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Resolved Dos Ghost & Win 7.64bit don't boot

Discussion in 'Other PC Software' started by FuzMic, 2011/02/23.

  1. 2011/02/23
    FuzMic

    FuzMic Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi members

    I am in the process of cloning a sata hard disk with win7.64bit using Dos Ghost.exe version 2003. Everything seems to be fine, after booting from Dos, execute Ghost.exe and successfully complete the cloning process from source to the target harddisk. But sad to say, the target did not boot.

    I expect this to work as we are just transfer the image from one hard disk to another. So if any of you have anything to advice, will appreciate yr feedback.
    There is no problem at all with xpwin.
     
    FuzMic,
    #1
  2. 2011/02/23
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I use Ghost 2003, booted from a floppy, to create images of a Windows 7 system partition. I have not cloned a disk which may require different steps but try using the switch "-fdsp ". This prevents Ghost from rewriting the disk signature when restoring the image and maybe it will do the same when cloning a disk.

    Another possibility: I think that a repair, using the original installation media, would set things right.
     
    Christer,
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  4. 2011/02/23
    FuzMic

    FuzMic Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks Christer

    I am in the processing of repairing the clone as suggested by win7, as you have also stated.
    I will certainly look at yr switch -fdsp as win7 did mentioned something abt disk signature.

    What is the difference between these 2 switches or what is the role / significance of the signature bytes? .. Indulged me more!

    -fdsp Preserves the signature bytes on the destination disk when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk cloning operation
    -fdsz Clears the signature bytes on the destination disk when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk cloning operation.


    If all these work we can still use Ghost.exe v03 to do our housekeeping chores. Thanks again for the pointers. :)
     
    Last edited: 2011/02/23
    FuzMic,
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  5. 2011/02/24
    FuzMic

    FuzMic Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    The final answer is you need to repair the win7.64bit using the original installation DVD after the DOS cloning by ghost.exe v2003. The repair is pretty fast, less than a minute. After the reboot and system requires a 2nd reboot after changing driver for the cloned hard disk if it is different from the original.

    Hence the 2 switches -fdsp & -fdsz both did not do the job as yet.
     
    FuzMic,
    #4
  6. 2011/02/24
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    That seems logical. The switch (-fdsp) preserves the disk signature and it only works when restoring an image to the original hard disk. If I create an image without that switch, I have to do a repair after restoring (to the original hard disk) but not if I use the switch.

    Also, if you install Windows 7 on a new hard disk with no partitions, it will create a "special" boot partition of ~100 MB. That too has to be imaged and restored for it to work.

    The installer can be prevented from creating that "special" partition. I installed XP (temporarily) and created all partitions from within that OS. I left no free space and in that situation, the Windows 7 installer puts all files on the system partition. One step extra during the installation but it makes imaging simpler.
     
    Christer,
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  7. 2011/02/24
    FuzMic

    FuzMic Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Christer, since you are ahead the use of Dos.Ghost.v3=03, just 2 more questions if you don't mind for my faster uptake.

    Just for sharing, the cloning exercise involves a source harddisk with win7.64 bit, comes in 3 partition; a small 100M, a primary abt 200G and & an extended abt 200G. The target hDisk is abt 8O G. Since the the actual files usage in the source.HDisk is way below 80 G, Ghost will just clone and split the target with 3 partitions based on the % in the original; all these is reflected after the repair. If the source don't have the small 100M partition, then it will clone whatever number of partitions in the source.

    By the way why is that some installation of win7.64bit has the small partition & some none?

    The questions on ghost are:
    1 What will be the size of the image of the following Source: 400 G, 2 or more partitions, total files usage 1OOG. Will it be around 1OO G or nearer to 400 G?
    2 How does Ghost handle the fragmented source with some files at the end each partition?

    Thanks in anticipation.
     
    Last edited: 2011/02/25
    FuzMic,
    #6
  8. 2011/02/25
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    If Windows 7 gets installed on a clean hard disk with nothing on it, that small partition will get created. If the hard disk is already partitioned and no free space left over, then the installer can not create that partition and the boot files will end up on the system partition.

    It will be slightly smaller than used space. Files like pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys and other "one session files" are excluded from the image.

    Ghost reads the disk/partition and writes the contents (with exclusions) to the image. It is not a sector by sector copy.

    Personally, I always "clean up" and defragment the source prior to creating an image. The reason is that on one single occasion has an image failed the integrity check and that was of a slightly defragmented source with temporary internet files and other **** files on it.
     
    Christer,
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  9. 2011/02/25
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    I believe it only does that IF one uses the "default" automatic install, in which case the whole disk is used.

    I've always done manual installs, I create the OS partition and leave thje rest of the drive unused until I can boot to Win 7 & use Disk Management. It never creates that boot partition that way.

    Also, many Ghost 2003 issues can be solved using the -noide switch, which forces Ghost to use the sata drive even if don't have the unique sata drivers on the boot media.
     
    TonyT,
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  10. 2011/02/25
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    The topic was discussed over at Radified and Brian claimed that if you told the Win 7 installer to create a primary partition and leave the rest free, it would create the 100 MB "special" partition. If you pre-partition the hard disk to its full capacity, e.g. 100 GB primary and 400 GB extended with a single logical and no free space, then it would not be possible for the Win 7 installer to create the "special" partition. It was also said that the pre-partitioning and formating could be done by (temporarily) installing Win XP which I did without doing any tests installing Win 7 directly to the empty hard disk.

    Tony ... :p ... now I'm in kind of a dilemma. I usually "take your word for it" but I also take Brians word for it. No matter what, I guess the opportunity to test "your" way will present itself, sooner or later.
     
    Christer,
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  11. 2011/02/27
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Well how would one know if there's a 100 mb boot partition? It does not show up in my Disk Management nor does it show up using gparted, and gparted would certainly reveal Windows boot partitions. It's supposedly visible via Disk Mgmt.

    My Win7 Disk Mgmt shows my Windows 7 drive with these descriptions:

    Windows 7 (C:)
    39.06 GB NTFS
    Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

    Data (D:)
    147.25 GB NTFS
    Healthy (Primary Partition)

    To avoid the creation of that boot partition you must do a complete advanced manual install. Some details here:
    How to Avoid 200MB Hidden System Partition From Been Created During Windows 7 Installation
    and here:
    Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7

    I did not know about this in advance of installing Windows 7, I lucked out because I always select to do manual installs and always use advanced options when available in an installer.
     
    TonyT,
    #10
  12. 2011/02/27
    FuzMic

    FuzMic Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Thanks mates for the interesting exchanges.

    Tony just a quick response

    1 in Win7.64bit, the Computer Management > Disk Management do show the "special" 100M partition in the case where i have 3 partitions in the Sata HardDisk.

    2 I will also give it a kick with -noide switch on the Ghost since the harddisk involved are in fact SATA drives.

    PS Just use -noide switch on dos.ghost.03, still require repair of win7.64bit.
     
    Last edited: 2011/02/28
    FuzMic,
    #11

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