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Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003 (Read 4855 times)
Camaro24
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Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003
May 30th, 2006 at 1:35pm
 
Hello Everyone,

I'm sure my issue has a resolution somewhere on this board, but I figure it might save me some time if I at least get this posted and you guys seem to be my best bet to get an answer.  I'm fairly new to ghost, I haven't used it in many years so I appologize now if I sound like a "noob".   

Recently, we have purchased 6 machines for some afterschool programs for middle school children.  With that being said keeping those machines from being over run with their own applications and them toying around has been job in it's own.  What I'd like to do is create an image on one of the machines  and be able to use a Maxtor External USB drive to store the image and then be able to run to each machine and drop the image on if necessary.   The machine I'm imaging currently has 3 partitions;

C:\ System
D:\ Used for Windows Disk Protection
E:\ Virutal Memory and Logs

All the drives are formatted in NTFS.  I have done a little bit of research and read that 2003 has issues with USB 2.0 drives, so I'm not really sure how I should tackle this.  Would 10 be my best bet and what would be the easiest for me to install on the other machines after I have the image of this one? I'm going to continue to search through the forum here, but if someone maybe has a quick answer for me I'd sure appreciate it.

Thank you,
Keith
 
 
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John.
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Re: Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003
Reply #1 - May 30th, 2006 at 6:47pm
 
Keith,

There's of course more than one way to solve most problems, this one included.  Here are just a few considerations and comments that I can think of:

1. There have been 3 versions of Ghost released since Ghost 2003:
Ghost 9
Ghost 10
Norton Save & Restore

There are many resources available here regarding retrofitting USB support into 2003, but the newer versions of Ghost have more built in current support for USB2, SATA, and recent motherboard chipsets.

2. How are you going to activate any of the 6 PC's after restoring?  What about the unique COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker on each PC?

3. You will need to straighten out the license and key of each PC.  Same key can't be used for all 6 PC's.

4. You also will need to purchase 6 licenses of Ghost if you're planning on using it on 6 different PC's.  I think volume license discounts are available from Symantec.

5. Are all 6 pc's the *exact* same configuration, same BIOS levels, same options?

Summary -- I think your idea is good, but some of the details need to be worked out. Just consider some of these points.  Look for other viewpoints here too.
 

Ghost4me  Ghost 9, 10, 12, 14, 15.  Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
 
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Re: Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003
Reply #2 - May 30th, 2006 at 11:03pm
 
Camaro24

Six machines is not an overwhelming number--

How much data will be on each machine?

How big is the USB HDD?

Personally, I'd consider doing *whole disk* images of each machine onto the USB HDD--give each machine it's own sub-directory and save an image to it--only the data will be saved along with the HDD partition structure--and with compression--the final image size will be around 20 % less than the actual data size currently on the HDD.  (So, if you have a 80 GB HDD and only 5 GB of data on it--you would end up with an approximate 4 GB image file for that system's whole HDD!)  You can restore individual partitions from that image--or whole disk if that is necessary.

As far as compatibility of Ghost and the hardware--only a test run will answer that question--most folks with quality USB HDD and controllers have no problems--however--using USB Enclosure Kits seem to be much less forgiving.

If you purchase Ghost 10.x--at least in the past, that included a separate Ghost 2003 disk for those who have not updated to WinXP from Win98 or WinME--but can also be installed on WinXP as well--it will handle NTFS partitions in Windows and in DOS--so you could try both to see which works best for you.  But, you can only have one or the other installed in Windows at a given time.  DOS Ghost 2003 booted from a floppy or bootable CD can be used at any time regardless of what's installed in the Windows installation.

Biggest issue with Ghost 10--if you want to restore an OS partition, you will have to boot from its Recovery Disk to the Ghost 10 Recovery Environment (RE) to restore an OS partition--booting to the Recovery Environment takes a *long time*--several minutes--have to be patient!

If you're comfortable with DOS--and your USB hardware is compatible with Ghost 2003 (probably will be unless using an Enclosure Kit)--that boots fast, and your half-way done by the time Ghost 10's RE has booted  Wink !

Ghost 10 has a functional Ghost 32-bit version of Ghost 8.xx (runs under a Windows interface--regular OS or the pre-installation WinPE that is part of the Ghost 10 Recovery Disk).  It is referred to as a utility to work with *legacy Ghost images*--i.e. pre-Ghost 9.x and 10.x.  You would boot the Ghost 10 Recovery Disk, open the *legacy Ghost* utility, and you can both create and restore Ghost images of whole disks or individual partitions.  It should allow USB HDD connectivity.

After you've done your research, get back to us with more specific questions or issues as they occur.

Let us know how things turn out for you.
 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

No question is stupid ... but, possibly the answers are Wink !
 
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Camaro24
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Re: Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003
Reply #3 - May 31st, 2006 at 5:49pm
 
Hey guys thanks for the responses.

I did purchase Norton's Ghost 10, which indeed did come with version 2003.  We are part of Microsoft's Volume Licensing program, so with the sysprep utility I should be able to create an image I can drop on the PC's at the schools.   All the PC's are new Dell Optiplex GX620's, so there shouldn't be any problems with dropping on the image using the DOS utility on 2003 as long as I can get it to work with the USB drive (300GB Maxtor One-Touch).  That way I will avoid having to install Ghost onto the PC's at all.

I was having trouble getting the USB 2.0 drivers off the CD boot to work, it would just hang and hang.  I found a post off here that had me try and create a floppy and do it that route, no suck luck.  I tried the 1.1 drivers off the CD and that's been veryyyyyyyyyyyyy slow to say the least, but I was able to get it to create an image once!  Cheesy  The real test if they are working will be when I take the images over to the schools on the USB drive and try and pop them on.  They don't have internet so any activation online is a lost hope. 

The kids can't complain too much about not having internet, they get 3 computers for doing their homework or what they are used for 99% of the time... gaming...  They are all networked together so they can play against each other.  Each center has a big screen plasma that has DVD and XBox or PS2 connected to it, pool table and a cafe.  I just have to say... Where was this stuff when I was in middle school?   ???

Okay that was way off topic, but I do appreciate your responses, it confirms I'm on the right track to accomplish getting these images on the PC's.
 
 
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Re: Need help with Norton Ghost v10 or 2003
Reply #4 - Jun 3rd, 2006 at 4:32pm
 
]Quote:
"... I was having trouble getting the USB 2.0 drivers off the CD boot to work, it would just hang and hang..."

CLICK HERE to view a 'path less traveled' that in my limited experience seems to be seamlessly integrated with those images created by Norton Ghost 2003.

EP
Cry
 

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