There were some alterations to the Ghost32.exe executable in updates. What is the version on that executable? The latest version is 11.5.1.2266. If your executable is a lower version, definitely run LiveUpdate and copy a new executable.

Thank you,

Randy

After downloading the 500mb+ updates, I'm now up to 11.5.1.2266 (from 11.5.0.2113).  Unfortunately, I get the same error.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Try imaging using Ghost UI ; i.e. use command : "Ghost32.exe -forcevolumesnapshot" without any parameter, once the Ghost UI open select source and destination ; this will ask you options like "Force Lock" and "Volumesnapshot" , this should work without any issue.

-forcevolumesnapshot will try forcing it on a volume. However it is physically impossible for ghost to lock the volume that is locked by the OS without OS cooperating. That is to say that there are "writers" (SQL server is one of them) that report to the OS. OS will then notify them of any hot imagining activity asking to postpone what they do. If they refuse then ghost still should be able to go ahead and with -force switch to drop them out. However if there are some system writers that sometimes may refuse and there is nothing that can be done.

It could also be as simple as your volume snapshot service is turned off - you can check this in the Control panel->services.

You can also try using option -novolumesnapshot.

-novolumesnapshot is for using traditional ghost cold imaging. It is absolutely impossible to take cold image of the volume that OS runs on without rebooting to preOS environment (DOS, Winpe) so that OS volume will become physically unlocked.
I suspect that volume snapshot service is disabled or as I was saying earlier - some system writer (could be 3rd party backup service) is refusing to postpone activity and OS (and subseqnetly ghost) is unable to activate volume snapshot service to take a hot image.

Sorry, I was out of town for several days. 

I got a little further by only using ghost32.exe.   After I selected the High compression type, then confirmed, it sits idle for  >8 minutes!?  Then the prompt comes up.  I select Volume Snapshot and all appears to be working.

Did a restore on another PC (same model) to confirm the image worked and all appears to be ok

Now that I know this is possible, how can I get the -forcevolumesnapshot flag to work?

As for the Volume Snapshot service, I do not have such a service.  The only thing close is Volume Shadow Copy and that is turned off.  This test was done on a live PC just by copying the Ghost32.exe and Int86_32.dll into a temp folder.

Thanks

You really need to provide more information about your specific config.  What OS are you using?  Installed applications?  Hot Imaging relies on the Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS) in Windows XP/Vista.  If the service is not started it will be started automatically.  It won't start if it's disabled.  Some applications are VSS aware, and will use VSS writers to flush the write cache to the disk to ensure nothing is missed.  Apps that are not VSS aware may still work, but can end up in a "dirty" state.  If an app is holding disk writes in a que, VSS will sit and wait for the writes to complete before taking the snapshot.  Take a look at your installed apps and see if you have anyhting that may be writing in the background.  You may have to try the shotgun method by closing apps and/or stoping services one at a time, then lauch ghost32.exe by itself to see which one may be holding you up.

Volume shadow copy is the right service name. Ghost32 will attempt to start this service if it is not running and shut it down if it has started it. However as I was saying and as ezdee36 is saying as well - any system level writers may potentially either prevent ghost from taking image hot or delay it for a sometime. Most likely offender would be a backup service of some sort.

Perhaps someone could point me to a document that goes into greater detail on utilizing "hot imaging".  I'm using the "Symantec Ghost Implementation Guide" and it does not mention anything about Volume Shadow Copy service as a requirement.  It's actually very vague on the topic.  The only thing I found was on pages 115 and 352.

To answer your questions.  We are using all XP Pro machines.  Applications would vary depending on machines.

Question:  What is the difference between using the -forcevolumesnapshot flag and actually selecting Volume Snapshot prompt?

Thanks

This is a bit more helpful....

There isn't a lot of information on how Ghost utilizes VSS for Hot Imaging, but here are a couple of links for you:
http://service1.symantec.com/support/on-technology.nsf/docid/2008121215010060?Open&seg=ent
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/on-technology.nsf/docid/2008052314472560

So suffice it to say, Ghost, like any other program calling VSS, still has to play by VSS' rules.  If you want to troubleshoot VSS Microsoft has a lot of information on MSDN at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb968832(VS.85).aspx

There are some diagnostic tools available, but I haven't tried them with XP:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530728(VS.85).aspx

To answer your second question I'm going to have to go out and make an educated guess based on the lack of information provided by Symantec.  When you don't specify anything on the command line, Ghost will go through all the motions as far as asking you questions about what you want to do.  When it goes to gather the image, it will check to see if it can get a full volume lock, if it can't you will be prompted to use a Volume snapshot.  In the case ot -forcevolumesnapshot, it looks like Ghost skips trying to get a volume lock and goes directly to requesting a Volume Shadow Copy.  Here's the mystery.  To me it appears that process that makes a VSS request gives up if there are any VSS writers active.

