Norton Ghost and XP / Dell Compatability Issues...

Question

In an earlier post I mentioned how much I had loved 'GoBack' (Wildfile,Roxio) when I had W98. I found that Norton's 4.0 however had seemed to have conflict issues with my Dell 8400 WXP. After talking with several Dell techs, 1 clean install and 2-3 DFFRs I decided to leave it off.   As sort of a compromise, I purchased Norton Ghost 9.0. It seemed okay...I made a ghost image of my healthy HD and felt secure 'knowing' that I had a default system should future problems arise (yay, no more clean installs/DFFRS). The moment came...I had a few strange OS moments and I reached for the 9.0 Ghost disk (figured to nip the problem early and at the same time make sure the Ghost Machine works). I booted up from the disk (after a quick start-up bios change)...and started working throught the process. The Noton Wizard asked for the image location...I found the Ghost file on my Iomega External HD...I clicked open...all was going well, and then I hit 'next'. This is when everything went fuzzy. The wizard asked me where do I want to put this new file. Obviously I wanted to put it in my 'C' internal HD (Norton gives different letter designations i.e. not 'C', but no problem)...that however was not an option...the *only* option I had listed was my Iomega *external* HD (where my Ghost image was stored...clearly not correct). There was no mention of my internal drive.   Long story short, I tried everything...including contacting Symantec. Their techs were nice but without clue. They said they'd call back within two days...'guaranteed'. Two days have come and gone...no call. Guess it was too tough for them.   I went through this process 4 times, from restart to restart...no change. Except each time I closed the wizard and restarted my computer (without the ghost image correction), my OS became corrupted. Each start-up my desktop opened with the Windows System 32 file opening. Each time I used Windows Restore and this seemed to clear up the problem. Each time I tried the Ghost Wizard and it failed and then restarted the computer, the Windows 32 window again opened on my desktop...and I would do a restore and then with no Ghost Wizard attempts I would restart the computer to make sure things were okay ...and no Windows 32 File on startup. Thus the problem lies with Norton Ghost.   Does anyone have any thoughts as to why the Wizard does not show my internal drive? After all the problems I had with GoBack, this Ghost problem has me asking...Is Norton/Symantec just buggy software in general and best avoided at all costs? Are there any better HD backup alternatives?   Thank you!

msgale · Answer

Although I don't own a 8400 I have read many comments disk problems related to it.  It seem that if the 8400 has RAID or SATA drives you run into a problem because the drives are not part of the OS disks, but a separate disk.  Assuming you have SATA or RAID disks, I suggest that you check with Symantec's knowledge base to see if that is your problem.  P.S. what is/are a DFFRs. Message Edited by msgale on 03-09-2005 11:40 PM

jmwills · Answer

I know it would be a pain, but put just a base installation back on the machine along with Ghost then restore it.

JJC777 · Answer

msgale wrote: >It seem that if the 8400 has RAID or SATA drives you run into a problem because the drives are >not part of the OS disks, but a separate disk.  Assuming you have SATA or RAID disks, I suggest >that you check with Symantec's knowledge base to see if that is your problem.   Thank you msgale...I appreciate your feedback. Really...the OS disks are separate? I will have to look into this. (Yes, my 8400 has a 250GB SATA). I checked Symantec's site, but don't see anything directly related to Ghost 9.0 and SATAs...I'll keep looking elsewhere.   Regarding DFFR...it stands for Debug, F-Disk, Format, Re-install. This is a process where you remove the old partitions, create new ones, format the drive and then re-install the OS. It is sort of an advanced clean install where instead of merely re-installing your OS over the old one in the same partition, you wipe out the old one and start 'fresh'. Hope that makes sense.    Thank you.

msgale · Answer

I made a typo - big time I meant the drivers not drives are on a different disk, not the XP disk.  Remember anything I say is suject to correction by those with more information/knowledge.  Message Edited by msgale on 03-10-2005 01:30 AM

JersWork · Answer

To get Ghost to work with SATA drives (booting from DOS boot for v8 and older,  or from the v9 recovery CD) you need either a Ghost update,  or change a setting in the Dell BIOS (a compatibility mode setting somewhere,  but I don't know exactly where right now).

JJC777 · Answer

Thank you jmwills!

Actaully after all of the re-installs, this last time I did put Ghost on right after a basic installation (WXP, W Office and McAfee is all I have installed)... still Ghost does not recognize the internal HD. It is very frustrating to say the least.

Any thoughts?

Thank you again for your reply!

JJC777 · Answer

Thank you everyone for your replies...I really appreciate it!   JersWork...thanks...what you said is very interesting, could you be more specific? I did change my startup bios slightly so that the system would be able to boot from CD (I changed the current order so that it is now floppy, CD, THEN SATA HD and USB device. Beore CD came after SATA HD).  Now CD boots in safe mode but still it does not recognize the internal HD.     Thank you!

