[dlevens]

I came up with this guide to make it as easy as possible to deploy ghost images from CDs. I prefer to use unicasting or multicasting whenever possible but there are times when a CD set is needed. I have received a lot of help on these forums and wanted to give a little back.

This guide will help you to take a large ghost image and span it on to CDs with the first CD being bootable. Also the first CD contains ghost.exe and autoloads ghosts to deploy the image.

I am currently using Symantec Ghost 8 Corporate but this process should work for most versions of Ghost.


SPANNING YOUR IMAGE
===================
1. Open up the ghost image to deploy in ghost explorer
2. Select view | options | set a span split to fit your cd media
3. Select File | compile and save your image

MAKING YOUR FLOPPY IMAGE
========================
1. Start with a Windows ME boot disk and keep only these files

AUTOEXEC.BAT
CD1.SYS
CONFIG.SYS
MOUSE.COM (get this from disk 1 of a ghost boot floppy)
MOUSE.INI (get this from disk 1 of a ghost boot floppy)
MSCDEX.EXE
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM

2. Change your autoexec.bat to match the following:

@echo off

	MSCDEX.EXE  /D:tomato /L:R
	SET TZ=GHO+08:00
	prompt $p$g
	MOUSE.COM
	for %%i in (r:\*.gho) do set image=%%i
	echo Loading...
	\ghost\ghost.exe -clone,mode=load,src=%image%,dst=1 -rb

NOTE: If you do not want to auto deploy the image then remove
the parameters after ghost.exe

3. Change your config.sys to match the following:

FILES=30
	BUFFERS=20
	DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:tomato
	LASTDRIVE=Z

4. Make an image of your floppy using WinImage
a. Open WinImage then click on Disk | Read Disk
b. Click on Image | Change Format and select 2.88
c. Drag and Drop the Ghost folder including ghost.exe from disk 2 of a ghost boot disk set
d. save your image as a .ima image

MAKING CD1 YOUR BOOTABLE CD
===========================
1. Open Ahead Nero Burning ROM and choose bootable CD "CD-ROM (Boot)"
2. From the boot tab put a check in image file and browse to your .ima file
3. Put a check in "enable expert settings" and change emulation to 2.88
4. Click on new
5. Drag and drop the first *.gho image from your spanned ghost image
6. Burn your CD

MAKING CD2-CDx GHOST CDs
========================
1. Open Ahead Nero Burning ROM and choose "CD-ROM (ISO)"
2. Click on new
3. Drag and drop the next *.ghs image from your spanned ghost image
4. Burn your CD

DONE

Just take your CD set now and put in CD1 and let it rip. Ghost will ask you for
the next CD when it is ready for it.

Dennis

[GreenMachine]

Thanks, dlevens!

Always nice to see someone willing to contribute!

[Synapse]

Very Nice! I did the same thing, since my eMachine CDs are .gho files.. had to extract them put on a seperate partition and remake the GHO files. pain in the rear.

I though about making a guide but would've never been able to put it as clean as you have. Very nice!

[Drewdatrip]

Nice guide mate.

I generally deploy images server side but this is definatly a nice deal if i was doing somthing onsite.
Well done

|Drew|

[MilkyMagic]

Thanks for your comprehensive guide - I've created the bootable CD.

However, when Ghost launches off the CD it queries the Hard Drive and says "destination drive too small". I've tried this on different hardware.

I know the HD's are OK as Ghost loads images to them fine if I boot ghost via RIS/Windows PE instead. Interestingly even if I use the built-in boot wizard CD/DVD Startup disk, i get the same error.

Symantec say to try using GHOST -OR to stop ghost checking the destination disk, but this does not fix the problem.

Did you come across this problem/any idea how to fix it?

Thanks alot for your help.

[dlevens]

MilkyMagic,

I have not seen that error yet. So far the cds we made work on every hardware we tried. Maybe start from scratch and make a new set to make sure you did not miss something?

Dennis

[MilkyMagic]

Thanks it works fine now - the ghost files were spanned and were written incorrectly for some reason.

I've now created a bootable DVD with Nero 6 Reloaded, with your boot image files/config.

One problem I find is that when I insert my bootable DVD (or bootable CD for that matter) and reboot the PC, it boots off the DVD with no chance to intervene. Ie, when I use a manufacturer's bootable CD normally you get the message:

Press any key to boot from CD...

