Vista-compatible image-hard-disk software

At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition the
disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's in a
partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being backed
up).

So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with a
boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon Drive
Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.

Test Man wrote:
> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition
> the disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's
> in a partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being
> backed up).
>
> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with
> a boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine
> is thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried
> Paragon Drive Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.

Acronis TrueImage 10

--
Annie___ (VM BB L)________________________________
http://find-out-more.brion.me.uk - http://email-me.brion.me.uk

I believe that this is an issue of using an incompatible program within
Vista. 2 solutions come to mind:

1) Acronis True Image v10 (it's Vista compatible)
2) Run the image software from the restore CD. This generally loads the
software in a compatible OS (such as DOS) so that you can run the tools
properly. CAVEAT: I have not tried to restore using this method, so it
should be considered speculation at this point!!!

- John

"Test Man" wrote:

> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition the
> disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's in a
> partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being backed
> up).
>
> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with a
> boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
> thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon Drive
> Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.
>
>

The Ghost 2003 application I'm talking about is the boot CD version, not the
application installed within Vista.

Basically I maintain clean installs of various Windows OS so installing any
applications within Windows to do backups is a non starter. So I only use
boot CDs to image the installations. Ghost 2003 (DOS boot disc) is
compatible with everything, but with Vista installations it seems to result
in Vista complaining that c:\windows\system32\winload.exe is either missing
or corrupt. This ONLY happens if we clean the hard disk using a Maxtor boot
disc and repartition the disc (with the same partition sizes as before) with
Ranish Partition Manager, it doesn't happen if we put XP on the partition
then later on restore Vista back in the same partition, for example.

I can only surmise that it's either Ranish Partition Manager or Ghost 2003
that is at fault.

"usasma" <> wrote in message
news:1A262822-5EFA-4193-8CE6-...
>I believe that this is an issue of using an incompatible program within
> Vista. 2 solutions come to mind:
>
> 1) Acronis True Image v10 (it's Vista compatible)
> 2) Run the image software from the restore CD. This generally loads the
> software in a compatible OS (such as DOS) so that you can run the tools
> properly. CAVEAT: I have not tried to restore using this method, so it
> should be considered speculation at this point!!!
>
> - John
>
> "Test Man" wrote:
>
>> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
>> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
>> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
>> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition
>> the
>> disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's in a
>> partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being backed
>> up).
>>
>> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with
>> a
>> boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
>> thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon
>> Drive
>> Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.
>>
>>

You are really going to a lot of extra work. Why not just restore the images
with Ghost using Ghost to create the partitions? I haven't used Ghost in a
while as I switched to Acronis products but if I remember right you can
specify to create partitions during the restore process. If it still doesn't
work then the problem is Ghost.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"Test Man" <> wrote in message
news:...
> The Ghost 2003 application I'm talking about is the boot CD version, not
> the application installed within Vista.
>
> Basically I maintain clean installs of various Windows OS so installing
> any applications within Windows to do backups is a non starter. So I only
> use boot CDs to image the installations. Ghost 2003 (DOS boot disc) is
> compatible with everything, but with Vista installations it seems to
> result in Vista complaining that c:\windows\system32\winload.exe is either
> missing or corrupt. This ONLY happens if we clean the hard disk using a
> Maxtor boot disc and repartition the disc (with the same partition sizes
> as before) with Ranish Partition Manager, it doesn't happen if we put XP
> on the partition then later on restore Vista back in the same partition,
> for example.
>
> I can only surmise that it's either Ranish Partition Manager or Ghost 2003
> that is at fault.
>
> "usasma" <> wrote in message
> news:1A262822-5EFA-4193-8CE6-...
>>I believe that this is an issue of using an incompatible program within
>> Vista. 2 solutions come to mind:
>>
>> 1) Acronis True Image v10 (it's Vista compatible)
>> 2) Run the image software from the restore CD. This generally loads
>> the
>> software in a compatible OS (such as DOS) so that you can run the tools
>> properly. CAVEAT: I have not tried to restore using this method, so it
>> should be considered speculation at this point!!!
>>
>> - John
>>
>> "Test Man" wrote:
>>
>>> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
>>> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
>>> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
>>> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition
>>> the
>>> disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's in
>>> a
>>> partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being
>>> backed
>>> up).
>>>
>>> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with
>>> a
>>> boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
>>> thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon
>>> Drive
>>> Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.
>>>
>>>

Ghost 2003's boot disc does not allow you to create partitions, hence the
use of an external boot disc partition manager.

Whatever Ghost is backing up, it doesn't seem to back up information (maybe
extra boot sector info) that will allow Vista to boot successfully. Ghost
10 (latest to date)'s boot disc doesn't allow you to create images so that's
out.

