Question (1868) Ghost has detected an inconsistency between the volumes detected on disk and the OS volumes. On Vista this could lead to write failures. Rebooting should fix this problem. Do you wish to continue? Yes/No

[Migration User]

Hi folks,

I have an IBM server running Windows XP Professional with SP3 with a single physical disk with one single volume (150GB)

I have a Ghost boot CD I created using the Ghost Boot Wizard v11.5.0.2113

I boot up from this CD and the Ghost displays the message below. I click "Yes" and continue with the Ghosting.

However, the Ghost detects a 8GB partition instead of the 150GB partition as shown below.

Even stranger is the partition type HPFS instead of pure NTFS.

When I forced Ghost to image based on partition instead of disks, I get the same results as it will find the partition above (8GB HPFS) instead of the 150GB NTFS.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

This looks like it might be a recovery partition - not uncommon on IBM/Lenovo machines.

Have a look via the Disk Management MMC snap in while XP is running and see what partitions are visible therein. Or have a look at the hidden boot.ini in the root of the C: drive - this will show what drive and partition the system volume is on.

If a boot manager is involved (a way of selecting whether to activate System Recovery at boot time) then the main partition could be flagged as hidden.

[Migration User]

EdT,

I reviewed the Disk Management console and it just shows the DISK 0 with one single partition as it is supposed to since there is only one single physical disk and volume.

I did review the boot.ini as well, see below, and it shows just one partition.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

If a boot manager is involved (a way of selecting whether to activate System Recovery at boot time) then the main partition could be flagged as hidden.

Good point, I think such option would be in the BIOS, right?

Thanks for your support!

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

I had another look at the Ghost message you posted. First of all, do you have any other devices plugged into the computer?  You will observe that the GHO file reference refers to D: drive, which suggests there is another volume in addition to the reported Local drive of 150Gb. So either there is another device in there, or another partition.

I failed to ask if you were booting DOS or WinPE.  DOS has no support for SATA disks, so if your machine happens to have a SATA hard disk and the bios is not set to compatibility mode, then you will not be able to see the disk.  If you are booting WinPE, and happen to have a USB key plugged in, then this will be mounted by WinPE and reported as a volume also.

The reference to HPFS/NTFS is nothing to be concerned about. Have a google on "Type 7 partition" and you will find some links to reference documents that describe the different partition "types". Type 7 was used for HPFS (OS/2) as well as NTFS and even FAT-64. If I recall correctly, the early versions of NT actually used HPFS and the switch to NTFS came at NT 3.51 or NT4.

NT of course was the onward development of  OS/2 which Microsoft developed jointly with IBM before they went their own ways.

[Migration User]

EdT,

Thanks for following up, you have been a great source of clarification.

I had another look at the Ghost message you posted. First of all, do you have any other devices plugged into the computer?  You will observe that the GHO file reference refers to D: drive, which suggests there is another volume in addition to the reported Local drive of 150Gb. So either there is another device in there, or another partition.

Yes, I do, it is the external drive I am using to save the Ghost image on, it is mounted as drive D. Now, even if I boot without any devices plugged into the server, Ghost still displays the original message :(

I failed to ask if you were booting DOS or WinPE.  DOS has no support for SATA disks, so if your machine happens to have a SATA hard disk and the bios is not set to compatibility mode, then you will not be able to see the disk.  If you are booting WinPE, and happen to have a USB key plugged in, then this will be mounted by WinPE and reported as a volume also.

Since I used the Symantec Ghost Boot Wizard (v.11.5.0.2113) to create the bootable CD, it says "Windows PE". Something I should mention is that I have about 30+ of these servers with the same configuration and this message is displayed in some of them :( so I rule out any possible issues with the bootable Ghost CD. The issue must be at the RAID level now. I should mention these servers have 2 150GB SATA disks configured as RAID 1.

The reference to HPFS/NTFS is nothing to be concerned about.

