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Install Ghost 14.0 - it installs "drivers" and I have to reboot

I spend 3hrs using Ghost 14.0 to backup my Vista 64 system drive which was 450GB of a 750GB to a new Seagate 1.5TB external HD.

Ghost saved the backup somehow without using a file on the external so it appeared be blank - maybe it flagged the files as system files and I don't view them by default.

I install new Seagate Barracuda internal 1.5TB

I use the Symantec Recovery Disk which is the only disk that came with Ghost so it is really the install disk. I was going to restore to the new drive.

Blue screen...reboot

Reboot and try to create a custom recovery disk - FAIL! 64 bit not supported.

I give up the Ghost!

I use disk management to partition the disk and it fails and locks up on third partition. I wait for a while...nothing happens...reboot

Black screen...wait...hard reset...black screen...wait...wait longer...finally gets to explorer

Right click on my computer...wait 12 minutes...task manager...kill explorer.exe...run new explorer.exe...repeat this process three times...give up

Reboot from Windows 7 install...use install app to format the new Seagate drive...reboot

Somehow my new 1.5 external drive has a couple weird windows directories with some strange stuff in it...GHOST BACKUP IS DESTROYED!!! FAIL again!!!!!!!!

Right click back online - go to disk management - delete volume...create 2 new volumes successfully...create third simple volume...FAIL!!! "The format did not complete successfully"

delete all volumes...suspect that Ghost is trying to "help" things...

run autoruns and disable loading of ghost at startup since the fuqing thing doesn't allow an exit...

Consider this whole process like playing chess with someone where you are neutralizing each others moves...

post this message to endars board and reboot

delete all partitions on new drive...create one partition...do full format...wait.

while waiting call friend and talk for 25 minutes...then suddenly and instantly weird tone is played and phone says "call failed" FAIL!

try and call friend back...phone says "call failed" FAIL!!!

phone goes to solid white screen - WTF?!?!?!

try blackberries verson of ctrl-alt-delete...nothing happens...FAIL!!!

take battery out...wait a 10 seconds...install battery start phone...FAIL!!!!

repeat process...FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

suspect battery life is too low to reboot - charge phone...charging icon appears...hope phone is not permanently dead from fatal crash.

notice format is at 40%

Time passes...

use trencher beak

1397.26 GB
Formatting: (41%)

pense monkey

Time passes...

wonder why in the hell I thought this was going to be fun...

Time passes...

contemplate to never ever use windows Vista again!

Time passes...

decide I will now migrate to Windows 7

Time passes...

dream about completing this fun little project of cloning current Vista 64 image to new 1.5TB internal drive and experimenting with a multi boot system.

Stare at stack of DVDs with Windows 7 beta, Fedora 11.0, Mint 7 64bit, and 0 day old ware Ubuntu 9.10!!!

Dream...

Time passes...

wonder what wizzenberry juice tastes like...
sigh

Time passes...

Notice there is a red x over my network systray icon and wonder how I am still able to access the internet.

Curse Windows Vista
Windows Vista is already cursed...

Time passes...

Format stalled at 73%

Is there a limit to hard drive size for the EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1? I can't find anything about the max size. Is it limited to 1TB?

Updating motherboard drivers to very new release dated 10/06/2009

The problem was the motherboard drivers didn't support the larger disks...Looks like it was limited to 1TB

Format went fine and am ready to play around with whatever!

Use Ghost 14.0 to copy drives...go to sleep...wake up COPY SUCCESSFUL!!!

Think to self weird...how could it copy all the system files while the OS is still running?

powerdown...connect only new 1.5TB drive that Ghost prepared and reboot.

Message about windows did not shut down properly comes up...ok that isn't good...start windows normally...wait a little bit longer than usual and windows appears to start up normallly...NOT

Preparing desktop message comes up after logging in and stays for about 3 minutes. Dialog for run32.dll failed - ok that is weird I have a 64bit system AND that sucks that the OS failed to load and it says I have to reboot.

Reboot...this time makes to to a solid blue background with just a mouse pointer...

taskmanager->new task->explorer.exe

Explorer comes up...no software is installed at all...yeah...looks like all ghost did was a copy and not a clone...That is absolutely fucking ridiculous...all it is a copy that ignores access denied messages on system files...HOW in the hell could it clone a drive while you are still using it anyway? The files are changing as you use it!!! How fucking flawed is that???

Ok so really giving up the ghost this time.

Use diskmanagement to quick format external HD that ghost used as a backup earlier since I am never going to use Ghost again...wait 6 minutes...nothing is happening...cancel format...still drive appears to have zero files including displaying hidden system files.

Try regular format by rightclicking drive and doing a quick format.

wait 20 seconds for a dialog to come up saying the drive is in use by another program - format anyway? YES!

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!??!?!?! wtf?!??!

Who is using the drive??? There are zero files on it!!!

UNINSTALL NORTON GHOST!!!!!!!