The down side to this is that the PC boots off the DVD, restores the ghost image automatically, reboots automatically, and then boots off the DVD *AGAIN* and goes around in a loop, unless you are sitting at the PC to intervene.

I was really hoping that it would not boot off the DVD if I didn't sit there and press any key when prompted.

Is this something to do with the boot image/emulation specified in Nero?

Any ideas? Thanks.

[tarquel]

Yep

I'd love to know this answer to query too.


--- Regarding restoring a image from the server by Ghostcasting: ---

I hope this isnt quite off topic (any admin - please move it to a new topic if you think it should be in a new topic) but isnt there some way of doing the following:

(sorry the following sounds complex, but I sometime find it hard to put things into words hehe)

Have a boot sector on the hard drive that works like the normal XP CD boot sector (i.e. asks for user input to boot the cd) but instead, have it boot a partition on the hard drive which loads up a image of the boot disk that you could have set to automate a restore of the main partiton

i.e.

- You press a key when the hard drive asks something like

Quote

press any key to start the ghost process...

- it loads a seperate partition on the hard drive that is basically, the image (or something similar) of the floppy disk you can create in the Ghost Boot Wizard tool.
- This process (automated by params in the autoexec) will restore the primary partition which could be periodically updated i.e. new hotfixes, updated apps,etc. all installed,

I know I've sorta explained it twice hehe but its only to help you all understand what the hell i'm going on about....hopefully

This would cut down on the need for have cd's and floppies lying about, plus where u have many of the same system's i.e. computer suites, etc. u only really need one machine (after setting this up on each pc) to have one cd-rom drive and a floppy drive i.e. cutting hardware replacement costs

Best Regards (and hope someone can suggest a way of doing the above),
Nath.

[dlevens]

Milkymagic,

Only the first CD is supposed to be bootable. CDs 2 on prevent this from happening since they are not bootable. If you are going to use a DVD or have a really small image that fits on one CD then you can remove the -rb from this line

\ghost\ghost.exe -clone,mode=load,src=%image%,dst=1 -rb

and then it wont reboot when it is done.

You are right though, it would be much smarter to incorporate the press any key to boot to cd option, which probably is fairly easy but I have not looked into it yet. If you find the time to figure this out please share it with us, if I somehow find the time I will do the same.

it_ybd, what you are describing is similar to what companies like IBM do. There is a hidden partition where an unattended install resides and pressing F11 allows you to boot to Microsoft PE type mini OS That can rebuild the pc. There is also some software that does something similar to this called rescue and recovery. This would be a nice way to rebuild a pc quickly but I have found the unattended install is so easy and fast that there has not been a need to pursue it yet.

Dennis

[tarquel]

hehe I'm glad i made "some" sense then

Unattended is fine for a few machines but i need the ability to restore multiple machines - like at the moment, booting with a floppy disk in each pc and ghostcasting 4 at a time usually works well enough.

probably could do more that 4 thinking about it if the network isn't being used at the time.

The trouble with the disk or cd method is it relies on the floppy disk/CD drive actually working and there lies the problem here - pupils = vandalism hehe and many of the cd drives here dont work. No point replacing for them to be "destroyed" again really. Guess I'm lucky that all the floppy drives still work for me to ghostcast.

....i'll be back to edit this after....

Cheers,
N

[prathapml]

@it_ybd
What you describe, can be done thru Multi-boot.
You can have 3 options on the bootable CD - one for starting Ghost, one for booting into DOS (for preparing the hard-disk, probably), and one more option to boot from hard-disk. You can make the "boot from hard-disk" as default choice, and then if you need to start ghost or DOS, use arrow keys to select that option and launch it.

Example Screenshot of Multi-boot is below (attached):

Attached File(s)

•  multi_boot.jpg (39.18K)
  Number of downloads: 298

[CoCayden]

Thanx for a great guide. I am having trouble getting the cd1.sys.

Can someone send me their completed .ima image to CoCayden@gmail.com

Thanx

CoCayden

[dlevens]

email sent with completed .ima

Dennis

[CoCayden]

Thanks for that i am burning it now, so hopefully it will work.

Thanks Again

CoCayden

[tarquel]

@prathapml:

That sounds great for a cd - but that isnt what I was refering to hehe

I know I was "sort of" staying from the exact topic but i was refering to a method that could be used on the HD, not CD.

