Problem with WD Lifeguard Tools

[news.telenet.be]

Hi Rod,

I've just had a look at the MSI web site for BIOS upgrades and it appears
that support for 160G drives was added _after_ the version of the BIOS that
I have. So it looks like I may have to flash the BIOS to get 160G support -
or I might just go get another 120G.

Using what ?

Sorry I forgot that vital bit of info.. I'm using PQ Drive Image (Version 7
I think it is).

To do the restore I booted the machine using the Power Quest Recovery
Environment PQRE and used it to restore an image from an external USB drive
to the new blank IDE drive.I used the options..

Set the drive active for booting - YES
Restore original disk signature - YES
Restore MBR - YES

That appears to complete OK and I can explore the drive from within PQRE.
Yet if I set the BIOS to boot from the new drive and get...

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk
hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the
selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware..."

Colin

 

[Lil' Dave]

Thanks for the reply Dan,

Unfortunately I don't get a prompt. The WD program bombs because one of the
files it says it can't find is the license agreement. That is on the CD and
it (and other files) open fine on another PC. Tried using a CDR and a CDR/W
of different makes. The CDs are ok.

I've given up trying to get the WD tools to run for the moment. I've fitted
a new HD and I'm in the process of restoring a backup image using Power
Quest DI.

Would venture that you aren't burning the CD on the PC you're attempting to
boot the CD from. Try another manufacturer/make of CD media instead. Could
be a reflectivity problem due to the CD media used to burn.

 

[news.telenet.be]

Would venture that you aren't burning the CD on the PC you're attempting to
boot the CD from. Try another manufacturer/make of CD media instead. Could
be a reflectivity problem due to the CD media used to burn.

I've never had problems exchanging CDs between these two PC before and can't
believe I'd get exactly the same error twice.

I'm beginning to think I have a more general drive letter problem as I've
now tried twn new hard drives without success.. More on this elsewhere on
this thread.

 

[news.telenet.be]

Hi Rod,

I've just had a look at the MSI web site for BIOS upgrades and it appears
that support for 160G drives was added _after_ the version of the BIOS that
I have. So it looks like I may have to flash the BIOS to get 160G support -
or I might just go get another 120G.

Humm it doesn't seem to be that. I've now tried restoring to a 120G Samsung
and get exactly the same results. PQ Drive seems to restore the backup image
ok but the result just won't boot for some reason.

Time to try an older backup image.

Colin

 

[news.telenet.be]

Humm it doesn't seem to be that. I've now tried restoring to a 120G Samsung
and get exactly the same results. PQ Drive seems to restore the backup image
ok but the result just won't boot for some reason.

Time to try an older backup image.

That didn't work either so... I tried installing XP on the hard drive from
a WinXP CD... and that works - or at least I can now boot from the hard
drive.

So now I'm confused why none of my backup images seem to work. You can use
Drive Image to backup the active partion from within Windows can't you?

 

[Rod Speed]

I've just had a look at the MSI web site for BIOS upgrades
and it appears that support for 160G drives was added _after_
the version of the BIOS that I have. So it looks like I may have
to flash the BIOS to get 160G support

Yeah, I'd definitely go that route myself.

- or I might just go get another 120G.

I wouldnt, in fact I dont even buy 160G drives currently,
buy the 250G drives instead, rather better value.

Sorry I forgot that vital bit of info.. I'm using PQ Drive Image

Yeah, it sounded like that.

(Version 7 I think it is).

That should be fine version wise. Even 2002 is too.

To do the restore I booted the machine using the Power Quest Recovery
Environment PQRE and used it to restore an image from an external USB
drive to the new blank IDE drive.I used the options..

Set the drive active for booting - YES
Restore original disk signature - YES
Restore MBR - YES

That appears to complete OK and I can explore the drive from within
PQRE. Yet if I set the BIOS to boot from the new drive and get...

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk
hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the
selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware..."

Yeah, I'd certainly flash the bios and see what happens then.

 

[Rod Speed]

That didn't work either so... I tried installing XP on the
hard drive from a WinXP CD... and that works - or at
least I can now boot from the hard drive.

So now I'm confused why none of my backup images seem to work. You
can use Drive Image to backup the active partion from within Windows can't
you?

Yes, if it actually is 7. 2002 shouldnt let you do that.

Maybe its just a buggy early copy of 7. I never did use it much myself.
You could see if Symantec has a patch for it that might fix the restore problem.

I have given up on Drive Image and Ghost now, use True Image instead.

 

[news.telenet.be]

Yes, if it actually is 7. 2002 shouldnt let you do that.

Yes I checked and it's V7. I mabaged to get it to boot by installing XP from
an XP CD then reinstalling the backup using PQRE. However... I think things
are more complicated that I thought....

