Resolved Failed cloning XP using Ghost 2003

I had 2 hard disks installed on my computer, Windows 7 on 500 Gb (3 partitions) and XP pro on 150 Gb (2 partitions). I then added a 3rd HD (500 Gb) and cloned my XP primary partition onto the primary partion I'd created on disk #3.
I now can't boot into my original XP partition any longer. On boot-up I'm given the choice
1. Run Norton Dos Operation
2. Return to Windows without running Norton Ghost
Enter choice.
Whatever I choose, the system freezes. I then found out that PC Dos 7.1 doesn't find any drives at all.
I've booted into Win 7 and see that my XP active partition is still intact, but that there is NO cloned XP where Ghost had told me it was putting one.
I suppose the problem is the fact that all my partitions are NFTS, on SATA HD's? Do I dare convert my XP primary partition to FAT32? Or is there some way I can get rid of Ghost 2003 interfering with my original XP active partition (let me apply choice #2 above and abide by my choice).
The real bore is that I only did the cloning because I had a fabulous XP SP3 installation, the fastest booting up and shutting down I'd ever achieved (faster even than Win 7 in fact), with all my most used programmes running smoothly. So I thought: better save this one for a rainy day and just boot into it for applying safe updates. Well, it hasn't worked out that way!
P.S. I've used Ghost 2001/2002 in the past for imaging active partitions and restoring or transferring without any problem. But that was neither on SATA drives nor NFTS partitions.
Any ideas?

 

Yes, I did. I had also previously disconnected disk #1 (Win 7). No joy.
I then reconnected disk #1 and booted from it, with no problem.
It is only when trying to boot into my disk #2 that Ghost 2003 wants to launch DOS but doesn't find any drives. It did under Windows, obviously, but it won't under DOS.
And there is no cloned partition on disk #3 either, meaning the whole process of cloning got stuck when it tried to do its job in DOS. That's why I think the problem is the NTFS file system.
There is nothing wrong with my XP setup, it's Ghost I've got to tame. I suppose I could use a programme like active@ Boot Disk, but would like some more advice before.

 

Have you looked through this page, particularly How to troubleshoot Ghost lockup problems.

 

That's no surprise since NTFS file systems are not recognizable under DOS.

By intact, do you mean it contains all of the files including the Windows directory? Have you verified that it is set active?

Is it possible that you got the source and destination reversed when cloning? That would wipe both drives clean.

 

Yes, I have. And they don't shed any light on my problem.

When I said "intact" I meant just that. And yes, it is still set "active ". As I said, NO drives, disks, partitions are seen by Norton Ghost under DOS.
And no, of course I didn't get the source and destination reversed, I'm not that stupid. And, as I've said, the source partition is not wiped clean but is there in its entirety, it's only the DOS environment Symantec has got me entangled with and that I can't get out of that is bugging me.
When booting into XP on HD #3 I've got to get past Ghost interfering and imposing its DOS environment boot-up on me. Once over that initial hurdle I'd be all right, but I don't see how to do that.

 

Given that Ghost2003 is nearly seven years old, I'm not surprised that it may stumble a bit when working with a dual boot that contains Windows7 as a component.

I would recommend putting all drives back the way you originally had them and booting to the Windows7 setup CD and running a boot repair on BCD. Reference

EDIT: An added thought based on:

That sounds like some mbr code needs dumping. You may consider booting to the XP setup CD or the setup floppies and invoking a Recovery Console session. If it detects the XP install, log onto it and run the fixmbr command.

 

As I'm obviously stuck in ghost's virtual partition I took your advice and have been reading loads of comments and tried out several promising sounding remedies. But I'm still stuck. My XP partition is intact but obviously not active at the moment as that is The GHost Virtual Partition's prerogative right now.
I'll do some more investigating and report back, when I've got further news or questions. Thanks for your help so far.

 

Consider using a dos boot disk with fdisk on it. The old standard Win98 boot floppy will do nicely. You'll need to have the other disk disconnected so that the XP disk will be designated disk 1 by fdisk. It should allow you to set the XP partition active and it should then be bootable. All the normal precautions apply when using fdisk.

That's what threw me off before. You said the XP partition was marked active. Did it actually show to be active in Windows 7 when you viewed it there? Very strange if it did.