If it could be used somehow as the HD boot sector then great I'm after a hidden partition with the Ghost boot disk image on it that can connect to the Ghostcast server and then use that to restore the main partition which has the OS on it, virtually eliminating the need for a floppy or CD device to boot ghost.

Cheers,
Nath

[CoCayden]

Hey Again all,
I just throught that i might add that it is possible to add instructions and points to ask if you want to continue to the deployable CD/DVD. I found this a little to late when i accidentaly left a DVD containing the deployable ghost image in and i wiped my hard drive.

To add instructions you can just add "echo insert text" and replace insert text with what ever u want it to say into the autoexec.bat

For a hit any key to continue point simply add pause into the autoexec.bat

Hope this helps

CoCayden

[tappers]

Guys,

just a quick question and probably off the topic but has anyone deployed an Gost Image from MS RIS, and if so how??

Cheers

Chris

[MilkyMagic]

Chris,

Not sure on Ghost over RIS, but what I do is this:

- Add XP base image to RIS server (via normal MS RIS setup)
- Get hold of Windows PE (cut-down 32bit XP OS) - you need to be a select customer,etc to get this. not available thru oem channels,etc.
- You can then add the Windows PE code to your RIS XP image.
- You can then PXE remote boot over RIS into the Windows PE image.
- Add the 32-bit "Ghost32.exe" file from symantec.
- Call ghost32.exe and restore the image.

I use this all the time to image and restore ghost images when my machines haven't got cdrom's/floppies. It's really quick too as you just boot up, hit F12, Windows PE loads really fast, and the ghost image restores under a 32-bit environment.

You can also wipe/prepare the HD in Windows PE using "diskpart", and this is alot faster than DOS as it has proper 32-bit access to the hard drive.

If you search Symantec's support website I think they have articles on ghost & RIS. I had a quick look but couldn't find a URL for you, but sure I have seen these articles before.

[tarquel]

That sounds just like what I've been after

RIS server tho - kinda missing that lol

Regarding WinPE tho, OEM's can get hold of this - not saying where from (no, i'm not talking illegally here) but you can get it if you're an oem Its not just from Select licensing although i wonder if the version is slightly different...hmmm.....

Despite that we get licenses from the county that has a Select Agreement, we have never been able to get any of the support or "utilities" (like WinPE) that go hand-in-hand with the Select Agreement.

I'd love to be able to use this or a Ghost method without floppy/cd's i.e. PXE styley - except I'm not that "up" on that stuff and havent had the time to "play" in order to find out lol

Any suggestions MilkyMagic?

Regards,
N.

[doobie]

Bear with me because I’m using windows xp in Spanish so the wording my differ.

it_ybd, I’m sure this is not the best way of doing it but you might want to experiment...

Requirements:
1. Two Partitions or More: One where system is installed on and the other where your ghost image and ghost.exe will be.
Note: (I used fat32 on both partitions since it was my test machine)
2. Download MS Dos 7.1 (http://newdos.yginfo.net/msdos71/)


First you need an OS on first partitions... I used Windows XP with fat32. It doesn’t have to be a fresh install you can use your current OS. Boot from Bootable MS Dos 7.1 diskettes or Bootable MS Dos cd. Follow the instructions. Install MS DOS on second partition or other. I installed the basic version since I won’t be using dos for anything. The installation will detect your current system and ask you if you want to make your computer dual boot and you must select yes. After the installation is complete it will ask you to reboot your computer. When your computer boots up you should see a dual boot menu asking you if you want to boot to windows xp or msdos. Choose Windows XP.

Once your system is booted right click on MY PC and choose properties. Select Advanced Options Tab then click on Startup and Recovery (once again the wording might be diff but I'm sure you can find it.) On the Next Window Select Windows XP as your default OS. Below that it asks you how long you would like the boot menu to show... I changed mine to 2 seconds because you don’t really want the person to see it for long. Then click on edit boot.ini. Where it says MS DOS 7.1 I changed to “Restore System.” Save Changes and close.

Copy Ghost.exe and Ghost Image to second partition.

Now open up notepad and open up a:\autoexec.bat on the last line add
d:\ghost.exe -clone,mode=pload,src=D:\restore.GHO:1,dst=1:1 -sure -RB

Change d:\ to the location of your ghost.exe and ghost image.


At the time of writing this the website where I download MS Dos was down but if you need it let me know and I can send it to you.