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Hi there ! Anyone know of any Free multicast **Ghost** like software ? I need to deploy 500 workstation images in a day and have a VERY Limited budget I.E pref £0.00 ! Any help would be great ! Cheers

I've been using a linux System Recovery disc to create images and to shoot those images to machines one at a time. This - as you can imagine - is not very efficient. We've been looking at Acronis and Ghost thus far, but there has to be other options out there. Can anyone suggest an imaging solution that they are using and why they like it? Thanks!

Hi all, I am currently having a problem ghosting a particular model of laptop. The laptop is a HP 6730s with a Marvell Yukon network driver. I have changed the hard drive mode from ACHI to IDE The problem is as follows: Press f12 to boot from NIC, then select ghost boot (As normal). Then windows loads files etc, then the network card turns itself off! The laptop proceeds to boot into ghost etc. However i can seem to get the network card to stay on. I have tried to create a new boot image on the ghost wizard (Downloaded the correct driver) Still doesn’t work. However i must admit my knowledge on ghost is limited. Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated Many thanks Matt

Ive started imaging my Netbooks. The image was made whilst i had an engineer in a quite happily went onto the netbook. Now i've just tried to image 2, the ghost session is said to be successful, but when they reboot they get as far as the windows logo and the BSOD. Any ideas what i could be, what im doing wrong or why its decided it doesnt want to play...

We bought new HP Probook 6565b laptops with Realtek 8168 chipsets. I have several dos drivers and I am unable to make a functional boot stick. I then bought Syba expresscards, one with realtek 8111 chipset and one with an agere chipset. I have tried creating a boot stick with these dos drivers also and nothing works. Both Realteks come back with no ethernet adapter found and the agere comes back with a driver error. I am able to get the agere working through WinPE, but that is not preferred due to the longer boot. I can't even get either Realtek to work with WinPE. I was hoping the expresscard would be a single solution to multiple models of laptops, but they don't seem to be working out well. I am using Ghost 11.5 (Suite 2.5).

Is this possible? I've seen a few forums that say it is but I'm a bit lost. We're currently running a VLAN through the neighbouring schools switch. I need to image 20 new netbooks. When I try to PXE boot it sits there searching and eventually times out and tries again. Is this something that i need to contact link2ict about? Whos switch needs configuring? Or is it something this end? I've seen the terms dense and sparse thrown about.

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

Is anybody having problems using ghost with these laptops when we use the ghost console it fails and boots back into windows and if we try to boot into ghost from usb it eitheir hangs or reports an error message.

For laptops etc to be imaged in batches we have now set up an extra 3Com 10/100 NIC in our Ghostcast server (OK, an old PC stuck on the floor in our office knocked together by yours truly ) and connected that card up to a basic Netgear 10/100 mini switch. So basically an internal network for Ghostcasting without putting heavy traffic on the main network. Anyway got one laptop uploading an image now which is going at around 325 - 350 MB/Min. Is this about the best we'll get for a 10/100 config and will there be a big benefit in upgrading to Gigabit hardware for the internal LAN? (Assuming the laptops have Gigabit capable NICs). Not too fussed really if we can just sit them on a desk and let them get on with it! Also can a DHCP server be set up on the Ghostcast server but only attached to the internal LAN NIC? Hopefully then we can get PXE etc on the internal LAN