When I mount the Ghost image created under this scenario on Ghost Explorer, it will not expand and it will just display a blue "?" icon next to the drive labeled "NTFS/HPFS".

If you can come up with other possible idea on why Ghost will not see this single drive 150GB NTFS partition, please do let me know.

I already had 4 servers with the same warning message and if I continue Ghosting them, the Ghost image is always 7.16GB! As if it were imaging a fixed hidden partition, but how can I uncover such partition if it even exists?

Thanks for your support!

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

Alex,
First of all, the version of Ghost you have is not the latest. Run LiveUpdate and get your copy up to the current build, which is 11.5.1.2266.

Secondly, did you at any point add the SATA and RAID drivers for your IBM system to WinPE?  You originally mentioned a single 150Gb hard disk but now you mention two such disks in RAID1 configuration.

The issue here is that unless you have the correct SATA and RAID support present in WinPE, it is likely that WinPE is not able to mount the disk array correctly and so may only be able to view a recovery partition.

If you boot to WinPE, and exit Ghost to the command prompt, you can make some checks of the hard disks using DISKPART.

So type DISKPART at the command prompt. After a few seconds, it will give you a new prompt.

Then type: lis dis  (short for list disks) - this will list the disks that WinPE can see.

You can then select a disk for further investigation using the command SEL DIS 1 (or whatever number you wish to view)

Then type LIS PAR  (list partitions) - this will display the partitions that WinPE can see on the selected hard disk.

Type EXIT to return to the WinPE prompt.  Unless you can see the disk layout you expect, it is likely that the drivers are not present or not loading.

If you have drivers available in the form of an INF, SYS, CAT file, WinPE can dynamically load them from the command line - eg from a USB stick. The command is: DRVLOAD (path/filename of INF file). However, I cannot be sure if this will guarantee access to the RAID array, as I've only used the dynamic loading technique to get a USB3 external drive mounted, and that is a plug and play device, whereas internal hard disks are not usually mounted this way.

[Migration User]

EdT,

First of all, the version of Ghost you have is not the latest. Run LiveUpdate and get your copy up to the current build, which is 11.5.1.2266.

I installed Symantec Ghost Suite 2.5, and reviewing the installer options, it doesn't include LiveUpdate :(

Secondly, did you at any point add the SATA and RAID drivers for your IBM system to WinPE?  You originally mentioned a single 150Gb hard disk but now you mention two such disks in RAID1 configuration.

The issue here is that unless you have the correct SATA and RAID support present in WinPE, it is likely that WinPE is not able to mount the disk array correctly and so may only be able to view a recovery partition.

I apologize for the confusion. At first, I thought this would be an simple solution, so I didn't mention the RAID configuration. I already contacted Adaptec tech support to provide me the RAID drivers, I added the Intel SATA drivers to the WinPE, but I am having trouble booting up with the drivers loaded :(

If you boot to WinPE, and exit Ghost to the command prompt, you can make some checks of the hard disks using DISKPART.

DISKPART only see one logical drive mounted as expected.

If you have drivers available in the form of an INF, SYS, CAT file, WinPE can dynamically load them from the command line - eg from a USB stick. The command is: DRVLOAD (path/filename of INF file).

Good tip, I will keep in mind.

I keep you posted on the status of this issue.

Thanks,

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

LiveUpdate is not a specific option if I recall correctly - it gets installed along with the rest of the product.

Have you had a look in the Start Menu for the GSS shortcuts?  LiveUpdate should be in your Start Menu. If it is not, then there would appear to be something amiss with your installation source.

From what another user posted, if you have your original serial number credentials you can log into the licensing portal and download a current version from there.

Since your drive only appears to have a single partition, I can only hazard a guess that the reason you are seeing an 8Gb volume is due to a lack of the appropriate drivers in your WinPE setup.

[Migration User]

EdT,

Have you had a look in the Start Menu for the GSS shortcuts?  LiveUpdate should be in your Start Menu. If it is not, then there would appear to be something amiss with your installation source.

