Hi there!  I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping that I could get some help/clarification on Ghost 11.5.  First off, I've been a long time user of Ghost (8.x and 2003) and have been very pleased with the results for XP and previous operating systems.  I just recently purchased a new computer with Vista on it and I'd like to Ghost the machine before I start using it.  I've read that older versions of Ghost (8.x and 2003) can be bit or miss with Vista, even if the -fdsp switch is used (although from what I have read it seems this is successful more often than not).  However, I have recently discovered that Ghost 11.x exists through the Ghost Solution Suite and I can't seem to get a straight answer as to whether the dos Ghost 11.5 supports Vista (I know GSS 2.5 claims Vista support but I'm not sure if this includes dos Ghost 11.5 or not).  For the people who have Ghost 11.5, does it work fine with Vista (without needing to use bcdedit)?  Also, is the -fdsp switch still required for 11.5 to capture and restore the Vista image properly?  Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance for helping to clarify this for me!

goliath4 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 5:51pm:

For the people who have Ghost 11.5, does it work fine with Vista (without needing to use bcdedit)?

Yes, it does, as you'd naturally expect. That's been the case since we released GSS 2.0 in December 2006, in fact. The official forum for the GSS product line is here, by the way.

All four of the included builds of the core Ghost cloning engine in GSS2.5 (DOS, Windows x86, Windows x64, and Linux x86) are built from the same core source code and thus have almost identical capabilities The small differences between them largely relate to device drivers and device support and things of that nature, since in non-DOS platforms those are things the underlying operating system reserves for itself and prevents applications doing anything additional about.


goliath4 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 5:51pm:

Also, is the -fdsp switch still required for 11.5 to capture and restore the Vista image properly?

No. As of GSS2.0, rather than blanking out the disk signature on restoration (which is what was done by default in previous editions, for the benefit of Windows 2000 and Windows XP), in GSS2.0 and above Ghost when restoring Vista generates a new, random non-blank disk signature when doing disk restores and automatically mounts and adjusts the BCD database with that replacement signature to ensure that the system boots correctly.

This is, as you'd expect, done regardless of the host OS you use to restore with; all versions of genuine Ghost have the code to do this.

wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 7:42pm:

Yes, it does, as you'd naturally expect.

That is excellent - thanks for clearing this up.  I was concerned that I may be forced to abandon ghost altogether.  So, just to double check, I should be able to use Ghost 11.5 to create and restore a Vista image without any command line switches or caveats (unless I want to), correct?  Also, I'm assuming that SATA is also supported in 11.5 (no more "-noide" switches)?  Anyway, thanks for helping on this.  I've only got one real shot to get this Vista image and I'd like to get it right the first time.  Glad to know the original ghost is still alive - I'm not a fan of the Norton versions...  Cheers!

goliath4 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 8:49pm:

Also, I'm assuming that SATA is also supported in 11.5 (no more "-noide" switches)?

For DOS that remains entirely up to your hardware, as always.

There has never been any fundamental SATA incompatibility issue with older versions of Ghost - only machines which have not been designed to comply with the relevant industry specifications ever have (or still do) need such switches, and although we always work on improving compatibility it's beyond our resources to try and write DOS drivers for every single variation of broken BIOSes and faulty hardware that exists in the world.

Depending on the nature of the specific design fault in your specific hardware that caused you to need to employ such a switch, it may or may not be the case that we've found a more general workaround for that since. Perhaps, perhaps not - you'll just have to test the later versions with your specific hardware to know whether that is the case.

However, since GSS 2.5 includes the ability to build Windows PE and Linux boot environments (as well as the traditional PC-DOS CD and USB memory sticks) you also have that option; those operating systems have specific manufacturer drivers for a lot of hardware, and since Ghost does the same job on all of them, those can help too, and the Ghost Boot Wizard in Windows PE has a system for adding new drivers to the presupplied Windows PE image.

Great information - really appreciate it!  I'll be ghosting on a new machine so hopefully my hardware will comply with SATA properly.  But, I'm glad to know I have plenty of options.  Thanks for your continued work on this product and I appreciate the link to the GSS forum.  Glad to know developers are taking the time to communicate with the user base. :)

I ran Ghost32.exe from the desktop in Vista and the Ghost window opened up on my desktop and the program ran as expected.
The ghost Disk to Disk copy (clone) went off without a hitch and the TO drive booted up the system after the process was concluded.

Running this version of ghost is exactly like running Ghost 2003.
All the screens and menus were the same.
There were NO problems and NO confusion.
All in all it was a "Piece of Cake" !!!

Cheers Mates!
Shadow  8-)