another ghost problem

colbey · Joined: Jun 09, 2008 Posts: 7

still using ghost 8.3.

it worked fine for the last image i made (a month ago).

after getting many, many updates from m$, i decided to just reload everything again, get all the updates at once, and make a new ghost image with all of them.

but when i try to run ghost now, i get an error message after choosing the hard drive, typing in a name for the image, and telling it to go to work. it runs for about a minute, then i get:

"Ghost needs to create a new image span. Browse to select new drive & file name, or insert a new disk."

first time, i put a new disk in. got this:

"Not enough room on device for image headers (519)"

so i canceled the whole thing, and started over. this time it said there was already an image with that file name, so i told it to overwrite that one. but i got the same error.

spanning is turned on. actually, everything is exactly the same as last time (when it worked), so i don't know why it's freaking out.

thanks!

-colbey

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 916

colbey wrote:

still using ghost 8.3.

it worked fine for the last image i made (a month ago).

after getting many, many updates from m$, i decided to just reload everything again, get all the updates at once, and make a new ghost image with all of them.

but when i try to run ghost now, i get an error message after choosing the hard drive, typing in a name for the image, and telling it to go to work. it runs for about a minute, then i get:

"Ghost needs to create a new image span. Browse to select new drive & file name, or insert a new disk."

first time, i put a new disk in. got this:

"Not enough room on device for image headers (519)"

so i canceled the whole thing, and started over. this time it said there was already an image with that file name, so i told it to overwrite that one. but i got the same error.

spanning is turned on. actually, everything is exactly the same as last time (when it worked), so i don't know why it's freaking out.

thanks!

-colbey

What disk are you trying to write to?

I'm thinking that the span size is bigger than the disk size. (the unused space) & if I recall right, the span size can be set.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1507 Location: Central FL, USA

If Ghost is making an image file to a hard drive the spans should happen automatically. You only need to see the change media message if you're using CD's or DVD's to receive the Ghost Image.
They must all be exactly alike.....don't change media types in mid stream.

If it's stopping and asking for the next media, and you're making your backup to a hard drive, just hit enter and let it continue using the hard drive for the next span.
I had one disk that did that for a while till I got wise and reset the options.

You can read your Ghost.ini file, from your Ghost boot disk, in windows Wordpad or Notepad.

Re-set it to look like this:

span(Spanning) = Y
autoname(AutoName) = Y
cns(Old Style Span Extensions) = Y
crcignore(CRC Ignore) = N
fcr(Create CRC32) = N
f32(FAT32 Conversion) = N
f64(64K FAT Clusters) = N
fatlimit(FAT Limit) = N
sure(Sure) = N
fro(Force Cloning) = N
rb(Reboot) = N
fx(Exit to DOS) = N
defaultImg(Default) = Y
ia(Image All) = N
ib(Image Boot) = N
id(Image Disk) = N
defaultTape(Default) = Y
tapebuffered(Tape Buffered) = N
tapeunbuffered(Tape Unbuffered) = N
tapeeject(Tape Eject) = N
pwd(Prompt for password) = N
locktype-none(No BIOS lock) = Y
locktype-M(Manufacturer) = N
locktype-P(ProductName) = N
locktype-V(Version) = N
locktype-S(SerialNo) = N
locktype-U(UUID) = N
locktype-C(ManProduct) = N
locktype-I(P3ID) = N

Then after you've edited the .ini file, save it back to your Ghost disk.

Caviat: If Ghost is running from a boot CD and it hits an error, it will crash, because it cannot write to the Ghosterr.txt file on a CD. (CD's are read only)
Ghost was originally designed to only be run from a boot floppy, from which it could easily write to its error file if need be.

I'm now running my ghost 8.3 (or even Ghost 11) from a 64 meg Flash Drive, so ghost can write to the error file if it needs to.
A Flash Drive is also much faster than a floppy disk and will hold more stuff. Wink

If you need any more help, drop me a PM. Wink

Cheers mate!
The Doctor Cool

PS: One more little problem that many people don't know about, , ,
if there are any errors on your hard drive, at all, Ghost can crash.
It's important that your HD be 100% error free, before running Ghost.
If Ghost crashes, go back into Windows and run Chkdsk /r
to repair the drive.

colbey · Joined: Jun 09, 2008 Posts: 7

i'm using Ghost on a CD, and writing the image file to a CD.

