Hello All -

Great site you have here.  I just followed the "Standard Ghost Bootable CD/DVD--on Steroids" guide at http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/started.html and it worked perfectly first try.  I have a shiney new Ghost Boot CD (running ghost 8 actually).

Here is my issue, i'm at work and I have a laptop that needs to be ghosted to a external HD connected to the computer by USB.  If I were to create a ghost floppy you get the option of adding USB support.  The laptop has no floppy drive, my computer has no floppy drive, and nobody around here has a floppy drive which I didn't realize until about an hour ago!

So, there must be a way to add USB support to the ghost boot cd I just made, does anybody have any clue on how to do that?

thanks a ton

edit - also if this should of been in the low rad forum i'm sorry, I didn't really know where to put it heh

although that is good if you want to use bart's PE I didn't particularly want to

Is that my only option, if so i'll have to cave and do it, but I was hoping something could be added to the boot cd i already have.

Hardtarget

Quote:


Yes--there are several ways to add USB support to the Ghost boot CD.

That's Project #2 and Project #3 of the Guide--which I am still in the process of adding--they unfortunately are not ready yet.

See here for a better USB DOS driver than supplied with Ghost:

A Better USB 2.0 DOS Driver for Ghost + More!

The above thread tells you where to get the two files you need below from Radified's downloads here:

Downloadable Files

You're looking for 'USB-DOS files' down at the bottom on the left side.


So, using the same outine in the

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

Project #1, you would add the following two lines to the config.sys file:

[config.sys]



Then add the following two files to the other list of boot files that you are injecting using WinImage:

[Added files]



Unfortunatly, that makes the total MB greater than the 1.44 of a floppy disk.  So you have two choices:

1.  Use WinImage to make the emulated disk size 2.88 MB instead of the 1.44 MB, leave Ghost.exe in the group of files being injected into the bootable image.  Your burning program has to allow you to change form 1.44 MB floppy emulation to 2.88 MB floppy emulation.  All other steps would be the same.

2.  Leave WinImage at the 1.44 MB disk size, and now remove Ghost .exe from the list of files.  Instead, put the Ghost .exe on the data part of the CD you are about to burn.  This brings you back down below the total of 1.44 MB that can fit in the boot sector.  Because your CD can be accessed after booting and the Guide had you include drive 'X:' in the path statement, you should have Ghost up and running with USB support.  Again, the other steps remain the same.

Questions?  

Report back with your results.

Hardtarget

Thanks for the feed-back.

Ghost 8 is the 'corporate' version and has 'greater' capabilities than the consumer version Ghost 2003--so I suspect it has more code--so larger size!

Chick

Thanks for 'joggin' my thoughts--I don't have Firewire, so I had not even considered that--will have to add that to the Guide!

Should be easy though:

Add to config.sys the following line:

[config.sys]



Add to autoexe.bat the following line:

[autoexe.bat]



Add these files to the list of files you are 'injecting' into the WinImage boot image file:



These files are found on a WinXP installation of Ghost 2003 in the following directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template\common

As above for Hardtarget, this will make the image file larger than the 1.44 MB, so you have to follow one of the two choices mentioned above.

Questions?

I would appreciate your report back with your results--as I mentioned above--I don't have firewire so I can not test this configuration.

I have finally found a way to create a ghost boot cd after over like 50 attempts. I used winimage, ghost 2003, nero, and pc-dos 7 to make my cd. This cd will allow you to have usb 1.1 and 2.0 support and read from cd-rom drives.

Tip, assign a usb flash drive to B: using diskmgmt.msc to obtain the ghost boot files.

1. First, you MUST obtain a copy of IBM's PC-DOS 7. Use a file sharing app if neccessary.

2. Then make a copy of the pc-dos image (so that you don't mess with the original)

3. I used winimage to inject the ghost boot files into the pc-dos image (cause the pc-dos image has the boot sector)

Note: Before injecting files, you MUST change the image format to 1.44MB AND make sure that you DO NOT go over 1.44 MB. If you change it to a larger format, the boot image will not work.

Anyway, here is my directory tree (WinImage's view):

\
     -Autoexec.bat
     -command.com
     -config.sys
     -guest.exe
     -ibmbio.com
     -ibmbdos.com
     -mouse.com
     -mouse.ini
     -oakcdrom.sys
  \Ghost
     -ghost.exe
  \usb
     -aspiohci.sys
     -aspiuhci.sys

Here is the autoexec.bat file:

@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+05:00
GUEST.EXE
MOUSE.COM
MSCDEX.EXE /D:cd1
echo Loading...
cls

if %config% == FROMFLPY goto FLPYBOOT
if %config% == FROMCD goto CDBOOT

goto FAILED

:FLPYBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if exist a:\ghost\ghost.exe goto GHOSTFND
goto FLPYBOOT

:CDBOOT
echo Insert Ghost boot disk 2 (containing Ghost.exe)
pause
if not exist b:\ghost\ghost.exe goto CDBOOT
b:
goto GHOSTFND

:GHOSTFND
cd \ghost
echo Loading...
GHOST.EXE
goto END

:FAILED
echo Unknown boot menu selection
goto END

:END

Here is my config.sys file:

[menu]
menuitem=FROMFLPY, This computer was started from a Ghost boot disk
menuitem=FROMCD, This computer was started from a Ghost bootable CD

[FROMFLPY]

[FROMCD]

[COMMON]
DEVICE=oakcdrom.sys /D:cd1
DEVICE=usb\aspiohci.sys /int /all /D1
DEVICE=usb\aspiuhci.sys /int /all /D1
LASTDRIVE = Z

Here is the mouse.ini file (Note: I don't know about USB mice):

[mouse]
MouseType=PS2

I hope you guys can figure it out yourselves.

If you do succeed, you MUST select "This computer was started from a Ghost boot disk." Press any key when you are asked to. (You do not need to put in another disk)

When you make the boot image in nero, you must select "image file," browse to the image you created, and DO NOT ENABLE expert settings.

It is reccommended that you use a cd-rw in case you make a mistake and quick-erase the cd if you do.

Any correction is appreciated.

Regarding the first post that I made, you MUST NOT overwrite:

command.com
ibmdos.com
ibm.com

Also, you can remove (these files are not needed):

format.com
sys.com
fdisk.com

This can free up image space.

NightOwl,

Just want to say thanks for the straightforward modifications to your Boot CD project 1 to add the USB & Firewire support. I did this yesterday and it works like a charm with my external HDD which can connect over either interface.

I used the 2.88 MB floppy emulation as suggested.

Any chance the guide will be updated any time soon?
Thanks,
Sun pm