This is an update from what was originally published here, http://help.ischool.washington.edu/faqs/12_29_en.html. He isn’t clear on some areas in my opinion, so I’m re-writing the tutorial. This is for a multi-NIC Ghost boot CD only. His single NIC tutorial is just fine.

Create two Ghost boot floppies
First, make a bootable Ghost floppy with NIC support with Ghost’s Boot Wizard. I suppose you can choose any of the templates already made for you, but I selected one for a computer that I already support, a Dell GX520. I suggest going this route. I’m assuming that you already know how to make a NIC-enable boot floppy, so I’m not going to cover that here. I will say that PC-DOS or MS-DOS made no difference in the floppy. Both have worked just fine.

Once that floppy is made, set it aside and create a second bootable floppy, but this time select the CD-Rom boot disk. This is the one meant for reading from a CD-Rom, not writing to. Once done, copy oakcdrom.sys and mscdex.exe to a location on your hard drive. I created a folder on my desktop and called it Multi-NIC CD, just so I could keep all of the needed files in one location.

You need to make sure that you’ve enabled the viewing of hidden files and folder. To do this, open a Windows Explorer window, select Tools from the drop-down toolbar, select Folder Options, and then click the View tab. Select the radio button that reads “Show hidden files and folders”. Click Apply and then OK.

Now eject that floppy and insert the NIC-enabled floppy. Move the Ghost folder from this floppy to the Multi-NIC CD folder. Also, open the Net folder and delete all files BUT netbind.com. You have to leave this file. Now copy oakcdrom.sys and mscdex.exe to the root of the NIC-enabled floppy. Create a file in the root of the floppy and name it mouse.ini. Open mouse.ini and enter the following syntax:

[mouse]
MouseType = PS2

Create NIC-enabled floppies
Save the file and close. Now eject this floppy and set it aside again. Now create a NIC-enabled boot floppy using Ghost’s Boot Wizard for each NIC you want to support with this bootable CD. I’ve only been able to get this to work using the NDIS driver. Once each floppy is created, copy the contents of the Net folder to a folder within the Multi-NIC CD folder. Name this folder in any manner you wish. I named mine after the computers that I support (GX620, for example), or you can name yours after the driver; doesn’t matter.

Editing start-up files
You now need to edit two files so everything will work when booting: autoexec.bat and config.sys. I copied these off to a folder named Originals in my Multi-NIC folder, but you don’t have to. I suggest copying them off for one important reason: you have a back-up of these two files if something goes wrong. Once you’ve copied them off, leave them alone.

Now right-click autoexec.bat on the floppy and select Edit. Open a separate Notepad window and drag and drop config.sys into it. You should now have both files open and ready to edit.

There’s not much editing to the autoexec file. The syntax is as follows, with explanations in bold beneath each line. These explanation lines are not in the autoexec file, but added for your help.

@echo off
You don’t have to have this, but it keeps the a: prompt from displaying while the boot is taking place.
mscdex /L : D /d:mscd001
Mscdex loads the CD drive and then assigns it the D drive letter. I had to put spaces between /L : D to keep from making a smiley. Don't put those spaces in your syntax.
MOUSE.COM
Self-explanatory really. This is so you can use the mouse while in Ghost.
\net\netbind.com
This is where the NIC driver begins to load. How does it know which to load? More on that later.
echo Loading Ghost...
Really a useless line of code, but it’s there so I kept it. This displays Loading Ghost… on the screen.
D:
Everything before now was loaded from the floppy. This line changes the prompt to the CD that you’ll soon burn.
cd \Ghost
The Ghost folder on the CD is then opened.
ghost.exe –fni
And Ghost is then run. You may or may not need the –fni switch at the end of this line. Try it without it. If Ghost freezes, then you need it; if not, then you don’t. If you have a SATA drive, more than likely you’re going to need this switch.

Burning bootable CD
Hopefully you know how to create a bootable CD. There are too many applications, versions, etc, to really be helpful on this topic. If you don’t know how, consult the Help files within your application or visit the application’s website.

The contents of the CD are simple. Remember copying the Ghost folder with the Ghost.exe file to the Multi-NIC folder? Add this folder to the contents of the CD. That’s all that’s needed.

Additional info
I was bummed at the fact that you cannot add the driver folders to the CD. For some reason you have to have these folders on the floppy. I’ve tried putting them on the CD and then making the necessary changes to config.sys, but it never worked. It’s quite a waste of a CD (although they are cheap), but you could fit a ton of drivers on the CD. But because you have to do it this way you’re limited to the size of the floppy. I’ve also tried moving various files to the CD to make even more room on the floppy, but that didn’t work either.

Since this CD is now at its limit for supporting NIC’s, I thought of another way of making a second CD even easier. I downloaded WinImage from www.winimage.com and used it to create a self-extracting file that puts all of the necessary files on a floppy for me. Then all I have to do is modify the config.sys with the appropriate names and drivers. I then put this file in the root of the CD.

Oh, if anyone wants, I can provide the self-extracting exe for floppy creation. Everything on there is freely available on the Net for download. Ghost isn't on the floppy, so no worries there.

NightOwl, A little off topic too but do your NICs work in the Ghost 10 RE?

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11367...

ie Using Ghost 8.2 from the RE and networking.

Unfortunately NightOwl, I don't have the foggiest idea. Let me know if Rad wants to host the file.

bubba, what file are you talking about?

long as it isn't copyrighted, i'm glad to host.