Ghost Solution Suite

Morning all,

I've been using ghost for many years now, yet it still puzzles me at times.

lately i've been encountering many problems, and a major one at the moment is it gets stuck on pushing (restoring) using Ghost console.

It reboots and evnters ghost, but doesn't move and just sits there stuck on the above message. As a result, even trying to install a fresh copy of Windows XP, 7, gives me a BSOD. So, I "push" (restore) my image using Ghost Cast server and it restores fine. However it fails to boot up and stays on a continuous Loop.

the only choice i have is to kill the disk totally (wiping it in dos) and restoring again using Ghost Cast Server and then adding it to the domain etc...

This has become really time consuming and I'm afraid to deploy a console session to my other IT room's in fear it will crash.

I have 600+ Dell computers onsite, and really need an answer to this problem. Using Ghost 11.0.2.1573

Please help :(

Ghost 11.0.2.1573 does not have built in support for Windows 7.

Ghost 11.5.1.2266 does support Windows 7.

If you are using GSS 11 - are you still booting to DOS?  If so, chances are you are running into issues due to the lack of SATA support in DOS and consequently you may need to set your System BIOS to compatibility mode in the hard disk settings so that the disk emulates the older parallel ATA standard.

GSS 11.5 provides a WinPE boot solution as well as DOS and this route is really now the best way forward if you want to continue to use Ghost on modern hardware.

Finally, Windows 7 consists of two partitions - are you imaging at the "Disk" level rather than the "Partition" level?  Both partitions are needed for Win 7 to start properly.

Edt is right only latest version supports (11.5.1.2266) Windows 7.

So the best practice is to update the version or you can give a try using the switch -ntc-

This can be added in advanced button under clone tab.

Use The updated version of ghost and add sata driver's as well  make sure you add vista 32 bit driver's sinc the PreOS we use is Win PE 2.0 which is light weight version of Windows vista 32 bit

Steps for adding a driver in winpe

 
1. Download the driver files and extract them
2. Open Ghost boot wizard, choose WinPE and click on Edit
3. Choose the template where you want the add the drivers
4. Click on Edit if you want to add the drivers to the existing template or click on Copy to create a new template
5. Click on Add new driver and click on Browse
6. Navigate to the driver folder which you have extracted in Step 1
7. Expand the folder and choose Vista 32 and click on Ok
8. Give a Friendly name to it like Intel 825xx and on Applicable OS choose Vista as WinPE is based on Windows Vista
9. Click on Ok
10. Scroll down the default drivers list to locate the Friendly name you gave in Step 8
11. Select the driver by giving a check on the check box and click on Ok
12. The drivers will be added to the template
 
Once you add the driver to the boot wizard decide the preferred method which you want to use for deployment .

To extract driver's Use 7 Zip software make sure you have the .Inf file in it
 
 

Thanks for the replies Guys.

I know I need to update to the latest version for Windows 7. However all these problems I'm having are with XP images that i built in the summer, were deployed and now all of a sudden are failing.

I've just run a restore image on a Dell Optiplex 745 with the image i have previously deployed to 100 machines of the same model in the summer, and it just fails when loading Windows. Just reboots and Safe mode stops loading on Mup.sys driver.

This is really annoying. Nothing has changed in the environment so I'm totally confused as to why this is happening.

All my XP images are doing this on all the clients it previously worked on a few months ago.

Any idea? :(

The need for upgrade is to use WINPE as Pre-OS ,which is much reliable than the DOS based Pre-OS which is part of the older version .

Upgrade to latest version and use WINPE while imaging the latest models . However,you still have a choice to work with DOS pre-os for older models ,which had worked with DOS Pre-OS.

The WINPE version included with GSS 2.5.1(11.5.1.2266 latest) is 2.0 and is a light weight version of Vista 32 OS.WINPE will offer better performance than DOS and also present a better environment to troubleshoot issues with utmost ease.

So its not a matter of what application version you use,but the main catch here is what Pre-OS is in use.WINPE 2.0 under latest version is a 32 bit platform and a 32 bit version of Ghost will be included for WINPE.