Libra1 · Answer

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 and when doing a repair install of Windows it said "no harddrive found". The tech had me go into the bios and scroll to Drives (enter) and scroll to "SATA operation" (enter) and change the mode to "RAID Auto/ATA", save and exit Bios. The harddrive was then recognized. I wonder if this is the change you need to make in the bios. (I hope so.)
Sincerely, Libra

edited to fix the mode to Raid auto/ata - I left out the ATA.

Message Edited by Libra1 on 03-13-2005 02:54 PM

JJC777 · Answer

Thank you very much Libra1...I really appreciate you sharing your experience!   Libra1...if I may ask, what type of hard drive do you have and what BIOS version are you running? (Mine is a 250GB SATA with BIOS A03).   My frustration level is really reaching critical mass with Symantec. I have talked to several techs and a 'supervisor'...all of whom have promised to work with their 'research team' and call me back...but none have (not to mention all the time wasted on hold with one call on hold for 2 hrs and another 3 hrs and then cut-off). Very frustrating indeed!   Thank you again Libra1 for your help!!

Libra1 · Answer

Hi JJC,

When I ordered the computer, the specs say it is an 80 GB serial ATA harddrive. I got a new computer from Dell (the old one was defective - that's when I repaired and reinstalled Windows XP), that Bios was A01 and I currently have A03. As I mentioned, before I made that change Windows said there was no harddrive! Denny has a post about this. I'll try to find it and put a link here.

I've heard Semantecs tech support is awful, what you're experiencing confirms this.

Sincerely, Libra

Edit: Here's Denny's link about this. This is in reference to installing XP, but I think it may apply:

http://www.djdenham.com/8400%20Special.htm

Message Edited by Libra1 on 03-17-2005 09:26 PM

jjbuckaroo · Answer

You can go into the bios and change the sata operation field to combination and then it will work.   This will turn off ahci. You'll have to customize your ghost boot disc with the ahci dos drivers if you want it on. Message Edited by jjbuckaroo on 03-17-2005 09:17 PM

Libra1 · Answer

jjbuckaroo,
Are you saying that with a Dell 8400 we should change that setting to SATA operational in order for it to work with Ghost? (could you explain what that setting does as opposed to the setting I mentioned?) Will that work if you are ghosting to DVDs?
I have Ghost 2002 and it won't work with my Dimension 8400 - I'd hate to purchase Ghost 9/2003 and find out it didn't work when needed.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Libra

JJC777 · Answer

Hi Libra1 and jjbuckaroo...thank you for your replies.

Libra1 thank you for your link...I will definitely check it out!

Yes, Symantec has been a frustrating experience involving many calls to different departments of which 3 calls included 2 hold times of 2 hrs and one for 3hrs...two of which the line finally went dead. In addition to techs, I have talked with several "supervisors/managers" and been promised return calls from the "tech team" bkz they were unable to help...all of which never materialized...that is until yesterday (Friday).

A nice woman called, we went throught the process...again, after the "wizard" found my Ghost file on my external hard drive and put the file in the browser...at the next step, where the program needs to recognize my Dell Dimension 8400 internal HD as the location to install this file...the program still did not have my internal HD as an option.

This tech said that this is "a common problem with Dell" and that I needed to contact Dell and tell them that I need to change something in my BIOS. (I am currently visiting family and not at MY computer so I don't have my notes). It sounds like it will be a relative easy fix, but something that must be changed at startup each time. In other words, change the BIOS, install the Ghost image...reboot the computer...change the bios setting back ... and then continue. IF this proves to be true, it will be a little inconvenient and not a particularly "elegant" method, on the other hand, if it works, it won't be (hopefully) a process that must be done very often and it sure beats doing clean installs/DFFRs and then reinstalling all the software again. So. again IF it works, until a better alternative exists (either in terms of method or program),this is the best solution I have found (and I have looked). In fairness to Ghost, apart from the frustrating customer support experience and this problem with locating the HD...creating the Ghost image appears to have worked very smoothly (won't know for sure of course until I have installed it). Assuming it copied my entire internal HD correctly, it is at least comforting to know that everything is backed-up safe someplace...now if only the next step works....!

Hopefully on Monday I will be able to get thru to Dell and I will then come back here and post (either way) my results (I know I hate when people don't follow-up after you've invested time posting with them). Again, I have a Dimension 8400, 250GB SATA with BIOS A03 and I have been working with Norton Ghost 9.0. What have you been working with?

Thanks again for sharing your insights and experiences!!

J.

Message Edited by JJC777 on 03-19-2005 02:58 PM

jjbuckaroo · Answer

AHCI = advanced host controller interface.   It's a standard for sata drives. You will see a performance increase if you heavily tax your drives with large files and multiple operations. If you're an average user you probably won't notice much of a difference.   If you set it to combination, it will switch to non ahci when something doesn't have the drivers for it like ghost. There are no SATA issues with ghost 9.0, that is not your problem. It is AHCI.

Libra1 · Answer

JJC - Did you call Dell, and if so what did they tell you to do?

jjbuckaroo - what's the difference between changing the SATA operation to RAID Auto/ATA or changing it to Combination? Can it be left with either of these changes?

Sincerely, Libra

Windows General

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