Here are some brief instructions on creating and restoring Ghost 9 images over a home network. It’s really not much different from using Ghost 9 on a single computer. The computer being imaged or restored has to be cabled to the router but other computers on the network can be wireless.

(amended 28 Sept: Imaging can be done from a wireless computer. Non system partitions can be restored to a wireless computer. It's only Recovery Environment procedures that need to be cabled.)

Ghost 9 can only create images from Windows (not from the Recovery Environment) and can only restore system partitions from the  RE. Non system partitions can be restored from Windows or the RE.

It’s worth trying the Map Network Drive feature in the RE just to confirm that the Ghost 9 CD has drivers for your network card. If you can map a drive it’s OK. If you can’t map a drive then you need to use the BartPE/ Ghost 9 CD as you can add your own drivers.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1119240262




Creating an image

Before starting Ghost 9, make sure your Mapped network drive(s) is connected and visible in Windows.

Start Ghost 9 and choose “Back Up Drive”
Choose the drive to backup (ie the drive to be imaged)
In Backup Location, select Network file
Don’t click Browse
In the “Network Folder to store backup images” field, type the drive letter of your Mapped drive eg S:
If you get a "Connect As" window, enter your Workgroup in the Domain field and also username and password.
Click Next
Continue the wizard



Restoring an image from Windows

Before starting Ghost 9, make sure your Mapped network drive(s) is connected and visible in Windows.

Start Ghost 9 and choose “Restore a Drive”
In the “Backup Image to Restore” window choose Network file and click Browse
Click the drop down arrow in “Look in”
Choose your Mapped Drive and navigate to your image
Click Next
Continue the wizard



Restoring an image from the Recovery Environment

Boot to the RE
Click Yes for Networking
Click and adjust Time Zone
Click Advanced Recovery Tasks
Click Utilities
Click Map Network Drive (this maps a drive on the other computer)
Don’t click Browse
In the Folder field, add your network share as \\computername\share  (The other computer)
Instead of the computername you can type the NIC IP address of the other computer (if it has a static IP address) eg \\192.168.1.6\share
Enter Username and password when requested
Click “System Restore”
Choose Restore Drives
Choose Single drive (or other choice)
Click Browse
Click the drop down arrow in “Look in”
Don’t click My Network Places
Choose your Mapped Drive and navigate to your image
Choose Restore Destination
Continue the wizard


PS If you aren't using a router to connect your computers for the RE operation, then a few changes are needed. First, have a static IP address for the NIC in your other computer.
After clicking Utilities
Click Configure IP Address (this is for the computer containing the Ghost 9 CD)
Click Modify (for IP#1) and assign an appropriate IP address and subnet mask address (not the same address as the other computer)
If it won't let you modify #1, then modify #2 with an IP address. If your present computer has a static IP address, use that number, but it doesn't have to be the exact same number, just in the same range.
Click Map Network Drive
In the Folder field type the NIC IP address of the other computer eg \\192.168.1.6\share
( \\computername\share doesn't work without a router)
Continue as above

Thanks Brian.

I will update the guide to include a link here.

R.

I realize it will be a rarely used technique but a few may benefit. I rarely use it myself although it's nice to know that it is possible.

Ah, thx for the email reminder. Done. See here:

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_network.htm (~half-way down)

Updating the PDFs now.

Rad

Thx for contributing.

Where do you live? Down under?

Update - In the PDFs, I simply *link* to the network addendum page .. to save PDF space. Forgot I had changed that earlier this year. Made the job a little easier.

Thanks Rad. Yes, glorious Lennox Head, Australia. I'm just watching the humpbacks swimming north to spend summer and breed in southern Queensland.

For our visitors:

http://www.lennox-head.net/

Always interesting to learn where people are from. One of the things that makes the Net so grand.

Can any one tell me if I able to download this Recovery Environment CD in any website? thanks for any instruction.

It seems that in most cases of "Ghost over a network", the Ghost image is of a local drive and the image is stored in a remote location.  Is it possible to use Ghost 9 the other way around?  That is, make an image of a  drive on a remote machine and store it locally (i.e. on the machine running Ghost)?

Not with Ghost 9. Symantec has several LiveState Recovery Server versions that probably do what you desire.

If my router has 4 ports and I connect the "image server" computer connects wirelessly, can I restore the same image to 4 computers at once?  Or do I have to have 4 copies of the image on the server.

I haven't used the Server version. Ghost 9 won't do this.

