Ghost Solution Suite

I have trawled previous posts but cannot find the answer to my problem. I have cloned my 40gb hard disk on my Dell Dimension 8200 to a new 400gb disk but when I try to boot from the destination disk I get the error message 'disk read error, press Cntrl, Alt, Delete to restart'. I have tried cloning the source disk many times and have even had symantec do it for me remotely serveral times but I still get the same problem. The first time the pc boots from the destination disk immediately after the clone it works fine but the next time the pc is shut down or restarted it wont boot from the destination disk. I have tried outting in inly the new disk and also with the new disk as master and the old disk as slave but still the same. It is not the jumper settings (have checked this time and time again) and I have tried the new disk in different positions on the cables/power connectors but it doesn't make any difference. If I boot from the old disk as master with the new disk as slave then I can see and access everything on the new disk which seems to be working fine apart from not wanting to boot after the first attempt. Help!!! Please! This is driving me nuts.

hi man.....
Weird...!!
A few questions.
Did you clone the Dell Diagnostic partition before you cloned the OS?
Before the first boot from the new HD did you remove the old HD from the computer and put the new HD on the end plug of the IDE cable? Leaving the jumpers in the Dell CS position.
Did you clone into unallocated space or into a partition?
Did you choose a Drive Letter of “None” during the Ghost wizard?
Do you have the latest BIOS?
Does the new HD show in the BIOS after you receive that error?

hi Gizzle,
Yes, the Dell Diagnostic partition was cloned first. Also, cloned to unallocated space.
With regard to position of new HD, I have tried this for first boot as the only disk and on the end IDE cable connector and with the jumpers set to master. It works fine for the first boot but not second or subsequent boots. I have also tried different combinations (with the old HD in as slave/swapping the positions on the IDE cable) but this still produces the same problem. I have tried cloning many times and I tried choosing a drive letter and not in the Ghost wizard. So fas as I am aware the bios is up to date (A09) and the Bios always detects and shows the new disk (which is a Hitachi).

It sounds like the BIOS may be changing the HD numbering. Just a guess. When the computer won't boot, does the 400 GB Hitachi HD show as HD0 or HD1 in the BIOS?

Have you tried the Cable Select jumper position?

Could you boot from the WinXP CD, enter the Recovery Console and run "fixboot" to write a new boot sector. It may not work.

i think so the problem is critical....

The Hitachi HD shows as HD0 in the Bios when it won't boot. I haven't tried the Cable Select position for the jumper. I'll give it a go.

Can't find any of the disks that came with the pc when I got it from Dell. Also, when I bought Ghost 12 from PC World it was a 'download' version so came with no disks. I down loaded it from symantec. I haven't been able to create a recovery disk (the instructions appear very confusing to a noob like me!).

Tried it with the new Hitachi HD only with jumper set to Cable select (and on end IDE connector). No joy. However, did get a different message, "Primary hard disk drive 1 not found. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility" F1 brought up "disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. F2 entered the setup showed the Hitachi as Primary Drive 0 (on Autodetect) and Primary Drive 1 (Autodetect) as unknown device. Changed Primary Drive 1 from Autodetect to Off but got the usual disk read error message. Have now changed it back to Autodetect.

Even tried changing the jumprer settings to Forcing Dev 1 Pres but just said disk drive 0 and 1 not found.

Now have the old disk back in as master and the hitachi as slave. Can still see the Hitachi a F drive in Windows Explorer.

However, I have noticed something in Disk Manager that I haven't picked up on before. The old disk (which is showing as disk 0) has two partitions as before. The first is the Dell Utility (FAT file system). The second is the labelled as the C drive (NTFS file file). The hitachi also has two partitions but both of them have drive letters. The Dell Utility (FAT is designated G and the other (NTFS) is designated F. The Dell Utility partition on the old drive is not lettered. Could the fact that the Dell utility has been assigned a drive letter on the Hitachi have anything to do with it?

I did download an ISO (or at least I think I did) but I don't know what I am supposed to do with it or whether I did it right. I told this to the symantec support guys when they cloned the disk for me but they didn't seem interested in that so I assumed that wasn't my problem.

Have tried F12 before but I am not offered an option to boot to the Dell Utility.

 OK. The Cable Select jumpers will be interesting. I've heard reports that Dells prefer cable select but that's second hand info.

Any WinXP CD will do for accessing the Recovery Console. Grab one from a mate. I'm interested in whether you can see C:\Windows from the Recovery Console.

