Ghost Solution Suite

Hello,
I'm using ghost32 8.2 under WinPE and it works fine on 50 different hardware lines except one (compaq nc8000 laptops).
Randomly (about 50%) when image restoring reaches 99% I get 'inconstency error 36000). (I prefer not to use -nti switch.)
I even tried to wipe and format the partion first. It didn't make any difference.
There was no problem using ghost 8.2 under DOS.
Any ideas what's causing ghost32 to fail at 99%?

Thank you in advance.

Mick

> Any ideas what's causing ghost32 to fail at 99%?

It does a few post-cloning-type things at that point, such as adjusting any boot.ini file in the cloned disk to ensure the final system is actually usable. It's possible that one of those is failing.

When this error happens, a GHOSTERR.TXT file is written out and one of the things this error faile contains is a trace of where the program was at the time, from which we here at Ghost HQ can often determine precisely what it was trying to do. If you can find that file and post it here, that would help immensely.

At that point one of the cloning-engine developers will take a close look at it and determine where to go next.

*Thank you* for a prompt reply.

Here's the log file.

*********************************
Date : Fri Oct 27 20:20:36 2006
Error Number: (36000)
Message: A GeneralException occurred
Version: 8.2.0.1117 (Aug 26 2004, Build=1117)
OS Version: Professional (Build 3790)
Command line arguments: -clone,mode=prestore,src=\\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\images\GOA440.GHO:1,dst=1:1,sze1=v -afile=\\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\logs\LT-227889_IMAGE_GHOSTERR.log -fx -sure
Active Switches :
AutoName
PathName : 38977 smscfg.ini
DumpFile : \\EDM-GOA-SMSD-12\BLDREPL2$\IMAGES\GOA440.GHO
DumpPos : 1776025725
Last LFO Buffersize : 32768
Last LFO Path :
Full Path : \\EDM-GOA-SMSD-12\BLDREPL2$\IMAGES\GOA440.GHO
Drive Letter : \\EDM-GOA-SMSD-12\BLDREPL2$\
Last LFO Filesystem : Native
FlagImplode : 0
FlagExplode : 10

CloneSrc : \\EDM-GOA-SMSD-12\BLDREPL2$\IMAGES\GOA440.GHO
BatchPartSrc : 1
BatchPartMSrc :

CloneDst : 1
BatchPartDst : 1

Operation Details :
Total size.........3133
MB copied..........3126
MB remaining.......7
Percent complete...99%
Speed..............449MB/min
Time elapsed.......6:57
Time remaining.....0:00

Processor exception
Generated at HardExceptionHandlerWin32.cpp:264

Program Call Stack
DiskCache::CallerToCache
DiskCache::CacheIO
DiskCache::HandleIO
DiskCache::IO
WriteDiskSectors
WritePhysSectors
WriteNTFSVolume
NTFSWriteClusters
NTFSWriteAttribute
buildMFTRecBitmap
loadMFT
loadVol
LoadNTFSPartition
ProcessNTFSPartition
CopyPartition
CopyFileToPart
CopyMainline
AttemptOperation
sub_main
main

Call Stack
Address Frame Logical Addr Module
0x00000000004a761f 0x000000000012f250 0x0001:0x00000000000a661f \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004a7f1c 0x000000000012f288 0x0001:0x00000000000a6f1c \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004a81bc 0x000000000012f2bc 0x0001:0x00000000000a71bc \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004a8247 0x000000000012f2e8 0x0001:0x00000000000a7247 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004534c9 0x000000000012f324 0x0001:0x00000000000524c9 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004b6e25 0x000000000012f37c 0x0001:0x00000000000b5e25 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004b6f8c 0x000000000012f3b8 0x0001:0x00000000000b5f8c \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004aa466 0x000000000012f3f4 0x0001:0x00000000000a9466 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004ab419 0x000000000012f440 0x0001:0x00000000000aa419 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004af24c 0x000000000012f4c8 0x0001:0x00000000000ae24c \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004b1ce2 0x000000000012f4fc 0x0001:0x00000000000b0ce2 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004b1e85 0x000000000012f524 0x0001:0x00000000000b0e85 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000048e2de 0x000000000012f594 0x0001:0x000000000008d2de \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000048fd81 0x000000000012f5bc 0x0001:0x000000000008ed81 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000045a2bb 0x000000000012f5e8 0x0001:0x00000000000592bb \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000045b478 0x000000000012fcb8 0x0001:0x000000000005a478 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000040224d 0x000000000012fcd8 0x0001:0x000000000000124d \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004023b1 0x000000000012fcf8 0x0001:0x00000000000013b1 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x000000000040553c 0x000000000012fdf0 0x0001:0x000000000000453c \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000405b72 0x000000000012fee4 0x0001:0x0000000000004b72 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000419ca1 0x000000000012ffc0 0x0001:0x0000000000018ca1 \\edm-goa-smsd-12\bldrepl2$\main\ghost32.exe
0x0000000077e523cd 0x000000000012fff0 IsProcessorFeaturePresent+0x000000000000009e
End Call Stack

Exception code: 0xc0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Registers:
EAX=0x00002200 CS=0x001b EIP=0x00000000 EFLGS=0x00010202
EBX=0x00b23160 SS=0x0023 ESP=0x0012fff8 EBP=0x00000000
ECX=0x00000032 DS=0x0023 ESI=0x00b2b000 FS=0x003b
EDX=0x00b23160 ES=0x0023 EDI=0x039edf58 GS=0x0000

