Problem when using Ghost to clone a drive

I was using Norton Ghost to clone a drive for a friend onto her backup drive. Everything went normal until the scheduled restart. Upon starting up again, it said "Missing operating system." After putting in the WinXP CD, it says "Press any key to boot from CD..... Missing operating system," then nothing happens, no matter what I do.
What could be the problem, and how do I fix it. It was working fine before.

 

I discovered that I didn't hit any key fast enough. I was able to get into the CD, but it says that the drive is corrupt and needs to be formatted. What happened here, and what do you recommend to save the data from the drive? It wouldn't let me repair the operating system. Is there a way to do this other than to put the drive on another computer and copy and save it to another drive?

 

I hate to say this Barry but it's possible that you got the source and target reversed when you did the cloning operation. That would spell disaster for your boot drive since there was probably no data at all on the source and now there will be no data on the target.

I may be wrong, I hope so.

 

I have used Acronis products for partitioning and imaging. I recently purchased Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, which includes a partition manager, boot manager, partition recovery, and disk editor. Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 trial version has a 15 day trial, but limits the size of new partition. Possible working with the Disk Editor you can repair recovery the data. It comes down to how important the info on the drive. You can purchase direct from Arconis / keys via email and have a full working copy today, but not cheap, $49.99 (see also Special offers). If time is not important, Amazon.com has it on sale for $31.99 (qualifies for free shipping). But you have to wait until it is delivered to have access to the licensing / user key.

 

Barry, I forgot to add my experience using above program is creating new and resizing previous partitions. The program interface is designed that a smart monkey could do it right, which is why I bought it. I can only hope the recovery and edit tools are as easy to use. Good luck.

 

I took the drive to my home and put it on my computer and all the files are available and usable. Only the operating system has been affected. I could just copy the files and then reinstall XP, but she doesn't have the CD or product number, and Microsoft gives me enough problems just reinstalling my own computer multiple times. I will transfer all her data to her external backup hard drive. Any suggestions?

 

Can you verify that the files ntloader and ntdetect.com are present on the root of that drive? You'll need to show hidden files to be able to see them.

 

Exactly where do I look for that, or should I just run a search on that?

 

You can do a search if you like. They should and must be found on the ROOT of the drive that you are troubleshooting. They will also be on the root of your own drive.

 

ntloader didn't show up in the search, but I found ntdetect.com in WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 and WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by root.

 

That just means the files should be on the drive but not in any subfolder, for example they should be found at C:\ on your drive. It called the root directory or simply the root.

 

When I attempted to start the computer, after copying all the files, using that drive on this computer, I get the message <Windowsroot>\System32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt.

 

ghosts

ghosts If you have xp cd insert it and if it offers to install- exit. then open comp. on drive where xp-cd is right click search for hal.dll. on start window open that search just type .dll. view as list. if you don't find hal there but do on xp. drag and drop in the spot it should be- should be alphabeticaly listed. you need to make both searches smaller so you can view both to D & D - Sorry about the post. i was worling on a Q on my other on and got coffee and stoped at this one. all i seen was the same dll as on the other comp ? and try to answer.

 

There are 4 different hal.dll (99kb, 100kb, 103kb and 124kb). It was originally 99kb, so that's what I replaced it with, though I also tried the 103kb one. None worked. The message remains the same. I was surprised to find that my son's backup drive doesn't have a system32 file, so I just got the hal.dll from different places.

 

If there isn't a fix for this, I'll have to install Win98 on this computer, as she needs to use the computer on Monday for work. Let me know your recommendations.

 

Another option I'm thinking of is that she has the CD for WinME. I could put that on instead of 98, as I'm not sure if I have 1st or 2nd edition. What would be your thoughts of splitting the drive into two partitions and putting the WinME in the C position and the old information in the D position? If I do that, I could be sure of not losing any of the data, though I have backed it up. Also, maybe some of the programs might work, as she doesn't have CDs for all the programs. Her work information is on Lotus. I don't have Lotus. She has a 211MB Lotus file on that drive, but I don't seem to be able to open her documents made with Lotus. How can I make sure that it still functions when I'm done? My concern is that if I reinstall a new operating system on the same partition, everything else may be lost. Your suggestions are appreciated.

 

Does anyone have any idea if it is possible to return this XP operating system to the last known good configuration?

 

ghost

Do a "winnt32" search. it is hidden in C that is a installer. if you can find and open it it may fix your problem.

 

In that case, I'd suggest that you put the HD back in her computer and do a "Repair Install" using your own XP disk and key. She will then have use of the system for 30 days before being locked out by lack of validation. That will give her time to decide if she wants to buy a copy of XP so she can have use of it beyond that limit.

BTW, did you check for a MS validation sticker on her computer? If it's the same type of system as yours (OEM or Full install), her Product key should work using your disk.