Windows 7, Ghost 2003 & BCD Question

Big_Al

New Member
October 31, 2011

Guys/Gals,

I'm about to embark on the proverial "Big Build" from my current

Windows 98SE to Windows 7 64 Bit, and have to get these questions

answered before I proceed.

BTW, I'm not dual booting my new box, just Windows 7 64 Bit.

My new box will have a 1TB HDD (a 512, NOT the new AFD 4K) having

multiple partitions, but none to exceed 600 Gigs.

With the warning about NOT letting Windows 7 partition a new HDD,

I plan to pre-partition the 1TB HDD and THEN install Windows 7 on C:.

Presently I am using Ghost 2003 Build v793 strictly in DOS to do

these chores on my Windows 98SE box with much smaller PATA Hard Drives.

However, I have been informed that for some reason (I'm still

looking for the answer) a Windows 7 (ANY NTFS??) image made by Ghost

will NOT boot as usual after a restore. Even though Ghost is touted

as making an EXACT duplicate of a partition (and done so for my Windows

95, 98, and 98SE C: Drives since 1995) it fails with Windows XP/Vista/7.

The reason I just LOVE Ghost in DOS is the ease that I can make and

restore images.

As an example, when I want to make a Ghost Image to my HDD, I use a

DOS batch file like so:

@echo off
Ghost03.exe -clone,mode=pdump,src=1:1,dst=G:\01_Ghost\Newest.gho -z3 -fx -sure
Ghost03.exe -chkimg,G:\01_Ghost\Newest.gho -sure
Ghost03.exe -chkimg,G:\01_Ghost\Newest.gho -sure

This tells Ghost 2003 to make an image of my C: and make a Newest.gho file

on the G: Drive with high compression, then CRC check the image twice before

quitting.

Doing the same but to my CD/DVD burner just intails making the destination

dst=@CD1/CDR00001.gho.

I even wrote one that will make an image to the HDD and then burn a CD

image right after doing the CRC check on the HDD image!

I have batch files that will clone disk to disk and partition to partition

too.

I'm sure that you can appreciate the ease of just pushing a Floppy

in the drive, hitting the computer "On" button and having Ghost do the

work automatically without any further input necessary at all.

Also, if I wish to remove OR add a file to a Ghost image, it can

be done just as if the file was in a folder in Windows Explorer, using

"Ghost Explorer" on any .gho file.

With Windows 7, I know that it would be useless to have Ghost burn

a DVD of my C:, as it would always be a "You gotta fix the BCD" image.

HOWEVER, since a Ghost image saved to the Hard Drive IS editable,

can EasyBCD do the fixing so I can restore from that image? I'll then

be able to burn the "fixed" Ghost image to a DVD using Nero.

Thanks in advance for any help you can be.



Sincerely,



Big Al
 
If you want a clone which can be used to restore a partition to a previous state, the BCD won't need to be repaired afterwards.
The only problem with Vista/7 clones is if you use one to move your OS to another drive or a different position on the same drive.
The BCD identifies partitions by the UID which describes the disk sig and the partition offset. If those haven't changed then there's no problem. If they have, then "startup repair" from the booted DVD will quickly fix the BCD.
 
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