Brian wrote on Jul 8^th, 2005 at 1:55am:

Start Ghost 9 and choose “Back Up Drive” Choose the drive to backup (ie the drive to be imaged) In Backup Location, select Network file Don’t click Browse In the “Network Folder to store backup images” field, type the drive letter of your Mapped drive eg S:\ Click Next Continue the wizard

This is fine, so far, but I can't find any information on what to do next. When you click Next from this point, you get a pop-up that asks for your Domain, Username and Password.
No matter what I type in these fields all I get is the same pop-up (blanked out) over again.

I have a typical home network with 3 machines connected via a router and a single user account on each machine. None of them have a password.

I read somewhere on a Symantec help file that blank passwords are not supported, so I added a new user on the target system and gave it a password. It didn't accept that, either.

Can anybody tell me how to get past this step?

TIA
-- Bob

Bob,

Glad to see someone is trying this.

I have the same username on each computer and the same password on each computer. You know I don't mean that the username is the same as the password. I tried following my instructions tonight and the same window popped up that you described. I haven't see it before. In "Domain" I typed my Workgroup, also typed my username and password and it accepted the info and moved on. I closed Ghost, restarted Ghost and my instructions again but this time there was no popup. It worked as per my instructions. A mystery.

So with your normal username on each computer I'd add the same password to each computer. Reboot each computer. Let us know if that works.

Brian wrote on Aug 31^st, 2005 at 9:17am:

Bob, Glad to see someone is trying this. So with your normal username on each computer I'd add the same password to each computer. Reboot each computer. Let us know if that works.

Brian,

Thanks for the reply.

I added the same password to both systems for the same username, rebooted and tried again. (The user name on both systems has Admin. privileges.)

Same result. It just keeps coming back with the same prompt and I can't continue to the next step.

I'll keep looking (for a while) to find some answers.

-- Bob

Bob,

I tried it again today and I get the "Connect As" window on the first Ghost attempt after a reboot. I didn't get that window when I wrote the instructions. I'll edit.

I'm using WinXP Pro. I can see the contents of the mapped drive before I open Ghost. Ghost 9 won't image to a shared folder. It has to be a mapped drive. It sounds like you are doing the same as me except that it won't accept your user info.

If you can't sort it out then a work-around is to image across the network with a Reatogo BartPE/Ghost 9 CD. It should only take you 15 to 30 minutes to make the CD. 10 minutes when you are experienced.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1119240262

The disadvantage is that you have to boot to the CD instead of imaging from Windows, but it does work.



PS Now Ghost 9 will image to a shared folder. Confusing. It's variable.

I've been trying all night to map a network drive from the recovery CD but it just won't work, i can ping any computer on my network, 2 computers wired to di-524.
What could be the problem??

Hi Simon,

Where does it strike a problem? Try using the other computer NIC IP address.

"Boot to the RE
Click Yes for Networking
Click and adjust Time Zone
Click Advanced Recovery Tasks
Click Utilities
Click Map Network Drive (this maps a drive on the other computer)
Don’t click Browse
In the Folder field, add your network share as \\computername\share  (The other computer)
Instead of the computername you can type the NIC IP address of the other computer (if it has a static IP address) eg \\192.168.1.6\share  
Enter Username and password when requested "

I have the same problem as some of the other users - I type in my user name/password and it keeps asking me for that information.  I do not use a domain controller, so I've type in the workgroup name for domain.

I few people on the net seem to have this problem - but I have not seen a concrete explanation why - or any solutions.  Has anyone here resolved this problem with some specific methodolgy?

Appreciate the feedback...

Rob

Rob,

I'm lucky as it works on my computers. Do you have the same username and password on each computer? Otherwise no bright ideas.

Rob,

Could you try this on both computers.

Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy, then under Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options.
In the right pane under Policy
“Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts”
Is the Security Setting “Classic: Local users authenticate as themselves”?


Also under Security Settings, Local Policies, User Rights Assignment
In the right pane under Policy
“Access this computer from the network”
Does the Security Setting include “Administrators”?  

Are you using an Administrator account on each computer when running Ghost 9 for networking? WinXP Pro or Home?

Hi Brian,

Thanks very much for such a fast response!  :)  Answers to your last post:

Answer to Q1:  Yes on remote computer.  No on local "Ghost" computer.  I rectified this and restarted.

Answer to Q2:  Everyone, ASPNET, Administrators, Users, Power Users, Backup Operators

Answer to Q3:  I am an administrator on all computers, but I am not using the built in "administrator" account.

Answer to Q4:  XP Prefessional sp2

After restarting, I went back to Ghost and logged in again - once again using my Workgroup name (@HOME) as Domain name.  This time, I did not get the same login screen re-appear!  

This time I got an error message saying "Could not connect to \\@HOME\Username:password\Ghost Images"  (something like that - I've left the Username:password information out.

