Windows Back Up / Restore.

[tickmike]

Hello all .

More help wanted please.(you have been great, very helpful )

W2K Pro.

The basic question is it ok to use windows full drive back up/restore to reinstall a workstation because my copy of Ghost needs me to reboot the server as well as the workstation each time I want to do a complete install .

From Michael.

[plexer]

By windows full drive backup do you mean as in windows backup program nt backup???

 

If so then it's not designed as an imaging tool.

 

There's something wrong with your ghost setup if it's doing what you've described.

 

Can you provide some more details about how you've set it up please Mike?

 

Ben

[mullet_man]

Yeah Ghost shouldn't want to restart the server its installed on every time you image a PC.

 

What version of Ghost are you using?

[tickmike]

Hi.

Ghost 8 (basic).

 

Tried 'Back up ' image first 'C' drive wanted to save it to drive on server. But would not let me send to sever, said must use peer to peer via network.

So went on to 'advanced' settings >p2p set up what Ip address to use =DHCP > copy > Failed.!!??

Forgot that DHCP server was on the server ,so when it rebooted to do the copying it stopped the DHCP service. oop's.

Set up fixed IP's >copy it then reboots both the computer that you are copying from (a workstation )and the one you copy to (my server) do not like that !.

 

This basic ghost does not let you put it onto more than one CD, you can 'clone' a disk to disk eg. a second hard drive in the same computer, I could use that method but I would have to get at the insides of all the 30 computers in the school to re-image them (big job) !. and I do not have a USB hard drive which you can use.

 

Because the holidays nearly over the way I will try next is to ghost it striate from the work station to another workstation .

I did tell the head she may not have any computers to use when she gets back after this big upgrade I'm doing by myself and a extra hazard I'm having to put up with is most of the school is being transformed to an Art Show, which will raise maybe about £5000 to £6000 to the running of the school.

 

From Michael. Ps. found out that windows back up is no good at re-image.

[plexer]

Mike,

 

It sounds like you have a lot on your plate at the moment.

 

If I were you I think I'd go for just pulling the drives out an using one workstation as the master plug the other drives in one by one and image them that just to get you up and running for the time being.

 

Ben

[tickmike]

Hi Ben

Your idea sounds an easy way but for me this time it will not be practical to do, workstation are in stacks of four and will not be easy to do in the time.

So going to try image from the workstation I have re-installed to another workstation one at a time.

Michael.

[ajbritton]

You need to use the 'multicast server' feature in Ghost on your server. You set this up to either receive or transmit and image. Basic procedure is as follows...

 

1 - Sent Multicast server to receive

2 - Upload the master image from the template PC

3 - Set Multicast server to transmit

4 - Boot target PCs and let the connect to the server

5 - Hit Send on the server and the images will be send to the PCs

 

Recent versions of Ghost included the Ghost Console and if you're using this, then I believe the procedure is as follows;

 

1 - Push the Ghost client out to all PCs

2 - Use Ghost console to pull an image from your template PC

3 - Use Ghost console to push the image tou tour target PCs

 

I'm no longer a Ghost user so my terminology will not be entirely accurate, but the principles should be right.

[Gatt]

That's the jist of Ghost - very easy to use the Multicasting side of it - though never got the hang of the Console

 

Now using RIS to do my imaging and finding it a lot easier to work with. but still like Ghost!

[Ric_]

It sounds like Tikmike doesn't have Ghost Corporate.

 

Check out UBCD at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ - simply make your master image and sysprep it and then use one of the cloning tools to do a disk to disk copy.

[SimpleSi]

Hi Mike

What I do in my primary schools is to partition the client computers into C and D drive - making the D partition big enough to hold the image of the C Drive.

 

I then ghost (or any other imaging program) the C drive to an image on the D Drive.

 

Make the D Drive shareable.

 

Then partition the other computers as well.

 

If the other computers have a working copy of Windows on them then you can just copy the image from the D drive on the original machine to the D Drive on the other machines.

 

Once you've copied the image, you can just then apply the image from the D drive to the C Drive.

 

If the other machines don't have a working copy of Windows on them, then you need to boot them up with something like Knoppix (A Linux OS that runs directly from a CD) and copy the image across the network that way. Come back if you need help with that.

 

regards

 

Simon

[tickmike]

Hi All.

As I put in the post above its only 'Ghost 8 Basic' (home) not corporate (For this charity we have to manage with what we have donated ).

The workstations all have 6.4G hard drives there may just be enough room to try 'Simplesi' method.

They all have W2K pro . on them, I have 'Norton partition magic But if I use this it wipes the volume ?

to make the partition ? I think. But I understand what you say.

I'm going over to school tonight so I will have a go .Thanks.

 

Has one or two of you Know I'm setting up the DC for the first time so will look into RIS Etc. later just trying to get the basic domain set up before the holidays end.

Michael.

[Ric_]

If you boot off a Linux live CD, you should be able to use dd or something to copy the image from a Windows share - make sure it is sysprepped though!

[MkII]

SimpleSi's solution sounds ingenious - very cheeky!

 

I wouldn't recommend the open source imaging tools - just because they take so long - but if needs must they do the job. with a 6Gb HD tho' there's be no room for an image uncompressed.

