mallyg34 Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 Im trying to boot directly to ghost from my USB device so that i can install images without using and CD or floppy. I've been searching the internet for information on this topic and the things I've found have not been very clear. Any information on this would be helpful.
tmcd35 Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 This is how I've done this before... 1) Create a Windows 98 Boot floopy (google search boot disks for image) 2) Format the USB as a system drive using Win 98 Boot floppy for system images. I believe HP have a free USB formating tool that will do this for you. 3) Use Ghost Boot Disk creator to create a multidisk ghost floppy set. 4) copy all files (including hidden system files) from the floppy disks to the USB drive 5) copy the 'Ghost.exe' program from your Ghost installation dir (C:\Program Files\Ghost ?) to the 'Ghost' directory on the USB drive 6) Edit 'Autoexec.bat' on the USB drive to replace any mention of Ram drives or Floppy drives with the relevant details for the USB drive. eg. change A:\ghost\ghost.ext to c:\ghost\ghost.ext - or what ever needs doing. 7) Remove any mention of expanded/joining/creating a ghost.exe from Autoexec.bat as you copied a complete version of this file to the USB drive in step 5. 8) Research into - PXE Boot, RIS, WDS, Clonezilla and FOG - as a combination of these will make your life easier than worrying about having the correct NIC drivers on the ghost USB drive. 1
Little-Miss Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 (edited) I found this the other day... http://www.ghostbootdisk.com/ I actually didnt have much luck....maybe you will! Edited September 8, 2009 by Little-Miss
mattx Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 NetBootDisk.com - The Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk for M$ Networks
Gerry Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD Take one HDD Create at least 2 partitions: 1 has to be a 512Mb bootable (try searching Google) Install Bart PE on the 512Mb partition Add Ghost (optional: add it to Bart PE's menu system) Viola! If I remember at work tomorrow, I'll search for the more detailed instructions I wrote...
m25man Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 I just use a 2.5" WD Passport drive formatted NTFS and used the Ghost Boot Wizard from the Corporate version of Ghost to make it a bootable disk! F12 or F11 depending on your BIOS, boot Windows PE from the 2.5" drive then upload/download your image file directly to/from the portable drive. One or two of these you can store a syspreped image of most of your systems. We also have a policy that if you can't fix it in 30 mins then image it! Solves 99.9% of all user problems. Average restore time 5-10 minutes with no network hit.
Gerry Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 PE Builder: Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD PeToUSB: GoCoding.Com First create a PE environment with PE Builder – no need to create an ISO or burn to CD. Create a FAT Primary Partition (maximum 512Mb I believe) on the HDD you are going to use. The rest can be NTFS or FAT32 Logical Partition. You may want to turn off System Restore on the larger partition(s). Start PeToUSB and use the settings shown in the attachment. Click “Start” and allow program to format and continue. It will make the primary partition bootable and install Bart’s PE environment. You should now be able to boot into Bart PE from this HDD.
LeMarchand Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 I use Gerry's method, with UBCD4WIN on the USB drive. I don't know whether I have a duff drive, but after every few boots it needs recreating .
sted Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 www.vistape.net i use that to create a wim file with ghost in then copy that to my wds server and network boot them into vista pe and run ghost32 in that no cds/pens/floppys needed
mallyg34 Posted September 9, 2009 Author Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) This is how I've done this before... 1) Create a Windows 98 Boot floopy (google search boot disks for image) 2) Format the USB as a system drive using Win 98 Boot floppy for system images. I believe HP have a free USB formating tool that will do this for you. 3) Use Ghost Boot Disk creator to create a multidisk ghost floppy set. 4) copy all files (including hidden system files) from the floppy disks to the USB drive 5) copy the 'Ghost.exe' program from your Ghost installation dir (C:\Program Files\Ghost ?) to the 'Ghost' directory on the USB drive 6) Edit 'Autoexec.bat' on the USB drive to replace any mention of Ram drives or Floppy drives with the relevant details for the USB drive. eg. change A:\ghost\ghost.ext to c:\ghost\ghost.ext - or what ever needs doing. 7) Remove any mention of expanded/joining/creating a ghost.exe from Autoexec.bat as you copied a complete version of this file to the USB drive in step 5. 8) Research into - PXE Boot, RIS, WDS, Clonezilla and FOG - as a combination of these will make your life easier than worrying about having the correct NIC drivers on the ghost USB drive. When I format the USB drive, what file system should I use?Also, is there a limit to the size of the USB drive? Edited September 9, 2009 by mallyg34
tmcd35 Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 (from memory - if using the HP formating tool) - There is a check box for format as systems disk. If this is checked it will ask where the system files are that it should use. The answer is on the Windows 98 boot floppy created in step 1. So far I have not found a maximum size usb drive. Used to use 4Gb drives loaded with every NIC driver I could find. EDIT: Re-read the question - The file system would be FAT32. Max size is whatever the max for FAT32 is - 2Tb?