So, looking at that, I thought the Domain name was a UNC path.  I decided to put the IP address of the remote machine - and PRESTO - it worked!!!  ;D

Brian, I can't tell you how much you helped me - not because I was desperate to make a Ghost Image - but because I've been Googling for days trying to get information on how to solve this. So, my morning orange juice is raised in the air.... cheers!

.... from Cakville, Canada.

Well Rob, I'm delighted too. But we've just started because I can't reproduce your steps.

In the Domain field I typed   \\192.168.1.3   (IP address of other computer) and received an error message. It works if I type my Workgroup in that field. Could you let us know if your steps are reproducible and any refinements you find.

Do you have Simple File Sharing disabled on both computers? Are they joined by a router?

I hope you can sort this out for those still having trouble.


PS I tried   192.168.1.3  ( instead of \\192.168.1.3)  in the Domain field and it worked. Your technique looks good.

Rob,

This will make you laugh or cry. I can use anything in the domain field and it works. 123.456.789.123, cat, dog etc. A blank field doesn't work and @HOME doesn't work. In fact I received your same error message except it lacked the @.   "Could not connect to \\HOME\Username:password......

HOME works, so it doesn't like @.

Just an observation. I have no idea what it means as it didn't work for Bob Pasky.

wrote on Aug 19^th, 2005 at 6:42pm:

It seems that in most cases of "Ghost over a network", the Ghost image is of a local drive and the image is stored in a remote location.  Is it possible to use Ghost 9 the other way around?  That is, make an image of a  drive on a remote machine and store it locally (i.e. on the machine running Ghost)?

This is what Ghost 2003 does !

Hi, I have a question regarding Ghost 9 network recovery.

In my workplace, I controll a small workgrouped network, which contains 1 desktop PC acting as the 'image server', one router acting also as a DHCP server, and a number (up to about 10) of notebook PC's which access the network.
I have been successfully using Ghost 9 for a number of months now to recover windows drives on the notebook PC's. I store the windows image on a shared folder on the Image server. When I recover windows drives on the notebooks, I boot to the ghost 9 boot cd, start network services, map the network drive (map the shared folder where the image resides on the image server) and simply recover the drive
The whole process takes about 15 minutes.

My question is this: The notebooks have a 'PXE network boot' function. Is it possible to make an image of the ghost 9 boot cd, and place this on the image server machine, and use the pxe function to boot using that image, rather than boot from the CD?

Nickeybhoy, isn't your need a better fit for the LiveState Recovery suite of applications rather than Ghost 9.0?

Reference:  http://www.symantec.com/smallbiz/lsrd/

Hello, This is my first post on this forum.

I also had the issue of Imaging a Partition across my home network.
I have to pc's connected Via a netgear router. I could not find any resolution through google searches about this issue. The most informative find was this thread.

Anyway, I got it working doing the following steps:

1. On the Target Machine, make sure in the Properties of the shared folder the option "Allow network users to change my files" is ticked.
2. When the Dialog box pops up, DOMAIN = TARGET COMPUTER NAME, USER=SHARED FOLDER NAME.

Thats right, I put the Shared folder name in user and it connected, no password needed. I hope someone else can confirm this works.

innie808,

It didn't work for me.

I can put anything in the Domain field so long as it doesn't include @,#, etc.
Username and password are needed for it to work on my computers.

Hello Brian,

It does some very strange things, i must say. I did set up the same user and password on both my computers so this may have helped also.  I don't know why but my share is called "Backups", and when i put this in the USER field it worked. Who knows?
I just ran another image using these steps and it worked.

innie808,

You helped me last night. I was assisting a friend create an image over his network but we couldn't get past the Domain, Username, Password window. I tried your suggestion too but it wouldn't take. When I looked at the Properties for his Shared Folder I noticed "Allow network users to change my files" was unticked. He had WinXP Home and I have Pro. Pro doesn't have that setting.

After ticking the box there were no further problems.

Brian,

Glad I was able to point  you in the right direction.

Okay I have a lot images.

Basically these are my needs. I need to boot a a freshly built computer with a NEW hard Drive off a cdrom.

This cdrom needs to allow to me to clone a image to the new hard drive.

The bootable cdrom also needs to be able to load support for accessing this library of images over the network wether its hard lined or wifi.

What do you recommended?

Which version of Ghost are you using? Could you be more specific regarding your computer plans?

I tried everything Brian suggested, got the familiar "Domain, User, & password" box and everytime I followed the instructions to the "T", I got an error telling me that c:\windows\system32\<drive>\<folder>\etc, etc, was not found.
In desperation I created the same exact users and passwords on both machines, still didn't work, then I stumbled across the "Options" in Ghost and selected "Default Location" and "network" with appropriate path and viola! it works.