Shutdown required after uninstalling norton ghost

SHUTDOWN TOOK NEARLY 20 MINUTES TO COMPLETE!!!

reboot...notice reboot took much less time and now right clicking on my computer doesn't take 80 seconds before it does anything and Vista doesn't get disabled by the busy cursor.

Quick Format 1.5TB external...10 seconds later format is complete! Norton ghost was making it impossible to format an external drive and causing a BSOD on vista. Go GHOST...Glad I gave up the ghost for that worthless application.

What a steaming pile of shit! First off, you cannot clone a drive while you are using the drive - this is absofuckinglutely impossible! What the fuck are they thinking? Cloning a drive MUST be done when the OS is offline...what a piece of shit...returning this total piece of crap and using Acronis which CAME with my new Seagate and stupid me thought it wasn't as good as ghost...turns out it actually does an offline clone of the system drive...Hope Frys will take my copy back.

Instead of Norton Ghost being shit...

Acronis worked perfectly by doing a offline disk clone from a 750GB to a 1.5TB where I partitioned the space to equal 400GB...Took about an hour or so instead of 3 hours like the stupid other thing that didn't even work.

Very happy, also this is included when you buy a new Seagate drive under the DiscWizard which is internally Acronis.

Very nice...Too bad Ghost 14.0 sucks so bad now...maybe it might be cool if you are doing incremental backups and don't mind how fuqing slow it is...

Anyway...now finally I can screw around with the various OS now that I have a complete backup of my old drive.

Cannot return opened software to Frys...

Recovered 99% of what I thought I lost after the Fedora install...this took a long time and a bit of software to figure out but it is doable. I could not restore my drive to be bootable...Oh..maybe I didn't mention that my Vista install got hosed,trashed,thrashed,broke after I installed Fedora?

Anyway, installing Fedora again to see how it goes. I think I may not actually being installing correctly.

Am currently in the process of making the jump to Windows 7 now that I no longer have a Vista install. Really the only reason that I don't want to use it is because I would like to have some installations of Linux along side of it. I am pretty sure that it is possible to do it but we shall see. I think all I have to do is just install W7 first and then add the linux flavors afterwards. I have read that there is a way to manually restore the grub loader after windows writes over it - but I think I will just be lazy and install linux after windows.

So far I have gotten Ubuntu 9.1 to work well with the only issue being network latency - everything else that I have tried seems to work though. I could not get UbuntoStudio to work - I tried a couple times and got different results. The first time the keyboard locked up and the mouse didn't work. The second install just went to a black screen and gave an error I didn't understand after hitting some ctrl sequences.

Am going to try MythUbuntu which is a Linux flavor for media PCs

Microscopic review of UbuntuStudio 9.1: (Ubuntu flavored for sound/video/sequencing)
- first install failed - no mouse or keyboard support
- second install just didn't work

Microscopic review of Fedora 11: (proprietary derivative)
- first install destroyed my hard drive
- Nice and fast since it is 64 bit
- couldn't get flash or sound to work
- will not recognize my FAT32 USB drive
- networking didn't work at first and had to manually start it
- automatic updates were running and I shutdown - No more booting Fedora...Install is now gone...machine just sits there and does nothing when it starts verifying the VPMI or whatever pool

Micrscopic review of Mint 7: (debian,ubuntu derivative)
- easy install (from no OS to web browsing in 16 minutes)
- nice and fast 64-bit version
- recognized both NTFS and FAT32 USB drives
- flash is already configured and works
- no sound...

Interesting - been thinking of doing a dual boot box HTPC - mainly because of Linux's ability to handle VDPAU. There is a whole lot going on in the XBMC dev world which has officially moved on from Xbox to HTPCs. Pretty cool stuff. (Check out this mini box). I'll start a new thread about it when I get around to it but in the meantime please keep goin with the linux experiences (btw thx for keeping them microscopic).

L2: I'm running Windows 7 as well. What edition you go with? I went with Pro.

Ender: I'm working on a HTPC as well, I don't want to derail this thread, so maybe we should create a htpc thread?

First W7 was a beta I downloaded like 4 months ago.

Current W7 is Ultimate upgrade bought from Frys for $219! eeek! AFAIK you are able to supply a registry key to trick it into thinking you have upgraded from a previous version. I did the custom install(only option for clean install) and have yet to activate/supply product key. I have a full legit ultimate copies of Vista & Windows 7. Got full version of w7ultimate for $30 at microsoft store...was too impatient to wait for a $30 version of w7.

So far I like W7, have to get used to pinning though, aside from one major problem which REALLY sucks which is BSOD from the video card drivers...dunno what the deal is here. I am sure nvidia will fix it in the future. I don't have anything yet installed yet as I am still screwing around from OS to OS...

here is a weirdly cool thing I ran into for replicating bugs or whatever...

- run psr.exe from cmd or just run via windows key + r
- start recording
- do some random stuff such as load app/window manipulation/text entry and the stop recording.
- save the file somewhere as a zip file(only option)
- extract the file from the zip and double click on .mht file
- check out the rep steps...

that's all for now - OVER