"Kerry Brown" <*a*m> wrote in message
news:C26AF224-41F4-490B-845C-...
> You are really going to a lot of extra work. Why not just restore the
> images with Ghost using Ghost to create the partitions? I haven't used
> Ghost in a while as I switched to Acronis products but if I remember right
> you can specify to create partitions during the restore process. If it
> still doesn't work then the problem is Ghost.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>
> "Test Man" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> The Ghost 2003 application I'm talking about is the boot CD version, not
>> the application installed within Vista.
>>
>> Basically I maintain clean installs of various Windows OS so installing
>> any applications within Windows to do backups is a non starter. So I
>> only use boot CDs to image the installations. Ghost 2003 (DOS boot disc)
>> is compatible with everything, but with Vista installations it seems to
>> result in Vista complaining that c:\windows\system32\winload.exe is
>> either missing or corrupt. This ONLY happens if we clean the hard disk
>> using a Maxtor boot disc and repartition the disc (with the same
>> partition sizes as before) with Ranish Partition Manager, it doesn't
>> happen if we put XP on the partition then later on restore Vista back in
>> the same partition, for example.
>>
>> I can only surmise that it's either Ranish Partition Manager or Ghost
>> 2003 that is at fault.
>>
>> "usasma" <> wrote in message
>> news:1A262822-5EFA-4193-8CE6-...
>>>I believe that this is an issue of using an incompatible program within
>>> Vista. 2 solutions come to mind:
>>>
>>> 1) Acronis True Image v10 (it's Vista compatible)
>>> 2) Run the image software from the restore CD. This generally loads
>>> the
>>> software in a compatible OS (such as DOS) so that you can run the tools
>>> properly. CAVEAT: I have not tried to restore using this method, so
>>> it
>>> should be considered speculation at this point!!!
>>>
>>> - John
>>>
>>> "Test Man" wrote:
>>>
>>>> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
>>>> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS
>>>> we
>>>> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
>>>> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition
>>>> the
>>>> disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's in
>>>> a
>>>> partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being
>>>> backed
>>>> up).
>>>>
>>>> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised
>>>> with a
>>>> boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
>>>> thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon
>>>> Drive
>>>> Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.
>>>>
>>>>
>

Excellent suggestion, that seems to have done the job! I will continue some
tests, but it seems that Acronis works with Vista partitions. It backs up
the MBR & Track 0 as well as the data. Presumably Vista doesn't load if
this information is different to what it expects so this needs to be
restored.

"Annie R J Brion" <no-> wrote in message
news:#...
> Test Man wrote:
>> At the mo at work, we currently use a boot disc with Ghost 2003 on to
>> generate images of various OSes, so we can easily restore whatever OS we
>> want to the PCs. However, it seems that we have a slight problem with
>> Windows Vista, in that if we back it up, then subsequently repartition
>> the disc, putting Vista back generates an error on startup (even if it's
>> in a partition identical in size to the one Vista was in prior to being
>> backed up).
>>
>> So... does anyone know of any imaging software (that is initialised with
>> a boot disc) that will work with Vista partitions (even if the machine is
>> thoroughly cleaned down prior to restoring it)? Already tried Paragon
>> Drive Backup 8.5, but it's waaaaaay too slow to back up stuff.
>
> Acronis TrueImage 10
>
> --
> Annie___ (VM BB L)________________________________
> http://find-out-more.brion.me.uk - http://email-me.brion.me.uk

"Test Man" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Ghost 2003's boot disc does not allow you to create partitions, hence the
> use of an external boot disc partition manager.
>
> Whatever Ghost is backing up, it doesn't seem to back up information
> (maybe extra boot sector info) that will allow Vista to boot successfully.
> Ghost 10 (latest to date)'s boot disc doesn't allow you to create images
> so that's out.
>


That's just one of the reasons I switched to Acronis products. I suspect
you're right about the reason for Ghost 2003 not working.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca

Tried Acronis True Image 10 and it worked. Seems it backs up the MBR and
"Track 0" as well as the files, which both needs to be restored for Vista to
work.

Presumably (after you have re-partitioned the drive) Vista baulks with the
"c:\windows\system32\winload.exe is either missing or corrupt" error because
it is expecting certain info in the MBR and Track 0, which will be either
missing or different when you repartition.

"Kerry Brown" <*a*m> wrote in message
news:8359DFB7-0E68-4DD3-8E53-...
> "Test Man" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Ghost 2003's boot disc does not allow you to create partitions, hence the
>> use of an external boot disc partition manager.
>>
>> Whatever Ghost is backing up, it doesn't seem to back up information
>> (maybe extra boot sector info) that will allow Vista to boot
>> successfully. Ghost 10 (latest to date)'s boot disc doesn't allow you to
>> create images so that's out.
>>
>
>
> That's just one of the reasons I switched to Acronis products. I suspect
> you're right about the reason for Ghost 2003 not working.
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>

Test Man a écrit :
> Tried Acronis True Image 10 and it worked. Seems it backs up the MBR
> and "Track 0" as well as the files, which both needs to be restored for
> Vista to work.
>
> Presumably (after you have re-partitioned the drive) Vista baulks with
> the "c:\windows\system32\winload.exe is either missing or corrupt" error
> because it is expecting certain info in the MBR and Track 0, which will
> be either missing or different when you repartition.
>
> "Kerry Brown" <*a*m> wrote in message
> news:8359DFB7-0E68-4DD3-8E53-...
>> "Test Man" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Ghost 2003's boot disc does not allow you to create partitions, hence
>>> the use of an external boot disc partition manager.
>>>
>>> Whatever Ghost is backing up, it doesn't seem to back up information
>>> (maybe extra boot sector info) that will allow Vista to boot
>>> successfully. Ghost 10 (latest to date)'s boot disc doesn't allow you
>>> to create images so that's out.
>>>
>>
>>
>> That's just one of the reasons I switched to Acronis products. I
>> suspect you're right about the reason for Ghost 2003 not working.
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Brown
>> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
>> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>>
>>
If you what to do images of HDD with Vista you have to purshase the
Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 with contain the ghost32.exe version 11. Than
you have to do a bootable WinPE cd that contain the ghost32.exe version
11. That what I use now to do my hdd image with Vista.

Shidewa