You must get a Ghost 12 Recovery CD. It comes as a download from Symantec. You need to burn the ISO. Did you download an ISO? Ghost 12 is "useless" without that CD.

Another thought. At the Dell splash screen, press F12 to enter the Boot Menu. Can you boot into the Dell Utility (Diagnostic) partition?

 This is weird.

Which WinXP do you have? Which Service Pack?

When you cloned, did you select "Copy MBR"? This copies the Dell MBR rather than creating a generic MBR. You need a Dell MBR for the Dell Utility partition to boot from the F12 menu.

When you cloned, did you select "resize drive to fill unallocated space” or is the OS partition the original size? How full is the original OS partition?


"Primary hard disk drive 1 not found. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"F1 brought up "disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. F2 entered the setup showed the Hitachi as Primary Drive 0 (on Autodetect) and Primary Drive 1 (Autodetect) as unknown device.Changed Primary Drive 1 from Autodetect to Off but got the usual disk read error message.Have now changed it back to Autodetect.

A phantom device. Did you have any USB devices attached? Flash drives, cameras etc?

The confusing aspect is the OS does boot once after the clone but never again. Something is reset after the first boot.


I did download an ISO

Burn it with ImgBurn.

http://www.imgburn.com/

I feel your issue is BIOS related but I don't know why it's happening. Do you have plenty of spare time to try some things that "may" work?

 Do you have a Win98 boot floppy or Partition Magic boot discs?

 I Have Win XP service pack 2.

I can't remeber whether the last time I cloned I selected copy MBR for the Dell utility. I think not but I have cloned so many times with diff variations that I am not sure now.

When I cloned the last time I did select 'resize drive to fill unallocated space' so the partition on the new hitachi HD has lots of free space. The old HD is full to the brim (low disk space warnings in system tray).

I do have several USB devices attached and I have been reconnecting them before I boot every time I swap the HD's about. My HP all in one printer is connected with USB cable and I seem to remember that the pc sees this as a hard disk. Should I disconnect all USB devices before rebooting?

I'll see if I can get a Win98 boot disk or partition magic boot disk.

 WinXP SP2 doesn't have a 137 GB HD limit. I've found opposing opinions on whether the Dimension 8200 with the A09 BIOS supports HDs larger than 137 GB. Some say the Intel Application Accelerator is needed for large HD support. It's confusing.

On some of your clones, did you omit 'resize drive to fill unallocated space' so that the cloned partition was 40 GB yet still didn't boot?


Quote:
The old HD is full to the brim (low disk space warnings in system tray).

Out of interest, how much used and how much free space is in that 400 GB partition?

I'd certainly disconnect all USB devices to see if it makes a difference.

I spent some time looking up the HD limit before and so far as I can tell I don't have the 137GB limit. The A09 bios sees the hitachi HD and shows its full 400gb capacity. Also, in disk manager the full capacity of this HD is shown.

The old HD is now absolutely full (just a few mb free space). This is because my kids keep re-downloading stuff that I have removed to free up space!

Something odd maybe...I tried removing all the USB devices before rebooting with only the hitachi HD in (removed old disk) on the end IDE connector and jumpers set to master. Still same error message ('disk read error...'). Going into Bios setup (F2) I noted that the Hitachi was shown as Primary Drive 0 on Autodetect whereas Primary Drive 1 (on Autodetect) was was still showing as Unknown Device. I tried changing the Autodetect setting for Primary Drive 1 to 'Off' and then rebooted. This time the error message was 'Primary Drive 1 not found..." It made me think that if the bios was expecting to see a drive in this position then maybe I should put the old HD in. I changed the bios setting for Primary Drive 1 back to Autodetect and I put the old HD in with jumpers set to slave and not on the end IDE connector leaving the hitachi HD as master on the end IDE connector. This time the pc booted up albeit very slowly. Going to disk manager I could see that the hitachi HD was showing as F: drive (Healthy (active)) with the old HD showing as C: (Healthy (System)) so I guess it is booting from the old drive even though the jumper settings for that drive are set to slave and it is not on the end IDE connector. Does that give you any clues?

 as I can tell I don't have the 137GB limit
That's good. But there is something strange about that HD. When it's installed the BIOS sees a phantom slave device and tries to boot from the slave. It actually does boot from the slave HD when one is present.

The full 40 GB HD concerns me. I know you can clone the HD and the 400 GB HD boots once but we've had threads where full HDs wouldn't clone at all. Would you like to try this? Move 6 GB off the 40 GB HD so you have at least 15% free space. Delete both partitions from the 400 GB HD and clone again but don't choose "resize drive to fill unallocated space". Leaving a large amount of unallocated space is for testing purposes and can be corrected later.

