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Rad Community Technical Discussion Boards (Computer Hardware + PC Software) >> PC Hardware + Software (except Cloning programs) >> Other uses for a Win7 DVD
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Message started by Brian on Nov 21st, 2010 at 7:15pm

Title: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 21st, 2010 at 7:15pm
You can use the disc to do BartPE type operations such a copy/paste between partitions and delete files.

Boot from a Win7 DVD
On the Install now window, click Repair your computer
After the search completes, click Load Drivers, plug in your USB drive if needed, click OK.
Navigate to your file. Use Right click menu for Copy then Right click menu for Paste
If it is a big file you will see a rotating ring while it is copying. Just wait.
Cancel "Open"
Cancel "Add Drivers"
Close "System Recovery Options"
Close "Install Windows". Yes to cancel Windows installation


Say Ghost 2003 can't see a .gho file stored on a USB flash drive or external HD and you really want to restore the image. Ghost32.exe is needed. (If you have Ghost 9 or 10 you can extract ghost32.exe) Put it on a USB flash drive.

Boot from a Win7 DVD
On the Install now window, click Repair your computer
After the search completes, click Load Drivers, plug in your USB flash drive and external HD, click OK.
Navigate to ghost32 (no extensions are shown) on the flash drive. Now the secret. Right click ghost32 and choose Run as administrator.
Cancel "Open"
Cancel "Add Drivers"
Close "System Recovery Options"
Minimize "Install now"

Ghost32 is now ready to use.



Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by NightOwl on Nov 21st, 2010 at 8:55pm
@ Brian

Oh yeah....way cool!  Another tool to have in the *just in case* tool box of tricks!


Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Dan Goodell on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 7:39am
One of the nice enhancements of a Vista or Win7 DVD is the ability to boot from DVD to a regular command prompt window, from which you can run 32-bit executables.  I've used an alternative approach to Brian's in which I boot to a command prompt window and launch ghost32.exe from the command line.  One of the advantages to this method is you have the opportunity to use command-line options (such as the -split option, which I use routinely).

For those who need something visual, I have a webpage that may help give you a sense of what Brian is talking about.  Although the webpage is about Vista and Dell machines, many of the screens are similar to the Win7 screens Brian is describing.


in re: "Right click ghost32 and choose Run as administrator" . . .

Brian, what happens if you don't run as administrator?  I don't have that option when launching Ghost32 from the command line, yet I haven't had any problems, so I'm curious if that's really necessary when launching via your method.






Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:01am

Dan Goodell wrote on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 7:39am:
Brian, what happens if you don't run as administrator? 

Dan,

If you double click the exe you get an Add Drivers box saying "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware." So that's why I investigated the "run as administrator" method. But I had another look at the right click menu today and "Open" is an option. It works too. I hadn't tried it before because double click failed and "run as administrator" worked.

I made some comments in the TeraByte Unlimited newsgroup about using this method to run Image for Windows . MudCrab was running IFW from the command prompt (Win7 DVD) and he indicated that it didn't work if the installed Win7 was 64 bit. I didn't try it from the command prompt but I'm pretty sure I've run IFW successfully on a 64 bit Win7 using "run as administrator" from the Win7 DVD. The DVD has to be 32 bit.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by NightOwl on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:32am
@ Brian


Quote:
MudCrab was running IFW from the command prompt (Win7 DVD) and he indicated that it didn't work if the installed Win7 was 64 bit.  I didn't try it from the command prompt but I'm pretty sure I've run IFW successfully on a 64 bit Win7 using "run as administrator" from the Win7 DVD. The DVD has to be 32 bit.

So, clarify....you have to use the 32 bit Win7 DVD regardless of whether you have Win7 64-bit or Win7 32-bit installed?  Can't use the 64-bit Win7 DVD?

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 11:09am
@ NightOwl


NightOwl wrote on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 10:32am:
Can't use the 64-bit Win7 DVD? 

I just tried it again. When you try to run a 32 bit exe from the Win7 64 bit DVD you see "The subsystem needed to support the image type is not present".

Image for Windows (32 bit exe from the 32 bit DVD) definitely works with a 64 bit Win7 installation. Just confirmed.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 4:41pm
I didn't make it clear. This also works if the installed OS is WinXP.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by NightOwl on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 5:50pm
@ Brian

So, to summarize:

a.  one must use the 32-bit Win7 installation CD, and not the 64-bit Win7 installation CD.

b.  using the 32-bit Win7 installation CD, one can run a 32-bit program (such as ghost32.exe--a Windows based version of Ghost--not a DOS based version), and one can have WinXP, Win7 32-bit, or Win7 64-bit installed and it will work.

How about no version of Windows installed yet--can you run ghost32.exe using the Win7 32-bit CD as mentioned above on a HDD with no OS yet installed?

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Dan Goodell on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 6:57pm

NightOwl wrote on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 5:50pm:
a.one must use the 32-bit Win7 installation CD, and not the 64-bit Win7 installation CD.

b.using the 32-bit Win7 installation CD, one can run a 32-bit program (such as ghost32.exe--a Windows based version of Ghost--not a DOS based version), and one can have WinXP, Win7 32-bit, or Win7 64-bit installed and it will work.

How about no version of Windows installed yet--can you run ghost32.exe using the Win7 32-bit CD as mentioned above on a HDD with no OS yet installed?