Find below my Ghost options

From what another user posted, if you have your original serial number credentials you can log into the licensing portal and download a current version from there.

I will sure give that a try!

Since your drive only appears to have a single partition, I can only hazard a guess that the reason you are seeing an 8Gb volume is due to a lack of the appropriate drivers in your WinPE setup.

Just to reiterate, Ghost is able to see the RAID configuration as a single logical 150GB drive with one single partition of 150GB (read the "Source" line on the image below, it reads... Local drive [1], 152459MB)

However, when Ghosting is running (see image below), Ghost sees the partition as 8GB instead of 150GB (read the "Current partition" line on the image below, it reads... 1/1 Type:7 [NTFS/HPFS], Size: 8032MB)

I will get the proper RAID drivers and I let you know the outcome.

Thanks for following up, you have been a great source of support!

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

Just a thought - check in Add/Remove programs - LiveUpdate is usually there as a separate application. If it is in there, then perhaps only the shortcut to it is missing. If it is not in there then definitely something did not happen at install time. Does the machine it is installed on have internet access?

[Migration User]

EdT,

I do have LiveUpdate on Add/Remove Programs and if I go to "C:\Program Files\Symantec\LiveUpdate", I see the following EXEs...

ALUNOTIFY.EXE
AluSchedulerSvc.exe
AUPDATE.EXE
LSETUP.EXE
LUALL.EXE
LuCallbackProxy.exe
LUCheck.exe
LuComServer_3_2.EXE
LuConfig.EXE
LUInit.exe
SymantecRootInstaller.exe

If you have LiveUpdate, which executable above is your shortcut pointing to?

The Ghost solution is installed on my personal laptop running Windows 2008 Enterprise Server OS and, yes, it has Internet access.

No response from the Adaptec Tech Support guys yet :(

If you are knowledgeable about the RAID drivers needed, is it possible for you to find the correct RAID driver that I need in the WinPE boot CD? If so, the RAID description is displayed when booting up is "Adaptec Embedded SATA HostRAID BIOS V4.8-7 B2105"

When I browse for the RAID SATA driver on Adaptec website, http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/raid/#sata, I get to choose the driver based on the model number (Adaptec Serial ATA RAID <model-number-here>), but how do I get the correct model number from my system? It is not displayed anywhere on the RAID Configuration Utility or BIOS.

I appreciate your help!

Thanks,

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

I don't have GSS installed anywhere here, but there is nothing to stop you trying LUALL.exe LUCHECK.exe and LUINIT.EXE and seeing what happens.  Or maybe another forum member could check if they have the shortcut handy.

When it comes to drivers of any kind, there is a procedure to follow which works in most cases, as long as you have a working operating system with raid drivers already installed.  You can either check out this article: Utility to Assist in Identifying Plug and Play Drivers Symantec Connect and grab a scan of all your plug and play devices into a handy text file, or you can open device manager, locate the Raid device and note its device ID or PNP ID.  Then, when you have downloaded a potential driver, extract the SYS INF and CAT files (these are the usual minimum fileset you will need) and open the INF in a text editor. The INF should have the PNP ID string in there somewhere - there may be several if the drivers support several similar devices, but if the PNP ID of your raid controller is not in the INF, then you don't have the right driver.

Basically, the plug and play system searches the INF library on the PC for a matching PNP ID for any new device, and when it finds a match, it loads the drivers detailed in the INF containing the matching PNP ID.

If the Adaptec RAID adaptor is a separate card (rather than integrated on the motherboard) then you may have to examine the card to locate a model number. If it is an integrated chipset, then you may need to read the chip number, or check in device manager in case it is identified in there.

Hope that gives you enough to go on, as it's late here and I'm off to bed.

[Migration User]

Hi EdT,

I have been out of the country for a week, just came back.

I wanted to share a new finding on this *still* ongoing issue with my 24 production servers.