Neeedless to say that any known issues would have been resolved under the latest version

When you say that nothing has changed - are you in a contract with DELL which specifies no change of hardware of any sort?  My guess is that you are running into problems with the latest systems having SATA disks or using a different SATA chipset. PCDOS has no support for SATA peripherals (disk or DVD) so your system may be unable to write to the hard disk. Check the bios settings to see if there is a hard disk compatibility mode option which will emulate the older PATA disk interface and then try deploying again.

Equally, if your machines have changed disk hardware, your builds may not have the correct drivers in place and the images may not work when deployed either.

You could build your own WinPE boot solution using this article: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/readyadventures-winpe

and then check if you can see the hard disk from the WinPE prompt. If not, you need to add the appropriate SATA drivers. Search this forum on "DRVLOAD" for how to dynamically load drivers into WinPE from the command line.

I haven't needed to change the hardware at all. It's just the same as when it was purchased. Bios supports SATA and the images made (pulled) were then deployed to computers of the same model and spec and worked fine.

Now months later trying to restore an image has caused me so much aggro. I could build an image now, pull it, and then restore it on that same machine, and the above message will come up, or if it's a successful push, it will make windows constantly loop on boot & Safe mode fails too. If I then try to install a clean image from CD ( be it XP Pro SP3 or Win 7), it BSOD on me when loading. My only option is to use "KillDisk" and wipe the disk. For some reason the partition table becomes affected and shows 2 partitions of the same size when it's impossible. It's all very frustrating and nothing makes sense.

I've made an order for the latest Ghost, however I don't see how having the latest Ghost is the answer when this has always worked.

It does not make sense at all.

If nothing has changed then I cannot see why you should suddenly start having problems. So clearly something HAS changed.

The first thing to consider is whether your network infrastructure has changed in ANY way. If you are multicasting, make sure that IGMP and IGMP snooping are enabled in your switches.

Also, are you deploying a sysprepped image?  It would help to know how your images were created.

Finally, are you preparing the target hard disks in any way before you deploy the image? If not, it may be helpful to do so, using Diskprep for example, scripted to run under WinPE.

For example, if you have any encryption software in use, it is perfectly possible that this is messing with the boot sector of the hard disk and therefore this needs to be rectified before deploying the image.

Honestly, nothing has changed in terms of the environment, hardware or software.

I installed windows from scratch and did all the updates. I pulled the image and then deployed it to all my other clients. The task completed successfully and the machines have been happy ever since. MSI's were added to the PC's along with software etc...

Now a few weeks ago a particular machine stopped working and began to be inconsistent in tests, so I chose to redeploy the original Ghost Image that worked on that computer and the above like i mentioned keeps happening.

I tried a few other images on the respective builds and it's the same thing.It does not make sense. Multicast or Unicast it's the same.

Haven't touched the HDD's in any shape or used encryption software. It literally is as I've described it.

Maybe I'm not describing it well :(

So is it only one machine that is showing the problem? If so, maybe the machine has developed a hardware problem that was the original cause of the inconsistent behaviour. Did you check the event logs before trying to rebuild it?  They often record intermittent hardware issues.

Nope, It's not just one machine - so far it's 5 and the builds vary.

Dell Optiplex SMFF 745, 780 & 790. The 790 were bought this summer and are very high spec.

As we speak (type) the 745 I have just finished the install and tried to pull, it begins and then fails after 20 seconds or so.

So frustrating!

PS: appreciate the responses

update on the ghosting of the above machine - It fails ghosting to an external HDD on the server.

Any ideas or reasons as to why this would happen? I'm fast running out of psace and would like my images in one HDD instead of restoring everytime i need it from my Dedup store

:(

> It fails ghosting to an external HDD on the server.

Is this a USB external drive, or a SATA external drive or some other connection type?

What error message do you get?  Same as before?

What about the Ghost logs - anything in there?

Have you checked that the server software and the client software are exactly the same version?

