Ghost Solution Suite

I have a laptop user who always takes his laptop home with him but does leave it on the network for hours at a time at random times during the day.

I therefore cannot have GSS pull the backup from it because there is no set time that I could schedule the backup.

Is there a way that the client machine can start the backup?

You might be able to set up an image create task that the user can initiate manually.

Set up an image in the configuration resources.  If I'm starting from scratch, I just make a file in the intended destination directory named "something.GHO".  Ghost will say it's not a valid file but it will let you choose it as an image file anyway.

In your image create task, set the laptop as the source machine and set the image to the resource you just created.  Select the option to Allow Client Initiation.  That will make the task show up when you click on the laptop's Ghost Console Client icon in the notifcation area of the taskbar.  If it's a Vista or Windows 7 machine, you may be able to make use of the option to hot image the laptop.  It won't have to go to the PreOS if hot imaging works, so the laptop will remain usable.

Unfortunately, I do not know if there is a way for a client transitioning from disconnected to connected can automatically trigger a task in Ghost.  That would be great for me to handle laptop users who connect to the LAN wirelessly and don't run the login script like they would if they were connected to the wired LAN.