removing a symantec ghost 2003 virtual-dos partition

Here is an issue that I came across the other day when one of my clients was attempting to make a Ghost image of a failing hard drive. After installing the Symantec Ghost 2003 client on the Windows XP system, the Ghost partition backup process was started. Part way though the backup, the Windows OS locked up (thus the bad hard drive) and the laptop was restarted. When the system started up, a brief menu displayed after which PC-DOS started up. The Windows partition was not accessible.

Of course, this would scare any reasonable person – the potential loss of all data! Fortunately, brief research on Symantec’s site shows that this is not an unsolvable problem. During the initial imaging process, Symantec creates a Virtual partition in which it can execute file level tools to copy the partition data. As part of the process, this virtual partition is marked as Active and is the default boot partition. The Windows partition, although no longer bootable in this configuration, is not manipulated in any way and the data remains in tact.

To reset the Windows partition to be the active partition, here are the steps:

1. Boot the system off of the Symantec Ghost 2003 CD. This CD is bootable. Adjust the BIOS boot order if required so that the CD is primary in the boot order.
2. Once the startup process completes, identify the drive letter for the CD drive. This is required to execute the Ghost commands properly.
3. Type ‘CD D:\GHOST\SUPPORT‘ – where D:\ = the CD ROM drive.
4. At the prompt type ‘gdisk.exe /status /i‘ (this will show all drives – note the drive # associated with the primary hard drive).
5. Next type ‘gdisk.exe 1 /status /i‘ (where 1 = to the drive letter found in step 4; note the partition that the Windows OS is installed on).
6. Next type ‘gdisk.exe 1 /act /p:2 /i‘ (where 2 = to the partition on which the Windows OS is installed).
7. Restart the system – the Windows OS should be the primary partition now and the Windows OS should now start up regularly.

Here are a couple of other notes, if you are using Ghost 2003 on a newer system – especially one with SATA drives, you might want to consider upgrading to the newer version of Ghost as there are some known compatibility issues with SATA and Ghost 2003.

Here are some reference articles for additional information:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/0/be40d5d52f920e2288256c5a00730832?OpenDocument
http://service1.symantec.com/support/ghost.nsf/docid/2002092510522725
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/on-technology.nsf/docid/2000030715304425

Filed Under: technical stuff