Ghost Solution Suite

I need to add files to a boot ISO generated by Ghost Solution Suite 2.5.1 (the boot wizard); Howver, the tools I have will not open this ISO ---

Does Ghost use something locking mechanism to keep folks out of these files, or am I using an incorrect tool (I use PowerISO to work with other ISO files -and it works just fine...)

If someone can recommend a different tool or clue me into what I'm missing, I'd be grateful.

thanks much

Hi,

There should not be a problem to add files into boot package ISO. via PowerISO tool. I have added the files without any issue. What error are you getting while adding the file?

Are you editing using an Admin account?

Is the ISO file locked by any other process?

I am indeed using an Admin account;

I have no problem adding files via PowerISO to other ISO files;

Let me re-phrase my problem a bit: Any given bootable ISO has two bits to it, yes?  The "Boot" partition and I guess what you'd call the "data" partitition".  The Data partition is what you see in the right window of PowerISO; The "Boot" bit is funny and so must be extracted or "Saved" (in power ISO terms). 

What *I* want to do is get to those boot files, which PowerISO doesn't seem to see.

Perhaps if I explain the root of my problem a bit:

I have been tasked with building a boot DVD that will restore an image to a system.  Actually, I've been tasked with doing this for several systems, and have dealt with some level of strangeness on each system.  In this case, it's a "Cybernet IOne". The single HDD is SATA, nothing fancy or particularly new (BIOS date on is from 2006!) - But no matter what I do, Ghost.exe will not see the hard disk drive. 

Symptom: Ghost launches, and freezes before it gets to the "ok" dialogue. 

Ghost32.exe works fine, but I have tried bundling a ISO on the same disk as Ghost32 and it throw restore errors every time (multiple disks, burning as slow as possible).

We know these systems *can* be re-imaged, as we have used Powerquest in the past, but for some reason PQ see the hard drive, Ghost does not.

Perhaps I should start another thread about this...

anyway, if you have idea, let me know.

thanks

As your hard disk is SATA, if you are using PCDOS as your boot environment then you will not be able to access the hard disk UNLESS you have "compatibility mode" turned on in the bios. This allows the hard disk to emulate the older PATA (Parallel ATA) IDE drive technology.

If on the other hand your boot DVD is using WinPE, then you need to add drivers for your SATA chipset.

And yet PowerQuest sees the hard disk drives... No matter.

I checked my problematic systems's (there are now two of them) BIOS - The older system does not have an option for "Compatibility mode"; The other (newer) system does... but it doesn't appear to make a difference (This system at least gets to the "About Symantec Ghost" screen before it seizes up...

It is possible that the Powerquest software added functionality to PCDOS that is does not natively possess. After all, Ghost has been able to image NTFS file systems from a PCDOS boot for many years, yet PCDOS has no native ability to read NTFS file systems.

It's odd that your older system has no compatibility mode whereas the newer does - in my experience the older systems are the ones with compatibility support whereas the newer ones are dropping it as there is less and less requirement for it.

GSS at version 2.5.1.2266 has capabilities to create boot media using either PCDOS or WinPE.

Given that PCDOS is not able to support many of the newer hardware elements in PCs, I would recommend spending some time getting familiar with WinPE and developing some USB boot devices that you can use in place of DVD media, which are also becoming a little too small to accomodate the larger images we are seeing today as you move from XP to Vista or Win 7.

Well, we've (my department) has built a WinPE disk manually to run Ghost32 - that appears to have solved the problem. Yes, it does appear that PowerQuest has some nice hooks in it to see SATA drives (odd that Symantec bought PowerQuest but hasn't really used it's technology...) -

Anyway, the lesson here seems to be to focus on creating a 32 bit solution rather than beating my head against the 16 bit Ghost.exe

thanks

Since WinPE also supports NTFS you are now free to choose USB hard disks as a medium to carry your images, in addition to USB sticks and DVDs