BleepingComputer.com: Xp Repair After Failed Norton Ghost 2003

I bought a new Seagate Freeagent external HDD. I then decided to backup my drive with Norton Ghost 2003. Ghost wanted to restart my PC from a ghost partition prior to writing a ghost file to the Freeagent drive. The system hung and I was unable to reboot. Without reading the ghost reapir procedures, I deleted the ghost partition and tried to reboot the PC - no joy!. I then started my PC with the XP disk and went into the recovery console. Tried FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, BOOTCFG and every other utility to attempt to repair the boot sector - no joy! I am now at my wit's end with this PC. I would like to repair the XP boot so that I do not need to reinstall XP. Does anyone know of a utility that will repair the boot sector so that I can get back to where I was before Norton Ghost? I will appreciate any assistance. I really do not wish to reinstall XP. Thanks

You could try a repair install.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

No, did not work. I think that my boot sector is corrupt. I have done all sorts of dumb things like deleting the ghost partition, trying FIXBOOT, FIXMBR, deleting and replacing files from the XP CD, etc. I am now (again) trying to "repair" the existing Windows from the XP CD, but I am not feeling very positive that it will work..... In DOS we were able to "SYS" the primary drive and everything was back to normal... Is there not a similar procedure in XP to just get the $%^& PC to boot into Windows. I keep getting "Missing operating system". BTW I have backed up the drive to another PC - (after the disaster). The drive is a 80Gb Seagate SATA HDD......

What happened when you tried the repair install?

I followed all the steps for the repair, but nothing changes. When the PC boots up, I still get "Error loading operating system". I have tried the repair console, repairing the existing Windows installation and now the recommended repair routine. I think that the HDD boot sector must be rewritten, but I have no idea how to do it. I have access to my laptop and another PC with XP Pro SP2. The faulty HDD is backed up onto an external 250Gb HDD (USB), but the backup was done after the crash.....

Did you try the bootcfg /rebuild command in the recovery console?

A repair install rewrites the boot sector.

You may have corrupted the NTFS file system...the only cure I've found for that is a clean install.

When you attempted this repair install...the partition was properly displayed as having an XP install?

You did format this new drive before using it, right?

Louis

Yes, the XP install is seen. I have tried a BOOTCFG /REBUILD and it also does not help. The reason I want to try to recover the current installation is that I have a large amount of software installed and I do not want to go through the installation of all these packages again (or is there an easy way to link my current registry to the new one after a new install???)

Because of the way ghost modifies your Hard drive, you're unlikely to be able to avoid doing a reformat\reinstall.
OOI, what happens if you reload ghost? Any undo options available? I'm guessing not, but it might be worth a look.

I'd resign yourself to rebuilding the PC if I were you

Thanks all for the assistance - I am just about to reinstall windows. I am resigned to the fact that I must install all my software again.
AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

You know...if you believed in backing up...reinstalls would not be as much grief as this one seems to be to you.

Louis

You are right, but the whole purpose of creating a Norton Ghost file was to back up my system. I should rather have used Windows backup software and then created the Ghost file. Instead I did it the other way around. Anyway, thanks for all the advice and assistance.

provocateur,
I'm coming in late and am no expert in Ghost 2003. I've used it to make Images, but not Clone a disk. I keep thinking that might be where you went wrong with your "backup" in trying to transfer it to a new hdd. You might be able to find out more at Radified for future reference. You said you've already deleted the Ghost partition. Is there any chance you also saved one on CD/DVD? Or you mentioned that you backed it up on another hdd...? (I'm getting a little confused as to what, if anything, you might have left of the Image.) Anyway, if you still do have access to some kind of Ghost Image, and you have Ghost Explorer, I think you could use that to retrieve lost data and files, once you've reinstalled XP and your software.

There's lots of information about Ghost here:

http://radified.com/index2.html

The forum link
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

This post has been edited by mommabear: 12 January 2008 - 06:28 AM

<<Without reading the ghost reapir procedures, I deleted the ghost partition and tried to reboot the PC - no joy!.>>

To me...this is the key phrase in your post.

I don't use Ghost but I use it's predecessor (of sorts), Powerquest Drive Image 2002. No utility that backups or partitions or adjusts partition size or can clone partitions...should ever be used without reading for familiarization before starting/stopping anything.

I'm not saying that Ghost or any other software is without its problems...the documentation will verify such, as well as searches using Google. But it reduces any user's chance for success...if they don't RTFM, IMO.

Regarding XP's backup...it probably could well serve the backup needs of many. It's biggest drawback is that it lacks some features and flexibility that other programs use as selling points.

Louis

I've had a PC in my home since 1979 (Apple in those days), so maybe I've become arrogant in my use of these infuriating machines. I tend to go with my gut and fly blind, and I have always given the advice to RTFM (read the f^&* manual). In this case I did not follow my own advice and I paid the price. Luckily, I did make a copy of the damaged disk on my other PC and this prevented the loss of all my data. I have now revived my system after an XP reinstall and (hopefully) have learned my lesson.
My major damage was to my ego and a loss of time, but all's well that ends well. Like the airlines say "Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing".

Once again, thanks for all the advice and assistance. I will be using this site in future to get and give advice where required.
A great feature of this site is that no flaming takes place when we make dumb mistakes.