Ghost Solution Suite

Using Ghost 11 suite with Tftpd32. Built the boot image with 3com and it stalls out everytime. I used the most current drivers from Dell and sepearte drivers from Intel. I am not going into WinPE, and I have used the Intel drivers to boot a 990. The strange thing happens when I try to use the legacy options in BIOS the Tftpd32 does not even see the request. When I use the UEFI option for boot, the Tftpd32 is able to see it and it sends the menu request. The 9010 doesnt start the exe though... Not sure what I am doing wrong. Other random (or not so random) things I have tried: Enabled wake on LAN Changed HHD from Raid to ATA Created a Package driver instead of stand alone The only thing I do not want to do is use a boot disk, I have a ton of machines and that would drasticly increase the install time. This system has worked on every other dell that has come in the shop.

You could try Ghost 11.5 suite, but my feeling is that your reluctance to go to WinPE is just going to cause you additional problems as time passes and hardware becomes increasingly incompatible with DOS.

UEFI is not supported by any currently available version of Ghost, so this needs to be disabled or turned off if using Ghost.

However, re-reading your posting, I am not entirely clear at what point the PXE boot fails. Is it failing before you get to the point of loading the boot image?  If so then this would suggest a fundamental issue with the DELL's ability to PXE boot (not unheard of). If it is pulling down the boot image, but the boot is not taking place, then it points to a driver issue in the boot image. Remember that DOS has no SATA support, and does not understand partitions > 2Tb.

Thanks for the info. Very helpful! On the plus side, after messing with it a little longer it appears that the PXE boot is failing to accept the boot image I created with the boot manager. Is there a guide I can read on creating boot images with the correct method? I was kind of handed this system without previous knowledge and I now feel as if I am fumbling around in the dark.

This link gives you details about creating the WinPE boot image using Ghost boot wizard:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH110134

This link gives you a simple way of checking if you have the correct Vista 32 bit drivers for WinPE:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/do-i-have-correct-driver-winpe

Also....I think its the dell not preforming the PXE correctly. The Tftp32 is not even seeing a request when it is booting from the NIC.

Have you checked whether there is a bios update you can try installing?

I looked into that, and there is a bios update but it wasn’t for the PXE or anything that pertained to this issue, I did test a boot CD with the universal driver package and it booted just fine. I will keep an eye out for a more updated bios, but the result is the same. If I have to do a BIOS update on every box that comes in prior to imaging it still increases the imaging time. Kind of an evolving system, but I think I will be moving to the WinPE solution. Wish me luck.

If the universal driver package worked, then it looks increasingly like an issue with the network drivers in your WinPE boot image. Do you perchance encounter the Intel 82579 chipset in the problem machine? If so, search this forum on 82579 and grab drivers from the links users have provided for working driver downloads, as not all drivers appear to work with the 82579 under WinPE.

It is the 82579 chipset, and I will be looking for that forum. Again, thank you for the help on this.

Let us know how you get on.;-)