip from one to the other quite easy.

 

The point is though G12 works with the inbuilt boot manager and G15 doesn't

 

Thanks for helping out but if you and Dave crack this one I will fly over and buy you both a pint.

 

Deric.

 

7
DaveH wrote:

OK, so it's like this:

 

Drive 1- XP

Drive 2- Vista

Drive 3- Win7

Drive 7 Win7 #2

 

Using the Ghost 15 SRD, you restore each drive one at a time and you end up with

XP and 3 drives with windows 7?

 

If that's the case, do you know what install of windows 7 gets duplicated and overwrites Vista?

And if you only recover each OS once, how could it happen?

Are you sure that each image only contains one operating system?

 

Dave

Hi Dave,

If you read the post to Brian I have tried to spell it out best I can, G12 will restore all 4 O/S automatically one after the other,it always has done , G15 won't.

When you highlight C,D,E,F.in Ghost settings it automatically creates a single recovery point hence the 5 entries in the folder on the external drive.G15 will do the same but the recovery gets "twisted".

I might be able to upload a pic of the recovery points but I am sure you are aware how Ghost does this.

If you try my setup like I have explained I am sure you will get a similar result as I do, try it with G12 and then G15.Bear in mindRecovery points.PNG dual boot is ok it Must be multi boot (3 or more)

I have attached a pic but because this is on Win 7(1) thie files don't show true.

 

Like I said to Brian if you both crack this one I will fly over and buy you both a pint.

 

Deric.

8

Thats a lot of flying m8.  I'm in California and Brian is in Australia.

 

It's very late for me and I need to work in the morning and I won't be able to view that image until it's approved.

But does this problem only happen when your trying to restore all the drives at once?  I didn't know you could even do that with Ghost 15.

 

Of course it would work if you were just restoring one partition, correct?

Say you needed to restore just the Vista drive, you could restore that and it would work, just like if you restored just the XP partition that would work as well.

 

So if you restored the drives one at a time in order, would that not also work?

 

1) restore C

2) restore D

3) restore E

4) restore F

 

If you did it like that one at a time everything would work and be in the correct location wouldn't it?

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

9

Deric,

 

In the backup folder on your external HD I'd expect more than 5 files. There should be five .v2i files, one or two .sv2i files, one or two .dat files. There should also be a (Hidden) VProRecovery folder in the backup partition. Could you list the files in your backup folder.

 

I was just curious about your boot manager. I don't think it is causing the problem. Strange how there isn't a problem with Ghost 12. Only with Ghost 15.

 

Edit... Your image is now visible so I do know what files are present. I thought you had files from two computers. All OK. I don't think I can provide an answer. Sorry.

10

A quick answer Dave is Yes it will work restoring only one drive, As far as the flying is concerned I think my arms will get a bit tired.:smileyvery-happy:.

Memory is affecting me now but if I remember, restoring one at a time didn't work.

What I will do is have another go with Ghost 15 and update you both on the results so it is fresh in my memory.Bear with me and I will see if I can come up with the answers this evening.

I don't disagree with your suggestions at this stage because it has been a while since I tried a number of scenarios

 

Deric

11

Thanks Deric

When you get a chance to try it again, restore the drives one by one and see what happens.

If Vista gets replaced again, try to determine if it was just the selection in the boot menu that has changed or if the drive really contains windows 7 instead of Vista.  If it really contains 7, I doupt you will get it to boot and that seems strange how windows 7 could be restored only once but end up in 2 places.

 

You also might want to look in disk management and also in the Ghost 15 recovery enviroment and see if the drives appear in the correct order.  Maybe in one of those you will see the Vista drive "switched" or shown in a different order.

Disk managment may show the correct order (top to bottom) xp, vista, 7, 7-2

Perhaps Ghost 15 SRD shows the vista and 7 drives differently then the Ghost 12 SRD?

 

 

Dave

12

Hi Dave,

Just completed the update for you, I think you will agree there is a compromise here and you are right, all drives will recover properly individually.

