Norton Ghost Problem!

[Beachcomber]

Hi

Wonder if someone can give some help or advice with Norton Ghost 2003. I run XP Pro with SP2 and get the regular updates and patches.

I have two hard drives and used to back up to my second drive with no problem. Some little time ago I bought a larger hard drive as my main drive. I took the opportunity to do a clean install on the new drive and installed all the same programs hopefully without all the junk and untidy bits that seem to collect on a computer.

The trouble started when I tried to do a back-up of my now beautifully clean setup. Norton goes through all the motions then does an integrity check which throws up the message “Task completed with errors” with something like “do an integrity check” which again throws up the same error message.

When I try to see the log file get message “Cannot access the file it is being used by another program” What program? If I click “View log file” from the Ghost basic screen the file comes up empty, surely there should be something on it – all my failures to do a back-up with errors.

If I open and explore the back-up disk it all seems to be there - but is it?

As I said my set up now is practically the same as with the old hard drive but obviously something is disagreeing with Norton.

Any ideas and helpful advice will be welcome.

Does anybody use Nero back-up and like to share their opinions on it.

Beachcomber.

[haha]

I have pretty much the same setup you have. and I have never had a problem with norton ghost.

there could any number of problems with your setup that is causing problems. so, I won't go there. but I would be willing to provide you details with my backup routine.

here's the scoop....

first off, my primary drive is formatted ntfs, and my secondary drive is formatted with fat32. the reason I use ntfs for my primary drive is because ntsp is security conscious. helps to deter hackers. I use fat32 for my secondary drive because it is more lenient with legacy stuff. you can change the formatting schemes by using norton partitiionmagic but readup on this software before doing so.

my monthly backup routine using norton systemworks...

delete all unnecessary files off hard drive. recycle bin, internet cache files, etc. you could use some of norton systemworks utilties to clean the stuff out like webclean.

before I do a ghost backup, I use norton disk doctor to scan my drives for physical errors. I opt for the quick test as opposed to the time consuming one at this time.

after the scan, I use norton speedisk to defrag both harddrives.

only after doing all the above do I actually invoke norton ghost to backup my primary drive to my secondary drive.

I normally use the backup a partition versus backup the whole drive because I like to partition my whole 60gig hard drive into segments. restoring partitions makes it easier to restore things if only one partition is at fault.

almost forgot to mention...

I partition my primary drive into 2 partitions. one for my software, and one for my data. if something screws up my software, I only have to restore that partition then. and not have to restore my data. saves time.

of course, with all the software I use, I designate where I store, create, and save my important files so that they all get stored on the partition that I use for data. for unimportant files, I just use the default locations that any particular software uses.

I name my ghost backup files "b" plus the date mm/dd/yy when asked to do so for id.

before leaving... make sure you make disaster disks.

that's basically it.

my ghost backups have saved my neck many a time. worth the time to do them.

hope this info helps you...

Edited September 20, 2005 by haha

[Beachcomber]

Thanks HaHa for your reply. I have NTFS on both my drives and like you both my drives are partitioned giving me in effect 4 drives.

I only back up drive “C” and like you delete all unnecessary files and use Clean UP – RegClean - SpyBot – Ad-Aware – run disc Error Check and Defrag, AVG, MS anti-spyware and anything else that happens to be handy before back-up.

I don’t use any of the other Norton utilities you mentioned; maybe I should as it they may catch something that is being missed.

As I said in my original post the set-up is the same as before when I had no problem with back-up and restoring a Ghost image.

Instead of back-up I tried the “Clone” option and the same error message came up and still nothing in the log file which seems odd. I did a repair install of Ghost but that did not fix the problem.

As a thought instead of a ”Clone” back up couldn’t I just copy all of “C”. Is a copy the same as a clone?

[francois]

hi'

just a small hint

check that when you do your backup, the data are then verified as for a simple burning process.

it checks also the integrity of your backup.

but first things first:

check disk before to make sure that the hdd doesn't have any problem, and after cleaning it a bit, defrag and then backup.

