Ghost Solution Suite

General ? for anyone, has anybody had luck converting a "good" Ghost Image to an "ISO" image for possible use in a Virtual Machine.  I've seen some documents/processes on BartPE/VMWare but nothing on MS Virtual PC.

For Symantec, this would be an "extraordinary" tool/separate product.  I've used Ghost for years to create "backups" but as older equipment is becoming so outdated/obsolete and newer OS's becoming too sophisticated to operate the older software, we're slowly dying in the "trenches".  If I have an older machine that's running (bully :) ) but anymore I can't simply replace it with a newer model, the older stuff just can't find drivers and the newer OS-eg Vista, just doesn't run the software. 

We've got too many small businesses that are wedded to their old programs so a "virtual machine" that runs the program would be just fine with them!  Suggest possible "software" conversion program from Ghost to ISO that  can be then booted in any Virtual PC utilzing the older OS, still might need some newer drivers, but that would solve a major problem.

Thanks

Dave

Electek

Hi Dave,

May I ask why ISO, why not VMDK itself? GSS 2.5 has offline manipulation of VMDKs built-in so you can capture of restore to VMDK just like to a regular disk.

Cheers.

Hi Eugene,

Thanks for the response.  I'm using Virtual PC which does not utilize a ghost image, thus the question.  I noted from your response the VMWare does allow a conversion of a Ghost image to a virtual machine image, but we have too many small company (1-3/5 computers per) that are looking for a way to run older software and any software investment must be really justified even if its only a couple hundred.  I think VMWare Player would possibly work, but I think that in order to get that on the clients computers, I still have to have an expensive version of VMWare.  No one home on Labor Day, so maybe later in the week I can follow-up with them. 

Still surprised that someone is doing this in a Virtual Machine but not Symantec for its customers.  ? will the Home/Home Office version of Ghost handle a VMWare P2V conversion?  I reviewed the nice tutorial on the latest Server Version of Ghost (ie deploying Vista) but didn't see any referrences to Virtual Machines and/or the Home Office/Small Office version.

Dave

I am still not sure why ISO? ISO 9660 is reasonably rigid and very CD specific format. The only way I can see someone benefiting from it would be to provide bootable OS but then one cannot use own primary OS, ie. you either boot off the CD and use old OS or you boot into primary OS and then one cannot use old OS. Virtual disks are a different matter - you can run them from your primary OS hence why significant benefits.

VMWare player is a free app that you can download from VMWare - I dont believe you need anything else to run VMDK.

Ghost (GSS 2.5, ghost 11.5) has P2V V2P capabilities built-in so you can do to/from VMDK offline without any VMWare tools. We are seriously thinking of offline support for VHDs (MS) for the next release but it is not as urgent topic since VHD are not as widely used as VMDKs. GSS 2.5 suite has no home/small office license - it is the same license for anyone using it I believe. Have a look at www.ghost.com and then Ghost Solution Suite 2.5.

Cheers.