Situation:
When you install GoBack on Windows 2000/XP, you see the error message "GoBack is unable to determine which of your hard drives is the boot drive" soon after you start the installation. This document describes some possible causes and solutions to this error message.

Solution:
There is more than one possible cause of this message.

Dynamic Disk
This can happen when one or more hard disks on the computer is a Dynamic Disk. GoBack is not compatible with Dynamic Disks and you cannot install GoBack on a computer that uses a Dynamic Disk.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP use the term Basic Disk to indicate that the disk is not a Dynamic Disk. A Basic Disk does not include simple, mirrored, spanned, striped, or RAID-5 volumes.

To use GoBack on a computer that uses a Dynamic Disk, you must first convert the Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk. Note that the conversion erases all programs and data from the disk. For more information, consult your Windows 2000 or Windows XP documentation, or the Microsoft article Working with Basic and Dynamic Disks.

Improperly restored backup
There have been several reports that this has happened when, after installing a new hard drive, the entire contents of the old hard drive are restored to the new one. In the reported cases, even though there was only a single hard drive, Windows reported that there were two.

Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO) is present
You may see this message when the boot drive has a Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO) installed. Norton GoBack is not compatible with DDOs. Consult your computer or hard drive manufacturer to determine if you need a DDO, and if possible, how to remove it.

Document ID: 2003030413270207
Last Modified: 05/30/2008
Date Created: 03/04/2003
Operating System(s): Windows 2000, Windows XP
Product(s): GoBack 3.0 Deluxe, GoBack 3.0 Personal Edition, GoBack 3.1 Deluxe, GoBack 3.1 Personal Edition, GoBack 3.2 Deluxe, GoBack 3.2 Enterprise Edition, Norton GoBack 3.5 Personal Edition, Norton GoBack 3.6, Norton GoBack 4.0