Steeplechase VLC Problem

[edda]

Hi!

I got a problem concerning Steeplechase VLC. A customer has a station controlled by it, now I´m asked to do some changed regarding the HMI and datalogg mechanism.

So I made a ghost of the hard drive in the machine (with Norton Ghost 2003 boot floppy), one directly to a new disk and one image file to a USB hard drive. The OS is Windows XP SP2.

I started the new HD in the machine and it started perfect, it communicated as it should with the I/Os and the machine ran like usual. So I headed back home to work offline in my office.

Back in my office I try start the Ghost HD in another computer I have But it didn’t boot up, at startup I get to screen were you can choose Normal start, Failsafe mode, Failsafe mode with network support and so on. Regardless to what I choose here it won´t boot up. It just moves on but It never shows the XP startup screen, it just reboot itself and gets back to the page with the startup mode select.

Then I thought maybe something happened to the HD on my way back so I made another one from the image file I had on the USB drive. But it´s the same problem.

So now I have tried the two discs in three other XP computers (with various setups), one old NT computer and one virtual (VMware) but still no luck.

I tried call Phoenix Contact here in Sweden and talked to the support about it but they didn’t have any strait answers to give me, they suspected that there is some hardware mismatch between the computer on the machine and the one I´ve been trying at, but they wasn’t sure.

I was back at the machine today and tried both of my HD there and they worked perfect in the computer there. One thing that I miss in my computers is the Hardware key for the VLC and the profibus communication card, but I removed them both from the computer in the machine and it still booted up like it should.

Anyone got any good idea what it could be, and a work around the boot up problem?


Regards

Edmund

 

[robertkjonesjr]

Your booting the full OS on a different machine? Not a Phoenix Contact problem, I don't think. I would be surprised if it would work... lots of issues, including drivers, some likely issues with hardware including disk IDs and maybe network IDs. I have done this plenty of times with Linux, but with Windows... I am not sure I would even try. Unless the hardware is exactly the same - not that far-fetched with companies standardizing - even then I would expect some issues that Ghost MAY help alleviate.

 

[ndzied1]

Some software locks itself to the mac I'd of a network card.

 

[edda]

Your booting the full OS on a different machine?

Well I normally do this with Windows XP/NT SCADA stations and I have never Experian’s any major problem with this. In failsafe mode the OS always boots up even how different the HW is. The biggest problem I have had with this is that the graphic card would run in 24 colours due to driver issues.

 

[Dirk]

Is the PC you are ghosting a single core processor PC? If so, is the PC you are loading the image a dual core or quad core by chance? Steeplechase (VLC) version 7.0 and earlier will not run on a dual or quad core machine and will keep it from booting.

 

[Honga]

Maximum size for a bootable usb drive is 2gb I think. May or maynot help.

http://askville.amazon.com/maximum-...-XP-Mac-OS/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=30507404

 

[edda]

Is the PC you are ghosting a single core processor PC? If so, is the PC you are loading the image a dual core or quad core by chance? Steeplechase (VLC) version 7.0 and earlier will not run on a dual or quad core machine and will keep it from booting.

No, two of the computers I´ll tried with were ordinary singel core computers.

 

[theDave2]

I think you're seeing the old IDE Boot Driver issue that sometimes crops up when you take an image from one machine to another (non-matching hardware) machine.

IIRC, XP will sometimes install a specific IDE chipset driver and even in Safe Mode not continue to use the boot driver, but switches over to the new driver and then hangs/reboots.

A quick web search turns up:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/19438/

indicates MS Sysprep can fix this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577

Gotta run.

HTH,
Dave

 

[theDave2]

Oh, if that Sysprep doesn't work, try a repair of XP with an install CD. Don't select the first Repair option presented, use the second one that is offered after you select Install and it tells you that there is already XP there.

I forgot to say, that your problem is quite common with XP, when putting an image on a different motherboard.