Ghost 2003 hang stall freeze at agp440.sys

[Vic Smith]

For googlers.
Installed XP on Maxtor 80gb 7200rpm drive. IDE 0, master.
Used XP install to format primary 20gig partition, which had held a
working XP from another machine, and was NTFS.
XP worked fine. Installed SP2, and XP worked fine.
Imaged that to extended NTFS 20gb partition on same drive.
Swapped in 250gb 7200rpm drive as IDE 0, master.
Set 80gb to IDE 1, master.
Restored XP image to 250gb primary partition, which had held a working
XP from another machine, NTFS.
Booted, and after the scrolling dots finished and the Windows logo
came up, the machine hung.
Safe mode showed the last driver displayed as agp440.sys.
Googling indicates that a hang on agp440.sys has no defined
resolution, but is usually a mass storage device problem
After re-making the image in case it was bad (I've imaged and restored
+100 times with Ghost 2003 and never had a problem), the same problem
persisted.
Tried XP repair. It booted all the way, then XP froze. Upon reboot,
it stopped again at agp440.sys.
Decided to give up on using a Ghost image on the 250gb drive, and do
an install there. But I wanted to be sure of my partitioning and that
there were no conflicts, because I have used XP, Maxblast, DiskTools,
and probably some other tools to partition, and I have not kept track.
Since I have no special sector size needs, I always use the
partitioning tool's default for NTFS, which I believe is 4048.
So after moving my data off of the extended partition of the 250gb
Maxtor, I partitioned it to 20/230 NTFS, default sector size using
Maxblast. Installed XP there, imaged, installed SP2, imaged,
installed my base software, imaged, etc.
Decided to see if these images would work on the 80gb Maxtor.
When googling on the freeze at agp440.sys issue there was speculation
that SP2 may be the culprit. In this instance it wasn't, since the
base XP install images - no SP1 or SP2 - from the 250gb Maxtor
produced the same hang at agp440.sys when used on the 80gb Maxtor.
I then used Maxblast to partition the 80gb as I had the 250gb.
Then the image from the 250 worked fine on the 80, and to take it a
step further I then imaged the 80 and put it on the 250 and that
worked fine.
Conclusion: The problem I had may be exclusive to my hardware
configuration. But the solution may apply to others.
Pay attention to the formatting tools you use, and the safest approach
is to settle on one tool and use that exclusively.
If you are using different sector sizes, you may want to test that.
If you aren't already doing this, and haven't tested your images,
you may be in for a surprise.

--Vic

 

[Rod Speed]

For googlers.
Installed XP on Maxtor 80gb 7200rpm drive. IDE 0, master.
Used XP install to format primary 20gig partition, which had held a
working XP from another machine, and was NTFS.
XP worked fine. Installed SP2, and XP worked fine.
Imaged that to extended NTFS 20gb partition on same drive.
Swapped in 250gb 7200rpm drive as IDE 0, master.
Set 80gb to IDE 1, master.
Restored XP image to 250gb primary partition, which had held a working
XP from another machine, NTFS.
Booted,

That was the problem, booting the clone with the original still visible to XP.

You have to have just one bootable copy of XP visible
to XP for the first boot after the clone has been made,
so XP can sort out the fact that the drive has changed
and clean up the detail so it boots that clone fine.

While ever it can see more than one for the first boot of the clone,
it gets royally confused and you end up with one hell of a mess.

and after the scrolling dots finished and the
Windows logo came up, the machine hung.
Safe mode showed the last driver displayed as agp440.sys.
Googling indicates that a hang on agp440.sys has no defined
resolution, but is usually a mass storage device problem
After re-making the image in case it was bad (I've imaged and restored
+100 times with Ghost 2003 and never had a problem), the same problem
persisted.

Because you did the same thing, booted the clone with
the original still visible to XP for the first boot of the clone.

Tried XP repair. It booted all the way, then XP froze.
Upon reboot, it stopped again at agp440.sys.
Decided to give up on using a Ghost image on the 250gb drive, and do
an install there. But I wanted to be sure of my partitioning and that
there were no conflicts, because I have used XP, Maxblast, DiskTools,
and probably some other tools to partition, and I have not kept track.
Since I have no special sector size needs, I always use the
partitioning tool's default for NTFS, which I believe is 4048.
So after moving my data off of the extended partition of the 250gb
Maxtor, I partitioned it to 20/230 NTFS, default sector size using
Maxblast. Installed XP there, imaged, installed SP2, imaged,
installed my base software, imaged, etc.
Decided to see if these images would work on the 80gb Maxtor.
When googling on the freeze at agp440.sys issue there was speculation
that SP2 may be the culprit. In this instance it wasn't, since the
base XP install images - no SP1 or SP2 - from the 250gb Maxtor
produced the same hang at agp440.sys when used on the 80gb Maxtor.
I then used Maxblast to partition the 80gb as I had the 250gb.
Then the image from the 250 worked fine on the 80, and to take it a
step further I then imaged the 80 and put it on the 250 and that
worked fine.
Conclusion: The problem I had may be exclusive to my hardware configuration.

Nope, the problem booting a clone with the original
visible to XP for the first boot of the clone.

But the solution may apply to others.
Pay attention to the formatting tools you use, and the safest
approach is to settle on one tool and use that exclusively.

The real fix is to disconnect the original for the first boot of
the clone. Once XP claims to have found new hardware and
asks to be allowed to reboot, agree to that, and you can then
reconnect the original and it will still boot the clone fine.

If you are using different sector sizes, you may want to test that.

Its got nothing to do with sector sizes and you are talking about
cluster sizes anyway. Nothing to do with cluster sizes either.

If you aren't already doing this, and haven't tested
your images, you may be in for a surprise.

In some cases you can boot the clone fine, and only have a
problem with booting it once the original drive is formatted
or unplugged, because the boot involves both drives.