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Rad Community Technical Discussion Boards (Computer Hardware + PC Software) >> Norton Ghost 2003, Ghost v8.x + Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) Discussion Board >> Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HDD? http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1166693462 Message started by The C Man on Dec 21st, 2006 at 3:31am |
Title: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HDD? Post by The C Man on Dec 21st, 2006 at 3:31am
Sorry, I didn't know how else to put it given the space constraints of the subject line. I have a Ghost boot floppy and several copies for safekeeping, but I want to run Ghost off the HDD because I'm impatient and it drives me nuts waiting for it to run off the floppy. I've done if before and it works fine, but is there any reason I shouldn't do it?
Just as a simple example, say your hard drive has 2 partitions, C: for the OS and programs, and D: for backup, ghost images, data, whatever. You create a "Ghost" folder on D: with the Ghost executable in it and run it from there. So where a typical autoexec.bat file from a boot floppy would normally look something like this: @echo off MOUSE.COM CD GHOST GHOST.EXE You'd change it and add a line directing it to your D: drive like this: @echo off MOUSE.COM D: CD GHOST GHOST.EXE As I said, I've done this and it works fine, but all I did was remove Ghost.exe from the floppy and put it on the HDD. The floppy still has Autoexec.bat, Command.com, Io.sys, Mouse.com, & Msdos.sys on it. Can more of those files be removed from the floppy and put onto the HDD, thereby making the transition from the floppy to the HDD even faster? If so please explain. I come up with ideas but don't always know how to implement them. :-/ |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by Christer on Dec 21st, 2006 at 4:08am
I have not created it myself but have tested a bootable CD with the same stuff as on the Ghost Boot Disks. It loads much quicker but there is no perceivable difference in performing the tasks.
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Creating a dedicated Ghost partition for Images is a good idea and an even better idea is to never defragment it. Christer |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by The C Man on Dec 21st, 2006 at 1:14pm Christer wrote on Dec 21st, 2006 at 4:08am:
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Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by The C Man on Dec 21st, 2006 at 4:41pm
I should have just messed around with this myself instead of even starting the thread in the first place - I mean, c'mon, there's only 5-6 total files on the boot floppy. I tried moving more off the floppy to the HDD but it seems like Autoexec.bat, Command.com, Io.sys, & Msdos.sys need to stay on the floppy. I can live with that, just getting Ghost off speeds it up enormously.
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Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by El_Pescador on Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:15pm wrote on Dec 21st, 2006 at 3:31am:
My recollection is that the source HDD partition for the Ghost 2003 executable file has to be in the FAT32 file system format for such a hybrid approach as you are describing. Be advised that DOS will assign the drive letter 'C:' to the very first FAT32 HDD partition it encounters (and will do so sequentially in the event more than one FAT32 partitions are present) so you will have something to sort out. EP :'( |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by The C Man on Dec 22nd, 2006 at 3:37am
I have 2 additional but unrelated questions regarding Ghost boot floppies in general.
1. SET TZ=GHO+05:00 I've seen that in some autoexec.bats. What the heck does it do/mean? 2. The boot floppy the Boot Wizard makes creates a separate Ghost folder with the executable in it, thereby requiring the line 'CD Ghost' in the autoexec.bat. What's the purpose of doing that as opposed to just having all the files together in one place? |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by NightOwl on Dec 22nd, 2006 at 8:54am
The C Man
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*Set*--DOS command to create an *environmental variable* in DOS that is *permanent* for that DOS session. T=Time Z=Zone The link below explains the structure of the *Set Time Zone* DOS command: How to Set a Time Zone for Image for DOS Apparently, on some systems, when saving an image to optical media or NTFS partitions, the *time stamp* of the image is not recorded correctly if Ghost is taking its *Date/Time* from the BIOS--so setting the *Time offset* environmental variable in DOS solves that problem. Probably most folks don't even pay attention to the *Time stamp* on their image files: Quote:
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It appears to be organizational structure to keep certain things sorted out--all the files could be simply in the *root directory* of the floppy, and not in separate sub-directories. |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by The C Man on Dec 22nd, 2006 at 2:54pm
Thanks.