The boot environment must be compatible with the application you want to run, so you must boot a 32-bit OS to use a 32-bit application like Ghost32.  It doesn't matter which Windows version -- or any at all -- is installed on the disk partition.  You're not booting into the OS that's on the hard disk, and from the outside the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows look the same -- just a bunch of files sitting on a NTFS file system.  32-bit and 64-bit versions of Win7 and Vista use the same NTFS file system as XP.

(Remember, that's why Ghost 2003 can image/restore a Win7 OS -- it's just a bunch of files on a NTFS file system.  It's only when you'd want it to change one of the files, such as the BCD, that Ghost 2003 would run into trouble.  It understands the file system so it can image/restore the files okay, but it doesn't understand the purpose of some of the files it's restoring so it can't alter them if/when necessary.)





Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 7:11pm
@ NightOwl

Yes to the three points.

I've just restored a WinXP .gho image to a blank HD. ghost32.exe was on a USB flash drive. The .gho image was on a USB external HD. Ghost wanted to use the full unallocated space but it allows you to choose the target partition size.


Edit... My blank HD wasn't really blank. It had no partitions but had been previously used. I zeroed the first track and then ghost32.exe only saw a greyed out HD that wasn't usable. After writing boot code and a disk signature with fdisk /mbr, ghost32.exe could use the HD. This is standard. The HD needs to be initialized.

Edit... Using diskpart from the Win7 DVD would have been easier and quicker than fdisk /mbr

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 9:21pm
Dan,

I can't get a command prompt to run an exe when using a 32 bit Win7 DVD and a 64 bit installed Win7. I was trying your method. What have I missed?

I can get a command prompt with 64/64 but then the 32 bit exe won't run.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Dan Goodell on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 2:46am

Brian wrote on Nov 22nd, 2010 at 9:21pm:
I can't get a command prompt to run an exe when using a 32 bit Win7 DVD and a 64 bit installed Win7.

Hmm, okay... I just tried booting from a 32-bit DVD on a machine with only 64-bit Win7 installed, and it told me the DVD wasn't compatible with the OS that was installed.  Is that what you're referring to?  Perhaps I hadn't run into that before because my machine multiboots and has both versions installed, so on my machine either DVD can find a compatible OS already installed.

That message pops up when the DVD boot gets to the first screen shown below.  The "System Recovery Options" box defaults to "Use recovery tools..", and then pops up with the incompatibility message.  Nevertheless, I was able to just cancel out of the popup, tick the "Restore your computer.." dot, and click [Next].  Naturally, the next screen reported, "Windows cannot find a system image..", but I clicked [Cancel] and [Cancel], and I got to the main "System Recovery Options" menu.

From there I could open a command prompt window.  After inserting a flash drive or swapping in a CD with ghost32.exe on it, I could "cd" to the executable's drive and directory, or call the executable explicitly with path -- e.g., "f:\ghost\ghost32".


Win7re.jpg (100 KB | 819 )

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 4:14am
Dan,

There is always a way. Thanks. That works.


Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by NightOwl on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 12:07pm
@ Dan Goodell


Quote:
The boot environment must be compatible with the application you want to run, so you must boot a 32-bit OS to use a 32-bit application like Ghost32

So, the installation disc for Win7 64-bit boots a 64-bit environment--and so that's why you can not use the Win7 64-bit installation disc to perform the above procedure to load *ghost32.exe*--correct?

But, I thought many (most?) 32-bit programs can run successfully under 64-bit Windows--or is that only after you install the OS, and not the installation disc environment (is it WinPE v3.xx?).

Or, is *ghost32.exe* one of the programs that will not run under the 64-bit system no matter what?

Have you or Brian tried running *ghost32.exe* once booted to Win7 64-bit?

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by MudCrab on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 3:02pm

NightOwl wrote on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 12:07pm:
So, the installation disc for Win7 64-bit boots a 64-bit environment--and so that's why you can not use the Win7 64-bit installation disc to perform the above procedure to load *ghost32.exe*--correct?

Yes.


NightOwl wrote on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 12:07pm:
But, I thought many (most?) 32-bit programs can run successfully under 64-bit Windows--or is that only after you install the OS, and not the installation disc environment (is it WinPE v3.xx?).

The installed Windows x64 supports it. The WinPE x64 does not include the necessary support for x86 programs (just like Windows x64 won't run 16-bit programs).

Personally, I find this makes the x64 DVD a lot less useful. I would prefer being able to run both x86 and x64 programs. However, I doubt Microsoft will add the 32-bit subsystem anytime soon.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by Brian on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 3:12pm
@ NightOwl


NightOwl wrote on Nov 23rd, 2010 at 12:07pm:
tried running *ghost32.exe* once booted to Win7 64-bit? 

I just tried restoreghost.exe from the Ghost 10 CD (ghost32.exe ver 8.2). The Ghost window opens but there is "An internal inconsistency has been detected". Ghost closes when you click OK.

Title: Re: Other uses for a Win7 DVD
Post by NightOwl on Nov 24th, 2010 at 10:46pm
@ Brian


Quote:
The Ghost window opens but there is "An internal inconsistency has been detected". Ghost closes when you click OK.

Looks like that probably puts the *nail in that coffin*!

@ MudCrab

Thanks for your input as well--everybody seems to be in agreement--at least for the moment  ;) !

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