Norton Ghost and a disappearing drive

[357mag]

I recently reformatted my drive, reloaded Win 2000, and reloaded my programs. I got my machine set up exactly the way I like it. I then used Norton Ghost 2003 to make a clone image of my C drive, and I stored the image on an external drive. Well I later remembered that I wanted to add a few more settings to my machine so I clicked Restore and I restored the image to my machine. That went fine, but when I opened up My Computer my D drive was totally GONE. My hard disk is divided up into two partitions, the C drive containing all the data, and my D drive which is completely blank. I can't understand what happened. If anybody has a clue, let me know.

[deddard]

Can't remember the details offhand, but the basics are that Ghost doesn't like restoring where there are multiple partitions.
Check symantec's site to find the details, there may be something there to help you.
I had a similar problem when I first used ghost, and since then I only ever have the one partition, backing up other data by other means.
Ghost will sometimes sulk if you even try to restore an image to a partition that has been formatted.
if the data is important it may be possible to recover it using one of the utilities available - I'd wait til some of the hdd gurus are along for specifics on this (paul komski springs immediately to mind!)
in the meantime, check symantecs site, and don't try anything drastic which could make matters worse.

[Paul Komski]

I'm not a Ghost fan though many round here seem to be, so its not a program I am all that familiar with. Partitions need to be first deleted to make way for images being restored into the thus vacated unallocated space. DriveImage always prompts you to allow it to do this before a restoration if one hasn't done such deletion manually oneself in advance of restoring the image file. I would have presumed that Ghost would have done something similar.

Anyway the first important thing to know is whether the current restored C drive occupies all of the space on the disk (including that of the original D drive) or whether the D drive has just got hidden in some way but is still actually there. You should be able know this if the new C drive is the same size as the old one or by RClicking MyComputer, selecting Manage and then viewing the disk management section.

If the drive is just hidden it should be relatively easy to edit the partition tables so that it reappears. If it has been overwritten the chances are reasonaby good that much of the data will be recoverable using DIY recovery software such as GetDataBack from RunTime.org - but try to do as little as possible that will write anything to the drive (including such things as chkdsk and defragging) in the meantime and until your situation is clearer.

Also go to ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ and download PartInNT.zip then unzip it and run it. Grab the partition information it will gather and post it back here.

[357mag]

Well instead of spending $70 on data recovery software which might not work I would rather spend the same $70 on different software or a different version and try that. I've tried Drive Image 7 and at no point did the program prompt me to delete a partition to make way for a restoration. Why should a user have to delete a partition on his hard drive just to restore his C drive? That sounds like crap. Anyway to continue I tried Drive Image 7 and it made the backup fast and error free which I liked, but the restoration was another story. It took a long time to boot into the Powerquest Recovery Environment and even when the progress bar reached 100% the program hung there for an additional minute or two. I also received some cryptic unexplained error messages which did me no good as I could not understand them. Anyway I just kept pressing buttons and exited out of these dialog boxes and somehow the restore was successful, but I don't feel like that software is that great. I'm thinking of trying Norton Ghost 9.0. I understand that since Symantec acquired Powerquest last year, the interface and the .NET Framework that are present in Drive Image 7 are now in Ghost 9.0, but perhaps the program works smoother without the strange screens, so I might try it. Another program I might try is Acronis True Image. I just don't understand what is so hard about making backup software that is simple to use and actually works.

[Paul Komski]

It's been a while since I've seen such a misinformed post 357mag. Of course a partition must be first deleted to make way for an image file (which is either a sector by sector clone or "compressed clone" of the original). The restoration doesnt work by simply overwriting the files on an existing partition, nor could it restore to a partition of the wrong type of format, plus it needs to be able to restore the partition boot sector and other partition structures outside the file system itself. The only way it can do these things is to have adequate unallocated space into which to inject the image. If you dont have a blank HDD or havent already made adequate space available by deleting/moving partitions then DI will have to delete something before it starts restoring. Whether you choose an existing partition or partitions or agree that DI restores to its original location (possibly unwise if you have multiple partitions) it will prompt you to confirm that action.