L_Smith Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 Do you have Ghost Cast Server on yout server?
mallyg34 Posted September 9, 2009 Author Posted September 9, 2009 (from memory - if using the HP formating tool) - There is a check box for format as systems disk. If this is checked it will ask where the system files are that it should use. The answer is on the Windows 98 boot floppy created in step 1. So far I have not found a maximum size usb drive. Used to use 4Gb drives loaded with every NIC driver I could find. EDIT: Re-read the question - The file system would be FAT32. Max size is whatever the max for FAT32 is - 2Tb? Thats strange cause I'm using a 100GB seagate external harddrive. Im using the Hp format tool, it starts formating then I get an error message the "volume is too big".
mallyg34 Posted September 9, 2009 Author Posted September 9, 2009 Do you have Ghost Cast Server on yout server? Yes I have ghost cast server on my server. I'm using Ghost Corp. version 11
L_Smith Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 Yes I have ghost cast server on my server. I'm using Ghost Corp. version 11 Doesnt that come with a Ghost Boot Wizard? Thats what I have always used in the past, works with any size memory stick (depending on the PC you are trying to boot, some in the past havent liked ones that are above 2GB) and once you have loaded the files onto it you can then use it as a normal memory stick too.
sted Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 Doesnt that come with a Ghost Boot Wizard? Thats what I have always used in the past, works with any size memory stick (depending on the PC you are trying to boot, some in the past havent liked ones that are above 2GB) and once you have loaded the files onto it you can then use it as a normal memory stick too. all i got ghost boot wizard usb to do reliably was take my server down just hung whatever mem stick i used (though i havnt had any sub 2gb ones for a long time)
mallyg34 Posted September 9, 2009 Author Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) Doesnt that come with a Ghost Boot Wizard? Thats what I have always used in the past, works with any size memory stick (depending on the PC you are trying to boot, some in the past havent liked ones that are above 2GB) and once you have loaded the files onto it you can then use it as a normal memory stick too. Yes it comes with Ghost Boot Wizard, but that wizard doesnt make your USB bootable( I don't believe). Im just trying to format my USB external hardrive with the windows 98 system files and im getting an error saying the volume is too big. Then after that Im going to put the ghost files on it. Edited September 9, 2009 by mallyg34
tmcd35 Posted September 9, 2009 Posted September 9, 2009 The hp usb format tool is for usb pen drives not hard drives AFAIK. For an external hard drive you could try to format from the command line format X: /s where X: is the drive letter of the external drive and /s is the switch for copying system files to the disk. Again this is all from memory. The last version of Ghost Boot Wizard I used only made floppy disks - not USB drives. Unless I was doing something wrong (very likely). As I mentioned before I've now moved on to PXE booting which makes live even easier than a USB pen drive/hard drive. I've also moved from Ghost to Clonezilla (others here use FOG) which is Linux based and has a lot less problems with NIC drivers than Ghost.
mallyg34 Posted September 9, 2009 Author Posted September 9, 2009 The hp usb format tool is for usb pen drives not hard drives AFAIK. For an external hard drive you could try to format from the command line format X: /s where X: is the drive letter of the external drive and /s is the switch for copying system files to the disk. Again this is all from memory. The last version of Ghost Boot Wizard I used only made floppy disks - not USB drives. Unless I was doing something wrong (very likely). As I mentioned before I've now moved on to PXE booting which makes live even easier than a USB pen drive/hard drive. I've also moved from Ghost to Clonezilla (others here use FOG) which is Linux based and has a lot less problems with NIC drivers than Ghost. Some of my clients don't support PXE booting, thats why i haven't gone that route yet.
mallyg34 Posted September 10, 2009 Author Posted September 10, 2009 Hey fellas, I got it to work. The only problem Im having now is that my USB drive is being seen as the C: drive when im using ghost. How can I fix this?
L_Smith Posted September 10, 2009 Posted September 10, 2009 Yes it comes with Ghost Boot Wizard, but that wizard doesnt make your USB bootable( I don't believe). Im just trying to format my USB external hardrive with the windows 98 system files and im getting an error saying the volume is too big. Then after that Im going to put the ghost files on it. I belive it does. I have been using the same memory stick (256mb) for a long time and i have used it on many machines.
tmcd35 Posted September 10, 2009 Posted September 10, 2009 Hey fellas, I got it to work. The only problem Im having now is that my USB drive is being seen as the C: drive when im using ghost. How can I fix this? This is standard DOS behaviour and perfectly normal. The drive you are ghost to, the computers internal drive, will show up in Ghost for you to select - probably as a diffent drive letter. When you reboot the machine after ghosting. The internal drive - if you are booting from it - will be the C: drive as normal. I'm not 100% sure (been along time). But I think you can change the default drive letter in Config.sys somewhere (one of the system files on the Ghost HDD).
sted Posted September 10, 2009 Posted September 10, 2009 This is standard DOS behaviour and perfectly normal. The drive you are ghost to, the computers internal drive, will show up in Ghost for you to select - probably as a diffent drive letter. When you reboot the machine after ghosting. The internal drive - if you are booting from it - will be the C: drive as normal. I'm not 100% sure (been along time). But I think you can change the default drive letter in Config.sys somewhere (one of the system files on the Ghost HDD). i wouldnt wory about the usb letter anyway when you reboot the hdd will have the same letter as when i was cloned anyway
mallyg34 Posted September 10, 2009 Author Posted September 10, 2009 Thanks guys...Your right the letter didn't make it difference, but the imaging process was really slow.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now