Ghost Drive Restore Doesnt Work
Im trying to upgrade my hard disk on my laptop by creating a ghost image of my original disk and restore it to my new disk.
When I do the restore, the files all seem to be there, however it will not boot.
Ive tried all cominations of include MBR, Dont include MBR, make active, dint make active and include disk signature dont include signature.
Can anyone help?
When I do the restore, the files all seem to be there, however it will not boot.
Ive tried all cominations of include MBR, Dont include MBR, make active, dint make active and include disk signature dont include signature.
Can anyone help?
Could you please explain more detail on how you made cloned drive? use usb external closure or hook up both (destination and source drive) on other system (i.e desktop), and did you assign drive letter, make active / copy mbr (you already said in question).
If a straight ghost image, this is not uncommon. Provided there are no more than 4 partitions, boot to XP CD recovery console and execute fixmbr and fixboot. Should fire OK then.
Chris B
Chris B
ASKER
Thank you for you help. Let me answer some of these questions...
MB042 - Wont the ghost restore simply re-create the partition information from the original disk?
PUNKY - The original disk was my internal Laptop drive. I ghosted that to a network drive, swapped the disk for the new one, booted up using ghost recovery and then restored the image. I also tried puting the new disk in a usb enclosure and restoring to that and finally using a 2.5"-3.5" converter to add the new disk as a slave onto a desktop then restoring to that. A Drive letter was assigned on each occasion, but again I thought ghost would overwrite that data with the restore?
ChrisB - There is only 1 partition. Tried fixmbr and fixboot - in different combinations and just one at a time and that doesnt work. Usualy I get an "Invalid Partition Table" Error on re-boot, though I did one get a NTLDR error once. i tried to get that again as I have a workaround for that one to try :)
MB042 - Wont the ghost restore simply re-create the partition information from the original disk?
PUNKY - The original disk was my internal Laptop drive. I ghosted that to a network drive, swapped the disk for the new one, booted up using ghost recovery and then restored the image. I also tried puting the new disk in a usb enclosure and restoring to that and finally using a 2.5"-3.5" converter to add the new disk as a slave onto a desktop then restoring to that. A Drive letter was assigned on each occasion, but again I thought ghost would overwrite that data with the restore?
ChrisB - There is only 1 partition. Tried fixmbr and fixboot - in different combinations and just one at a time and that doesnt work. Usualy I get an "Invalid Partition Table" Error on re-boot, though I did one get a NTLDR error once. i tried to get that again as I have a workaround for that one to try :)
Is it NTFS or FAT32? If FAT32 and you have a floppy drive, try booting to a Win9X floppy and running fdisk /mbr.
Chris B
Chris B
ASKER
It is FAT32 so I may be in luck? Does fdisk /mbr do anything different to the XP recovery console fixmbr utiity though?
Don't know, but it is older and designed specifically for fat/fat32, and I have used it successfully many times. Can't hurt and you never know...
Chris B
Chris B
ASKER
Very true! Its just finishing another restore so I begin at the same point again then I'll give it a try. Thanks
>> It is FAT32 so I may be in luck
What brand/model pc is your laptop?
Since your laptop is FAT32, it is likely an older laptop. Have you updated your laptop BIOS to the latest version? It's possible that your older laptop does not recognize the large size of the newer hard drive. You can find the BIOS update instructions on the website of your laptop manufacturer.
What is the size of the old hard drive and the new one?
What brand/model pc is your laptop?
Since your laptop is FAT32, it is likely an older laptop. Have you updated your laptop BIOS to the latest version? It's possible that your older laptop does not recognize the large size of the newer hard drive. You can find the BIOS update instructions on the website of your laptop manufacturer.
What is the size of the old hard drive and the new one?
ASKER
I can see where you are coming from.....