Thanks for the postings, it helped get the brain in the right wave to figure this booger out.

Hello. I don't know if anyone will see this, the post looks a little old but it's worth a try. I'm having a strange problem with using Ghost 9.0 over my network. I tried to backup an image of my hard drive to the 'Shared Documents' folder on a networked computer, but I didn't realize there wasn't enough space on the networked hard drive to hol d the image. I got an error on Ghost saying the backup failed due to insufficient disk space. I hit close on the window assuming the image was not created and won't take up any hard drive space on my networked computer. Well apparently the remaining hard drive space on my networked computer that was previously free is now being used up but there's no image file or any other file for that matter in the shared documents folder or anywhere else on the hard drive. I have view hidden files and folders activated and there's nothing there. It's like the free space on my networked computer has been set aside to be used for a partial image that doesn't exist. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I've never ran into anything like this before with my other computer/networking usage. If anyone could help me figure out how to free up that hard drive space again without reformating that'd be great.
Thanks.
Adam

Hi, do you have Norton installed? if so try looking in the NPROTECT hidden folder which is a sub dir of the RECYCLER folder on the root of your target drive. I had this same problem and only found where it was by checking the properties of each directory to check its size. Hope this helps for you. Cheers Andy

Thanks Andy,

That post was continued here

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1136336413;start=15#23

I have a similar problem to this thread and I wonder if anybody has any solutions.

When I get to the backup location I put in the network address and the pc goes away and thinks for at least 5 minutes and eventually comes up with the user/password box.  After that all goes well and I can do a backup.  The nest time I try and do a backup the job sits at 1% fro about 5 minutes and then gives up saying it cannot find the network location.

Any ideas?

I have just started working for a chap who builds pcs, networks etc and then maintains them.  

He has asked me to find out how to create images of all the differant builds we do and store them on the server.  The idea being after building a new machine I can then connect the new machine to the network and copy the appropriate image to the new hdd on that machine whether that be IDE or SATA hdd.

It sounds preatty much like the guy 'Rockdrala' requirements to be honest.

"Basically these are my needs. I need to boot a a freshly built computer with a NEW hard Drive off a cdrom.  

This cdrom needs to allow to me to clone a image to the new hard drive.  

The bootable cdrom also needs to be able to load support for accessing this library of images over the network wether its hard lined or wifi.  

What do you recommended"

There is a copy of Ghost 9 in the workshop, so I guess it would be this I would use.

I have been reading this thread and thought maybe one of you smart folks might be able to answere my question. I am using Ghost 9 over a network and for the most part it works fine. However, It appears that when ever I reboot my computer the backup jobs I loose the Domain name, user name and PW. I have to get into Ghost 9 anad reenter them before it runs it's next schedule otherwise I get an Access Denied error. Any thought on how to keep from having to do this? Thanks for any help

Is your pc and the others part of a peer to peer workgroup or is there a domain controller?

Is your pc Windows XP home, and the "server" pc (the one with the shared folder) XP home or XP pro?

Do you logon to your pc when you boot it?

Both machines are in a workgroup and they both use XP pro. Login is not used for eather machine. The backups are made to a secondary hard drive on one of the computers which is "Shared" and otherwise accessable on the network.

wrote on Jul 14^th, 2006 at 4:55am:

Both machines are in a workgroup and they both use XP pro. Login is not used for either machine. The backups are made to a secondary hard drive on one of the computers which is "Shared" and otherwise accessible on the network.

In Xp Pro, ALL pc's that are to have access must have a valid userid/password unless you have the guest account turned on.

The easiest/best way to solve this is:

1. On pc-server (the one with the secondary hard drive) look in the User Accounts in the control panel.  Assign a password to the pc-server account.  Add another account, pc-user (whatever is the one that already exists in the other pc) with a password.

2. On the other pc, go to User Accounts, assign same password as the was defined for this user in the other pc-server.

Since you aren't used to logons and password, you can use the free tweakui program from Microsoft to log each pc on when you turn it on:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

XP Pro is built for security and no-one is going to get access to the pc by design unless authorized.  That's why you lose it at shut down, because you have to re-authenticate.

After fixing the logons and userids, then in Ghost 9 change the definition slightly of one of the backups.  It will ask for the domain name (use workgroup name) id (use your account-name) and password.

Thanks Ghost4Me, I will give that a go

I found a solution that seems to work.   Locate Norton Ghost under in the Administrative Tools\Services list.  Change the logon to reflect the username and password you've set up identically on both computers.  Restart the service.  When you create a backup job, you won't even be prompted for credentials.  You can use shares or mapped drives as the destination for the backup as well.  What a relief!

Great thread....   I'm trying it this weekend.