Hi mate,

It's an External USB HDD - WD Elements 1TB. Below is the log (big), however if I pull to the Internal HDD's it's fine. going to redeploy to that same machine and let you know how it goes.

The Ghost versions are the same on the server and the clients.

*********************************
Date   : Tue Dec 20 12:30:20 2011
Error Number: (503)
Message: Connection timed out with GhostCode 19945

Version: 11.0.2.1573 (Nov 14 2007, Build=1573)
OS Version: DOS v7.10
Command line arguments: -Z1 -clone,src=1,mode=create,dst=@MCMOEpull305 -batch -igb -jm=U -sgt
Active Switches :
       AutoName
PathName            : 502 driver.cab
DumpFile            : @MCMOEPULL305
DumpPos             : 101285972
FlagImplode         : 2
FlagExplode         : 0

CloneSrc            : 1
BatchPartSrc        : 0
BatchPartMSrc       :

CloneDst            : @MCMOEPULL305
BatchPartDst        : 0

Operation Details :
  Total size.........7883
  MB copied..........179
  MB remaining.......7704
  Percent complete...2%
  Speed..............826 MB/min
  Time elapsed.......0:13  
  Time remaining.....9:17  

Program Call Stack
AbortLog
Generic_Abort
MCastAbort
MCastFlushSend
remoteMasterDeviceCommand::Write
DumpWrite
NTFSWrite
writeNextSeqPacket
dumpRun
dumpAttribute
dumpAttributes
dumpMFTRec
dumpMFT
dumpVol
DumpNTFSPartition
ProcessNTFSPartition
CopyPartition
ProcessAllPartitions
CopyAllPartitions
CopyDiskToFile
CopyMainline
AttemptOperation
sub_main
main

Call Stack
  0x0039846c
  0x0009d011
  0x0009c84c
  0x0009bf27
  0x0009daf2
  0x0003c72f
  0x0003d3b8
  0x000af9a7
  0x000b151b
  0x0003a80e
  0x000467a4
  0x00046636
  0x00045ff8
  0x00045c58
  0x0004590b
  0x0004553f
  0x000450df
  0x00044a11
  0x00017055
  0x00019756
  0x000c9e44
  0x000c974d
  0x000c95e3
  0x000c653a
  0x00002208
  0x00002374
  0x00005057
  0x00003f2f
  0x003a1698
End Call Stack

Start heap available: 1052770304
Cur   heap available: 983105536
Total Memory:         1062141952

Allocated
   1024 DpmiDjgpp.cpp:56
  33504 ghost.cpp:1396
     48 DiskDriveAccessExInt13.cpp:152
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
Free
     64 GetDriveType.cpp:111
     80 DiskDriveAccessExInt13.cpp:115
    512 DiskDriveAccessInt13.cpp:189
  32768 MsdosFile.cpp:368

Fat details:

NTFS details:
----------------

NTFS Global Flags:
----------------
  contiguousWrite=1 forceDiskClusterMapping=0
  inhibitCHKDSK=1 ignoreBadLog=0 ignoreCHKDSKBit=0
  enable_cache=0 xfrbuflen=32768
  last_attr_type = 0
  loadExact = 0
----------------
 =======================================================
 NTFS volume 0:
 ----------------
 initialised..............1
 read cached..............N
 Selective caching........N
 flags....................Volume Unknown
 drive....................0x00
 part order...............0
 version..................0x0400
 volsize..................312480251
 blocksize................512
 clusterfactor............8
 clustersize..............4096
 mftrecordsize............1024
 indexrecordsize..........4096
 indexclustperrecord......1
 bootSectorCopyOffset.....312480251
 pagefileSys..............-1
 bootIni..................3650
 volumeLabel..............[]
 sectorsInUse.............19315616
 totalNonCopiedBytes......1623199744
 bytesToCopy..............0
 bitmapClusters...........1193
 bitmapUsedBytes..........4882504
 estimatedClusters........1193
 estimatedUsedBytes.......4882504
 clustersizeShift.........12
 blocksizeShift...........9
 mftrecordsizeShift.......10
 indexrecordsizeShift.....12
 totalRootMftRecs.........33791
 clustermap failover......N
 Boot sector details
  name....................[NTFS    ]
  blocksize...............512
  clusterfactor...........8
  reservedSectorsUnused...0
  mediaType...............0xf8
  secPerTrack.............63
  numHeads................255
  hiddenSectors...........63
  volsize.................312480251
  mftcluster..............786432
  mftmirrorcluster........19530015
  clustersPerMFTRecord....246
  clustersPerIndexBuffer..1

  ---------------------------------------------------
  Cluster Allocation Map
  ---------------------------------------------------
  Start: 39060031 Length: 0 Next: 39060031

 =======================================================

Disk Info :
  remote.............0
  drive..............0
  sectorsUsedCount.......312480252
  estimatedUsedCount.....16145305
  numPartitions..............1
  Version............1102

 # Ord Boot Id Ext     First        Num       Last       Used NTFS
 0  0    1   7 No         63  312480252  312480315   19315616 Yes

Disk Info :
  remote.............0
  drive..............0
  sectorsUsedCount.......0
  estimatedUsedCount.....0
  numPartitions..............0
  Version............0

 # Ord Boot Id Ext     First        Num       Last       Used NTFS

Fixed Drives

Drive 128 ST3160815AS             9RX0L8R7
Int 13h
Total Sectors            16434495
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       8024
Cylinders                1023
Heads                    255
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      0

Extended Int 13h
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Successful IO Count      0

IDE using PIO
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Cylinders                16383
Heads                    16
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      0

IDE using UDMA (Active)
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Cylinders                16383
Heads                    16
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      6414

Floppy Drives

Remote Drives
AsyncIo : 0
ConvMemoryAllocationFactoryDpmi diagnostic...
=============================================

Conventional Memory
Initial Conventional Memory Size = 361808
Current Conventional Memory Size = 150512

Allocated
   1024 DpmiDjgpp.cpp:56
  33504 ghost.cpp:1396
     48 DiskDriveAccessExInt13.cpp:152
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
    528 IdeDmaServerPci.cpp:127
Free
     64 GetDriveType.cpp:111
     80 DiskDriveAccessExInt13.cpp:115
    512 DiskDriveAccessInt13.cpp:189
  32768 MsdosFile.cpp:368

DiskManager diagnostic...
=========================

Fixed Drives

Drive 128 ST3160815AS             9RX0L8R7
Int 13h
Total Sectors            16434495
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       8024
Cylinders                1023
Heads                    255
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      0

Extended Int 13h
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Successful IO Count      0

IDE using PIO
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Cylinders                16383
Heads                    16
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      0

IDE using UDMA (Active)
Total Sectors            312500000
Bytes per Sector         512
MB                       152587
Cylinders                16383
Heads                    16
Sectors per Track        63
Successful IO Count      6414

Floppy Drives

The following devices do not use an IRQ:
   (0x00, 0x00, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x00, INT#: -, Link: 0x00
      Class: Bridge, SubClass: Host/PCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2990
   (0x00, 0x02, 0x01):   IRQ: 0x00, INT#: -, Link: 0x00
      Class: Display, SubClass: Other Display
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2993, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1e, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x00, INT#: -, Link: 0x00
      Class: Bridge, SubClass: Sub Decode PCI/PCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x244e
   (0x00, 0x1f, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x00, INT#: -, Link: 0x00
      Class: Bridge, SubClass: PCI/ISA
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2810, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x68, 0x00,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 11:
   (0x00, 0x02, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Display, SubClass: VGA compatible
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2992, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1a, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB UHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2834, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x6a, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1b, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Multimedia, SubClass: Unknown Multimedia
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x284b, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
   (0x00, 0x1c, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Bridge, SubClass: PCI/PCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x283f, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1c, 0x04):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Bridge, SubClass: PCI/PCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2847, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
   (0x02, 0x00, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x0b, INT#: A, Link: 0x60
      Class: Network, SubClass: Ethernet
      Vendor: 0x14e4, Device: 0x167a, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 10:
   (0x00, 0x1a, 0x01):   IRQ: 0x0a, INT#: B, Link: 0x61
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB UHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2835, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x6a, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1d, 0x01):   IRQ: 0x0a, INT#: B, Link: 0x61
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB UHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2831, RoutePINS: 0x6b, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 3:
   (0x00, 0x1d, 0x02):   IRQ: 0x03, INT#: C, Link: 0x62
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB UHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2832, RoutePINS: 0x6b, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 9:
   (0x00, 0x1f, 0x02):   IRQ: 0x09, INT#: C, Link: 0x68
      Class: Mass Storage, SubClass: IDE Controller
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2820, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x68, 0x00,
   (0x00, 0x1f, 0x03):   IRQ: 0x09, INT#: C, Link: 0x68
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: SMBUS
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x283e, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x68, 0x00,
   (0x00, 0x1f, 0x05):   IRQ: 0x09, INT#: C, Link: 0x68
      Class: Mass Storage, SubClass: IDE Controller
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2825, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x68, 0x00,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 9:
   (0x00, 0x1a, 0x07):   IRQ: 0x09, INT#: C, Link: 0x6a
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB EHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x283a, RoutePINS: 0x60, 0x61, 0x6a, 0x63,
The following hard wire-ord devices share IRQ 5:
   (0x00, 0x1d, 0x00):   IRQ: 0x05, INT#: A, Link: 0x6b
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB UHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2830, RoutePINS: 0x6b, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,
   (0x00, 0x1d, 0x07):   IRQ: 0x05, INT#: A, Link: 0x6b
      Class: Serial Bus, SubClass: USB EHCI
      Vendor: 0x8086, Device: 0x2836, RoutePINS: 0x6b, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63,

FilesystemManager diagnostic...
===============================

Volume 1
VolumePos: 1.1:
DriveLetter:
Description:     149GB Primary Disk 0 Offset   31.50KB     149GB ST3160815AS             9RX0L8R7
Type:        fsfNtfsWindowsXP
Name:       

FilesystemMounter diagnostic...
===============================

LfoFilesystemManager diagnostic...
==================================

Filesystem Index: 0
Filesystem Descriptor:
  ID's:
    ID Type: 2
    ID: A:
  DriveType: 2
  No FilesystemInfo structure.
  Filesystem has no VolumePtr

Filesystem Index: 1
Filesystem Descriptor:
  ID's:
    ID Type: 2
    ID: C:
  DriveType: 4
  No FilesystemInfo structure.
  Filesystem has no VolumePtr

Filesystem Index: 2
Filesystem Descriptor:
  ID's:
    ID Type: 1
    ID: 1.1:
  DriveType: 4
  FilesystemInfo:
    formatType: 8
    volumeName:

*********************************

PCDOS does not natively support USB, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the Ghost developers found a way of mounting USB devices under DOS as I can see references to EHCI and UHCI in the logfile you posted. There were other limitations in the ability of DOS to handle drives greater than around 132 Gb as this was the maximum capacity that the CHS buffers in DOS could address - but again, maybe there was a workaround for this.

However, I would consider this to be an unnecessary distraction in your hunt for the cause of the problem.

If you can provide a log from an imaging attempt to one of the machines that is now failing, this may be more indicative of the cause.

-Ur log shows that the restoration was started and it was sucessful till 2 %

Suggestion for this use

-First reboot one of the machines use f8 restart system and choose disable automatic restart on system failure

-and reboot the machine

- You might get a blu screen error

- Let me know the code of the blue scrren error

Alternative

- Choose one of the 5 machine and make sure the make and the model of Source and destination computer is the same

-Use Winpe add the driver's

-Reboot to winpe enviorment

-Before u perform a restore operation run chkdsk first and diskwipe it using gdisk

Now restore the image to the source machine

Make sure the external HDD is not connected to USB 3.0 port

Let me know what is the status

I hope that three months on from the original postings, the user has solved their problem!!