Hello, I have couple of questions: 1. Norton Ghost 10 question: On a computer with working Windows, loading Ghost 10 from C:\programs\Norton Ghost: the program loads and I come to the main screen. On the main screen, under menu item “Tasks” there is a menu item “advanced recovery”. This link gets you into a recovery mode which gives lot more options to choose from on picking restore points and destination. Is there a way I can access the “advanced recovery” from the “recovery disk” when Windows is not working? 2. Windows XP question related to recovery: I know this is not XP forum, but some one here might be able to answer. While using a partition manager, trying to re-size the C: (system partition), it messed up every thing. Windows XP no longer boots. Checking the condition of disk with a boot disk, shows C: present but “invalid”. I understand that it may be because the C: is no longer “active”. Is there a way I can change the C: to “active” without starting Windows and in some other booting program? The Norton Ghost Recovery disk does not give the detailed options in the recovery process. Thanks.
ju1234,
I doubt the Ghost CD can help.
Which partitioning app were you using? Can you take a photo of the monitor showing the Invalid Partition and post the "screenshot"?
What error do you see when you try to boot WinXP?
Brian K: Thanks. I will re-write the problem which may give a clearer picture, it be little more detail but still from my memory. And this is the current position of the computer.
Computer is a Windows XP media center edition. I have an old Ghost 10 back up on external USB drive F:. During some procedure I saw that the hard drive has some unallocated space (931GB total, C: 877GB, D: 9GB recovery partition, unallocated space 45GB. For some idiotic reason, I wanted to use this wasted space even though I have plenty of empty space in C:. So using a partition manager (free) I resized the partitions. I had to move D: to bring unallocated next to C and then combine the two. I really do not know if that worked because when I re booted after the resizing, the windows did not boot. It goes to black screen after showing the windows XP logo.
At this point I booted the computer with Ghost 10 disk in recovery mode. Clicked "recover my computer" - I see the recovery point - clicked on express recovery however the next message was "it cannot be performed". So I chose "custom" which brought the list of C: D: unallocated space. The C: was listed as "invalid" the others showed the amount of total and free space. Even though I checked all three boxes, but only the D: was recovered and not C:
After the Ghost finished, the computer still booted to black screen.
Next I booted the computer with a UBCD disk. That showed me C: but the total and free space columns were empty. Hiren's boot disk showed same. I could still open the c: and I copied the "documents and settings" to another hard drive.
After this I used a "windows XP install disk created from internet (not my original CD or recovery CDs) to boot computer. Did "repair" of windows. Result: still black screen. Then I went into windows "recovery console", did CHKDSK not change, then fixmbr -- no change, then fixboot -- no change, still booting to black screen.
All the above is from various advice from internet. I do not have any knowledge of this myself. Anyway: I ran windows repair one more time (so I thought) and this time it did a "new install" instead erasing previous partition I assume (not what I was intending to do). After that the computer booted to Windows XP, which looked a very basic version without any programs in it.
Now I re-booted the Ghost 10 recovery CD thinking I can restore from my back up. Clicked on "recover my computer". The only recovery point that was present before all this mess, is no longer present. So, what happened to the recovery point! I opened the F: in windows explorer and I see the 4 files that have the names of the recovery points, 2 for C and 2 for D. I don't know why there are 2 for each (for same date). For C: one is about 350GB about the right size for the C: drive and other is only about 0.2GB. I am assuming that the 0.2GB file is some kind of idientifying or marking path or something. (In the recovery point list it listed only one recovery point with C: and D: as parts of the recovery point).
On this new install windows computer wcich does not have Ghost installed, I went ahead and installed Ghost. Opened Ghost. Clicked on "recover my computer". No recovery point listed. Clicked on menu item "task" -- clicked on "advanced recovery". It asks for the "recovery point file". I browsed to the recovery point files and chose the 350GB file on F: and then it asked for the location where to restore it to. I chosed C: It did not allow me to choose the D: location and the other two small files. I also checked the boxes of "check for errors" and "make c: active" even though I know it is active because I booted windows from it. After clicking next, it said, the recovery must be done in "ghost recovery environment and computer should be restarted". I restarted computer to Ghost recovery CD. and the computer proceeded to the restore screen "calculating time ...." This will finish in another 5 hours.
