Norton Ghost 15 SRD Does Not "See" External USB Drive in the Recovery Environment

I've been religiously backing up to an external USB hard drive with Norton Ghost 15 for over a year now, and it seems to work fine.  However, after making a custom SRD and testing it, I've found I can't "see" the external USB hard drive (even though it is plugged in and working when I boot with the SRD).  The external is a Toshiba Canvio 1TB USB 3 drive.  I've tried restarting into the recovery environment with the external drive plugged into a USB 2 port - same thing, I cannot "see" the drive.

 

Fortunately I've never had to do a recovery, but I'd like to be prepared in case I have a crash and have to do it down the road. 

 

My system is a Digital Storm Desktop

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

500GB hard drive, 8 GB RAM

All updates (OS and applications) current

 

Any suggestions/advice?

 

I've attached the partinfo text in case it helps. 

 

Regards,

Kelly

I've been religiously backing up to an external USB hard drive with Norton Ghost 15 for over a year now, and it seems to work fine.  However, after making a custom SRD and testing it, I've found I can't "see" the external USB hard drive (even though it is plugged in and working when I boot with the SRD).  The external is a Toshiba Canvio 1TB USB 3 drive.  I've tried restarting into the recovery environment with the external drive plugged into a USB 2 port - same thing, I cannot "see" the drive.

 

Fortunately I've never had to do a recovery, but I'd like to be prepared in case I have a crash and have to do it down the road. 

 

My system is a Digital Storm Desktop

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

500GB hard drive, 8 GB RAM

All updates (OS and applications) current

 

Any suggestions/advice?

 

I've attached the partinfo text in case it helps. 

 

Regards,

Kelly

Brian,

 

Thanks for your prompt reply and quick detective work. 

 

Can you talk me through how to delete and re-create the partition on the F: drive?  I know how to get to Disk Management in Windows 7, but beyond that is beyond my skill level without some tutelage.

 

Regards,

Kelly

Brian,

 

Here's a screenshot of Disk Management with the external drive F: highlighted, if it helps any.

 

Regards,

KellyDisk Mgmt.jpg

Kelly,

 

Thanks. I've nothing else to add.

Brian,

 

Found a partition tutorial and did as you suggested, and it works.  After deleting and re-creating the partition, SRD can see the recovery points with the drive plugged into a USB 2 port, but not a USB 3 one.

 

Many thanks.

 

Regards,

Kelly

Kelly,

 

That's good news. Sorry, I missed seeing your Message #3. I wasn't trying to avoid answering.

Not a problem, Brian.  I figured that's what happened.  I get a little skittish doing things I've never done before, like messing with partitions.  It certainly didn't hurt me to find the Windows tutorial and figure it out, heck, I actually learned something.

 

From what I've been reading, USB 3 performance with Ghost has been spotty at best.  Guess when I make the move to SSR we'll see what happens.

 

Regards,

Kelly

Kelly,

 

Did you delete and re-create the partition from Disk Management?

Brian,

 

Yes, I did.  After I moved the files temporarily onto my C: drive, in Windows 7 Disk Management I right clicked on the F: drive and selected "Delete Volume," leaving everything on that drive as unallocated space.  I right clicked on that space and created a volume (750GB), giving the same drive letter as before (F).  I then moved the files back onto that partition, and ran another full backup.  After that, I booted into the recovery environment using the custom SRD I'd made with the external USB drive plugged into a USB 3 port, but couldn't "see" the recovery points under the "Restore" computer option.  I shut the computer down, then plugged the external drive into a USB 2 port, and re-booted with the SRD.  I could see the recovery points then.

 

Regards,

Kelly