I have seen the "lock-up" at 100% restoration on just a couple of occasions. It seems to only happen when the program is run from windows and then fails to reboot from the virtual floppy running in DOS. When this happens (I have only seen it on elite mobos) the restoration, as in your case, is OK once you reboot to windows. I have never seen the lockups occur if you run the program directly from caldera dos on a boot floppy or cd. I would highly recommend adding DI to an EBCD (http://ebcd.pcministry.com/) for those occasions when you cannot boot into windows.

GDB is free to download and free if you use it to copy recoverable files one at a time. You must buy it if you want to recover stuff in bulk - but its other value is that it shows you what is and is not recoverable.

DriveImage (up to versions 8 and 2002 anyways) does not need .NET framework to have been installed.

If you want a simple imaging program then ImageMaker (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3914.html) might be the one for you. It isn't as elaborate as other apps, you cant choose to compress its images and it doesnt support all partition formats - but it is free. BootItNG from terabyte is reasonably priced for an application that does what PartitionMagic, DriveImage and BootMagic combined do.

[Paul Komski]

The DI warning attached.

Also - since you havent posted back any further information can we infer that you are no longer interested in recovering your D drive?

[FrankSG]

Using Norton Ghost to make an image, you have a couple of different options as to what you want to image:
1) Local Drive
2) Local Partition
It's just a thought, but do you think you could have inadvertently chosen Local "Partition" which, if I'm understanding it correctly, would have made an image of only one partition?

[357mag]

Drive Image 7 does require .NET to be installed in order to run. So does Norton Ghost 9.0. If I remember correctly when I ran Drive Image 7 it did successfully restore my C drive without doing anything to my D drive, but I didn't like going through the restore process for the reasons outlined above. I know Drive Image 7 never prompted me or told me anything about needed space to restore an image. I've made two different backups using Ghost 2003. One backup at one time incorporated both my partitions C and D(my entire drive) but that was when I only had a 20 GB disk. When I hit Restore the restore operation worked perfectly. After I installed an 80 GB disk, I chose to clone just the C drive and when I hit restore C was there, D was not. Shortly after that I wiped my drive clean and tried other programs. Also wrote to Symantec for help but have not heard from them, so I don't know if it was just a matter of the D drive being hidden or totally wiped out, and I don't know anything about editing partition tables. If you want to outline a process that I could use to bring back my D drive if it is indeed hidden I would appreciate it(in case I use Norton Ghost 2003 again). If it was a case of the C drive now occupying the entire disk space I don't know what could be done, other than creating a new D partition.

[Paul Komski]

DriveImage (up to versions 8 and 2002 anyways) does not need .NET framework to have been installed.
My bad - should have read "versions 6 and 2002"; version 2002 which I have never upgraded is what I use and I wrongly wrote it as the equivalent to v8 whereas the actual equivalent is v6 - perhaps because I also run PM 8; sorry 'bout that - but its not conducive to cool-headed thinking to be told that one's advice is crap.

It's easy enough to edit the partition tables using Ptedit from the same symantec ftp page but in order to know how to edit it correctly one needs more information, which is where the PartInNT program comes in. There are other versions of PartIn but the nt one is the most specific for Win2K/XP. The easiest fix would be if the D partition had been simply hidden in which case it should at least show up under Win2K's disk management console, which would also show exactly how the drive is currently partitioned.

The more information you have about the originals (sizes formats etc) the better.

If it was a case of the C drive now occupying the entire disk space I don't know what could be done, other than creating a new D partition.

It depends what your priority is. Recovery of data from the now missing D drive, reinstallation of a saved image file containing a backup of the D drive, simple reconstitution of a new empty D partition, etc. If the original D has been overwritten there will have been less likelihood of much of it being overwritten if your installation on C is on FAT rather than NTFS since the MFT usually starts in the dead centre of the partition.

[FrankSG]

- but its not conducive to cool-headed thinking to be told that one's advice is crap.
.
I really have to agree with that. You might find that people will not try to answer your questions if you respond like that. I feel that if a person is good enough to try to help, you should be more considerate of his feelings. If you think that he is wrong, that's OK. But you shouldn't tell him that his advise is crap.