NOW THE NEW QUESTION IS: After it finishes recovering c:, the computer will still not have the d: drive restored. Will I have to run the process again to restore C: or will I be able to do an "express recovery" this time? And what about those two little files, less than 1Gb total for both of them, do I need to restore those, will it let me restore those? These are still open questions.
I will let you know tomorrow what the situation is. Thank you for reading this lengthy account and helping.
ju1234 wrote:. I restarted computer to Ghost recovery CD. and the computer proceeded to the restore screen "calculating time ...." This will finish in another 5 hours.
OK.
What data did you have in the original D: drive?
What are the file-names of the 4 recovery points, including file extensions?
First to answer your question, then update.
There are 5 files in this one restore point: C_Drive001.v2i size about 393GB, C_Drive001_i001.iv2i size about 0.3GB, D_Drive001.v2i Size 8GB, D_Drive001_i001.iv2i size only 256KB. and the 5th file is HOME.sv2i size 2KB. These are present on my recovery folder in F: For my knowledge what are the two smaller files with extension .iv2i. Since the "advanced recovery" allows me to pick only one file, I believe I cannot restore the .iv2i files. Do they need to?
D: drive has or actually had the original Windows recovery partition but now after all that has already gone on, does not.
UPDATE: As I said yesterday, I was running a recovery of C:. Recovery went on to about 93% when it seemed to just freeze. Even though the folder to folder copying icon was still moving it seemed that no further progress was occuring. The "time remaining" was 32 minutes. I let it continue overnight and in the morning the "time remaining was 57 minutes and it seemed that the blank space in the progress bar was now larger than last night if not the same. So it was obvious that Ghost was stuck. So I clicked cancel. Warning came on saying "it will leave the drive unformatted" , I still said cancel. Took a while before it went to another message and it would not exit the ghost. I just had to shut the computer down thinking that I will have to start all over again any way.
Restated the computer. After the Windows XP logo, it was a black screen for much longer than what it would normally be but eventually Windows started. The desktop appeared to be original before all my problems began. I checked the list of programs and other files etc. Every thing seems to be in order. I have opened a few common programs and they seem to work fine.
SO, IS MY COMPUTER WORKING PERFECT? IS IT MISSING ANY INFORMATION SINCE RESTORE WAS ONLY 93% BEFORE I CANCELLED THE PROCESS? HOW CAN I DETERMINE / TEST THAT?
I was able to open Ghost-- selected recover my computer - - advanced recovery - -chose the D: from the appropriate folder of recovery point in external drive F: and restored it to D: in the original location (this D: was empty after the repair windows new install).
QUESTION: So the question now is: should I run Ghost restore again on the C: (system)? Remember it froze last time at 93% and was cancelled. If I should run it again, should I NOT check the box "check for errors in ... " and I don't remember another box that I checked, i think it had to do with fix errors at destination. My thinking is that the freeze up was perhaps because of attempt to fix some errors.
Thnaks again for the help.
Since the system boots, please post a screenshot of disk management.
Click Start > Run and type in diskmgmt.msc
Dave
I see you still have the unallocated space, your recovery mus have put things back the way they were before you made the partition changes.
I have seen the waring about "invalid destination" before. It usually happens when the destination partition is too small or when the partitions have changed and Ghost is confused on where to restore it.
I actually have one system that always gives me that error even when no changes have been made. I never been able to figure that out.
Using the Ghost 15 recovery disk, after selecting the image to restore you can press the "edit" button and get more options for the recovery including the ability to select the target partition for the restore.
I'm not sure if that is the "advanced recovery" screen your asking about and I also don't know if it's availible in Ghost 10, I never used that version.
I also don't know what happened when the recovery hung.
I have seen it hang or give errors before with Ghost 15 and been able to boot with no problems but thatusually happens at 98 or 99%.
When you say you were not able to boot windows and just got to a black screen, was the screen totally black or did it have a blinking cursor on the second line from the top on the left side?
dave
ju1234 wrote:There are 5 files in this one restore point: C_Drive001.v2i size about 393GB, C_Drive001_i001.iv2i size about 0.3GB, D_Drive001.v2i Size 8GB, D_Drive001_i001.iv2i size only 256KB. and the 5th file is HOME.sv2i size 2KB. These are present on my recovery folder in F: For my knowledge what are the two smaller files with extension .iv2i. Since the "advanced recovery" allows me to pick only one file, I believe I cannot restore the .iv2i files. Do they need to?