Start heap available: 288649216
Cur heap available: 246714368
Total Memory: 536190976

Conventional Memory
Inital Conventional Memory Size = 0
Current Conventional Memory Size = 0
Allocated
33500 ghost.cpp:1268
Free
32768 AlignBufferedImageFileDevice.cpp:83

Fat details:

NTFS details:
----------------

NTFS Global Flags:
----------------
contiguousWrite=1 forceDiskClusterMapping=0
inhibitCHKDSK=1 ignoreBadLog=0 ignoreCHKDSKBit=0
enable_cache=0 xfrbuflen=32768
last_attr_type = 0
loadExact = 0
----------------
=======================================================
NTFS volume 0:
----------------
initialised..............1
read cached..............N
Selective caching........N
flags....................Volume OK
drive....................0x00
part order...............0
version..................0x0400
volsize..................78124976
blocksize................512
clusterfactor............8
clustersize..............4096
mftrecordsize............1024
indexrecordsize..........4096
indexclustperrecord......1
bootSectorCopyOffset.....78124976
pagefileSys..............4294967295
bootIni..................19358
volumeLabel..............
sectorsInUse.............6417968
totalNonCopiedBytes......0
bytesToCopy..............0
bitmapClusters...........299
bitmapUsedBytes..........1221176
estimatedClusters........299
estimatedUsedBytes.......1221176
clustersizeShift.........12
blocksizeShift...........9
mftrecordsizeShift.......10
indexrecordsizeShift.....12
totalRootMftRecs.........22033
clustermap failover......N
Boot sector details
name....................
blocksize...............512
clusterfactor...........8
reservedSectorsUnused...0
mediaType...............0xf8
secPerTrack.............63
numHeads................240
hiddenSectors...........63
volsize_lo..............78124976
volsize_hi..............0
mftcluster.(lo).........786432
mftcluster.(hi).........0
mftmirrorcluster.(lo)...16
mftmirrorcluster.(hi)...0
clustersPerMFTRecord....246
clustersPerIndexBuffer..1

---------------------------------------------------
Cluster Allocation Map
---------------------------------------------------
Start: 0 Length: 796180 Next: 796180
Gap: 1210954
Start: 2007134 Length: 6066 Next: 2013200
Gap: 7752422
Start: 9765622 Length: 0 Next: 9765622


=======================================================

Disk Info :
remote.............0
drive..............0
sectors_used.......78155217
estimated_used.....84542946
pemax..............1
Version............820

# Ord Boot Id Ext First Num Last Used NTFS
0 0 80 7 No 00000063 78155217 78155280 06417968 Yes

Disk Info :
remote.............0
drive..............0
sectors_used.......78124977
estimated_used.....0
pemax..............1
Version............0

# Ord Boot Id Ext First Num Last Used NTFS
0 0 0 7 No 00000063 78124977 78125040 78124977 Yes

Fixed Drives

Drive 0 FUJITSU MHT2040AH NP0QT39255TK
WinNT (Active)
Total Sectors 78140160
Bytes per Sector 512
MB 38154
Cylinders 5168
Heads 240
Sectors per Track 63
Successful IO Count 116138

Floppy Drives

Remote Drives
AsyncIo : 1
Image Devices

Key D:
Path D:
Desc D:
Type CD

Key X:
Path X:
Desc X:
Type CD


*********************************

Thanks for that - looks clearly like a bug in the filesystem cache manager. Hpoefully tomorrow after I've had a chat with the cloning engine chaps we'll have a workaround for you, but we might also be interested in getting hold of your image so we can make this bug happen for us in the test labs (so we can fix it).

It seems that the root cause of this bug is actually that the code laying out the NTFS filesystem runs off the end of an internal buffer if the end of the NTFS master file table is in a particular location.

The exact layout of the MFT is determined by various factors, but one of the most important is the amount of disk space you assign to the partition at restore time. For some images, the variable auto-size calculation for the partition is leading to the end of the MFT being laid out in a way that triggers this bug.

So, you should be able to work around this by trying different size settings, and using a fixed size that is known to be good rather than using the 'v' mode auto-sizing in the SZE option should let you avoid this.

Do let us know if this helps or not.

Thank you so much for your answer.
I don't think it's image related because I have another, completely different image, and the problem is the same.

Mick

One more piece of information.
While I can't be 100% sure but the problem could be network related.
I deployed the image 18 times without any problem from location A but trying from location B I have only roughly 50% success rate.
On the other hand if there was a network problem, why is it always failing at 99%?

Mick

> I don't think it's image related because I have another

It's not directly related to the image, but it can be indirectly related to the size of the partition you create. If you use SZE1=v, then you are letting Ghost make a decision on the partion size, and it does factor the source image into that decision. The end result of that is that both the source partition and the target disk size become factors.

In addition, because the fault is an access off the end of the buffer, in some circumstances there may happen to be data beyond the end of the buffer - which means the error doesn't trigger a memory exception. That's part of why this shows up as it does in Ghost32, but not under DOS builds of Ghost - the code error is present in both, but the Win32 environment is a little stricter about this, which uncovered this latent problem.

Nigel,

I tried to use SZE1=90P switch but it didn't help.

Mick

I've had a chat with the developer who worked on this and I think what the right thing to do is get you to try the latest build so we can work out whether this really is the problem that we think it is.

Drop me a line at nigel dot bree at gmail dot com, and we'll arrange that.