Ghosting Vista

DrBeardy · 11:09 AM

Fairly simple question, which I'm hoping someone here will be able to answer easily. I currently have an 80GB hard drive for my OS and a 400GB for data, but I've outgrown them both and want to move to a single large drive. I'd rather not reinstall due to the insane amount of programs and customisations I've got, and since I'm happier keeping the OS and data separate, I'd like just to be able to Ghost the current drives onto two new partitions on the large drive. Trouble is, I've memories of trying similar stunts in the past with XP and 2000 only to be greeted with a BSOD because of the hardware inconsistency. Is Vista likely to fail in a similar manner or should I be reasonably safe in trying this?

Rich-M · 20-May-2008, 10:34 PM #2

I don't understand why it would not have worked in the past either unless you were using a really old version of Ghost?

DrBeardy · 21-May-2008, 06:22 AM #3

No problems with Ghost as such, just Windows not being able to recognise the hardware it was suddenly running on. I remember the only way out of it at the time was to perform a repair install - not the easiest thing to do with Vista.

You think it ought to work OK then?

Rich-M · 21-May-2008, 09:46 AM #4

I'm still back with why it did not work on XP. I have never heard of Ghost not working on XP or 2000 because of hardware. I am a beta tester for Acronis and was for Power Quest also.
I have seen bad hard drives fail to restore or even Ghost an image file but not a system refuse to restore an image file because it didn't like the hardware. Even if we are talking about a sata drive, the bios would have to recognize it and the driver would already be in the image file unless the bios settings were wrong.
If you could not restore to XP then you will do no better in Vista. It isn't the software and it can't be the hardware, it has to be what you are doing that is the issue I'm afraid.

DrBeardy · 21-May-2008, 10:42 AM #5

It's nothing to do with Ghost; that's just my means of shifting data between drives, and I'm not doing anything unusual - booting from a Ghost CD and doing a partition-to-partition copy. That works fine. My problem is related to Windows booting from a hard disk it's not familiar with, after it's been ghosted. I've known others who've run into the same issue when attempting to move an XP install to a new drive. It boots so far but gets stuck in a BSoD loop because of the new hardware, namely the drive.

Rich-M · 21-May-2008, 12:19 PM #6

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBeardy

It's nothing to do with Ghost; that's just my means of shifting data between drives, and I'm not doing anything unusual - booting from a Ghost CD and doing a partition-to-partition copy. That works fine. My problem is related to Windows booting from a hard disk it's not familiar with, after it's been ghosted. I've known others who've run into the same issue when attempting to move an XP install to a new drive. It boots so far but gets stuck in a BSoD loop because of the new hardware, namely the drive.

I had this experience recently with Ghost14 even and it's because it does not copy the mbr by default. I have yet to check to see if I just missed that setting as I am basically an Acronis user where you always have the option to restore the mbr when restoring am image file.

DrBeardy · 21-May-2008, 12:25 PM #7

The systems I've done this to in the past have booted - as far as the Windows logo, but not as far as the desktop. This would imply to me that the MBR was present. Could it have been missing?

Rich-M · 21-May-2008, 01:13 PM #8

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBeardy

The systems I've done this to in the past have booted - as far as the Windows logo, but not as far as the desktop. This would imply to me that the MBR was present. Could it have been missing?

That's exactly what I am saying....you sparked my interest so I just installed Ghost 14.0 and am making an image file. I want to see if the option to restore the mbr is there as it used to be on Drive Image (which is what Ghost is today since PQ was bought out by Symantec). It has been there on Acronis since version 8.0 I believe and the current one is 11.0.

DrBeardy · 21-May-2008, 01:15 PM #9

Interesting. Well, I'll give it a bash and be sure the MBR gets moved over. Thanks.

Rich-M · 21-May-2008, 01:49 PM **#10**

Ok I just tried to restore an image file to a blank drive using Ghost 14.0. The Recovery in Windows does not offer the option of restore MBR when you select "custom" to set your own details but the Rescue cd (program install cd booted to) does if you opt to "change" settings and it does not default to saving "MBR" you have to check it and that is the problem. I have struck it before as I said.

Squashman · 21-May-2008, 02:51 PM **#11**

If you make a drive to drive copy it should work. I would think that doing partition to partition would not copy the MBR.

DrBeardy · 21-May-2008, 04:18 PM **#12**

That sounds logical. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. Thanks again guys.

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