I kinda figured my first question was related to timezone stuff but I couldn't figure out why it would need to be included in an autoexec.bat entry. |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by ben_mott on Dec 24th, 2006 at 3:47pm
the answer is you need a boot manager to boot off the recovery partition:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18480 the above information might help there is an IBM boot manager on that link : but remember the name of the recovery partition need to be IBM _SERVICE other wise it will not work. Regards Ben :) |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by DrWho2006 on Dec 26th, 2006 at 1:37pm
C man,
The only thing limiting you to how you use Ghost 2003 is your own imagination. ::) Everything you said about booting from a FD and then running Ghost from your D: drive, is absolutely do'able. But hey, why even bother with the slow boot from the FD at all? I used to have only my trusy old Ghost boot floppy and of course it worked like a champ, but wait.....I also run a bunch of batch files from that disk too,,,,,,to clean up all the junk from my HD before I actually run Ghost. Those batch files have to go back to the floppy for every line they run. That process seems to just drag on forever. :( So the next step was to get my floppy copied onto a CD for much faster program/batch file execution. That works great!!! The only drawback is that I can't edit the files on my CD. I have to do all my updating and editing on the old floppy and then burn a new CD (Nero does this just fine). The next step was to get my Ghost boot floppy onto a Flash Drive. HP wrote a great little program that takes a boot floppy and copies it to a Flash Drive, making it bootable. I now have several Flash Drives set up to boot to Ghost. Your mobo needs to be able to boot from a USB device in order for this to work for you. It's almost as fast as running the programs off'n a HD. And, if you want to edit a file, or add a file, that's really easy with the flash drive. Relying on running Ghost off'n a HD, is very iffy at best. What happens when the HD squalls, balls and smokes? You wouldn't want your latest Ghost backup file(s) on that HD either. I do use the HD to HD format for a Quickie backup which I do several times a week, but for a permanent Ghost Image I let Ghost burn the Image to a DVD and put my floppy info on the DVD making it bootable. Now, THAT's A BACKUP!!!! Ghost 2003, being designed to run from a floppy disk, won't even offer to take the boot info from a CD or other source, when you want to make a bootable DVD. If the "Ghost.exe" file is not in its own Ghost folder on the A: drive, the process won't work. Ghost will still write the data files to the DVD, but there will be NO boot info. included. For bona fide Ghost owners, I will share a copy of my own Ghost boot disk with all the cleanup batch files, etc. here's the Ansi Color Menu from my Ghost 2003 boot disk: 1. Run Ghost to make a new image. (Windows XP Only) This program will delete all temp files, cookies, histories, etc. The Cleanup works only on a FAT-32 partition. 2. Run Ghost This program runs Ghost alone, with NO cleanup being done. Use this version to do Ghost Restores or Ghost image without cleanup. You must use this option on any NTFS partition. 3. Run Ghost on Windows 98 or ME (del the Swapfile and all temp's, etc.) 4. Delete all Restore points (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partition only) 5. Delete Windows "Pagefile" (Windows XP. Works on FAT-32 partitions only) 6. Remove all the old Restore files in Windows ME. (Revised 12-17-06) Type in a number at the DOS Prompt and press ENTER. ******************************* As you can see from this menu, this disk will run Ghost 2003 on any M$ OS from DOS to Windows XP. By running a thorough cleanup on my HD before running Ghost, I save about 2 gigs of space in my Ghost Image files. (having my HD's all in FAT-32 mode, makes all this possible.) Good Luck and Happy New Year, The Doctor 8) |
Title: Re: Bare bones boot floppy to run Ghost off the HD Post by The C Man on Dec 26th, 2006 at 1:56pm DrWho2006 wrote on Dec 26th, 2006 at 1:37pm:
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