However there is a bit of history! Its a 3 yr old laptop whose disk failled. I got a new 120Gb disk which is fine. I have had a clean install of XP on it it and no problems. I assumed the manufacturer of the laptop would just want the disk back, but no. They wanted the entire machine back. So I replaced the 60Gb drive with the broken one, it went away for repair and came back with a brand new disk installed. Performance wise it was stunning. So I moved over my documents from the large drive to the smaller one and re-installed some key software and have been using it. However I now need the extra capacity for something - hence we are where we are!
I do have an image of the 120Gb drive I could use, but I know that performance will drop. Maybe I will end up having to do that then addressing the performance issues later.
There is no option to enable large disk use in the bios setup (I presume because its rlatively new), and the drive an be seen - together with all the files etc if I use various utils. which is totally infuriating as you can imagine! I just cant make the damn thing boot!
However there is a bit of history! Its a 3 yr old laptop whose disk failled. I got a new 120Gb disk which is fine. I have had a clean install of XP on it it and no problems. I assumed the manufacturer of the laptop would just want the disk back, but no. They wanted the entire machine back. So I replaced the 60Gb drive with the broken one, it went away for repair and came back with a brand new disk installed. Performance wise it was stunning. So I moved over my documents from the large drive to the smaller one and re-installed some key software and have been using it. However I now need the extra capacity for something - hence we are where we are!
I do have an image of the 120Gb drive I could use, but I know that performance will drop. Maybe I will end up having to do that then addressing the performance issues later.
There is no option to enable large disk use in the bios setup (I presume because its rlatively new), and the drive an be seen - together with all the files etc if I use various utils. which is totally infuriating as you can imagine! I just cant make the damn thing boot!
stummi, thanks for the explanation. BIOS doesn't sound like you problem now that you explained it.
>> There is no option to enable large disk use in the bios setup
It's not a BIOS setup option, but the updated bios supports larger hard drives. However since you already had a 60gb drive working, then the 120gb drive should work.
>> There is no option to enable large disk use in the bios setup
It's not a BIOS setup option, but the updated bios supports larger hard drives. However since you already had a 60gb drive working, then the 120gb drive should work.
ASKER
Im looking at the bootconfig /rebuild option in xp recovery console
Before that I decided to look at the boot.ini file.
Does anyone know what the default line do? I assume its the default boot device, in which I woner id the signature<a1a9... part is accurate. Dont I just need the device id (dixk<0>rdisk<0> etc
Also the signature line would appear redundant to me....
Before that I decided to look at the boot.ini file.
Does anyone know what the default line do? I assume its the default boot device, in which I woner id the signature<a1a9... part is accurate. Dont I just need the device id (dixk<0>rdisk<0> etc
Also the signature line would appear redundant to me....
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdi
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)par
Why don't you copy/paste yours here.
ASKER
Ive now installed thr troublesome drive into my desktop as a slave so I can more easily tweak things!
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=signature(a1a9a1a9
[operating systems]
signature(a1a9a1a9)disk(0)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)par
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=signature(a1a9a1a9
[operating systems]
signature(a1a9a1a9)disk(0)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)par
ASKER
OK Thanks for all your help guys.
Its time to cut my losses and re-install xp from scratch. Fortunately all my data is backed up, the only thing I will have lost is time.
Its time to cut my losses and re-install xp from scratch. Fortunately all my data is backed up, the only thing I will have lost is time.
Ghost 9 has option to make images to DVD's which I used to do, and it works everytime restore on system.
ASKER
Really? That must take forever! Interesting to note though.
How big the data in the drive?
ASKER
60Gb. All reinstalled onto my 120 drive now. Thanks for your efforts folks. I very much appreciate you trying to help me.
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ASKER
LOL - no thanks very much but - last post - Ive reformatted and re-installed.
No more suggestions please because you might hit on something I havent tried then I will kick myself :)
No more suggestions please because you might hit on something I havent tried then I will kick myself :)
Use Dericks Boot and Nuke or something similar to do a secure erase of the new drive, then try again.
Another option is to start a windows install, delete and recreate the partition and make sure the setup starts to continue after the first reboot, then ghost the partition.
Cheers