I managed to get an old backup to boot but it behaves exactly like it did
with my "faulty" WD drive installed. It fails to boot XP in normal and Safe
modes in a similar way (eg at roughly the same point). I'm beginning to
wonder if this is really is a hard drive problem after all!

Any idea how you turn off auto reboot? I know how to do it in windows but
how do you do that if Windows won't boot?

 

[Rod Speed]

Yes I checked and it's V7. I mabaged to get it to boot by installing
XP from an XP CD then reinstalling the backup using PQRE. However...
I think things are more complicated that I thought....

Yeah, looks like there may well be some hardware problem.

I managed to get an old backup to boot but it behaves
exactly like it did with my "faulty" WD drive installed. It
fails to boot XP in normal and Safe modes in a similar
way (eg at roughly the same point). I'm beginning to
wonder if this is really is a hard drive problem after all!

Yeah, looks like there may well be some hardware problem.

Not just a problem with the XP install either, because you
have a problem restoring other XP installs too, tho I guess
it might be just a comprehensively screwed XP install that
produces different symptoms when its restored to what it
produced before it was imaged.

Once you are happy that you can restore, you could
try a clean XP install, try imaging and restoring that.
If that works fine, it may just be a screwed XP install.

Any idea how you turn off auto reboot? I know how to do it
in windows but how do you do that if Windows won't boot?

You cant basically. You could try repairing the install, proceed
as if you are going to do a clean install, the install will say that
it can see an existing install and ask you if you want to repair it.
Thats not the same thing as the repair console you first see.
Allow it to repair the restored XP and see if that will boot.

 

[news.telenet.be]

Hi Rod,

Bingo... I gave up trying to restore a PQ Drive Image and had a go at
restoring an image I'd made with Ghost. To my surprise that seems to have
worked and my PC booted first attempt. No need to do a repair install etc So
it looks like the problem was with DI - either the backup or restore
process - probably the latter. That's a shame because I quite liked the way
DI worked. It was easy to set and forget.

I'll have to decide what I use now if I can't rely on the version of DI that
I have. The version of Ghost I have is pre the takeover of PQ. I find it
very fussy. I had to help it find the driver for my LAN card to get it to do
a peer-peer restore.

You mentioned you are using True Image now. Have you had to restore an
active partion with True Image in anger? How did it go?

Thanks for the help by the way.

Colin

 

[Peter]

I'll have to decide what I use now if I can't rely on the version of DI
that

I have. The version of Ghost I have is pre the takeover of PQ. I find it
very fussy. I had to help it find the driver for my LAN card to get it to do
a peer-peer restore.

No problem with Ghost if you use Ghost32.exe and boot from UBCD4WIN CD. Save
/ Restore images to any network share. No problem with network drivers
anymore.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Hi Rod,

Bingo... I gave up trying to restore a PQ Drive Image and had a go at
restoring an image I'd made with Ghost. To my surprise that seems to
have worked and my PC booted first attempt.

No need to do a repair install etc So
it looks like the problem was with DI -

Yeah, obviously can't be Roddles's answer. Afterall, Roddles is infallable.

either the backup or restore process - probably the latter.

That's a shame because I quite liked the way DI worked.

It was easy to set and forget.

Ah, is that why you had to ask Roddles the question.

 

[Rod Speed]

Bingo... I gave up trying to restore a PQ Drive Image and had a go at
restoring an image I'd made with Ghost. To my surprise that seems to
have worked and my PC booted first attempt. No need to do a repair
install etc So it looks like the problem was with DI - either the backup
or restore process - probably the latter. That's a shame because I
quite liked the way DI worked. It was easy to set and forget.

I'll have to decide what I use now if I can't rely on the version of DI that I
have.

It may have been updated, that was quite early in the life of that product
which was substantially different to the previous version of DI.

On the other hand I dont like what it turned into, Ghost 9, at all.

The version of Ghost I have is pre the takeover of PQ. I find it very fussy.

Yeah, I never liked the user interface much at all compared with DI.

I had to help it find the driver for my LAN
card to get it to do a peer-peer restore.

Yeah, it was a real dog in that area, if the NIC wasnt natively
supported. Doable, but very fiddly. Easier to just use Bart's
network boot and run ghost after using that.

You mentioned you are using True Image now. Have you
had to restore an active partion with True Image in anger?

Yes, done quite a bit of that with the test machine which has
various canned OS configs that I restore when testing etc.

How did it go?

Perfect. The only real quirk I have seen with TI is that the
rescue CDs can be a bit quirky with some builds not even
offering 'other computers near me' for the image files. No
big deal, I just use a build that shows that.

I dont do much exotic with external drives etc tho.

Thanks for the help by the way.

No problem, thats what these technical groups are for, and so
others can research the problem using groups.google etc too.

 

[CWatters]

Who asked you?