Ghost Solution Suite

We recently purchased about 140 of the HP 2730P tablets.  I tried to run our standard ghost boot disk which uses the universal driver.  When placing the cd in I get the same message every time the computer trys to bhost into the ghost screen: Cannot create a file preservation metadata file at path.  I have tried both the ms-dos and pc-dos versions with the same results.  I have tried both cd and usb flash drive with the same results.  I have tried several combinations of switches such as -FNI -FORCEUSB -NOUSB -NOIDE with no luck either.

 

I also tried doing the same thing with ghost version 8.2 and had the same results with that version also.  I really need this to work asap and any help or ideas would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks

Hi, 

 

When try to create restore an image with file preservation, Ghost creates a roll back file in the current working directory. This message basically says that it could not create that file.

 

Do preserve any files when cloning? Do you run Ghost from command line or using GUI? Does it generates a Ghosterr.txt file? 

 

Krish

 

 

I got past the error by using the -pfile=c:\  When I got into the ghost menu, I tried to do a unicast and the error was something to the sort that the hdd couldn't be found.  At this point I went with winpe512 boot instead of dos and updated the intel drivers to 13.1.2 becasuse the standard driver that was in the winpe512 boot didn't work.

 

Thanks

Hi,

I have the same problem with an HP E2530P.

 

I boot on a usb key as usual and at the first screen of Ghost I have this error message:

 

"Cannot create a file preservation metadata file at path "." batch file missing"

 

It is working fine on another computer.

 

Please help me.

I ended upi having to use winpe to boot instead of the dos boot.  To be honest, if someone knows a way for this to happen with the dos boot, I would appreciate it.  I can say that the flash winpe boot take a while to make but boots in less than 2 minutes vs. 12 minutes via cd.

Hi, 

I was thinking more about this situation, it almost looks like the USB drive becoming invalid for Ghost to use. One possibility is that Ghost's attempt to find USB device somehow affecting the USB device that used to boot. 

Could you try Ghost with -nousb switch so that Ghost does not try to enumerate USB devices? 

Krish 

I did use the -usb switch with no luck.  Like I said before, becuase of this I have to you the winpe, vs. the dos boot.

This problem occurs for the other newer HP models as well.  I've tried it out on the HP 6930p.

Hi, 


I managed to find one of those notebooks. What seems to be happening is when Ghost.exe is executed, somehow the directory structure within the memory is getting corrupted. If you exit Ghost and give a 'dir' command, it just shows garbage. But it is not really corrupting the USB disk - once it is restarted everything is back to normal.

Since it corrupts the directory, Ghost fails to read the directory data of the home directory, which is the default for preservation file.

It seems to be related to DOS, since the behavior is abnormal. From Ghost directory, if you give the command 'dir \' get the directory of root folder, it says its empty. But if the same command is given from root, it works fine. 

Now, if you run Ghost from root folder ('\ghost\ghost.exe') it does not give the above error and appears to be working OK. However, still the directory structure is corrupted once you exit Ghost. So I don't think it is a good workaround (since it will not be able to save error files etc.).

I will see if I can find a better option, but it is not promising since DOS itself is not behaving correctly.  


Krish 

---

Krish Jayaratne wrote:

 

What seems to be happening is when Ghost.exe is executed, somehow the directory structure within the memory is getting corrupted. If you exit Ghost and give a 'dir' command, it just shows garbage. But it is not really corrupting the USB
Now, if you run Ghost from root folder ('\ghost\ghost.exe') it does not give the above error and appears to be working OK. However, still the directory structure is corrupted once you exit Ghost. So I don't think it is a good workaround (since it will not be able to save error files etc.).

---

We solved this simply by moving ghost.exe to root folder. Remember to edit your autoexec.bat.

 

Cheers,

Pasi 

Thanks for the info. I got it to work great with a flash drive by changing the autoexec and moving the ghost.exe file to the root.  I am having one heck of a time doing the same thing to a cd though.  Any ideas???

Okay, I just figured out the cd way to do it too. 

 

1. Open Ghost Boot Wizard

2. Choose Network Boot Package and click Next

3. Choose Universal Packet Driver v2.0 and click Next

4. Click Next (this is the Client Type screen)

5. Click Next (this is the External Storage Support screen)

6. Click Next (this is the Network Settings screen)

7. Choose Create ISO Image and Browse to the location where you want to save the ISO, give it a name, click Save and click Next.

8. Click Add and browse to an area where you can get the ghost.exe to add another copy to the root of this image.  Click Next.

9. Click Start Editing on the review screen and change the Autoexec.bat to reflect the new location of the ghost.exe by removing the following line  

CD \GHOST

10.  Click Stop Editing and click Next

 

Your image shoul dnow be created and you can write that iso out to cd using your favorite cd writing software (mine just happens to be Magic ISO Maker).