Hi, have done research and looked at threads but still can't see what else i can do to get multicasting working between vlans - unicast works ok. I have bought premium licence for HP 5412 switch and enabled multicast routing. Trying to multicast between two rooms on vlan 6 - have posted config of switches below - if anyone can spot anything obvious please let us know -running out of ideas. Can see session if I put in IP address of multicast server on client but not otherwise - server sees client and can start session from server but then it just times out - client does not respond. Core switch: Running configuration: ; J8698A Configuration Editor; Created on release #K.13.25 hostname "ProCurve Switch 5412zl" snmp-server location "Server room rack" web-management management-url "" time daylight-time-rule Western-Europe ip access-list standard "block-admin" 10 deny 10.58.187.136 255.255.255.128 exit module 1 type J8702A module 2 type J8702A module 3 type J8702A module 4 type J8702A module 5 type J8702A module 6 type J8706A interface C23 speed-duplex auto-1000 exit interface D1 lacp Active exit interface D2 lacp Active exit interface D4 disable lacp Active exit interface D23 lacp Active exit interface D24 lacp Active exit ip default-gateway 10.53.160.33 ip routing timesync sntp sntp unicast snmp-server community "public" Unrestricted snmp-server host 10.56.132.86 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.133.207 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.17 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.162 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.133.1 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.13 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.244 "public" vlan 1 name "DEFAULT_VLAN" untagged A1-A17,A19,A21,A23-A24,B1,B4-B5,B7-B22,B24-C6,C9-C10,C12-C23,D1-D4,D7-D12,D14-D24,E1,E3,E6-E14,E18-E24,F1-F24 ip address 10.56.132.32 255.255.255.0 ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0 no untagged A18,A20,A22,B2-B3,B6,B23,C7-C8,C11,C24,D5-D6,D13,E2,E4-E5,E15-E17 exit vlan 2 name "printers" untagged C24 ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0 tagged A1,A3,A5,A7-A9,A13,A21,B5,C23,D8,D10,E14,E19,F1-F6,F12,F23 exit vlan 6 name "IT-rooms" untagged A18,A20,A22,B2-B3,B6,C7-C8,C11,D5-D6,E4-E5,E15-E17 ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.184.1 255.255.255.0 tagged A1,A5,A9,A13,B5,D8 ip igmp exit vlan 7 name "Ground-Floor" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.185.1 255.255.255.128 tagged A3,A5,E19,F2-F3,F5-F6,F12,F23 exit vlan 8 name "Science" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.185.129 255.255.255.128 tagged F1,F4-F5,F12 exit vlan 9 name "Design" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.186.1 255.255.255.128 tagged F1 exit vlan 10 name "Library" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.186.129 255.255.255.128 tagged A3,A7-A8,A21 exit vlan 11 name "Admin" untagged D13 ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.187.1 255.255.255.128 tagged A7,A21,D8,D10,F1-F2 exit vlan 12 name "Guestweb" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.58.187.129 255.255.255.128 tagged B5 exit vlan 15 name "wan-intercon" untagged E2 ip address 10.53.160.38 255.255.255.248 exit vlan 3 name "wifi-staff" untagged B23 ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.56.134.1 255.255.255.0 tagged A3,A5,A7-A9,A13,A21,B5,C23,D8,E5,E19,F1-F4,F6,F12,F23 exit vlan 4 name "wifi-1" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.56.133.1 255.255.255.0 tagged A7-A8,B5,D8,F1-F2,F5,F23 exit vlan 5 name "wifi-2" ip helper-address 10.56.132.8 ip address 10.56.135.1 255.255.255.0 tagged F4 exit fault-finder bad-driver sensitivity high fault-finder bad-transceiver sensitivity high fault-finder bad-cable sensitivity high fault-finder too-long-cable sensitivity high fault-finder over-bandwidth sensitivity high fault-finder broadcast-storm sensitivity high fault-finder loss-of-link sensitivity high fault-finder duplex-mismatch-HDx sensitivity high fault-finder duplex-mismatch-FDx sensitivity high mirror 1 port A1 sntp server priority 1 10.56.132.8 no ip ssh ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 10.53.160.33 ip multicast-routing router ospf exit router pim exit interface B6 monitor all Both mirror 1 exit spanning-tree vlan 6 ip pim-sparse ip-addr any exit exit password manager password operator IT room switch Running configuration: ; J4899B Configuration Editor; Created on release #H.10.67 hostname "IT2" web-management management-url "" ip default-gateway 10.56.132.32 snmp-server community "public" Unrestricted snmp-server host 10.56.132.13 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.135.97 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.17 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.162 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.133.1 "public" snmp-server host 10.56.132.244 "public" vlan 1 name "DEFAULT_VLAN" untagged 49 ip address 10.56.132.35 255.255.252.0 no untagged 1-48,50 exit vlan 2 name "printers" untagged 1-2,36 tagged 49 exit vlan 6 name "IT-rooms" untagged 3-34,37-48,50 no ip address tagged 35,49 ip igmp exit vlan 3 name "wifi-staff" untagged 35 tagged 49 exit no stack spanning-tree password manager password operator Many Thanks Mark

