Cloned Partition Hangs When Launching Windows XP

[Dick]

Using Ghost 2002, did a Partition to Partition clone using C: (a good "system" primary master) drive as the source and F: (primary slave, second hard drive partition) as the destination. The partition that's being updated previously had a good Ghost "P2P" clone, But it was wiped & quick formatted as a new primary NTFS partition using Gdisk. The clone dump was reported as successful.

I then disconnected the source hard drive leaving only the destination hard drive, which is now reconfigured to be the primary master. The system boots but "hangs" at the WinXP splash screen (not the welcome or desktop). It stops short of launching WinXP. There are no error messages. Fdisk shows that this partition is active but it doesn't look to me like it's the "system" partition.

What's wrong & how do I fix it so it will launch Windows?

Best regards, Dick

 

[Dick Johnson]

Ghost

Did you do a clone "backup" or a "replacement"? I don't use Ghost but prefer "Drive Image". I don't think you can clone your entire operating system while in windows and it's running with Ghost. You can make a clone on another drive for restoring! You must make the boot disks and boot into DOS to do what you want. I copy all of my operating system scsi hard drives with Drive Image and store the spares on the shelf for emergencies. These are all bootable. But when I make them even in dos, the DI program wants to make either the source or destination drives "hidden". Select NO for both and either will be bootable by themselves.

 

[Dick]

Hi, I never met a man named Dick that I couldn't trust (grin)!

We have a difference in semantics here. To me a "replacement" is a (bootable) Partition to Partition clone. While a backup would be an Image clone that doesn't boot. The problem in this case is the Partition to Partition clone. Ghosting isn't done in Windows but in DOS. And I'm cloning from one hard drive to a different hard drive.

Your comment about hidden partitions got me to looking at how the partitions are set using DOS (fdisk). Some how the C: letter was assigned to the Image (not bootable) rather than the bootable O/S Partition clone. I think this is causing this issue but I'm not sure how to correct it.

In any case, thanks for the idea & your reply.

Best regards, Dick

 

[Glaanieboy]

I heard from my teacher @ school yesterday, that with Ghost, you can't clone NTFS partitions, since Windows gives a security code to each device connected to your system (it is hidden, so don't try to find it). I had the same problems you had, when cloning a harddisk to harddisk with Ghost. Better wait for Ghost 2003, if I understood it well, you can clone NTFS partitions with that program, without worrying about security codes etc. (Ghost 2003 will be available in September 2002).

 

[Dick]

Glaanieboy, Thanks for the reply.

You heard right about Ghosting NTFS files. You can however, easily create a partition using FAT 32. Ghost 2002 will then clone or image over the FAT 32 partition replacing it with your NTFS files.