 

I used the Ghost When I went to write to an ISO, I edited the autoexec right within the ghost boot wizard to point to the root for the ghost.exe.  I copied an additional ghost.exe into the root within the additional files area of the ghost boot wizard.  Everything is working great, but I sure hope Symantec takes note of this case an fixes this issue with the product if possible.

yay, this also fixed my issues... awesome, and so simple

 

back to imaging I go

That was to **bleep** easy thanks for the fix

I'll give the above ideas a shot for PXE menu for a Sony VAIO VGN-Z21WN

did as above, moved ghost.exe from folder ghost to root and edited autoexec.bat to remove cd ghost line 

 

 

Now im getting another error.

 

"No disk drive detected" I tried disabling or changing anything from the bios but nothing worked.

Has anybody gotten this message before?

 Hi IID,

Most likely, these new systems are not well supported in DOS. Did you consider using WinPE or Linux (if you are using 2.5) as preOS?

As I mentioned in my previous post,

Now, if you run Ghost from root folder ('\ghost\ghost.exe') it does not give the above error and appears to be working OK. However, still the directory structure is corrupted once you exit Ghost. So I don't think it is a good workaround (since it will not be able to save error files etc.).

 

 it is better to move to a new preOS for new machines.

 

Krish 

 

 

 

 

From mhalvorson above;

Thanks for the info. I got it to work great with a flash drive by changing the autoexec and moving the ghost.exe file to the root.  I am having one heck of a time doing the same thing to a cd though.  Any ideas???

I've tried this suggestion several times, and can't seem to get it to work.  Can someone give me an example of how they edited the autoexec file in the ghost boot wizard so I can see exactly what they put in referencing moving ghost.exe to the root?

 

 

 

Sorry, I forgot to expalin that I'm trying to use the PC-DOS option with a flash drive and can't seem to get the autoexec file edited properly.

 Hi,


Easiest way is just do it from Windows after creating the USB disk. You can edit the autoexec.bat and copy the Ghost.exe to the root.


You can try just changing the path in GBW review screen. You can select 'start Edit' in the last review screen, and remove 'CD \Ghost' command and change Ghost.exe to \ghost\ghost.exe.

I think the default is

cd \ghost
Ghost.exe

change it to 

Rem cd \ghost
\ghost\ghost.exe

Krish

Hi Krish,

I had the same problem, however did overcome with the above steps. However, I get a different error " Invalid source " when I either try to create / restore image.
The hard drive size  is 160GB .
Can you please advice?
Regards,
RAvi R

Hi Ravi,


In some of the new systmes (specially with AHCI), Ghost (and DOS) will not see the hard drive at all. I think the best option for new systems is to use WinPE.

However, though I can't explain how or why, I have seen some posts saying depends on boot order setup up in the BIOS too. Depending on CDROM is before or after the Hard disk in boot order, apparently it behaves differently. You can give a try, but the best is WinPE.

Krish 

I followed the suggestions and got ghost to work, getting past the 40217 error.

Now, when I exit ghost, instead of coming to a prompt where I can run ghstwalk, I get:

General Failure reading drive C
invalid COMMAND.COM
Enter correct name of Command Interpreter (eg, C:\COMMAND.com)

I realize Symantec's position is to look at alternatives...which I will do, but for now, is there a way around this latest error I am getting?

Like a way to run ghstwalk.exe when GHOST.exe exits?

I know this is old but I run hardware depot at HP, and it's best to use WinPE. I found it to be true especially with the 6930p's and 8530w's.

I finally got RIS boot image working by editing the autoexec.bat. But mouse does not work

what can ido? why isnt there mouse.com in the ris image? I am using 11.5

   This is all great that there is a workaround and we want to lean towards this being a "new system" vs. "Dos" issue, but the memory isn't getting corrupted until AFTER running Ghost. So, it's Ghosts problem, not DOSs, not the new systems. When is Ghost getting fixed to keep this issue from happening? We have way too many images to have to have them all sit in the root of a flash drive, and obviously we can boot using Dos as usual, and are able to navigate <sans corrupted memory issues> until Ghost comes into play.

Thoughts??

Thanks,
Carl M

After moving ghost.exe to the root ghost has the 19913 error Unable to start  tcp/ip
What can i do? I have hp Compaq 6730b with "metadata file" problem.

Thanks
Alex

I am trying to create the network package yet the review window does not allow me to edit.  `Click edit` does not exist.

What am I missing
DK

Got all working thanks to this thread but now ghostcast is grayed out after it loads...  Any ideas?

 This usually means that network driver is not loaded. Did you try updating the network driver?

Krish 

Trying to create a USB boot with multiple drivers...  Works on the Dell but not the HP.  Tried updating the pro1000 drivers but still a no go...  Thanks in advance!

 Do you get any error messages when loading network drivers? If you press F8 when it displaying "starting PCDOS", you can chose the step by step mode. There you will see if it complains about network drivers. 

I think you should consider moving to WInPE or Linux, since there could be lot more issues with DOS and new hardware. If the concern is the time, Linux PreOS boots pretty fast compared to WinPE.

Krish