GHO File corrupt? "Not a ghost image file"

[Migration User]

I created a ghost image of a user's PC with version 11.0.1 spanned over (12) 4 GB files.  Everything went well and I was able to open the image up with Ghost Explorer.  I reimaged the users PC and now when I try to open the GHO file to restore his data Ghost Explorer says "Not a ghost image file".

Its obvious to me that something happened to corrupt the file/header information.  What I need to know now is how do I fix it?  I've seen other posts with similar problems but not exactly the same.

I've tried to open the image in ghost explorer 11.5.1.2266 and I get the same error.  I've tried the switches -corrupt and -ignoreindex and that hasn't worked either.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I'm not looking forward to telling the user his data is gone..

Thanks

[Migration User]

Check out this https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/cant-reimage-or-extract-files-ghost-image-help

 

I was getting that same error but I used ghofixup.exe with the switch command and now am able to at least begin ghosting it.  It fails at the last segment because that appears to be corrupt so I am trying to figure out how to fix that now.

[Migration User]

Where do I get ghofixup.exe?  I've looked everywhere and I can't find a place to download it from.  I would be so relieved if it work.

Thanks again

[Migration User]

http://nigel.bree.googlepages.com/ghofixup.zip

 

[Migration User]

I ran ghofixup.exe but when I try to run it on the first span, the only gho file I get the message "Not a valid image file".  From reading other forum posts I suspect something in the header information has changed and its no longer seen as a ghost file.  Is there a way to fix that header information?

[Migration User]

You need to run it on just the .gho file.  Then try to image it to a drive

[Migration User]

Yea that's what I did.  From the command line I ran ghofixup.exe on the gho file and tried span and cd and both times I got a message saying "not a valid image file".  

[Edward Tippelt]

Can you read the optical media on another computer and copy the GHO file from the DVD onto the hard disk ?

If you can recover the files from the optical media to hard disk then you stand a chance of recovering the data, but if the DVDs are not readable then there is a good chance that you have lost the data.

I have had experience with bad media in the past, so before writing any DVD I have a careful look at the optical surface to see if there are any visible defects. It is not uncommon to find some media with quite large defects plainly visible on the surface. They may work long enough to pass a verify right after the write, but fail soon after.

My own preference is to back up to locally connected USB hard disks where possible, as these are much more reliable that optical IME.

[Migration User]

I have run into this problem many times over the past year. I don't know if it has to do with an update or what. I have tried different Ghost servers with no help. Now I check the image for corruption right after I create it. I run Ghost32.exe or Ghost64.exe and check the image for corruption.

[Edward Tippelt]

Since I had a batch of dodgy Bulkpaq disks a while back, I now inspect the media surface of all my DVD blanks for holes or other visible defects and discard them if I spot any. Bottom line is that using cheap media for backup is a false economy for anyone.

[Migration User]

Thanks guys, but the image was written to a USB hard drive not DVDs.  I am going to attempt to get help from Symantec on this one because of the fact that the image opened in Ghost Explorer once and then something happened.  After 10 years of doing this it finally caught up with me I guess.  Now I'll know to check the integrity of the image before I do anything else.

[Edward Tippelt]

Hi Les,

As you have opened a new thread on this same topic, I will lock this thread to avoid duplication.