Ghost Solution Suite

Greetings. I recently setup a new server with 2008 R2. DHCP is installed and functioning properly. I've installed GSS 2.5, and the 3Com PXE boot tools.

When I boot to PXE, and ghost opens, I get the following sequence of errors:

First: http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3260/img20121030160233.jpg

Clicking cancel on that gives me this: http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/835/img20121030160247.jpg

Clicking OK ont hat gives me this: http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/3817/img20121030160324.jpg

Any suggestions?

Again, this is using Ghostcast over a local network. No USB, no CD/DVD. 

Thanks for any help!

No available version of Ghost has been verified to run on Windows 2008 R2 server as far as I know.

Have you tried changing the error log path from A:\... to something valid on your system so that an actual error log can be generated and you can post it here.

Also, provide us with the specification of your server hardware. Again, if I recall correctly, having more than one NIC in the server is going to cause problems.

Check also that you have build 2266 as this is the latest available via LiveUpdate. There are also some patches available as per the sticky posting at the top of this forum, but you need to contact Tech Support directly to get these. You may also want to talk to them about your specific error if you cannot find a solution.

Hrm, that's unfortunate. 

I had not tried that prior to today. While attempting to add that switch, I ran into another problem. I can't create a shortcut to ghost.exe to add the switch. I assume this has to do with the S2008 compatibility. 

The PC it's housed on is an HP 6000 desktop. Single NIC. 

I'll try running the updates. 

Inability to create a shortcut is usually a permissions issue - are you running as an elevated user?  You may find it easier to create a batch file with the correct command string and then just set up a shortcut to that from within your user profile.

Depending on your antivirus setup, you may need to authorise the Ghost executable for execution, and enable the "run as administrator" flag in the shortcut properties.

Yea, which is what I was thinking. But i've tried it as local admin and domain admin and it's the only folder I can't create a shortcut to. I can copy, move, but no shortcuts, only to the Symantec folder. 

I have no antivirus or firewall turned on right now. 

I'll try writing a batch file for it. 

Have you actually checked the permissions on the folder in question?

Yes. 

Either way, I just copied ghost.exe to a flash drive, added the switch to it on another PC, copied ghost.exe with the switch back to the server, and ran the boot wizard again.

Still getting the same 'file preservation metadata' error. 

I may be misunderstanding your actions, but you cannot add a switch to an EXE file. Switches are added to a command line which calls the EXE file. So what exactly are you doing?

What you are displaying are Shortcut properties for a DOS shortcut. Not surprised this is not working for you.

Can you right click on your Ghost.exe file and then choose "Create Shortcut" ? This will create a valid shortcut in the same folder as the EXE, assuming you have the required permissions. You can then cut and paste the shortcut to your start menu or desktop or whereever, and edit its properties to suit your needs.

No, I can't. I can't create a shortcut to anything in the symantec folder. I've forced permissions and onwership numerous times, but it won't allow me to. 

So what I did was copy ghost.exe to a flash drive, moved the flash drive to another PC, created a shortcut, edited the shortcut to include the switch, then copied the shortcut back to the server.

I'll need to run the ghost boot wizard again then, right? And point it to the shortcut? Wouldn't doing this NOT send the ghost.exe file to the client upon PXE booting? 

Also, thanks for trying to help me. It's GREATLY appreciated!

At this point I'm not sure what to suggest, as I don't have a server 2008R2 installation to play with.

As 2008 R2 shares much of its code with Windows 7, does it have a UAC control that you can turn off completely, to allow you to uninstall, then reinstall Ghost with full admin rights?  That would be the next thing I would attempt if the option is available. That way you could be sure that the install takes place with full access rights, and not the limited rights available to the unelevated Admin account.

It was installed with UAC off initially. 

I guess right now I still need to figure out how to add the switch to the exe file, since the error file is still the main problem. Adding the switch to a shortcut, then running the ghost boot wizard to use the shortcut as the boot file doesn't work. And adding the switch like i did in the screenshot above doesnt work. 

I'm at a complete loss. 

You don't actually need to run Ghost on a server platform - why not set it up on a spare XP workstation if 2008R2 is causing so many problems. I am lost for suggestions as to what else to try. If you have a spare USB floppy drive, you could stick it in the USB port on your server and then see what is written by the system error you are getting.

I'll build an XP box right now. Thanks for the suggestion!