Use these choices for the OS copy...

Don't Resize to fill unallocated space
check source for file system errors
check destination for file system errors
set drive active (for booting OS)
Destination Partition type: “Primary partition"
Drive Letter of “None”
Copy MBR

See if the HD boots. If not, there is a good chance BootItNG will enable the HD to boot.

Thanks gizzle, I'll try that and let you know how I get on.

 I hope it works but if it doesn't, I'll talk you through using BootinG.

Hi Gizzle, you are a star! Removed 5.93gb from old HD (2 of my son's games!). Deleted both partitions from the 400GB HD and cloned the old one with the choices you suggested. First boot with the 400GB on the end IDE connector and with jumpers set to master (old drive removed) did not work. Error message saying Primary Drive 1 not ffound. Pressed F2 to enter Bios which was showing the 400Gb as Primary Drive 0 (on Autodetect) and Primary Drive 1 as Unknown (on Autodetect). Changed Primary Drive 1 to 'Off' and on existing the bios it booted to Win XP. Win XP then put up box to say that it had finished installing new device and to restart for changes to take effect. Restarted and it booted up again! Yessssss!

400Gb is now has 2 volumes (one for the Dell utility and the other for the OS which is labelled C: - the Dell utility volume is not labelled). The only problem is that the OS volume now has the same capacity as the old drive (the remaining space on the 400GB is showing as unallocated). Any ideas about that?

I can't thank you enough. This has been such a frustrating problem but it appears to have been resolved. I have now recloned the old HD using the same settings as above but this time selecting resize to fill unallocated space. I can now use the full capacity of the 400GB HD. The first boot was fine (no error message and straight into Win XP) and so was the second. I'll keep the old hd for a while until I know that everything is stable but I have a feeling all is well. I guess the problem was caused by the old HD being too full when I tried to clone it.

 I'm delighted it worked out.

Now is the time to start creating backup recovery points. You will probably have little need to clone again. I prefer restoring from recovery points (when upgrading to a larger HD) rather than using "Copy my hard drive"

I would appreciate your help...it has happened again! I know for sure that it booted twice as above. My son thinks that it has booted twice more. However, I turned off last night and this morning I got the same disk read error message. :(

Bios was still showing the hitachi new HD on Primary Drive 0 and Primary drive 1 was Off. Turned Primary drive 1 to Auto and message came up Primary Drive 1 not found. Put old disk in as slave on second IDE controller position (not end of cable) and booted. In disk manager I see the new disk (both volumes unlettered) as primary drive 0 and the old disk as premiary drive 1 with the os volume now designated C:

However, windows explorer doesn't see the new hd.

I am beginning to think this isn't a problem with Ghost.

Any ideas?

 I'd check that HD with the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, CD Image download.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

You should also try a different IDE cable.

Do you have another computer to test the HD? To see if it is correctly recognized in the BIOS, without the phantom device? Can you borrow another large HD to see if it is correctly recognized in the BIOS?

Also reset the CMOS by removing the BIOS battery for 15 minutes.

It is certainly a weird problem.

Just an update.......

I downloaded the Hitachi fitness test from the link you gave and tried that. Both HDs tested fine with no faults. I'll try removing the bios battery next and if that doesn't work I'll try a new IDE cable. If that doesn't work I'll try the other things you suggest. I'll let you know how it goes.

I removed the BIOS battery for 15 mins like you said and when I put it back in and turned on it came up with the following message:

'Invalid configuration information - please run SETUP program

Performing automatic IDE configuration
Primary Master: Ide Disk Drive
Primary Slave: Ide Disk Drive
Secondary Master: CD ROM Reader
Secondary Slave: CD ROM Reader
Time of day not set - please run Setup program
Strike F1 to continue, F" to run setup untility'

Striking F2 took me into the BIOS setup which showed both HDs with the hitachi 400gb as master and the old 40gb as slave. I reset the time and date and on exiting the BIOS setup the pc booted to the hitachi which is now showing as drive C:

After previous experiences it is too early to say that the problem is fixed and so I am not getting excited but it does look very promising. :) I will come back after a few reboots and let you know.


am very happy. 2 restarts plus one complete power down and start up and the pc booted each time from the 400gb. 400Gb showing as C: with old 40gb as F: - Dare I say the problem is fixed? If so, removing the BIOS battery to reset the CMOS seems to have done the trick. Thanks a million Gizzle.


Thank you for all your help and patience.

 Thank you for the detailed feedback.We all learn from this.