Ghost Solution Suite

I am trying to use this version of Ghost to create an image of a Windows 7 machine, and then use this image to push out to other Windows 7 machines.  Up till now I have been unsucessful.  I have a feeling that it has to do with Windows 7 and it's double partition.  I looked around a bit on the internet for solutions but most of the help has been inconclusive.  Has anyone been able to do this with a Windows 7 machine, and if so is there any resources that I could use to help me figure this out.

Thanks in advance,

Ken

Are you running Sysprep before Ghosting the image?  

Yes - you are correct in your assumption that you need both partitions in order for a Windows 7 machine to boot properly.

You might also want to check out the EasyBCD freeware utility which will allow you to check out bootloader structures on your working Win 7 (or Vista) machine

Thanks for the information!  I will try your suggestions out today.  Hopefully I can get this going. 

Hi,

The small 100MB partition actually holds Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The partition holds system files and bootable files that are essential to boot the Windows 7 properly in the event of the need to recover the OS in the event of corruption. The 100MB partition is pretty much similar to many recovery partition that been made on factory installation by most OEMs on the computer they sold.

Taking disk image is the best option. Or you can take the image of both the partitions seperately (os partition and recovery partition). While deploying image, restore recovery partition first and then os partition.

Thanks. Do let me know the status once you finish the task. You need to run DA (Deploy Anywhere) if you are deploying the image on different hardware.

I am running into a problem with taking an image of the entire disk.  Is there a special Ghost command line that I have to use to make this work?

Hey guys,

I'm new to this but I work for an organization and we use symantec ghost cast. We have version 11.1 and my boss wants me to get 11.5, where can I get it from and will it work with Windows 7? We've been having an issue ghosting windows 7 machines with the current symantec software. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Hi,

GSS 2.5.1 build 2266 supports Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2. I dont know from which region you belongs to. Please contact Symantec marketing team to get the product information.

Hi,

You have two options.

1. Through console you can create image task and select source drive 1 but do not select any partition. Provide appropriate image store path.

2. Boot the machine in Winpe. Write command (assuming you are installed os on disk 1)

ghost32.exe -clone,mode=create,src=1,dst=<network location / select another drive connected to machine>

Please let me know if it works in your environment.

I tried to do it through the console, but it doesn't seem to work.  Here is what I did. 

I have created a blank file called Win7.gho and saved it on the same Domain Controller that Ghost is installed on. 

I then created a new Image Task, I selected the machine that I wanted to use as the source, and set the source drive to 1, and made no changes to the Source Partition.  I selected the Win7.gho as my image and set the compression to High.  I then clicked Save and execute. 

On the souce machine, the warning popped up that the machine was selected for ghost.  It says up for about 5 minutes and then dissapears. 

When I looked at the task's event viewer the only task that took place was "Updating PreOS files" and it said that it was successful.  Nothing else popped up after that and I eventually canceled the task.

Is there anything in my setup that I might be doing wrong? 

Hi,

There is a possibility that the client looks at the Computer as a dual boot machine as it has got two bootable partitions - OS and Recovery.

Most hardware vendors are shipping Windows 7 with three partitions:  The OS, a diagnostic partition and a recovery boot partition.  The two bootable partitions are seen as a dual boot.  Please use boot disks to image these machines.  If you want to use the console, you will need to format the hard drive and install just Windows 7 so its a single boot machine.

Did you try using a Boot disk and a Ghost cast server for imaging this computer? Let us know the results.

I am attempting that now, but that too seems to be having a problem. 

Here is my setup for the Ghostcast Server:

Session Name: win7

Create Image

Image File: C:\Images\\Windows 7\windows7test.gho

* Disk

Disk No.: 1

Command line: I tried to use this "ghost32.exe -clone,mode=create,src=1,dst=<\\dc1\images\windows 7\windows7test.gho>"

When I clicked Accept Clients it changed to this: "-clone,mode=create,src=1,dst=@mcwin7 ghost32.exe"

I made a standard boot disk, and when I boot from it I type in win7 as the session name and it says that it is unable to establish a session.

EDIT:  I think the ghostcast isn't finding the session because my disk probably lacked the DOS drivers for the NIC.  I am going to try to add them to see if that helps. 

We've had many of these same issues.  Recently contacted Symantec and got the patch to take us to 2269 instead of 2266.  Most of our issues have now gone away.  See the threads concerning 2269 patch in the forum and you should be able to get it.

Ok adding the PC-DOS drivers for the NIC now let me connect to the Ghostcast Server. 

I am still unable to copy an image from the machine, am I doing something wrong with the command screen?

Edit: Even though I am setting it to copy the entire disk, Ghostcast brings up a box (Select local source drive by clicking on the drive number) and gives me 2 options.

Drive 1: Local > 23 MB > Basic Type > 3 Cylinders > 255 Heads > 63 Sectors

Drive 2: Local > 238475 MB > Basic Type > 30401 Cylinders > 255 Heads > 63 Sectors

It appears to give me an error if I select the larger Drive 2.

What is the Error that you get when you choose the larger Drive 2?

It said that there might be an error on the NTFS and asked if I wanted to continue.  I just hit continue to see if it would work.  It is currently pulling that image and has about an hour and a half to go. 