9 out of the 24 didn't follow the one single logical disk and one partition standard as the other 15, these 9 servers actually have one logical disk with 2 partitions (C 30GB and D 120GB).

The standard is one single logical drive (2 physical disks in RAID 10) with one single volume (C 150GB drive).

Interestingly enough, I noticed I don't get the "Ghost has detected an inconsistency..." warning message on these 9 servers which has 2 partitions, it is the 1-partition servers that Ghost has an issue creating the image :(

Does this 2-partition configuration give you a clue on what could possibly be the reason on this "Ghost has detected an inconsistency..." warning message that I get on the 1-partition servers?

Thank you for all your help!

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

It gives me no more clues if the hardware is identical and the operating systems are identical and they were built in exactly the same way and share the same hard disk controllers, etc, etc.

I still think it may be down to the hard disk drivers - have you made any progress in finding the device ID for the hard disk controller?

[Migration User]

EdT,

At this point, I am out of resources/ideas and I will open a case with Symantec Tech Support.

I truly appreciate your help on this and I will sure let you know the outcome/solution of this.

Thanks,

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

Something just popped up in the old grey matter. Do these production servers use a pre-loaded server operating system that IBM has provided, or did you wipe the hard disks and build them from scratch?

I do know that IBM have used some rather unusual partitioning schemes in the past, including linux based boot managers, and this causes havoc with Ghost using standard settings. There are switches which you can use with IBM/Lenovo machines to overcome these peculiarities but at the moment I can't recall the exact switch so will have a hunt with the search engine to see if I can find the relevant information.

[Edward Tippelt]

Looks like I put the link into my browser favorites folder. Check out this technote:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH110428&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1300821278941

The link above takes you into the new Symantec KB which is worth keeping on your favorites list.

[Migration User]

EdT,

Thanks for the KB, I noticed I haven't mentioned the server model, it is an IBM System x3400 M3 as detailed here http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/tower/x3400m3/index.html

Do these production servers use a pre-loaded server operating system that IBM has provided, or did you wipe the hard disks and build them from scratch?

Our vendor has provided the Ghost image to apply to all these servers, so I will have to ask them.

There are switches which you can use with IBM/Lenovo machines to overcome these peculiarities

Based on the KB, it suggests to use the command line switch -IB which is the "Image Boot" option

It also lists additonal switches: -FNI -FFX -NOIDE -NOUSB which I don't find on this version of the Ghost GUI.

Something I'd like to mention is that I cannot boot up from a USB thumbdrive, I must use a CD/DVD.

I will give the "Image Boot" a try this coming Monday, I let you know the outcome.

 

Thanks for your support,

...Alex

[Migration User]

EdT,

Not sure if it makes a difference, but here it goes... the Ghost image that it was applied to these servers having an issue Ghosting (those having a single C volume instead of the working ones with 2 volumes) were applied a spanned Ghost image (1 GHO and 2 GHS) thru GhostCast Server when being prepped.

Do you think it makes a difference due to the way we are trying to take the Ghost image from these problematic servers?

If so, how do we specify to take a spanned image instead of one huge one?

I appreciate your support!

Thanks,

...Alex

[Edward Tippelt]

I don't believe it makes any difference whether the image is a single GHO file or a GHO plus GHS files. If there are any issues with the image files, then the restore will report them at the time of image restoration. Your original posting refers to warning messages you are getting when Ghost loads and not when you get to the point of image restore.

Ultimately, you could generate a bootable USB device running WinPE, copy the image files to that and try restoring from the USB device and avoid using the network at all. However, if you still get these warning messages when Ghost starts, the next thing I would try is to delete any existing partitions and create a new clean partition formatted to NTFS. Again, this can be done under WinPE using Diskpart.

What I would also suggest, is that if your vendor is supplying these Ghost images, perhaps you should have a discussion with them about the warning messages you are getting in case they can shed some light on it from their experience.