so i can't change the ini file on the cd Sad

the CDs i'm trying to write to are exactly the same as the ones i used for the last successful ghost image. (sony, 700 mb)

i didn't know if i should have the blank CD in the drive (or still the Ghost CD) when i started the image creation process...so i tried it both ways. both ways got the same error.

last time, i needed a firmware update for the CD/DVD drive -- which i've already installed this time. the only thing that i can think that's different, is that i haven't installed the Nero CD that came with the computer. but XP has its own "write to cd" process, so that shouldn't matter??

i was thinking of not using the Nero stuff, 'cause when i write audio CDs, i get skips in songs that have beginnings with, hmmm, like "pauses" in the music. so i don't know why nero has a problem with those. anyway, entirely separate issue.

when i installed XP this time, i deleted all partitions on the hard drive and just used the whole space for the install, so don't know if ghost can write the image to the hard drive somewhere, and then afterwards i can copy it to a CD? when i used to run ghost from a floppy, i had 2 hard drives, so i'd ghost one hard drive and have it write the image to the other one.

there shouldn't be ANY errors on the drive!! i JUST reloaded XP and did a full NTFS clean-up/whatever it is. all i've done since then, is get XP updates and install peripheral software and related updates. and go online a bit. should i still run the chckdsk /r?

thanks!

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1507 Location: Central FL, USA

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 916

Hey, Doc, correct me if I'm wrong - been a while since I last used ghost in this manner so don't recall, but isn't there a settings menu in it that he can go into & TEMPORARILY set those settings? He would have to do it every time but I seem to remember there was something I had to change like that at one time. For some special thing I was going. - If so, this at least would be a workaround.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1507 Location: Central FL, USA

Tux, on that, I'll have to take the Fifth!
(fifth of vodka, fifth of Bourbon, ......etc. )

Making temporary changes to the .ini file, on the fly, might be possible.
I can't swear to it, one way or the other.

That could be very troublesome, so for me it's really not an option.
I'd just make the changes on my flash drive, then burn a new CD, with Nero.

For in depth questions about Ghost, I defer to the guy who wrote it.
He's a moderator on Rad's Ghost forum. His name is Nigel.
There is a section there especially for Ghost 2003 and 8.x.
Check it out, HERE.

I've had to ask him a few questions myself, and he's very happy to answer them. Since I'm a heavy user of Ghost, that's one of my favorite forums.

If that CD were my only copy of Ghost, I'd format a Flash Drive, using the USB Formatting program from HP, then copy Ghost.ext and the ghost.ini file to the Flash Drive where I could edit the INI file. They when it was working the way I want it to, I'd burn it to a new CD using the "Make boot CD" function in Nero.

Good Luck,
The Doctor Cool

PS:
Colbey, do you have a floppy drive on that system?
Have you checked your PM's lately?

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 916

OK, I assumed it was his only copy & that he MAY not understand how to correct it. Shoot, was running a few scenarios through my brain as it was. So, I figured if I could at LEAST come up with a workaround, that would let him get his backup for now.

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 474

I feel I have to say a few things about having two partitions on the same hard drive.

IIRC, Doc, you prefer to have a FAT32 boot partition. In that case, yes, there are advantages to partitioning. FAT32 becomes very wasteful of space as partition sizes get bigger -- it can only track a certain number of clusters, and so has to use larger and larger cluster sizes for bigger partitions. NTFS doesn't have that limitation, so it uses a consistent cluster size.

NTFS can have security applied to the file system; FAT not so much. Granted, Windows doesn't encourage security much, but if you wanted to...

I don't know for sure, but multiple partitions might actually increase wear on the disk, since the data you have to retrieve is "farther away" on the disk surface. OTOH, disks nowadays have MTBF's measured in 100K hours, so maybe it's not a big deal.

I'm unconvinced that partitioning improves performance, although I'm equally unconvinced that it hurts performance. A true performance boost would come with a second physical drive. PATA drive channels can't handle multiple requests; I'm not sure about SATA. With a second disk, the traffic is spread out (more lanes!). Of course, with two drives, defragging takes on a whole new set of implications as well.

In a two partition system, AV scanning just the boot side could lead to a false sense of security -- files on the other partition are infect-able too.

Finally, there's the "human factor". Nearly all software presumes the use of the "C:" drive. By default, that's where "My Documents" and it's children "My Music" and "My Pictures" are located, not to mention things in the shared "All Users" profile. It takes a deliberate, thought not difficult, act to change this default behavior, but most folks either won't do it, or don't know how.

Just my 2 cents