My concern is that the smaller Drive 1 will cause a problem when I try to restore the image on another machine. 

I restored and image onto another machine, but I got errors as soon as I loaded it.

"There has been a signature failure"

Any suggestions?

Hi,

I would like to know the client machine details. I suspect you do not have the NIC or Storage drivers in Winpe database and hence it doesnt allow to boot the client machine into pre-os. If that is the case then you need to add the appropriate drivers through Ghost Boot Wizard and re-run the image create task. Please me know the details.

The laptops are Lenovo SL410 machines, but I have since rectified the issue with the boot disk.  I was able to add the drivers to the Ghost Boot disc.  The problem now lies with the pull and restore of the image.  I am attempting a pull now with the -IB switch to see if that fixes my issues. 

Include the switch -FDSP when you restore the image. You can include the switch either while creating the Boot disk or you can load ghost with your boot disk and then quit from it and execute Ghost32 again with the parameter from the Ghost folder.

The command line will look like,...

X:\GHOST>ghost32.exe -FDSP

Hi,

Thanks for the hardware details. I think I got your problem correctly now. Lenovo SL 410 has the AHCI 9/10 storage controller and Ghost 2266 has issue to deal with such controller and fixed the issue in build 2269. You may experience ghost hang when execute in pre boot environment. If the issue observed at your end then you need to call Symantec technical support to avail the patch (build 2269). Please confirm the same.

Still unable to get this to work.  I am able to import the laptop drivers using the PC-DOS, but if I try to do it with the WinPE it won't connect to the GhostServer.

I can't run X:\GHOST>ghost32.exe -FDSP in PC-DOS.  Any suggestions?

Have you tried the option mentioned above?

We were having some of the exact same issues, but the problem wasn't with the partitions, it was with the communication to the console.  The patch to bring us to 2269 fixed all issues we were having.  You should try the patch and please post a comment if that worked.

I am sorry I missed this.  I will give this a shot today and see if it helps.  Thanks for your information. 

Hi,

Once you apply the patch (build 2269), add the appropriate storage controller driver (if not added prior to apply the patch) and then refresh the Winpe through Ghost Boot Wizard (Open GBW-->select Winpe Pre-os-->Click Edit-->select appropriate Winpe to edit (winpe or winpe512)-->click refresh. This will rebuild the wim file along with the storage drivers added. Then re-run the task from the console. Please update your finding.

Why is this patch not available from Live Update, why is a link not provided to the patch?

GSS2.5 not updating via Live Update

Check the above thread.  Or you can call Symantec Technical Support.

I called their tech support today and it appears that their FTP server is haywire and they can't give this patch out right now.  I am waiting to get an email back with download instructions. 

I do have the steps to install the patch, but it's big so I guess you'll have to wait for Symantec to get it to you.  Sorry.

APPLYING THE 2269 PATCH :

-Make sure that all the Ghost windows are closed
-Open a command prompt and change directory to C:\Program files\Symantec\Ghost
-Type in ngserver -stop and hit enter
-Minimise the command prompt
-Now We need to replace the files in the Ghost folder with the Files from the 2269 patch.
-Copy all the files except 'Client.msi' to the Symantec Ghost installation folder (Default location is C:\Program Files\Symantec\Ghost) and replace them for the existing files
-Copy the client.msi file to the Client install folder within the Ghost installation folder (Default is C:\Program Files\Symantec\Ghost\ClientInstall)
-Open the command prompt and type ngserver -start
-You can close the command prompt now
-Open Symantec Ghost Boot wizard
-Click on WinPE and Click Edit
-Click on WinPe and Click the refresh Button
-Once the refresh of Win PE is completed,Click on WinPe-512 and click the refresh button again
-If you have any created any additional copies of WinPe, please refresh them also
-Please follow these steps in the same order for completely applying the 2269 patch.

In pc dos you can't use ghost32.exe it would be ghost.exe

So when you are at the command prompt the the drive letter may not be X: it may be C: or D: and the executible will be ghost.exe -FDSP not ghost32.exe -FDSP.    The ghost32 is a 32bit version and pc dos is a 16 bit os. 

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the install heads up.  I am still waiting for an email back from Technical support with the link to download this patch.  I will give your advice a shot once I get something from them. 

I'm geting ghost hang (blue\gray screen) when I boot using PC DOS. What can I do to fix this issue?

Booker T

Please start a new thread with your question, and when you repost, can you specify exactly which version of Ghost you are using, and what system you are booting on?  Also, are any error messages displayed prior to the hang?  How long have you waited to see if this is a hang, or just a process that needs to time out.

If using PCDOS on a system with a SATA hard disk, you will find that PCDOS will not be able to see the hard disk (as is has no support for SATA) unless you are able to set the BIOS hard disk parameters to "compatibility mode".  Your hang could be due to Ghost trying to find a disk drive.

The more information you supply, the easier it will be for us to help you.

I too have a number of Win7 boxes that came pre-installed with Win7 home edition, and I need to put on Win7 Enterprise Edition but the Ghost Task fails because ghost does not support a system that has multiple boot partitions (which apparently these new machines do).  This is a documented limitation.

Is there a ghost task that I can run that can basically boot into WinPE, reformat the drive, and then let me run my Imaging task so that I can install my ghost images of Win7 Enterprise?

If so how?