I have been having problems trying to get bootable image DVDs to work. I am using Ghost 8.0 Corporate and ezCD Creator. I  have had two outcomes so far:

1. Get the DVD to boot and load Ghost but when trying to restore receive the "Image was not created by Ghost" message

2. Get the DVD to boot, Ghost to load and restore the image. Then, upon reboot, the system locks completely.

Is there a tried and true way of getting this to work or is there a way (using the drive mapping boot disk) to share the DVD burner and just burn the image directly to DVD and skip the image file/burn process?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

cfjohnsn

If you originally saved the image to HDD, and then used ezCD Creator to burn the image files to optical media, then  Ghost will choke and say it can't find a valid Ghost image or that the file you point to is not a Ghost file, if you boot using the 'Standard Ghost Boot Disk'.

Apparently, if Ghost burns the image to optical media directly, then there's some imbedded coding that the Standard Boot Disk would accecpt and read the image file without any problems.

Instead, you need to use the two floppy boot disk set created by the 'CD/DVD Startup Disk with Ghost' that adds the needed DOS drivers to 1.  mount the optical drive, and 2.  assign drive letters to the mounted optical drives.

Or, you can check out a new 'Guide' I have been working on for the Radified site here:

Creating Bootable CD/DVD's Without A:\Floppy Drive

It would allow you to create a single floppy disk sized image file, what I'm calling the 'Standard Ghost Bootable CD/DVD--on Steroids' for making the DVD bootable with the needed DOS drivers.

Don't let the 'Without A:\ Floppy Drive' throw you--the technique works with or without a floppy!

Thanks for the help. All looked good with one very glaring exception. The Ghost.exe file that I am using (v.8 Corp) is 1362KB and will not fit within the image size restriction of 1.44MB.

I tried to use the 2.88 option in WinImage when creating the CD to no avail. What version of Ghost.exe are you using that is only 1008KB?

cfjohnsn

I'm using the comsumer Ghost 2003 version.

In the step in WinImage where you select the 1.44 MB size, you should select 2.88 MB size--as you correctly stated.

Your CD burning program has to support creating a 2.88 MB boot sector.  So you have to make that change as well in the CD burning program where you select the 'floppy drive emulation type'--change from 1.44 to 2.88.  Roxio 'basic' Creator Classic v5.xx and 6.xx have this option, but v7.xx does not--have to have the 'full' version I suspect--they 'dumbed' down the 'basic' version 7.xx compared to earlier versions.

The other alternative, which I have not gotten around to posting in the Guide yet, is to put just the DOS boot files in the 1.44 boot sector image, and when burning--burn Ghost.exe to the 'data' portion of the disc.

Once you boot to DOS A:\ prompt, change to the optical drive's letter (ex.  'cd x:' ), and run Ghost from there--Ghost.exe does not have to be in the boot sector image itself to work!


Quote:

or is there a way (using the drive mapping boot disk) to share the DVD burner and just burn the image directly to DVD and skip the image file/burn process?

Using Ghost to save or write an image to a different computer

Under 'Technical Information':


Quote:

Ghost does not support saving an image file directly to a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, or similar device when the source image is on one computer and the device is attached to a different computer. However, Ghost can save in image file directly to a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD drive when that drive is attached to the local computer.

and here:

How to save an image file directly to a CD/DVD R/RW disc

Under 'Solution':


Quote:

The Burner must be attached directly to the computer where the Source data is stored.