How do I READ a backup image taken with Ghost 9.0 on Windows XP using Ghost 15.0 on Windows 7?

Archive
1

Hope someone can point me to a solution for this.

 

I used to have a WIndows XP machine running Ghost 9.0 and performing image backups.

 

I've now moved to a brand new machine with Windows 7 Professional and Norton Ghost 15.0.

 

I've tried to read one of my previous backups created under XP/Ghost 9.0 using the "Recovery Point Browser" and, when it tries to open the file by filename option, I can select the first file in the backup set and see:

 

Source recovery point:  I:\Backups Folder\PIII-2009-11-11\C_Drive.v2i
    Created:  1/01/1601 12:01 AM
    Split across multiple files:  Yes - 45 files
    Computer name:  (null)
    Restore Anyware:  Permitted
    Drive:  (null)
        Size:  1.18 MB
        File System:  (null)

Recovery point description:    None

 

but when I click on OK to actually open it, I get a popup message:

 

Error EBAB0013: A test that safeguards the integrity of the program

failed unexpectedly.  CHECK failed. CanFSFB::GetDecompressor:

.\CanFixedSizeFrame.cpp(687): HLZS is unsupported compression type.

 

 So, how can I read individual files and documents from the backup if Ghost 15.0 can't read them?

 

Thanks for any helpful advice.

2

Brian,

 

It was taken 2009-11-11 and worked under Ghost 9.  Does anyone know if Ghost 9 can be installed along side Ghost 15 so that those old backups can be read?  All I want is to be able to read the old backup images in case I need something from them.

3

Could someone please confim this?

 

I still have Ghost 9 installed on one of my systems and it's critical that I be able to access the backups if needed.

For users of version 15, where exactly does the "backwards support" end, and for a user of Ghost 9 what would be the latest version that would support that format?

 

(edit) Also, is any tool like an "image explorer" that could be used on another system to open backups?

I recall such a tool for the DOS based images and I thought I saw a standalone tool availible for N360 backups

 

Thanks,

Dave

Message Edited by DaveH on 01-12-2010 04:12 PM
Message Edited by DaveH on 01-12-2010 04:13 PM
4

OK, this was important enough for me to try for myself. 

The only system I have with ghost 15 is a laptop, so I went home and got it.

 

I copied a recent backup job from a windows 2000 sp4 system running Ghost 9 onto the laptop and when I clicked the first file in the set Ghost 15 opened it up and I was able to extract some folders and files and verify everything was there.

The image explorer also tested and verified that it was a valid image.

 

So it did work for me.

 

Archie: why does it say "Size 1.18MB"?

You don't really have 45 files 1.18MB in size for your archive do you?

 

Dave

 

5
DaveH wrote:

The image explorer also tested and verified that it was a valid image.

 

 

Dave,

 

That is good to hear.

6

DaveH,

 

Sorry. Been occupuied with other things.  Now back to this.

 

My backups were spanned using 250Mb "segments" (sorry, can't recall the term Ghost 9 used for breaking the backup images into smaller files/segments).

 

There are 5 drive images in the backup set.  There is a file with an extension of .sv2i that is ignored.  There 124 files making up the whole backup set plus the one .sv2i file.  (The 124 files have an extension of ".v2i".)

 

The text I copied is what Ghost is displaying for me.  I turned my old XP machine back on just to see if the old backup was readable and scanned the backup and it's readable according to ghost 9.  I would have hoped that Ghost 15 would be able to read it as well.  (Saved with 250M segments and medium compression.)

 

I don't want to keep the XP machine "just in case" I needed to recover something.  I would have hoped that Ghost 15 would have followed its predecessors in either being able to read the backups OR it providing the earlier tools that could (like when Ghost 9 had Ghost 2003 included as an additional disk "just in case".)

 

I realise that Ghost 9 and Ghost 2003 can't run on WIndows 7 32-bit (I must admit I didn't try to install it) but I'd have hoped for better compatibility with older releases.