I know someone has posted this before but its an old post and the solution didnt work for me so I thought i'd try again. The problem is that symantec ghost only picks up certain rooms if its plugged into that room/switch and there are a group of rooms, all on the same switch, that cannot connect even if the server is plugged into the switch. I have tried turning spanning tree protocol off on all switches (hp procurve) but still nothing. This all worked fine till last year, but we made no changes to ghost or the network, I'm hoping not to have to cary 70 pc's to the other side of the school.

Evening all, Any idea where i can source or create a .sys/pxe file which will be recognised when booting into PXE to ghost to/from a PC with a network controller which shows up in device manger as 'nVidia nForce Networking Controller'? I normally use a universal driver for ghosting, however none of the drivers on my existing pxe server are any use for this NIC. Thanks, ac

Hi We have about 700 laptops that we image and maintain with USB Drives running Ghost. We have our laptops with a C: (Operating System / Program Files) and D: (My Documents, Pictures, Desktop etc). The D: is more important to be encrypted (for us) than the C:, but if it could work easily, encrypting both, then that is also fine. When we re-image a laptop because of a significant update / fix / crash etc, we just re-image the C partition. This allows us to wipe a system without needing to worry about the work stored on the D drive. This works perfect for us and with encryption in the pipeline, we would like to keep it as simple and similar as possible. What version of Ghost should we be running that would allow encryption? What encryption software could Ghost allow to be written over? Any general advice about encryption from people that have done a similar thing would be appreciated. If Ghost, cannot handle encryption? What system do you recommend for imaging from local storage (not across a LAN). Thank you EDIT: Deployed OS is Windows 7 Professional 64bit.

I'm having an annoying problem on a laptop im trying to create an image on which will be used on another of the same model, these are fairly old dell laptops which we do not have the OEM XP disc around anymore. Im trying to use an external HDD with its own power supply as I often do and use on comptuers to quickly image machineas if required during school hours. I'm booting a standard ghost package from a USB made in ghost boot wizard, with USB enabled and the HDD plugged in at boot Im stuck at the Starting PC DOS screen and have no progress but it will boot fine without the external HDD connected. Without the USB enabled during the boot package making I can boot with the external HDD connected but it is not picked up.I have tryed using the -NOIDE -NOUSB -FNI and -FFX switches with no luck, if I use the -FORCEUSB ghost freezes loading up the GUI. I have used this HDD and ghost package mutliple times on other machines without any problems and im unsure what the best solution is.

Hi all, I’m using Ghost 11 to deploy images, I have some new dell OptiPlex 390's and have made the image and uploaded it. However when I come to ghost a machine I cannot seem to get it to boot off network, I have 1 message that pops up often saying Error: Unable to control A20 line! XMS Driver not installed I have tried creating a .sys file with the driver for the network card, realtek PCIe GBE family controller. I have also tried using the universal packet driver. After creating the reltek one it told me that it couldn’t find the correct hardware. I'm stressing slightly and the 7 cups of coffee that I’ve had this morning do not seem to be fixing the problem. Any Suggestion/help would be appreciated.... I’m going to give up for the moment and attack a photocopier that seems to be broken. Thanks

Hi, We use Ghost 11 here. We image machines using the console not bootdisk or PXE. Has anyone managed to find a way that works to auto name Windows XP Machines? Thanks

I normally only handle servers and now I am back to dealing with desktops again and I am doing imaging with Ghost. I have my master image ready of XP Pro and will be pushing it to my clients. All I need to do on my clients is worry about getting a new SID. I have a small amount of clients and will handle the local settings upself after the image rather than via sysprep. So, when exactly do I run sysprep to regenerate the SID? If I run it after the image is pushed and then it reboots the client being imaged and takes me through the setup can I be assumed that I am okay? I really want to keep this as simple as possible.

