Aspire M5-481 how to recover from Ghost image on USB drive

dweller569
dweller569 Member Posts: 5 New User
in 2013 Archives

I have Windows 7 Home Premimum on my M5-481.  I successfully created a Ghost full backup of the "C:" drive on a USB drive.  Now I have discovered that I have a corrupted application that can't be fixed by the vendor.  So, I want to recover the Aspire using the Ghost backup.

 

My problem is that the Ghost DOS- recovery does not see the USB drive. I checked the BIOS and didn't see a setting to enable a native USB drive. 

 

So, any suggestions on how to make the USB drive visible to DOS, or could I maybe try to use a networked storage device?

 

Thanks

Best Answer

  • dweller569
    dweller569 Member Posts: 5 New User
    Answer ✓

    Well, I was finally able to restore my Aspire, but it wasn't easy.  Here's what I did:

    1. I opened the eRecovery DOS app and selected "Restore Windows and data".
    2. I have 4 DVD's from my Acer Image Backup.  Disc 1 took about an hour to process,then I got a "Read Error" about 1/2 through disc 2.  So the recover was aborted.
    3. Fortunately, I have a purchased set of official Acer recovery DVDs.  But, the failure in step 2 must have really messed up something because I couldn't open the Acer Recovery program (Windows error).  So, I couldn't use my Acer recovery discs.
    4. But, as a last resort, I booted from my Ghost DVD and it found the restore point that I did a week ago.  I was actually able to restore the PC from a USB hard drive.  Problem solved after about 8 hours of stress.

    I think that I need to stick with Ghost for backup / recovery.

Answers

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    It's been a long time since I used Ghost.

    If memory serves, you can recover individual files without the need to perform a complete system restore.

    The program you need is Ghost Explorer. I don't think it had a shortcut so you may need to search for it in the Ghost directory.

     

  • dweller569
    dweller569 Member Posts: 5 New User

    Alan, thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately, my problem is that an existing application is corrupted due to a failed update install.  The Win 7 install doesn't work because (apparently) some of the install records are missing or are unusable.  I'm sure that there are also some bad registry entries.

     

    So, I'm trying to re-image my entire Acer hard drive to a state when the application worked.  I've tried to do a Win 7 restore, and it does run, but it doesn't fix the problem.

     

    I'm not sure that recovering files from Ghost will solve this issue because I'm not sure exactly what files to recover and I'm afraid that I'll make the condition worse.

     

    Any other ideas?

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    OK. I was thinking that you simply wanted to recover a specific application directory.

    So, I assume you are booting Ghost DOS from USB but, once running, it can't see the USB it loaded from?

     

  • Alan-London
    Alan-London ACE Posts: 793 Pioneer

    I've had a look around and found this:

     

    http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/problem-driver-usb-key-ghost#comment-7244921

     

    At the bottom of the page it is reported that the 'The Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk' works with Ghost over the network.

     

    http://www.netbootdisk.com/

     

    Hopefully your problems are solved!

     

  • dweller569
    dweller569 Member Posts: 5 New User
    Answer ✓

    Well, I was finally able to restore my Aspire, but it wasn't easy.  Here's what I did:

    1. I opened the eRecovery DOS app and selected "Restore Windows and data".
    2. I have 4 DVD's from my Acer Image Backup.  Disc 1 took about an hour to process,then I got a "Read Error" about 1/2 through disc 2.  So the recover was aborted.
    3. Fortunately, I have a purchased set of official Acer recovery DVDs.  But, the failure in step 2 must have really messed up something because I couldn't open the Acer Recovery program (Windows error).  So, I couldn't use my Acer recovery discs.
    4. But, as a last resort, I booted from my Ghost DVD and it found the restore point that I did a week ago.  I was actually able to restore the PC from a USB hard drive.  Problem solved after about 8 hours of stress.

    I think that I need to stick with Ghost for backup / recovery.

This discussion has been closed.

Categories