 

I'm afraid this post is going to be a rather lengthy ramble after rather protracted experimentations.

Well, my first problem was: no floppy disk drive!
My second: No way of accessing the CD/DVD drive from within the virtual partition I was stuck in.
So none of the advice I found on the Net worked.
I got myself an USB floppy, tried fdisk using my Win98 startup floppy. The computer just hung!
The next problem was: no drivers found for my SATA DVD/CD drive on my boot-up floppy.
I then made myself a readNTFS boot-up floppy, I could now see all my files but couldn't use any, so I exited the browser part and reverted to command line blinking a>.
Changed to c:
Type dir, the files in the virtual partition showed up.
cd Ghost
dir
then gdisk 1 /act /p:1 as I had been advised to do on one of those numerous web-sites. The computer hung and I went to bed.

Tried again this morning, after reading some more. Went into dos, c:, cd ghost and this time wanted to know what I was actually dealing with:
gdisk 1 /status.
That showed me the partitions on my XP hard disk:
1 XP
2 active c: virtual ghost
3 etc.

Tried gdisk 1 /act /p:1 /i and lo and behold, XP is now marked active
then gdisk 1 /del /p:2 /i to delete the virtual partition. But now we get to my next problem. I am warned:
"Fixed disk 1 has overlapping drives.
You are about to delete the primary DOS partition while an extended DOS partition exists. Continue?"
I did not dare as I did not really know what that meant. What extended DOS partition? Where?
So I'm still saddled with a virtual partition. But since I can now boot into XP that would not really be a problem. Except...
I now have an extra 7+ Mb partition, virtual but visible on my hard disk (with the contents of what was drive c: under DOS). And a 26.624 Kb Virtpart.dat file in my XP C: partition.
I then ran Paragon Partition Manager and surprise, surprise, 2 red primary nameless, letterless partitions:
both : File System: invalid
But correct Partition ID 0x7 NTFS for my XP partition. So why "invalid file system "?
My computer works perfectly and in Windows Explorer I am in C:
Now my problem is this: what happens if I delete the virtual partition? And if I do, do I delete it from inside XP? from inside Paragon PM? or do I go back into DOS and delete from there?
My computer works perfectly as it is, it's just that I don't like that nasty red "invalid file system ".

The only other option would be to run ghost again, but this time from floppy as I now have a floppy disk drive? To do or not to do, that's the question.

 

Good work on your part! I wouldn't hesitate to delete the invalid partitions using the XP applet DiskMgmt.msc or any other method available, but that's just for me.

Your system - your choice. Discretion is always warranted if you don't have current backups. Since you have Paragon Partition Manager, you should use it to make a rescue disk just in case and then use it to dump the partitions.

 

I tried the cloning again, from DOS, after making sure that I had the latest updates. My system hung again. Well, no panic this time, I knew what to do. The bore was that I kept forgetting the /i switch and got stuck with a blinking cursor with no way of typing anything. Started from scratch 3 times but did get there in the end. And as the Symantec website didn't send out any dire warnings, I decided to delete the virtual partition from within DOS, then and there. Good, virtual partition gone! In C: I deleted the VirtPart.dat file, opened up Paragon and lovely blue NTFS partitions all round.
Must now find another way of cloning XP SP3 onto my bigger drive for safe-keeping next. Try NortonGhost v15 maybe, the 10 day try-out? Images are all very nice, but I am stubborn, I want to clone. And not a whole disk, just one working system partition.
Thanks everyone for their help. Problem solved. For now!

 

I use XXclone. The free version is all you need. Read the on-line manual and I think you'll like it too. FYI, I'm told it doesn't work on Vista yet so probably not on Windows7 either.

 

Thanks, I'll look into it, looks promising. I'll give it a try in a day or two, after I've dealt with all those other things I've been neglecting over the last 3 days. Thanks again.

 

I did use floppies installed from Ghost 2003, but didn't get anywhere with them, at first. But I have now!
Just a little "/noide" switch did the trick. Ghost had to be told that I had no ide drives, then it obliged.
I have now achieved what I wanted to do 3 days ago, have successfully cloned my C: partition on disk 1 to my D: partition on disk 2. And it works flawlessly!
Like those little /i switches to get me out of the virtual partition, the little /noide switch made Ghost 2003 behave on SATA drives.
Problem really solved this time: cloning operation successful!