Hi all, Having a slight problem with ghost. Recently taken delivery of a few HP mini 5102 laptops. The laptops NIC is a marvell yukon. Im trying to boot from the network, loads ghost fine however the NIC turns it self off. I have created a ghost CD with (what i think is the correct drvier) but still no joy. Has anyone else had this problem? Many thanks Matt

I have a batch of new windows 7 laptops which need settings up, all come from Toshiba with windows 7 pro however I want to image out the same software and setup to all machines, would I be covered to setup 1 machine as required then create a ghost image and deploy to the other laptops? Or is licensing not this simple? It may be i'm going the wrong way about this even and should be using something other than ghost, any advice would be great. Thanks

I'm trying to boot a standard tcp/ip ghost boot package created using ghost boot package wizard on a Toshiba Tecra A11-17C laptop. These laptops are the only computer in the school which have issues loading ghost, they will boot from the USB and load up the GUI, once the GUI background is displayed the user can move the mouse but a few seconds later the mouse will freeze and the computer will shortly after just shut down.

We are planning on moving to VLANs. After getting the network config right we have started to simulate a live domain and what goes on. We have got the dhcp working through the VLAN along with other bits and pieces but we have encountered a problem with ghost. The problem is when we get to the contact session screen. We type in the session name and leave discovery mode to auto, the client machine cannot contact the session either in mulitcast or unicast mode. The server's (running DHCP and GHOST) IP address is 10.0.0.254 and is in VLAN1. When the client machine is in VLAN1 we can get everything to work the client machine can contact the session but as soon as we put the client in another VLAN the session cannot be contacted. The only way to contact it, is to type in the IP address of the server at the discovery mode. This is something i dont want to do. Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks

I am currently trying to move Ghost from our current server [which is actually a stand-in laptop] to a rack-mount server [which is what we had originally before the Ghost server crashed and died] I have the server running Server 2003 and I have installed Ghost. I can get the stations to boot and see Ghost. As I say in the thread title I can get Ghost to collect an image from a syspreped station but sending an image crashes the server [blue screen style] Imaging never gets past 25% complete no matter what station or what image is used. The only difference I can see between my original set up and my proposed new one is that the old servers had IDE HDDs and my new server has SAS disks [Dell PowerEdge 1950] Can anyone suggest a solution to my problem here? Thanks. Server OS: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Ghost: Ghost 8.0 Deployed OS: Windows XP Pro: SP3

I am trying to image a Stone Rock laptop using Ghost Solutions Suite 2.5. It has an Nvidia Nforce network card and I cannot create a Network Boot disk that will work. Has anyone else managed to do this successfully? I have tried WinPE and NDIS without luck. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks Chris

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.

Right, gonna try again with my problem with a slightly clearer head. (had the most evil migraine!) I've ghosted several Dells today with no problems. So went over to the infants to do a group of Elonex's. Couldnt log in to them but have now realised that they are no long in the AD, so will sort that monday. So i tried to Ghost them. The BIOS is horrible so have fiddled with it for ages but none of them even got as far the PXE screen. The one that did was coming back with the error: No DHCP or proxyDHCP offers were received. It's not the cable or anything because the original image creation machine quite happily logs on. The original machine was taken off site to be imaged. I've checked the BIOS versions and they are the same, the nic drivers are the same (well i say that but the one had an american date and the other was english).... any ideas?