 

I saw there was a question posted about when did Ghost 9 stop being compatible with Ghost but there didn't seem to be a reply.

 

Can a Symantec person advise, please.

7

I'll wait for a reply as well because this concerns me too.

 

For the record, my Ghost 9 sets use "standard" compression. I can't recall why, I usually use medium or high.

Mine were made on a Windows 2000 sp4 system, and when I copied a set onto a Win7 system using Ghost 15 I was able to open the image and extract files and folders.  I'm unable to try to actually restore the image right now but at least I was able to open it. I also wasn't able to get Ghost 15 to show it as one of my backups but I didn't spend to much time with that, I just tried changing my storage location to where it was and couldn't get it to show as one of my backups.

 

I was under the impression that Ghost was backwards compatable with all the previous .v21 formats but I saw something the other day that listed Ghost 10 onward but not version 9.

 

I'll await an answer from a Symantec rep too

Dave

 

 

8

Dave,

 

I've been able to do some testing.  I've gone back to my old XP machine, opened the "questionable" backup via the Symantec Backup Image Browser.  All the backup info is correct as far as date of save, etc, with Ghost 9.0 unlike when 15 tries to read it.

 

I opened a drive image and then exported it to a new file with "Standard" compression and Ghost 15 can now open it and list files.

 

I've created a second image, the same as the first except that I've allowed it to remain at Medium compression.  When I try to open this image, I get the EBAB0013: A test that safeguards the integrity of the program failed unexpectedly.  CHECK failed ... HLZS is unsupported compression type.

 

So, it looks like the Recovery Point Browser can't handle Meduim compression from Ghost 9 in Ghost 15. 

 

Where was that documented, I wonder?

 

 

 

 

9

Yes, they must have changed the compression format after version 9.

 

It sounds like what your trying to do is have a full backup of the XP system on your new system so you could later get into it if you ever needed anything.

 

I can think of a few options.

 

1) Make or convert the most recent backup into an uncompressed image as you have done and keep it on the new system. The downside I see in that is that it's going to be much bigger, and like me, you may not be able to get version 15 to list it as a backup. Like I said I can open the images but even when putting it into the backup folder I still couldn't get Ghost to add it to the list of backups.  Also, who knows what changes future versions of Ghost may bring and we still don't know if version 15 could do an actual restore with it. (Don't loose your version 9 disk)

 

2) The perfect and easiest solution would be to make a Ghost 15 backup of the old system before retiring it.

However, I don't know the legalities involved, so please do not take my advice without checking with Symantec.

The easiest way would be to use the restore disk to do a cold version 15 image of the old system but if you were allowed to do that is another matter entirely. Maybe since this whole problem is due to the fact that the older version isn't fully supported it might be allowed.

 

Otherwise you may have to completely uninstall it from your new system, install it onto your old system, do the image, uninstall it and re-install it onto the new system.

That would be my very last resort, I hate making so many changes to systems without any other option and I hope that you wouldn't be forced to do that in order to comply with the license you may also run into problems if for any reason you wanted to install version 9 back onto the old drive before storing it.

 

Another option would be to remove the old drive and temporarily install it in your new system to image it.

That would comply with the license since you only have Ghost installed on one system, but you would have to be very carefull that the drive was not only installed right but that the 2 drives never "see" each other. You could never let the system boot into windows or one of the drives will get re-lettered and will not easily boot again.

(check all the problems in the forum about that).

 

The last option would be to use something else, maybe you have an old DOS version of Ghost or another tool.

It's nice having "everything" because it seems like no matter how hard you try you always forget something.

But maybe you could just zip or backup all the folders you need to keep.

 

Best of luck Archie,

Dave

 

 

10

Ghost 15 will support any .v2i file.  That shouldn't be the problem.  Are you trying to open the main image file or one of the spanned files?  Did you verify the image when it was created?

 

To the other question, Ghost 9 and Ghost 15 cannot coexist on the system as there are a couple files that both have. 

11

Hi Erik,

I think I can confirm that Archie is correct.

