Ghost Solution Suite

This is really strange....

I've got a server which I can produce a ghost image from. All looks good. If I then restore this image to the exact same server when it boots up it pops up a new hardware found message - generic volume found. If I OK this and then reboot it goes away.

Trouble is no matter how many times I reboot and then recreate the image, the first time it boots after an image restore it finds this new hardware. I must admit I dont understand.

I know it sounds like nothing but the image is going to be rolled out to a few customers, so we need a decent clean image....

Any ideas?

Tried disabling this. Bad idea - wouldnt boot then.

I still dont understand why it keeps popping up though.

Hi,

This does not seems to be Ghost problem. This is something related to the operating system or the software installed on this OS. Could you please provide more details about the software and hardware inventory.?

Its Windows 2000. Thing is though once I OK it then it works fine and never asks me again.

However, if I image and restore it starts again,.

Hi,

Which are the softwares have you installed on Windows 2000 server? Is there any such software which does data encryption or protects operating systems configuration files? It would be helpful if you provlde the software inventory details to investigate the problem in depth.

No nothing like that.

I've had a suggesiton that it might be due to a partition being active that was not backed up by the ghost backup?

Hi,

I am not sure about your setup. Did you mean you have two partitions and you are trying to restore the image on other partition which is active with Ghost backup?

Please explain a bit your setup to investigate the problem.

Since the customer asked the same question on a third-party forum where he revealed he was working with an early Ghost version, the answer is that this is simply something that happens due to Ghost zeroing the disk ID when restoring (all versions of Ghost prior to Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 did this by default on a disk restore, and anyone who ever used Ghost prior to Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 will have seen this message every time they did such a restore).

When first booting on a volume with a zero disk ID, Windows generates a fresh disk ID for the MBR and redetects the available volumes to assign them drive letters. The message simply indicates that process has taken place, and can otherwise be safely ignored.

No. This is just one disk one partition.

Nigel,

Thanks for the explanation. We do lots of ghost backups and restores using this version of ghost on many of our windows 2000 installations - this is the first time I've seen this. In fact, our customer uses ghost to rebuild these same 'server's on hundreds of installations all around the world. These restores are done using our 'golden' images we provide.

In fact, I've now rebuilt the server from scratch, ghosted it to image, then restored back onto same machine and no message this time.

Iv'e still got my image which if I restore back, gives me the pop up but now the newly created one doesnt. Weird.

Inconsistency in message display is simply due to the fact that the Windows processes leading to the displaying the message are affected by a number of other factors, the most notable of which are timing-related; operating system start-up consists of a great many separate processes trying to start up and their scheduling is not deterministic.

Regardless, the underlying cause of the message is as I explained. In newer versions of Ghost Solution Suite that message does not ever appear because Ghost generates new disk ID's itself and manipulates the Windows registry to make drive letters match as part of the restore process (a change driven by the Windows Vista Boot Configuration Database which used the MBR disk ID in ways that prevented restored systems from booting if the disk ID was simply zeroed).

Nigel,

This actually happens not at all on older hardware we've got but happens 'some' of the time with our newer hardware.

However, many thanks for your explanation. I guess an investment in an upgrade of ghost may be the best plan for us.

If I were to purchase a newer version of Ghost would I be able to restore existing old images without getting this problem? i.e. Is it just the restore process that causes this problem?

Or would I need to generate completely new up-to-date images with the latest version of ghost?

All versions of genuine Ghost (i.e., not the current consumer "Norton Ghost" which is now a different product using our brand) we've released are backwards compatible; new versions generally contain extensions to the .GHO file format (so old versions of Ghost may not necessarily read newer .GHO files), but the base .GHO file format used currently dates from Ghost 3.0 - ensuring that old images can be restored is a part of our standard internal build testing.

As I said it's not particularly a "problem" at all; all Windows versions since 2000 can report this when the disc signature is zeroed and it has no deleterious effect other than the notification, which is harmless in itself. You are just seeing the effect of faster hardware overcoming the large delays in Server edition startup compared to desktop editions, which will be what masked the notification from being generated in your case.

The only actual, as opposed to cosmetic, effect of this zeroing is that drive letter assignments are regenerated (as custom drive letter assignments use the Disk ID to identify the source partition) back to the Windows installation defaults. This is a non-issue for manufacturing and almost all backup scenarios, but the disk signature preserve switch is there for the rare backup scenarios where customers have used non-factory custom drive letters and want them perfectly preserved on restore.

To answer your second question, it is indeed the restore process triggering the notification; as explained, restoring by default zeroes a fingerprint in the MBR that Windows uses to identify disks. Altering the disk signature is a useful thing to do (especially in manufacturing) as there are very negative results that can occur from two disks with identical MBR signatures being present in an enclosure at once, which is why generating a new disk signature is important during manufacturing scenarios and thus why this was the default action on disk restore.

If you are using Ghost in a manufacturing scenario then you be using the one-time VAR license model rather than the per-seat model which is sold through the online store. You should contact Symantec's sales staff for that as VAR license contracts offer a range of different approaches supporting different manufacturing volumes (and since manufacturing volumes are more volatile than seated licenses, there are license models which have more purchase flexibility).