I have used Norton Ghost 2003 from DOS / floppy disk without problem.

I moved my computer to a new computer case (Antec Solo) and also swapped out an two optical drives for two others (have checked to make sure all master slave jumpers are correct).

Now whenever I boot into Ghost from floppy (DOS), PC DOS starts and Ghost seems to load, but hangs at the initial blue and grey screen where the text about Norton Ghost is supposed to appear.

All I get is an hour glass symbol for a cursor?

What is going on, and how do I fix it?

Only an hypothesis: maybe the floppy disc is ruined and it can't be read correctly anymore

Program seems to load properly.

Ghost starts to load, but I don't get that initial screen where it says about marking the drives as useable by Ghost etc.

I've tried several different floppies with freshly written Ghost programs. And program did work in another computer. Will try a new floppy, though.

I have Ghost 2003 as part of Norton Systemworks Pro 2003. When I click Live Update, it says I already have the most recent edition of Ghost.

Tried a fresh copy of Ghost on a new floppy disk and got the same problem.

Other than changing case from Antec Sonata to Antec Solo, I also added a LiteOn 160P6 instead of a LiteOn 52327s cdrw. Any know compatability issues with these new LiteOn burners?

Does Ghost run when initialized from Windows?

I gave up on Ghost 2003 when I needed to disable an onboard SATA chip to make it run. Acronis TrueImage 9 has been good to me although it still has a few annoying bugs. I haven't been to the Acronis forum to see how version 10 is doing. I assume it is the same as 9 when first released--way too many bugs left in for paying customers to sort out.

No, it caused the whole system to hang and I couldn't reboot into Windows.

I had to reinstall Windows. ?(

I'd try disabling your optical drive in BIOS and see if the thing will boot up.
Or, I guess you already had to do a reinstall--

Did you try the "Run Ghost Interactively" option by which system reboots into DOS? I've done this running Ghost 2003 with almost no problems. Once there was a problem where I couldn't boot into Windows 2000, but fortunately I have dual boot system with Win98 and was able to restore a good Win2k image by running Ghost interactively by booting Win98. If you have another Windows version available you may want to consider setting up dual boot system in case the problem recurs to avoid having to reinstall Windows you use most of the time as I have. You could even setup dual boot of current Windows version and boot into the alternate one to run Ghost should the problem recur.

Another recovery option is BartPE, a Windows "live cd". (There is a BartPE option that comes with TrueImage but I haven't played with it.) I still install a second "rescue and test" Windows system on a different drive that can be selected in BIOS to boot.

After I reinstall Windows, all traces of previous Ghost install attempts should be gone?

Only things I can think of is that the Ghost DOS disk needs updating (though Live Update says I already have the latest Ghost 2003 - which I got as part of Norton Systemworks Pro 2003) or there is some trace of previous Ghost imaging attempts on the V: data partition?

bit like the other guy said - ghost 2003 i really liked except when i went sata it died

its a google job

i know you didnt mention that but for info

Problem is that it used to work fine with the same SATA hard drive.

Just moved everything to a new case, and changed some optical drives (added LiteOn 160P6 and LiteOn 166 DVD-ROM; pulled out Aopen 1648 AAP Pro and LiteOn 52327s).

This is only a guess, but your issue might be related to your "build" version of Ghost 2003. Symantec no longer provides the "build" updates that used to be available via LiveUpdate. The only way to get up to date these days is to buy the Ghost 10.0 retail box that includes a Ghost 2003 CD with the latest build.

Sorry I can't with confidence provide you with a link to where I found this info some time ago, but it may have come from the forums at http://ghost.radified.com/

Yes, that's my suspicion too.

I erased my old DOS Ghost floppies and made new ones.


EDIT: sounds like Acronis True Image 10 is in my future.

No, Norton is notorious for leaving its cr@p all over the registry.

I only install SystemWorks 2003 with SpeedDisk and WinDoctor selected now.

Official Acronis support forum: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65

(Not ideal customer support but way more than I ever received from Symantec.)

If I had previous installed Windows on a C: partition, should leaving the V: (data partition with things like music, videos, software vault, pics) be ok, or do I have to erase that too?

Your data partition should be fine as it is.

Tried creating a new Ghost DOS disk with the -noide parameter and it worked.

Was able to restore a previous Ghost image, but just before completion I got a "boot sector write virus" error message.

Ran AVG Free virus scan after this and it showed no errors.

Is this boot sector write virus a residue of the Windows Ghost attemt and hang in creating a virtual dos partition?

And would overwriting the C: partition with a fresh install of Windows get rid of it? Or do I also need to delete my V: data and media partition?

Does the error message name any files? It could be a false positive which you could Google if files are named. You may also try free online virus scan to double check by suing Panda Software Activescan or thers. A format and Windows reinstall on drive C: should eliminate any virus if 1 is present since the boot sector is on the C: drive.

I think it said "boot sector write virus"?

Do you want to continue (Ghost image restore).

Only odd thing about my computer was that I couldn't imagine my sata hard drive wtih Ghost till recent success with the brand new floppy / Ghost / -noide.

A fresh install of Windows creates a new master boot record, etc? No file or partition structure from V: is left? (until I recreate it with diskmgmt.msc in Windows again?)

I made an attempt to create a Ghost image from Windows, and then my system keep hanging on the blue and grey Ghost screen. And when I tried to reboot, it kept trying to restart pc-dos. Tried to start a fresh install of Windows and deleted the partition that Ghost created and still didn't fix anything. Then did a complete fresh reinstall of Windows on c:/

Tried restoring from another, earlier Ghost image and got the same exact error message at 99%:

"BootSector Write!! Virus: continue (y/n)?:

Under current file, it says "14900 unnamed MFT table entry"

Was format done before reinstall? Any boot sector virus will still likely be present if install is done without reformat. The V: partition and files should still be there, but any applications installed on V: drive would need to be reinstalled while any data such as pictures, Word files and other data created should be fine. Restoring any image containing virus will of course put back the virus on the system. I suggest doing a Google search for something like "Norton Ghost - 14900 unnamed MFT table entry" and search for "Norton Ghost - BootSector Write!! Virus: continue (y/n)?:" to see if there are any known Ghost issues. If there are none, then you should give up trying to restore image containing a virus and create a new image after reformat and reinstall of Windows.

Decided to rezero the hard drive, turned off the dsl, and tried to install my copy of Windows and immediately got the same error message.

Went into BIOS, turned off boot sector write protection, rebooted, and this time the error did not appear.

Aborted XP install, turned boot sector write protection back on in BIOS, and reinstalled Windows without getting the error message.

Not sure exactly what was going one, but I think there was some residue from my previous attempt to start Ghost from the Windows interface (it hung and I eventually figured out how to delete that virtual partition with the Windows install cd, but looks like it left some other residue too).

Only planning on using Ghost from DOS floppy from now on. Still have to use the -noide switch, though. Thought about what other changes I made and now I realize I turned off integrated graphics and put in a pci express video card. Can this cause the hanging of Ghost I originally saw?