Re: WinXP will not boot on Ghosted Multiboot System

From: Sailfish (sailfish_at_unforgettable.com)
Date: 12/07/04


Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 19:47:14 GMT

Sailfish wrote:

> Here's my configuration:
>
> Dual WD 200GB drives, 2 partitions, Jumper=Cable Select
> Asus A7n8x-Deluxe Mobo
> AMD Athlon-XP 3000
> 512 MB RAM
> Symantec Ghost 2003
>
> Partition 1: 30GB, FAT32, Win98SE (Primary System)
>
> Partition 2: 100GB, FAT32, WinXP-SP2 (Secondary System)
>
> Multiboot is standard one created when I installed WinXP.
>
> Backup Procedure
> ----------------
>
> 1. Exit to DOS and run Ghost to do a Disk-to-Disk copy.
> 2. Turn off machine and replace "Destination" disk's cable
> with "Source" disk's cable.
> 3. Reboot.
>
> Problem
> -------
>
> When I reboot into Win98SE (1st partition) it comes ups fine; however,
> when I attempt to boot into WinXP all I get is the Welcome screen (even
> after 5 minutes waiting) and then I am forced to do a hard boot in order
> to start again, i.e., Ctrl-Alt-Delete does not work.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
After much trial and error I was able to finally get it to work. For the
benefit of others who may run into a similar problem, I'll list the
steps that I used to get it to work.

1. Bring up DOS and start Ghost with the -fdsp* switch, as follows:
    C:> C:\ghostpath\ghost.exe -fdsp
2. Select Disk-to-Disk Copy. IMPORTANT! Make sure the allocated sectors
for each partition in the Destination Disk are the same as for the
Source Disk in the Destination Drive Details dialog. If not, override
the Destination Disk partition sector settings to match those of the
Source Disk. Note: I believe the one that's most important to match is
the size of the 1st partition since the boot process for XP may expect
XP to start in a specific location on the physical disk; although, I
never confirmed this.

Also, as a side note, remember the aggregate 137GB limitation for the
Win9x systems (irrespective of how its broken-up into partitions); thus,
if both Win9x and WinXP partitions are FAT32 and are going to be
accessed in Win9x, then the last byte cannot be past the physical 137GB
location (I defined my 200GB drive with 2 FAT32 partitions totalling
130GBs and left for other stuff, like Linux.

3. After the copy completes AND BEFORE REBOOTING!, disconnect the Source
Drive and put its cable onto the copied Distination drive and reboot
into WinXP to insure that it works (it would be wise to also text the
Win9x boot, as well.) This step is important since failure to do so may
make the copied disk unbootable for WinXP due to the way WinXP
serializes disk drive letter assignments. After performing this step,
you can safely reconnect the Source drive using its original cable, as
well as the Destination drive, if desired.

* fdsp - Preserves the signature bytes on the destination
          disk when performing a disk-to-disk or image-to-disk
          cloning operation

-- 
Best Regards,
Pat
"Surfin' the Net...grappling with the 3rd Wave"
Got a message? Project It!?  http://www.projectit.com/


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