I have a system running Windows 2000 using Ghost 9

I also have another system running Windows 7 using Ghost 15.

 

As I already posted, I am able to copy a Ghost 9 image into my Windows 7 system and open them up with Ghost 15.

However, these images were made with Ghost 9 using Standard compression.

 

On my Windows 2000 system I just opened one of these images in image explorer and exported it using "medium" compression like Archie.  After exporting the image, it verifies fine in Ghost 9.

I copy the image to my other system and Ghost 15 can't open it. I get the same error:

 

Error EBAB0013: A test that safeguards the integrity of the program

failed unexpectedly.  CHECK failed. CanFSFB::GetDecompressor:

.\CanFixedSizeFrame.cpp(687): HLZS is unsupported compression type

 

To verify it wasn't a copy problem I copy it back to my windows 2000 system and Ghost 9 verifies it as fine.

Than I take that compressed image and re-export back as standard and I'm able to open it with no problems in Ghost 15.

 

Assuming the error is correct, Does Ghost 9 use HLZS compression for "medium" and do you know if Ghost 15 uses or supports that type of compression?

And to answer your questions, yes my images are spanned files but I know what the first one of the archive is and that is the one I am opening and Ghost 9  verifies all image sets as good.

 

I haven't tried "high" compression yet but I assumed it would be the same type.

Thanks,

Dave

12

I'm unsure.  I'll do some digging and see what I can find. 

 

 

13

Erik,

 

I opened the main file "C_Drive.v2i", not any of the spanned files ("C_Drive_s01/02/03....v2i").

 

I did verify the image back on Ghost 9 when it was taken and subsequently, it still works fine on Ghost 9 and my old XP machine and, when I opened it on Ghost 9 and exported it to another file with "Standard" compression, Ghost 15 can then open and work with the new file, not the original backup, as DaveH has found and confirmed as well.

 

Is there anything documented in the readme, install manuals or other documentation that would have come with the product that indicates backups are not compatible from previous Ghost releases or have we all found a bug in Ghost 15 that needs to be addressed?

 

I have been a Ghost user and, in the past, Norton/Symantec even distributed "previous" levels of product (Ghost 2003, I think it was called) so that older backups prior to Ghost 9 could still be read in case they needed to have things restored from them.

 

I did make the assumption that there would still be compatibilty from the older release backup formats to the current product, at least for READING and recovering items from them.

 

Is this not the case?  If not, again, where is this warned about as I can't seem to find anything in the manual or the readme files.

 

Erik  Thanks for your time and your replies.

 

 

14

Right now it's looking like Medium compression was dropped, but I'm still checking on what's expected in 15 when trying to read an image created with medium compression. 

 

 

15

A Ghost 9 high compression file can be opened in Ghost 15, I just tried it.

 

Symantec actually doesn't claim version 15 supports version 9.

If you go to the main product page:

 

http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost

 

Expand the part under "features" and it says :

"Version support lets you restore older disk images made with Ghost 10, 12 and 14."

 

Dave

16

Hi Erik,

 

I'm confused. I still see Medium compression in the choices in Ghost 15.

 

Allen

17

Interesting.  I'll restart the discussion on my side.  I was informed that it was dropped.  We'll get to the bottom of this.

 

 

18

Interesting, I need to know how to explore GHO & GHS images into Ghost 15. This is needed to rebuild or recompile the image to create a recovery DVD for each server and workstation in our Control System. The images were created with Ghost 2003 but we still receiving error 25003 when reaching 66% restoring.

 

Thanks and best regards.

19

.GHO/.GHS is not supported in Ghost 15.  I believe NSR1 was the last version to support .GHO images.  Ghost 12 was the first to not include support. 

 

For the 25003 error have you tried the -ntc- switch?  You may want to look into the latest version of Ghost Solution Suite which is still built off the old .GHO architecture. 

 

20

Thank you Erik...

It worked with Ghost 11.5; I really appreciate your support.:manhappy: