Ghost Solution Suite

Hi,

Ghost Boot Wizard in Ghost 11 can create ISO images. You can directly burn them to CDs and use it.

Could you try that? Or is there any reason why you cannot use the ISOs created from Ghost Boot Wizard?

Krish

Hi,

GSS 1.1 also supports directly creating an ISO image, using Ghost Boot Wizard. If you create a Network boot package and select 'ISO image' in the 'Destination Drive' dialog, it will create a file in ISO format with all necessary files. Then you can directly burn it to a CD using any utility such as Nero. I am not sure if I missed anytihng here, if there is any reason why you can't use this let me know.

In your previous boot disk, I think what's missing is the CDROM Driver in Config.sys. You load MSCDEX in Autoexec, but you need to have a CDROM driver such as OAKCDROM.SYS in in Config.sys. If you create a CD/DVD boot floppy from Ghost boot wizard, you can use config and autoexec as samples. However, this is probably unnecessary if the ISO image works for you.

Krish

Hi,

I will try that and let you know.

However, the most common reason for that message is loading mouse.com. If there is no mouse.ini, when you run mouse.com it tries to create the mouse.ini file and fails. Most probably, it will work if you remove mouse.com from autoexec.

However, I will have a look at the default one.

Krish

Hi,

I just tried creating an iso image from GSS 1.1. I selected network boot disk, selected undi driver, and left the default in everything else and selected iso package. Then used 2003 resource kit tool CDburn.exe to burn the iso to a CD and boot a Dell 745 machine without a problem.

Could you let me know what steps were different in your case?

Could you press F8 when it says 'Starting PCDOS' and select step by step and see what was the command made it to give the error message?

You said you need to change autoexec and config in the boot CD. One option is open the ISO file, get osboot.img and edit the files.

The other option may be faster. Ghost Boot Wizard allows you to add commands to autoexec and config using the network driver. When creating the boot disk, if you select the network driver and select copy, it will make a copy of the driver. (So that you have the original intact). Then select the copy, and press 'Modify'. In 'advance' tab, you can add commands to config and autoexec.

Let me know if this works for you.

Krish

Hi,

I think you copied autoexec twice instead of Config.sys, but I think it is the same config.sys you posted in your earlier post :-)

Now, the problem here is the following line.

d:

I am not sure why it is trying to access Ghost from drive d: since we don't do that with any of the boot disks we create. May be you expect to run Ghost from the CD or something, but there seems to be no drive d: in system.

When it give this error message, could you just try 'dir' command and see where the Ghost directory is? It could be in drive C: or drive E:, F: etc.

Krish

Hi,

I have different autoexec.bat and config.sys files, but they are different for each type of boot disks.

When you create boot disks from Ghost Boot Wizard, after giving the name of the iso image, it shows a review dialog box. This box has both Config.sys and Autoexec.bat. I re-checked with my CD, that's what exactly I have.

When creating boot packages, there are differences in Autoexec and config. For example, when you select the network boot package and create and iso image, autoexec and config looks like,

AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@echo off
SET TZ=GHO-12:00
prompt $p$g
\net\Undipd.com 0x60
if exist MOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
CD \GHOST
GHOST.EXE

CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE=\net\undi_drv.exe
DEVICE=\net\HIMEM.SYS
LASTDRIVE = Z

If you create the same package in two floppies, it is,

AUTOEXEC.BAT:
@echo off
SET TZ=GHO-12:00
prompt $p$g
\net\Undipd.com 0x60
if exist MOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
call FINDRAMD.BAT z y x w v u t s r q p o n m l k j i h g f e d c
if "%ram%" == "" echo RAM drive not found!
if "%ram%" == "" goto EOF
mkdir %ram%:\GHOST
joinxe -p -f %ram%:\GHOST\GHOST.EXE \GHOST\1.exe \GHOST\2.exe
%ram%:
CD \GHOST
GHOST.EXE
:EOF

CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=\net\undi_drv.exe
DEVICE=\net\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=RAMDRIVE.SYS 4096 /e
LASTDRIVE = Z

The reason is, when you use two floppies, it creates a RAMDrive, and then join two parts of Ghost.exe read from two floppies to the RAMDrive. There are many commands in autoexec to find the drive letter of RAM drive, since it could change based on how many fat partitions you have in the system.

When booting from a CD, it emulates a hard disk so the config/autoexec files are simpler.

You can't easily transfer two floppes to a CD. When creating a CD in this way, it does not just copy the contents of the floppy to CD, but it creates an image file of floppy and copy it to the CD. It has to be a size of a floppy if you use floppy emulation. When you have to build a CD boot disk with two floppies, there is no place to put the second floppy disk.

I think the best option here is not to use the files from two floppy disks since they are different.

I again had a look at your files, first I thought they were created by Ghost Boot Wizard. But it seems you have created them.

Autoexec and Config look OK. However, part of the MSCDEX command line is replaced with the smily face by forum. Did you have L colon D there? If it is so, command line is correct.

Can you check,

1. Have you copied oakcdrom.sys and mscdex.exe to the root of the floppy before creating the CD?
2. Could you try another drive letter instead of D? Something like X? The reason is, if your machien has another fat partition, the drive letter D would be already used. (You need to edit the drive letter in MSCDEX command, instead of L colon D, use L colon X. And after 'echo loading Ghost', X instead of D)
3. If this does not work, press F8 when it says 'Starting PCDOS' and that will allow you to select step by step mode. Then see if all the commands work without an error or not.

Krish

Hi,

You need the CDROM drivers if you want to access the data area of CD, even when you boot from CD. It does a floppy emulation, and boot to the floppy image. If you do not use the driver, you want be able to access the CD, you will only get a drive A:.

Can you change the Config.sys oakcdrom.sys line to (I can't remember a switch K)

DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:mscd001

and the Autoexec.bat MSCDEX line to

MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:X

This should assign drive X: to CD. Then try,

X:
cd \Ghost
Ghost


Krish

Message Edited by Krish Jayaratne on 06-09-200707:44 PM

Hi,

Did you copy Ghost to the CD using Nero? This almost looks like the CD is empty.

When you run with F8, what messages it gives for Device command and MSCDEX command?

Krish

Hi,

I think you have created the CD correctly, and it is loading the driver. I am not sure why you don't see the files now, may be the emulation type selected when you create the CD.

Before going to that,

• if you open this CD from a Windows machine, what do you see? You should see the Ghost directory and the files.
• After booting a machine from this CD, if you take the CD out and put another CD and get the directory, could you see the files?
• In case if you used a different emulation type - could you see if Ghost directory is there in drive A:?

Krish

Message Edited by Krish Jayaratne on 06-13-200706:09 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the info - anyway, now the DOS part is working OK, only thing to find out is why the Ghost folder is not going there.

It is difficult to think it is something wrong with Nero, but probably some setting is wrong.

Could you give me all the steps you used to create this from the start? May be I can try the same thing here and see if there is anything to change.

Krish

Hi,

Thanks for the very detailed explanation, every thing seems to be OK.

However, you save the image in Step 12, Add the Ghost folder in Step 13, and burn the image in step 14. Should not you save the image after 13 with Ghost before open it in 14?

This may be a mistake when writing, but please check. I will try to do the same but have to find this version of SW.

Krish

Great to hear that you got it going!

Since you want to have a less number of boot CDs for multiple machines, one possibility is using the Universal Packet Driver. Universal Packet Driver is the one in PXE boot Rom. Since most of the current machines support PXE boot, they will work with the PXE driver.

Try selecting the Universal Packet Driver V2 when you create the boot disk. This may not work with all the machines, but many of them and it is worth trying.

Krish