[Ghost] Ghost Imaging Problems

[Tricky_Dicky]

Hi,

I'm the new(and only) ICT Technician at a large primary school. Among a whole load of problems one of the more pressing ones is the 3 laptop trolleys that don't work properly and so I've set up one laptop with all the correct software and info with the idea of creating an image and sending it out to the others to make deployment faster, however it won't Ghost!

They are Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 Laptops and I'm using the Symantec Ghost Console to try and create the image. The server can find the laptop I am trying to image, shuts down and appears to go through the motions of setting creating the image but it doesn't boot in to Ghost Console. In the logs I am getting the message "To Virtual Partition" and that's when it's failing.

Any ideas or help would be great, I've got a massive amount of work on here as nothing appears to have been updated in years and this is a real headache.

Cheers in advance

Rich

[FN-GM]

Hi,

I'm the new(and only) ICT Technician at a large primary school. Among a whole load of problems one of the more pressing ones is the 3 laptop trolleys that don't work properly and so I've set up one laptop with all the correct software and info with the idea of creating an image and sending it out to the others to make deployment faster, however it won't Ghost!

They are Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 Laptops and I'm using the Symantec Ghost Console to try and create the image. The server can find the laptop I am trying to image, shuts down and appears to go through the motions of setting creating the image but it doesn't boot in to Ghost Console. In the logs I am getting the message "To Virtual Partition" and that's when it's failing.

Any ideas or help would be great, I've got a massive amount of work on here as nothing appears to have been updated in years and this is a real headache.

Cheers in advance

Rich

In the ghost console have you tried to select the right partition?

[Michael]

What you're saying is fine in principle, I've imaged at many schools, but I am not a fan of Ghost

If the server can see the laptop, then it appears you have the correct network drivers installed. You shouldn't need any SATA drivers as I've imaged quite a few (too many in fact!!!) A120's without any issues.

[mrtechsystems]

Also you might want to try this

Ghost client hangs after "To Virtual Partition" | Symantec Connect

try changing from MSDOS

Also there is a good info on link below for reference

https://web.gsc.edu/www/wbeck/Ghost.htm

[sted]

iirc with those you need to add switches (if your doing this from the console its under advanced options in clone if from ghostcast server type in the additional box)

-noide -nolilo -noscsi -nousb

[Ignatius]

... but I am not a fan of Ghost ...

Sorry to jump in - I've used Ghost exclusively and (touch wood) never had any problems. May I ask what you use when saving and deploying an image? Although I've not encountered any problems, I'm bound to do so at some stage so I'd like to have a "B" plan up my sleeve.

[rocknrollstar]

Initially when we had 48 laptops across 2 trolleys, I used Ghost. Couldn't get the thing to work, and when it did seem to work, it took forever. Multicasting wasn't an option. Eventually took out each hard disk and used GNU to copy the HDs, 20mins each.

Now I know better. I have now set up a FOG server on an old PC (on UBuntu, free), and managed to get all the laptops reimaged within a few days (bar a few minor setup issues, sorted out by edugeek).

Granted, I'm a full time teacher, not an netwok manager, so I learn on the job, but I'm very happy now with the FOG server & system

[Ignatius]

Now that is interesting. I'd never heard of FOG. I'm definitely going to play around with that.

[SimpleSi]

Granted, I'm a full time teacher, not an netwok manager, so I learn on the job, but I'm very happy now with the FOG server & system

Bloomin heck - if a teacher can get FOG working, it must be easy - I'd better look into myself

regards

Simon

[bio]

It looks like you do not have a correct Network Card Template. Search for up2date NDIS drivers and create a network card manually. Do not use Universal ghost driver that ghost provides. I don't know if there is a Realtek card in that machine.. but those trully suck in combination with ghost.

bio..

[Tricky_Dicky]

Sorry for not replying earlier but internet access was down(through BGFL, is that a common occurrence?)

Michael, what do you mean "fine in principal"? Am I missing something obvious? I'll do a search round now for some never network drivers and see if that helps.

We also have just had 31 new NEC machines through Tempus and one was causing a slight problem so I'm sending it the image that was created when they were originally done and will see what happens, but at the moment it seems to be working.

Also, is anyone having trouble with their volume licence key not working using SP3?

Cheers
Rich

[rocknrollstar]

You may like to look at this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/window...ndows-vlk.html Started by me, as I have an issue with a single computer not going through the MS licensing successfully. It does have SP3, however I have plenty other PCs that activated fine with SP3. Just 1 odd one! Am going to leave it for a month, then reimage, and try again. Time is a healer...

Sounds like you have a working Ghost system though. Well done!

[Michael]

Sorry to jump in - I've used Ghost exclusively and (touch wood) never had any problems. May I ask what you use when saving and deploying an image? Although I've not encountered any problems, I'm bound to do so at some stage so I'd like to have a "B" plan up my sleeve.

I use Image for Windows in combination with BartPE for creating/restoring images. There's also Image for DOS and Linux (other alternatives). Including additional network and SATA/SCSI/RAID drivers is also straight forward.

Michael, what do you mean "fine in principal"?

I meant imaging is fine/recommended, but I have found Ghost a little problematic in the past. Maybe it has improved with later versions (I haven't looked), but I have a good working reliable solution so I see little reason to change.

[Tricky_Dicky]

Thanks all for your help on this matter, I've now got Ghost Cast working after giving up on the Console part of things.

Will see how I get on reimaging the 60 laptops now

Rich

[FragglePete]

Thanks all for your help on this matter, I've now got Ghost Cast working after giving up on the Console part of things.

Will see how I get on reimaging the 60 laptops now

Rich

Don't give up on Console, takes a while to get your head round it, but once you do it does prove very powerful. The real 'gotcha' for me was the inventory doesn't show the latest name for a particular machine that you want to create an image for.

I can get a classroom re-imaged in around two hours now from a base image.

Pete