I have use drive image and now ghost for years without any problem of any kind, before did on cd-rw, now on an ext hdd and it's works fine, less than 25mn to do the backup and the checking of data, and less than 30mn to restore, which I did recently with success

francois

ps: you should check your hdd thoroughly, it might have a small basic problem like a cluster problem, only scandisk can solve it, and related tools.

[Beachcomber]

Hi

Yea! Come to think of it the new hard drive is the only real main difference from before when the back-ups would work.

Think I shall have to have a look through my utilities collection and run any discscan and repair programs I can find.

Thanks for your help and if any one else would like to add some helpful hints it would still be appreciated.

Thank’s All.

[Khun Jean]

after the scan, I use norton speedisk to defrag both harddrives.

only after doing all the above do I actually invoke norton ghost to backup my primary drive to my secondary drive.

You are doing the exact opposite what i do.

I make a backup BEFORE a defrag. A defrag moves all your data around which is compared to making a backup a dangerous process!!

Are you doing a sector by sector backup or a file backup?

If it is a file backup i strongly urge you to first backup the disk and then defrag the drive. Your backup will only be a little little bit slower but so much safer. And with a file backup the copied files are defragmented already.

A sector by sector backup i would not recommend. You have potentially more problems restoring it.

Another note. You can make backups and feel save you have them. But did you actually try to restore them once in a while, to test if the whole process of backing up AND restoring is functioning as it should. Never can be too carefull with backups.

[francois]

after the scan, I use norton speedisk to defrag both harddrives.

only after doing all the above do I actually invoke norton ghost to backup my primary drive to my secondary drive.

You are doing the exact opposite what i do.

I make a backup BEFORE a defrag. A defrag moves all your data around which is compared to making a backup a dangerous process!!

Are you doing a sector by sector backup or a file backup?

If it is a file backup i strongly urge you to first backup the disk and then defrag the drive. Your backup will only be a little little bit slower but so much safer. And with a file backup the copied files are defragmented already.

A sector by sector backup i would not recommend. You have potentially more problems restoring it.

Another note. You can make backups and feel save you have them. But did you actually try to restore them once in a while, to test if the whole process of backing up AND restoring is functioning as it should. Never can be too carefull with backups.

hi'

how can you say that a defrag is more "dangerous" thing to do than a backup?

or may be you still windows defragmenter ...

only doing an incremential backup of files doesn't need anything special as it's only files!

backup a drive requires a bit of order, whatever the method used.

doing a drive backup without being sure that it's clean and in order is a bit like taking a shot and then rule the camera to see if everything is ok ....

if some problems are in they will come back with a restore, where's the benefit?

better to prevent than to cure ...

francois

[Khun Jean]

how can you say that a defrag is more "dangerous" thing to do than a backup?

or may be you still windows defragmenter ...

only doing an incremential backup of files doesn't need anything special as it's only files!

backup a drive requires a bit of order, whatever the method used.

Moving a few hundred or thousands of files and parts of files IS more risky than just reading them. Nothing to do with windows or linux or whatever OS. A backup does not need a bit of order (only for a marginal speed gain), it needs integrity.

doing a drive backup without being sure that it's clean and in order is a bit like taking a shot and then rule the camera to see if everything is ok ....

You are right if you talk about a sector by sector image of a drive. Most backups though are file backups.

A drive being scanned and repaired and its integrity checked is always a good thing to do. Defragmenting a disk has nothing to do with that.

if some problems are in they will come back with a restore, where's the benefit? better to prevent than to cure ...

Again only with a sector by sector image backup. With a file backup you probably get errors during backup of those files.

I agree that you want to have a clean backup, do a scan to look if there are faults, interpret the warnings and decide if you want to make an extra backup before fixing errors or not (this can go wrong too you know), fix problems, then backup, and finally defrag (only necessary when you installed or deleted many files, otherwise just a waist of time)

Everyone has their own "best practise" of course, i am a little paranoid with backups, because when i lose something people will start sueing me.