C_Drive001.v2i is a full (base) recovery point
D_Drive001.v2i is a full (base) recovery point
The files with .iv2i extensions are Incremental recovery points. These can be restored. Often you might have a lot of Incremental recovery points. Any one can be restored and all earlier recovery points will be automatically restored as well.
.sv2i is an Index file. I don't use it as it can cause issues (reversed partitions) but others do for multiple recovery point restores.
Thanks Dave and Brian.
At this point I have the following questions:
1. After I did the v2i back up, I did not make any changes in the computer before it went caput. So, I am wondering if there is really any thing new in the iv2i files.
2. Even though my recovery seems to be successful despite cancelling restore at 93% level, is there a way to "compare" the C: on the original computer to the C: back up in F: to make sure if the back up has been complete?
3. Should I rerun the recovery of C: wihtout the "check for errors" and "verify restore point before restoring" in the hope that it will not hang and will complete the process.
4. The D: after recovery , in the disk management shows 9GB total space and 1GB free which means the recovery file should be 8GB. But when I checked the D:, it has one file "recovery" and there is a lock next to it. Properties of this file show only 202KB, and there is "my backup" folder in it which is empty. So I am wondering if this recovery is really 8GB size. Is there any way to check that?
5. Even after this apparent recovery< i still don't see my most recent recovery point in the "recover my computer" screen and the only way I can still restore it is by going to the "advanced recovery" route.
6. I opened the iv2i file in explorer. It appears to show the full file structure of the c drive. If I open v2i it shows the same complete foler / file tree as in iv2i. So I don't quite understand what the difference is.
Question # 2 and 3 are my main concerns at this point.
Comments / answers please. Thanks again.
Hello Brian and Dave,
Thanks for the help. I have a follow up on this issue: Yesterday I tried the "recovery" again, from same recovery point as before. Going through the same "advanced recovery" (because the recovery point does not show in the list and I have to select it manually from the E: drive by selelcting the C_drive001.v2i. In the options to check, this time I checked "verify recovery point before restore", DID NOT CHECK the box "check for file system errors", checked boxes "set drive active for booting OS", and checked box "restore original disk signature".
Again the same problem. Recovery seems to be hung at 93% and the "time remaining" is now continuing to increase rather than decrease. So, not checking the box "check for file system errors" did not make any difference.
Should I try again without checking the box "verify recovery point before restore". I assume the recovery point is good, because I have tried restoring it twice. If it is not good, whatever degree of good it is, that is all I have any way.
You said the .iv2i is the "incrememntal" recovery point and that running this recovery point will automatically also recover any previous points as well. So, should I run this incremental point and see if it will not hang up at 93%?
NEW QUESTION: After I finish recovering to whatever level I can, I would want to run a "back up" again and save that one as the only "good" back up and delete the prior one (that I am recovering from right now. Is there any thing I can do to make sure that the new recovery point is good before I delete the old one.
Question about "Kaspersky back up": I am now using Kaspersky 3.0 as the anti virus. I notice that it has a "back up" and "recovery" function as well. I am thinking that I should run a Kaspersky back up also before I delete the old ones. Do you know if it does a full back up or not and if it is reliable? Is there any other full back up software you can recommend (which is not Linux or DOS based) you can recommend?
Thank you very much for your help.
Are you trying to recover the Windows partition (C drive) from within Windows or using the Recovery Disc?
Trying to access the "advanced recovery" screen from the Ghost 10 disk. The screen is availible for Ghost 15 when doing "Copy Drives" and I think it's the same as the Ghost 15 recovery options when clicking the "edit" button.
If it was me I would run a thorough chkdsk on the C drive to ensure there really is not any problems with it.
Open "My Computer" right click on the C drive and select properties
Click the "tools" tab and then click "error checking"
check off the bottom box "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"
It will tell you to reboot, and it may take quite a while for it to run.
Then I would try using the Ghost 15 recovery disk to see if the image recovers all the way or still hangs at the end.
If it still hangs I would do a "one time backup" and make a new image, and test it to make sure it verifies and then restore it to see if it also hangs.
Dave