 

Win7(2) - uninstalled G12 and installed G15 and also run the live update SP1 15.0.1.36526 and successfully ran a copy of "Turnberry" on an external drive in the docking station (J:)

The following tests completed :-

 

1.) Carried out a recovery as I would with G12 C:,D:,E: and F:, XP, Vista, Win7(1) and Win7(2) in that order,

A.) Recovers Win 7(2) ok

B.) Fails to recover Win7(1) and is overwritten by Win7(2) sees all drive letters as it should but showing Win7(1) on wrong drive (on F: instead of E:)

C.) Fails to recover Vista - problems as B)

D) Recovers XP ok

 

Therefore it is recovering as a dual boot C: XP and F:Win7(2). all drive letters showing in Windows as they should C,D.E,F.

 

The good news is that Vista and Win7(1) were recovered individually so I have "Turnberry" running as normal using the G15 SRD(XP,Vista,Win7(1) and Win7(2) in that order.

Bootmanager worked ok throughout the exercise.

 

2.) A final test was to recover with the G12 SRD and it worked as it has always has  eg. recovered automatically C:,D:,E: and F: all O/Ss installed on the correct drives without having to recover the drives individually and Bootmanager ok in all cases.

 

What I have learnt from this exercise is that when using G15 SRD you must recover the drives individually that way recovery of the computer is correct. G15 will recover a Dual boot automatically (asG12) but Willnot recover a Multi boot automatically.

Does that make some sense to you my friend?

It just leaves the question, what is the difference with G12 srd and G15 srd,as a result I will continue to use G12 as my main recovery software because the ability to hit the button Once to recover a multi boot is far quicker than recovering individual drives.

Ps. I will send you a private message later on.

 

Deric

 

13

My thanks to Dave and Brian for their input and dedication with this "prickly" issue, I do hope as a result of this exersize that it has helped Ghost users get a better understanding how this excellent bit of kit works.

 

Deric

14

Dave,

 

I have just finished preparing a 120gig S-ata drive with 4 partitions and installed XP Pro on all 4 (C:,D:,E:,F:). I then installed G15 onto Partition F: (last in line) and ran a copy of the pc onto an internal S-ata 500gig drive.

A recovery point was created in a folder (G-15 TEST) and to recover in the way G12 does, in settings, highlight all 4 drives C D E and F and run through the other usual settings.

 

With the G15 SRD I then ran a recovery one touch and Bingo all 4 drives recovered in order C,D.E.F along with the correct installation of XP as G12 would.

 

This exercise proves that G15 will recover all 4 together by highlighting all 4 volumes when copying as G12 will do on 4 separate physical drives.

 

To summarise then :- G15 Will recover a multi boot so long as all the volumes are on the One drive but will Not recover a multi boot using 4 physical drives.

I think it has been well worth the effort over the last couple of days to determine the pros and cons with both G12 and G15 and I hope this has been beneficial to others.

 

Deric

 

15

Deric,

 

When you installed WinXP did you boot from the CD each time and install the OS? Dave and I discussed this recently and I think he installed number 2 OS onwards by starting from Windows. We finished with different drive letters for the OS.

 

 

16
Brian_K wrote:

Deric,

 

When you installed WinXP did you boot from the CD each time and install the OS? Dave and I discussed this recently and I think he installed number 2 OS onwards by starting from Windows. We finished with different drive letters for the OS.

 

 

When I installed the first WinXP I booted from the installation CD and there after installed WinXP from the installed O/S. In other words install C: from scratch, D: from C:, E: from D: and F: from E: It is also important to note that G15 must be installed on the last volume/partition in line in this case F:

If all the operating systems are installed in that sequence and Ghost on the last in line (F:) then drive letters will not be mixed or changed.

Once that has been set up simply by highlighting all the volumes (C,D,E,F) in settings as explained in the previous post all volumes/partitions/OSs can be recovered in true order.

Once it was all set up a recovery was acheived in 7:27 mins with no need to recover independantly.

 

 

Deric