Edited September 23, 2005 by Khun Jean

[sas_cars]

after always having problems with norton ghost,I decided to change to Acronis True Image and I can say that it beats Norton Ghost by a distance of 10000000 miles.A great backup program with even creating disk to disk recovery plus backing up separate folders and files (in addition of just partition or hard disk backup) plus the backed up image is so small.

[francois]

hi'

linux or *nix don't need defrag

just windows and it's strange way to act with the swap page file system ...

and more ram you have and more fragmentation you get

windows

francois

[fyrekrig]

I have been using Ghost from very early years (the program was originally written by a New Zealand company before Symantec took over) and maybe my way of using it might help a few.

First of all my primary partitions are all FAT32 and dual boot to WinXP and DOS7(Win98). I do all backup restore in DOS. I have four workstations all with removable harddrive racks, with about 10 harddrives which are swopped between different workstations plus a USB 5,25 docking station.

My other partitions are a mix of FAT32 and NTFS. On a single computer the advantages of NTFS are limited (except large files) and it wont by itself stop hackers getting into your system. Only a decent firewall will. File access is slightly faster with FAT32 compared to NTFS. Check Sandra.

I do frequent backups and restores. When I want to play around with new programs, settings, altering registry I do all this without fear. When I decided on my new setup I restore my most recent image and then do my alterations and make a new backup.

I have all my work files in D:/ (My Documents, ETC) . A couple of batch files to backup/restore some program settings that sits on C:/ so nothing is lost when I do my restore.

I keep a few basic XP images so if I need to start from scratch I still don't need to reinstall XP at all.

I tried the most other drive backup software (Acronis, Paragon..) and as far as I am concerned Ghost is the best. It is faster and it gives the smallest file with maximum compression. Very, very seldom have I had a corrupted file or difficulty backing up.

Only om my Linux system am I forced to use something else and Paragon works fine with the Linux file systems.

[RDN]

...“Task completed with errors” with something like “do an integrity check” ...Beachcomber.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please see this post (I had a similar problem):

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=360819 solution.

the problem (Internal Inconsistency Error when restoring the image from CD) went away after I deleted the majority of the Temporary Internet Files, and after I ran Disk Defrag, Norton Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, and Speed Disk, followed by a final MS Disk Defrag.

[francois]

...“Task completed with errors” with something like “do an integrity check” ...Beachcomber.

Please see this post (I had a similar problem):

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...ndpost&p=360819 solution.

the problem (Internal Inconsistency Error when restoring the image from CD) went away after I deleted the majority of the Temporary Internet Files, and after I ran Disk Defrag, Norton Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, and Speed Disk, followed by a final MS Disk Defrag.

hi' RDN,

thanks to confirm what I was talking about, a good backup is made from a clean hdd!

as I said, if you backup an entire partition as the C one, you'd better prepare it first!

clean it from all scories of use, and check that everything is up to date, nothing more frustrating than making a backup and discover the next day that they were an update for a driver or even worse a windozs update that you just missed ....

an incremential backup of files is different ... as you may have guessed

check, check, and recheck and then backup on an external disk!

and then burn the backup on a dvd to have a safe copy in case of hdd failure!

it's called "grand-father, father and son"

francois

[haha]

after the scan, I use norton speedisk to defrag both harddrives.

only after doing all the above do I actually invoke norton ghost to backup my primary drive to my secondary drive.

You are doing the exact opposite what i do.

I make a backup BEFORE a defrag. A defrag moves all your data around which is compared to making a backup a dangerous process!!

Are you doing a sector by sector backup or a file backup?

If it is a file backup i strongly urge you to first backup the disk and then defrag the drive. Your backup will only be a little little bit slower but so much safer. And with a file backup the copied files are defragmented already.

A sector by sector backup i would not recommend. You have potentially more problems restoring it.