 

Partition Magic can adjust partition sizes and add partitions on a live machine leaving the operating system intact TM, that's never failed for me anyhow.

 

I'd guess Win2K would take up about 1Gb max compressed with Ghost.

[CyberNerd]

I wouldn't recommend the open source imaging tools - just because they take so long - but if needs must they do the job. with a 6Gb HD tho' there's be no room for an image uncompressed.

 

Its possible to compress a dd image by piping it through a compression program.

 

dd if=/dev/hda | bzip2 > /mnt/hda.bz2

Restore the hard disk image:

bzcat /mnt/hda.bz2 | dd of=/dev/hda

[Ric_]

@mark: Using dd shouldn't be much slower compared to Ghost. It uses sector copying which is the same technology used by Ghost after all. If both disks are in the same machine it should be quicker than using a network share anyway.

[plexer]

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

 

Can be used to image a running xp etc... system.

 

Looks neat.

 

Ben

[NetworkGeezer]

If cost is an issue then dd might be an option.

 

Ghost and other commercial products have advantage of copying only copying populated sectors. This reduces the image size even further then compression alone.

 

The other option of course is doing ghost like imaging with RIS using the RIPREP utility. This sound like what Gatt is doing.

[plexer]

What about:

 

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/321 ???

 

Ben

[tickmike]

Hi . just an update .

Well I used Partition Magic and it is magic , made an extra partition like 'SimpleSi' explained above.

About first five Ghost images were corrupt, did 'scan disk' then 'defrag' then I got a good ghost image.

Tried peer to peer to workstation image copied ok come to reboot get BSOD with error oxooooooA5 and that is 'ACPI Bios' wants updating..

Done a 'google' for it and it seems a known problem .

So all these workstations are the same spec so how the xxxx can it do this. Does the file get corrupted when you ghost it.

So I was going to try 'SimpleSi' method next, I ghost image to E Drive , Shared it, copied to another workstation on to E drive .

but it was 10.30pm and I had enough. try tomorrow.

 

Question 1..about SimpleSi method above ... I have the copy of C drive on E drive so how do I get it to boot from E drive ... how do I change the drive letters over.?.

 

2..Do I have to update all the bios to get rid of this error.?.

 

From Michael.

[MkII]

You ran Sysprep before imaging - so that when booting the new image goes through a mini install? [you didn't say]

 

I think SimpleSi meant:- to image to the E: Drive, as a permanent store for the ghost image - that's how I understood it anyway. Then you restore to the C: drive. Do this from a working O/S or using the dos version of ghost.

[Ric_]

Sounds like your image is being used on different hardware models. If the OS is XP you can simply boot off the installation CD and ask it to Repair it for you. If you are using 2K you're screwed!

 

If you cannot make different images for each model, you should run sysprep and tell it to do the hardware search at first startup... you need to thoroughly read the MS documentaion on this.

[tickmike]

Hi, Urgent help needed please. . What do I do ?.

Its W2k and I thought they were all the same types of computer's ,

We had problems in the past with them not finding the hard drive when they boot up and getting a BSOD saying there was no 'hard dives installed' ,and some of them decided not to turn the computer off after if shut down the software eg. the W2K OS you have to press the power button to turn off.

 

Do I have to abandon trying to use Ghost or do I have to go back to a complete OS install the long way ?.

Michael.

 

PS. I Have not used 'Sysprep' before.

[SimpleSi]

Hi Mike

My method assumed that all the machines were identical - if they are not then you've got a much more complicated job on to try to clone one machine to another :-(

 

If you have a lot of machines (of mixed types) (>20) which need to have the same software on them then it may be worth trying to learn about Sysprep otherwise the reliable way to get going is to start re-installing your OS and applications on each machine individually.

 

At the beginning you'll be quite slow but as you do more and more of them you'll find yourself wizzing along once you get into a routine.

 

Copying entire install CD's to a server then and then running around each machine running the setup routine over the network can work wonders at times :-)

 

If the machines are currently working then you can use a program called WinAudit to see what hardware is on each machine - some may be more identical than others :-)

 

What/how many programs do you need to get up and running on the machines before term starts?

 

regards

 

Simon

[tickmike]

Hi Simon,

All the 30 computers are the same spec Compaq deskpro EN series, all hardware is the same except 4 computers have CD burners on them as well as the normal CD readers.

 

Software wanted on each to get up and running=

 

W2k pro.

MS Office.

AVG AV.

Zonealarm.

Spywareblaster.

 

Put other on later.

 

Edit... Just had a look at one of the computers at school Via My Radio link. and the bios date is 22/8/99 .

I've never upgraded any bios before is it something I need to do ?. ...Edit

 

 

Michael.

[MkII]

I think you just need to use sysprep Michael. It's on the Win2K Pro CD [it has to be the Windows 2000 version], or download an updated W2000 version: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp

 

1. Set the PC up how you want it

2. Run Sysprep [in Windows] - very few options - very easy

3. Choose not to reboot after Sysprepping, just shut down

4. Image the Windows Partition using Ghost in DOS - either to another partition or to another hard disk.