Ghost Solution Suite

We're using Ghost Solution Suite 2.0, (11.02.1573) on a Windows XP SP3 HP dc7600 workstation to Ghost from.  We built a new image, and then compiled it into 1 GB chunks to fit on 3 DVDs to restore from.  After the image was built, it was verified and passed.  After the image was compiled, it was verified and passed (though there was one pause as it tried to search for a file).  The image files were then burned to DVD as bootable.  The DVD burn process was also verified.  Nero 6 Ultra edition was used.  Now the issue.

Upon restoring using the bootable DVD image media, the workstation boots fine, Ghost launches and begins installing the image.  At about 49% or so, it asks for the next disk.  When I put the next disk in the drive, I get another message stating the following "Cannot open image file X:\filename8.GHS [DOS error: file not found (0x0002) J(10010)."  The first thing I notice is that it wants file 8 out of 12.  This file is on DVD 3 and not 2.  It is calling for the first file on the third disk instead of the second.  Just for kicks I put in the third DVD this time instead of starting over as I had previously done.  I then got a message asking for the first portion of Disk 1.  Done.  Then it wanted file 4.GHS.  Ok, this is the first file on the second DVD.  I placed DVD #2 in the drive and it ran through completely.  A message wanted the next disk and so I stuck in disk 3 and the image completed.  The image restore worked by doing a trial and error process, however this poses a problem. 

The first is that I can't send these disks out to my customer and ask that they do the same whenever they want to image a workstation.  The second is that I know ghost doesn't work this way and it seems to be lost in its ability to correctly link files in the right install order.  It is normally very clear cut.  Install disk 1 to boot and begin the imaging process, followed by disk 2 and then disk 3.  It isn't this way anymore.  Third, we Ghost all of the time and image disks using the same process that I mentioned above.  We've never had this problem when restoring from DVD.  What's changed you ask?  We recently ran the LiveUpdate which bumped us up from Ghost 11.0 to 11.02.  With this came a new version of Ghost and other files of course.

Here's the troubleshooting that's been done so far.  We've tried recompiling the image several times.  The files were renamed and yes, they conform to the 8.3 DOS format.  We've imaged and recompiled the image from a back-up Ghost server.  We've burned our DVD's on several different workstations and tried different brands of media.  We've replaced the version of Ghost on our imaging disks with the older one that we used to use with 11.0.  We've tried restoring to different workstations. 

The image is a unified image designed to restore a master Windows XP SP3 image to a Dell GX280, and HP dc7600, dc7700, dc7800, dc7900 workstations.  The total image is about 11.5 GB.  It is divided into 1 GB chunks to have 4 - 1GB files on each DVD with the last .GHS file only being ~150 MB.  Therefore, the main .GHO file, 1,2,3 GHS are on disk (1), 4,5,6,7 .GHS files are on disk (2), and 8,9,10,11 .GHS files are on disk (3).

We believe that we have exhausted all of our resources here and need some help and recommendations from those in the know.  Please let me know if there is any other info that you could benefit from in order to help us solve this issue.  Thanks so much in advance!

Hi Carfused,

I will try to reproduce your scenario here in our labs, meanwhile could you please let me know if you are making any edits to the image with Ghost Explorer before compiling/splitting it? And what type of filesystems the image contains.

Regards,

Morgan

Hello Morgan,

Thanks for looking into this, as we still continue to try different options and have yet to come up with a solution.  Later on today, one of the other engineers will be testing burning the image on a different brand of DVD than what we have been currently using.  In response to your questions, we are not making any edits to the image within Ghost Explorer.  We are only compiling the image to split it into 1GB chunks to burn to disc.  The image is approximately 11.5 GB and therefore (3) DVDs.  The image only contains NTFS filesystem with (2) partitions.  FYI - The image is Windows XP SP2 not SP3 as I previously stated.  We have been doing our imaging the same way for a long time and the only thing that's changed since we last did this is our media brand, a Ghost LiveUpdate from 11.0 to 11.02, and the image of course is new.

Thanks,

Blaine

Hi Blaine,

I was only able to reproduce this swapping of spans in images that were edited with Ghost Explorer, this is because the edit data is attached to the end of an image (sometimes requiring a new span to be created) and when Ghost comes to the point of restoring the edited part it needs info from other spans to complete the operation. Are you sure there were no edits made to the image? You can check by looking at the 'properties' of an image in Ghost Explorer in the 'File' menu. Check the 'patched files' value.

Another option which may be a workaround for you is to use the -split=<size in mb> switch with Ghost to specify the correct span size for your process from the outset cutting out the Ghost Explorer compile operation.

Example: at the cmd prompt run ghost with the split switch to specify the size of the spans.

>Ghost32.exe -split=1000

This will split the image as it creates it into 1gb spans, you can specify the size you want in mb's.

Regards,

Morgan

Hi Morgan,

Thanks so much for getting back to me this quick regarding my issue.  I did have a chance to talk to the person who built the image and it turns out that he did use Ghost Explorer to make some changes (I verified the patched files and it said 28) and then recompiled the image afterwards.  We are going to try rebuilding the image today and split the image at the command prompt so that we can be sure that we have done everything possible to make this work right.  We need to figure this out as soon as possible and your help has been most appreciated and I'll be sure to let you know what the outcome of the rebuild is.  Afterwards, I'll test using Ghost Explorer to recompile to see if it was just the editing in Ghost Explorer that was causing the issue so that others who may come accross this problem in the future know exactly what path they must take or maybe they'll have a choice depending on the outcome.

Thanks Again,

Blaine

Hello Morgan,

I wanted to let you know that I have completed doing some testing in our lab and as I mentioned before, it would seem that the issue was due in part to my co-worker making edits to the image from within Ghost Explorer and then recompiling the image afterwards.  After verifying this, I created a new image without any edits and even went ahead and split the image at the command line as you had suggested thereby doing away with Ghost Explorer all together.  This worked without any issues.  Just for kicks, I also took the new image that I had made and split it using Ghost Explorer as we had done in the past and it too also worked without issue.

On a related note, as I mentioned before, we have been using the same process without changing anything, but running the LiveUpdate to go from 11.0 to 11.02.  We have made edits and recompiled the image using Ghost Explorer, made DVDs and never seen any errors in .  Is this a flaw in the update or coincidence? 

Anyhow, many, many thanks for taking the time to research this problem with me and helping to come up with a solution. 

Regards,

Blaine

> On a related note, as I mentioned before, we have been using the same process without changing >anything, but running the LiveUpdate to go from 11.0 to 11.02.  We have made edits and recompiled the >image using Ghost Explorer, made DVDs and never seen any errors in .  Is this a flaw in the update or >coincidence?

There hasn't been any major change in the way Ghost Explorer edits images, so I would say that perhaps your previous images were able to fit on 1 dvd or the span files containing a complete partition in an image were able to fit on 1 dvd. Therefore the spans that Ghost needed were always there and it didn't need spans from other locations/dvd's to complete the restoration of the edits.

Regards,

Morgan