Deployment and Imaging Group

I am having an issue with Ghost version 3, and it continues still now in refresh 3 of the beta. I create an installer version of the automation partition to be installed on XP machines I am testing, so that I can image them in my development lab, and I get the message upon install of the package "(filename).exe is not a valid Win32 app" and therefore I can not load the boot/automation partition. I can however do this in Win 7 just fine.

Is there no version to do this with Win XP? We still have many XP machines, and it would be very handy to be able to load the automation patition under Windows like you can with Win 7.

I hope this does not sound confusing. I needed i can clarify.

Can you post this question in the beta forum for Ghost 3 as that is where the beta releases are being supported.

Have you ctreated an x86 automation package or a x64 one?  If the latter, then that may explain why. 

Are you not able to use PXE in your lab? 

Many thanks for the reply. I thought I had gotten the correct forum, but it looks like I in fact did not. Can you forward the link to the Ghost 3 Beta forum? If you could, that would be great. I will post the question there.

Regards,

Eric

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. PXE boot here with WinPE is mind numbingly slow, so I have opted to use the embedded automation partition instead. Having tried it with Win7/64 first, the time to get PE to boot is very good; again why I opted for it instead. Secondly, we will be imaging across our district WAN, which works much better with the automation partition versus. PXE.

I did create both an x86 and an x64 one, with the same results ie: "invalid Win32 application". I am however re-creating the packages again just to be sure. I will post the results.

Take care,

Eric

I created two separate packages this morning, one for x86 and x64, and the error of "this is not a valid win32 application" still appears. This is for loading the embedded automation partition via the Windows production OS (in this case XP).

Eric

Have a look at my ancient WinPE article here:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/readyadventures-winpe

Towards the end of this article is a methodology for getting a dual boot environment set up in XP. Perhaps the steps in this will fix whatever the issue is within your current environment.

Thanks, I will have to give this a try along with a few other tricks.

Hmm... This shouldn't be an issue (we've been doing this for years with XP).

What architecture is your XP OS that you are running you package on, and what architecture is your automation partition? Can you show the screenshots of the process you used to create the package?

This is a known issue for GSS 3.0. See the "Known issues of Ghost Solution Suite 3.0” section of GSS 3.0 Release notes.

Ghost Solution Suite 3.0 Release Notes : https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.DOC8691.html?

Issue Description: When you install the automation partition on a Windows XP 32-bit computer, the error code 193 is displayed.

With GSS 3.0 you can able to create Automation Partition for Windows XP 64 bit computers however for Windows XP 32 bit you will see the similar issue(Not a valid Win 32 application).