Norton Ghost 2003 and SATA
I just installed a new PC (with Windows) and wanted to backup the C (System) drive using Norton Ghost 2003. Don’t ask me why I am still using the old version instead of the new one, since this is the only one I have in my hand. The installation was just fine as well as the backup setting, then it asked me to reboot the PC. OK. Click and reboot..
After the blank screen, the ghost process notified me that there was an error and can not continue the task. It asked me to run “ghreboot“. No doubt, I run it and nothing happened.
Norton Ghost help on the web returned me nothing, except that the problem is caused by a virtual partition created by Norton Ghost as an active partition. I contacted my old friend asking for this problem and gave me a direction. He said that Norton Ghost 2003 is not compatible with SATA devices.
Here is how to solve the problem if you face it.
- Boot from any bootable CD from where you can run fdisk
- After it give you a command prompt, run: fdisk
- Choose to display partition and you will see a partition labeled : –VPGHOST–
- Delete this partition
- Activate your Bootable Partition
- Exit fdisk
- Reboot
Voila. You should notice your Windows loading screen. Then you can install the new version of Norton Ghost 
Warning: Use it at your own risk. I used Windows XP and Windows 98 for the Boot CD.
Comment by Burton Snowboard Boots
I use Norton Ghost 2003 too, it’s really easy to use and it’s come in handy SO many times…
Comment by TechPavan
Nice to see, you too use Norton Ghost 2003… I too use the same software to backup and restore my partitions, and also for copying tasks of disk to disk or partition to partition. Its a very nice tool… I love that most reliable tool. And my above url leads to a page where I have written a tutorial on using Norton Ghost 2003 in DOS. You may please check out the article…. The snaps are not so good as they are shot on a bulge type monitor… Just check out the tutorial….