Another thought I had is... do you have any other partitions or drives in your computer (ie. Dell utility/recovery partitions), that VSS may not be aware of?  IT may be a bug with the command line switch in the way it handles multiple partitions.  If that is the case, try to image the partition and not the drive.

Thanks for the info.  I may need some time to digest it.  I was doing some more experimenting have some more info.  This was done on a typical XP machine (nothing special loaded) within the office.

When using the -forcevolumesnapshot I checked the event log and I do note that VSS does get called and is enabled for a short momment.  It then turns off again.  The fact that within a few seconds it turns off tells me that something must be something active.  But if I can image it by having Ghost ask me to Force Snapshot, it goes through...very strange.

There is a tiny additional partition I believe on the drive but I've always selected the whole drive in both -forcevolumesnapshot and sans flag.

Here is a list of processes when Hot Image fails

Perhaps something in the list will jump out?

I'll do some more experimentation.

Thanks!!

Did you try using -forcevolumesnapshot with the "Partition" to "Image" option?  The tiny additional partition may be you issue.

You can also try to shutdown Symantec Anti-virus, as well as any other process with your UserID attached to it (DirectCD.exe, direct.exe, PrintKey2000.exe, UC launcher.exe).  Also, make sure you remove any USB storage devices.

Let's take a step back for a moment.

I have confirmed that I can make an image of an active (hot) HDD.  I have also confirmed that the image does work fine if copied to another pc (same model).  Therefore, hot imaging does in fact work as is.  The problem must be with the -forcevolumesnapshot flag

I go through the exact steps within the Ghost32 UI when trying to make a backup image with or without the flag.  If it would help, I can make screen shots of each step.

Does it not seem logical that the problem is with the flag itself?

That's what I meant when I said, "It may be a bug with the command line switch in the way it handles multiple partitions".  Can you try it on a computer that does not have that utility partition?

Hmm... buggy software... never heard of that <grin>!

OK, I have more information.

You have nailed it with the partitions being the ingrediant that makes that switch fail. 

We do not have any images or PC's that do not have the small utlility partition.  So I took a PC, FDisked it to clear the MBR, then Ghostcasted to it but only have the Ghost server send partition 2 (sans utlity partition).  After it was loaded, went into FDisk to confirm that there was only one partition.  Boot it up, ran Ghost32 -forcevolumesnapshot and BAM! it worked.

I did some more experimentation....

ghost32 -clone,mode=create,src=1,dst=g\Test.gho -z5 -forcevolumesnapshot -sure
**Fail**

ghost32 -clone,mode=pcreate,src=1:1:2,dst=g:\Test.gho -z5 -forcevolumesnapshot -sure
**Fail**

ghost32 -clone,mode=pcreate,src=1:1,dst=g:\Test.gho -z5 -forcevolumesnapshot -sure
**Fail**

ghost32 -clone,mode=pcreate,src=1:2,dst=g:\Test.gho -z5 -forcevolumesnapshot -sure
**Success**

So it appears that -forcevolumesnapshot does not like our Dell utility partition (1) for whatever reason.  It then occured to me that maybe when it was successful from the Ghost UI prompt, maybe it just ommitted the utility partition.  Nope, I checked and the image it created has both partition.

Is there a way to get -forcevolumesnapshot to work for the whole drive or are we stuck to either use the UI prompt or src=1:2?

Thanks!

BBF,

This is FYI, since you are experimenting with hot imaging.

-forcevolumesnapshot will avoid ghost traditional "cold image" cloning and will go directly to "hot imaging" (while OS is running). Without this switch ghost will first try to use "cold image" traditional cloning, then will ask you whether it is OK to try hot imaging.

Now, hot imaging is generally not required for any volume other than system (OS). Ghost is perfectly capable of cloning most other volumes "cold" and while OS is running. Not all volumes can be captured hot. Ghost relies on OS services to do some work for hot imaging. Because of this it relies on volume shadow service that OS can provide for hot imaging. Fat32 and NTFS volumes are the only ones supported by any version of Windows for hot imaging. Fat 12/16 are not. My guess is that you diagnostic partition is Fat16. Because you tried forcing "hot imaging" on an entire disk it will fail because your diagnostic volume will fail hot imaging.

Hope this clears your understanding of cold and hot imaging.

Eugene,

Thanks for the good information.  You are correct, the utility partition is indeed FAT16.

From your discription, this must be what's happening when I'm able to get the HDD to image via the Ghost GUI snapshot prompt.

1.  Run Ghost32
2.  Select the whole drive, compression, etc
3.  It then starts off by actually captureing the first partition just fine
4.  Gets to the OS partition and can't, then prompts.

Is there some sort of switch like the "-sure" switch to use volume snapshot if traditional fails?  Or maybe some way to string commands (-script)?  One to snag partition 1, then hot image partition 2, and finally marge them into one image file?

Thanks!