How to Use the Ghost Console to Change the SID on Dual-boot Machines

The purpose of this article is to provide a method of changing the Security Identifiers (SIDs) of dual-boot machines using the Ghost Console. This article assumes the version is Ghost Solution Suite 2.5.

The Ghost Console is normally able to change the SID of a machine during a Clone Task through the use of the Ghostwalker utility. When the Clone step is selected in a task, the Clone tab will be present and allow you to check a box at the bottom of the page to tell the task to use Ghostwalker to change the SID. Here is a picture:

It should be noted, however, that this process will only work for single-boot machines. To use Ghostwalker via the Ghost Console for dual-boot machines, a different method must be used.

The Ghost Console will allow you to transfer files to a client machine and execute non-Ghost commands (or Ghost commands in a non-standard way). In this case, we will be transferring Ghostwalker to the client and running scripted commands to tell it to change the SID on each bootable partition.

Note on disk numbers: Prior to start this, you will need to know the drive and partition numbers of the bootable partitions as they are seen by Windows PE. To do this, you can boot up with a Windows PE boot disk and run GDISK32. For further information on running this utility, see the article service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/on-technology.nsf/docid/2000030715304425

Note on version: Before starting, make sure you run all applicable updates to Ghost Solution Suite via Help > LiveUpdate in the Ghost Console.

Steps:

1. Choose File > New > Task in the Ghost Console, name the task and check the box Software and File Actions. You may also choose to include the Clone step; if you do, make sure to leave the Use Ghostwalker to perform a SID Change on the target machine unchecked.

2. Click on the Software and File Actions tab.

3. Click the Add... button.

4. Click the radio button for Execute a Command, then click Next.

5. In the Command box, type in the following:

X:\GHOST\GhWalk32.exe /BV=<drv:part> /SURE

Note: The /BV=<drv:part> needs to be filled out with the drive number and partition number for a bootable partition. Assuming drive 1, partition 1, an example would be the following:

X:\GHOST\GhWalk32.exe /BV=1:1 /SURE

6. Click the radio button Execute command in the Ghost Partition, then click Next.

7. Check the box Wait for the command to finish executing before continuing to the next task, then enter the number 0 into both the Successful Return Codes and Warning Return Codes boxes, check the radio button Default Name... and the checkbox Continue task if the command fails to execute (see below).

8. Click Finish.

9. Repeat steps #3-8 above for each bootable partition, making sure the appropriate drive number and partition number are use in step #5. After this, the Software and File Actions tab should look like this:

10. Make sure the appropriate machine is targeted on the General tab, then click Save.

The task is now ready to execute.