Another note. You can make backups and feel save you have them. But did you actually try to restore them once in a while, to test if the whole process of backing up AND restoring is functioning as it should. Never can be too carefull with backups.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

sorry for not answering your questions sooner. I'm in the states right now on vacation. and even though I have been reading thaivisa while on vacation, I don't go through TV as throughly as I normally do when I'm in the los.

anyway, in answer to your questions...

I have never had a problem with ghost. knock on wood.

I do defrag all the time. it's something everybody should do if they are worried about their harddrives.

part of the backup process is to do like one other poster noted, "grandfathering".

and yes, I have restored from backups many a time. like I noted in an earlier response, my backups have saved my neck many a time.

a story....

in my previous life, I was worked at a company called genentech. I worked there in the capacity of a 3rd level tech support person. I would estimate that 40% of all the trouble tickets that I worked on were remedied by just doing a scandisk, followed by a defrag.

before I would endeavor to work on a scientists computer, I would always tell them to backup all their data files. (for the safety of their data, and also for the safety of my job. hehehe)

on occasion, I would encounter personal computers where the harddrives would crash on me when I attempted to do a scandisk followed by a defrag.

usually these computers were ones which have not been properly maintained with a monthly scandisk and defrag. I recall one in particular where the scientist told me he never did a scandisk nor a defrag for 4 years.

so, khun jean, yes, when you are servicing a customer, I would strongly recommend that you do a backup before doing a scandisk and a defrag. ...especially if they are in a mission critical scenario.

but for me personally, since I do my maintenance on a regular basis, and also have a grandfathering scheme, I don't trouble myself with doing backups before doing scandisk followed by a defrag. it would double the time to do maintenance if I did.

like you, I also am very detailed in my backups having been stung many times in the past.

for the very paranoid, you can backup your vip files onto the internet like I do using yahoo briefcase. my cell phone numbers, cheatsheets, resumes, bookmarks are all backed up on the internet for retrieval anywhere in the world from any pc with internet access.

hope this information answers your questions...

[francois]

hi'

as a techy and geek, I can only approved all you just said!

francois

ps;we say for so long that a regular check is needed, scandisk, defrag ...

and BACKUP! this is only way to save a system when problems arrive!!

good to remember it sometime

thanks haha

[RDN]

after the scan, I use norton speedisk to defrag both harddrives.

only after doing all the above do I actually invoke norton ghost to backup my primary drive to my secondary drive.

You are doing the exact opposite what i do.

I make a backup BEFORE a defrag. A defrag moves all your data around which is compared to making a backup a dangerous process!!

....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't see this post before but would like to reply. I agree with Khun Jean - moving all that data around just to join bits of files together is certainly "worrying" and I only did it to fix a problem with Norton Ghost - their website recommended doing the defrag, normally I don't do it.

[Beachcomber]

Update!

First thanks all for all suggestions. I have been “boxing” with computer for the last week trying to solve the problem. As mentioned earlier the problem seems to have started after I did a clean install on a new HDD. Before this I never had any problem with using Ghost.

Well the problem seems to have been fixed. I would like to take credit for the fix and pass on what I did to fix it as the fix may be useful to some one else in the same fix to fix in the future.

Unfortunately I don’t know which particular thing I did to solve the problem as by this time, instead if trying one solution at a time which was very time consuming, I just threw everything at it.

The problem “seems” to have been in the registry. I got hold of Norton System Works Utilities checked for all updates on the Net then ran anything to do with Disc and Windows clean-up, repair or doctoring.

Norton did pickup on a couple of registry errors that RegClean had missed so I’m guessing that was the problem as I did a back up and integrity check that was “Successful” and was recorded on the log.

Phew!

[RDN]

... I got hold of Norton System Works Utilities checked for all updates on the Net then ran anything to do with Disc and Windows clean-up, repair or doctoring...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent news! Well done and let's hope others can benefit from this.