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Ivanov

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Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Oct 22^nd, 2006 at 11:18pm

Hii there,

I purchased this Sony Vaio VGC-LS1 recently and was interested to know how I could image the OS using ghost 2003.

Can ghost 2003 image this machine or do I need to to use ghost 10 or maybe acronis,

If ghost 2003 can image this machine, do I need to take some special extra measures

1. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006322,00.asp

2. http://review.zdnet.com/Sony_VAIO_VGC_LS1/4505-3118_16-32028400.html

Hoping to hear from you guys as always,

Regards

Ivanov.

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NightOwl

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #1 - Oct 23^rd, 2006 at 12:25am

Ivanov

You may have to tell us! You may be the only one here abouts that has such a sweet looking system like that!

Can you boot to DOS from a boot floppy or bootable optical disc?

Will Ghost 2003 load at the DOS prompt?

Does your HDD(s) show up in the Ghost DOS interface?

If you have optical burner(s)--do they show up as destination or source drives for Ghost images?

Be interested to hear your results!

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ben_mott

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #2 - Oct 23^rd, 2006 at 3:39pm

some of these systems got a hidden recovery partition on the hard disk ,which when you boot it briefly gives you option to press F10
to recover from that partition.
some of them got a wizard that gives you option to put the recovery media on a set of DVD or cds but unfortunately when you do that the
hard disk recovery partition is disapears and the space is reclaimed
back which means you loose the security of the recovery. from hard disk.
and some customers make a mess of the CDs or Recovery DVDs and
at same time the hard disk image is lost !!!
some may copy it success fully and loose the hard disk rcovery partition , but they leave them around and get scratched .
my advise is do not demolish the hard disk recovery partition.
(ie that wizard reclaimes the space automatically I do not know if this is an agreement with microsoft or what ??
ghost the complete hard disk as the NIGHT OWL the ghost expert
going to advise you.
then you will have a copy of the hidden partition as well
the only thing that ghost do not cover for you is the MBR which
contains the boot manager F10 thing .
so as a precution may be is a good idea to to back up the MBR
just incase.
sorry to intrupt
I wait to see with intrest to see what nightOwl says.
edited corection: 3nov 2006
apparently Packard Bell Cd/DVD maker wizard offer you a chance to keep your restor partition :
""Not a valid computer" error with Smart Restore on iStart 3055
Situation
When starting Smart Restore on a Packard Bell iStart 3055, the following error message appears on screen: "Not a valid computer".
Details
The recovery process on the iStart 3055 (model: PB49202502) is started with the <F11> key.
Solution
To solve this issue follow the steps below:

1. If you did not create Master CDs/DVDs you need to follow steps 2 through 7 to create them. Otherwise you can move to step 8.
2. Click Start and click Control Panel in the Start menu.
3. If Control Panel is in Category View, click Switch to Classic View.
4. Double-click Setup my PC. The Setup my PC Wizard will appear.
5. Follow the Wizard and mark the Start Master CD/DVD Creator checkbox and click Next.
6. Follow the instructions given by Master CD/DVD Creator.
7. Make sure you keep the Backup Partition, when asked about it. After the process has finished, the Master DVDs/CDs are ready to use.
8. Put the Master CD/DVD in the top CD/DVD drive of your computer.
9. Boot the computer from the Master CD/DVD. After a while a menu will appear.
10. Press the O for OK to continue. In the next menu type 4 to return to DOS. After a few seconds a black screen with white text appears.
11. Type Q: followed by <Enter>.
12. Type CD DRIVERS followed by <Enter>.
13. Type TATTOO /CREATEDMIFROMHS followed by <Enter>.
14. Perform a system recovery using the <F11> key after the process has finished.

Regards Ben

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NightOwl

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #3 - Oct 23^rd, 2006 at 9:47pm

ben_mott

Quote:

some of them got a wizard that gives you option to put the recovery media on a set of DVD or cds but unfortunately when you do that the
hard disk recovery partition is disapears and the space is reclaimed

That's interesting--I had not heard of that before!

Quote:

ghost the complete hard disk as the NIGHT OWL the ghost expert
going to advise you.

Yes, my preferred method of Ghost backups is *whole disk* backups.

Quote:

the only thing that ghost do not cover for you is the MBR which
contains the boot manager F10 thing .

Ghost does backup the first *absolute sector 0* which has the MBR code (Master Boot Record) and the Partition Table--but the rest of the Master Boot area which is *absolute sector 1 thru 62* is not backed up in Ghost's default mode--unless you use the Ghost command line switch *-ib* (image boot) which will then backup the whole Master Boot region of sectors 0 thru 62!

So, if there is special code in the Master Boot region sectors 1 thru 62, then you should use that *-ib* switch--and now a restore of that image will restore that region too--and should preserve that *F10* function!

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ben_mott

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #4 - Oct 24^th, 2006 at 1:42pm

it does say in one of the links that the wizard (by order of customer
leaving the default choice probably) reclaims the space on hard disk and as i remember because packard Bell had same type of syseme to create CDs /DVDs the customer thought it was clever to reclaim the extra space on hard disk and they inevitably always had demolished the image using that stiupid wizard thing

................
http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk/Images/articles/%7B7087d478-1858-42db-8f6e-1c6d70...
...........................................
http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk/Uploads/%7Bc0b8d752-dbcf-4724-b6ea-5ec78d230020%7...
..............................

.........................
http://www.vaio-link.com/index/index.asp?l=en
.......................
http://www.vaio-link.com/tutorials/recovery/recovery.asp?l=en
.............................

.........................
by the way thanks for the information on MBR
it has been bugging me for ages that .
Regards Ben

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MadtKrandle

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #5 - Oct 25^th, 2006 at 1:32am

Yeah thanx for the the MBR info, that's been killing me too. Subsequently being the problem I've had in the past backing up certain Dells. And.... ben is right about the reclaiming of the recovery partition.... I learned that the hard way.... with a Dell.

I ghosted a Sony VAIO for my brother in a previous thread. I made a backup of his original, screwed up system by doing an entire disk image on approx 9 DVD's. After attempting to put an image from one of my computers on it and failing (different hardware... stupid) I then restored his whole disk image but it would only work if I did a partition restore... but it did work. I also believe that the recovery partition named was a factor.

I just scoured the whole freakin net and Google brought me back here!

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MadtKrandle

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #6 - Oct 25^th, 2006 at 2:20am

Sorry for bumping in, but I reviewed the previous threads and the VAIO that I did backup and restore was as I stated. Here is the link but it's a long one started by Brian.... I think I got in on the second or third page.

Check it out.

it can be done. Hope this helps.http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=11460...

I just scoured the whole freakin net and Google brought me back here!

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Ivanov

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #7 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 6:07am

Hello Night Owl,

I hope you aren’t being sarcastic about my VGC-LS1……I don’t think so but just confirming. Wink

I can boot from an optical disc, but not from a floppy since it didn’t come with it, though can be attached via a USB.

It does have an optical burner.

Could you explain how I could make a bootable Ghost CD...PC DOS, MS DOS, switches if any.....?

When I got the system it had bundled trial soft wares & utilities which were below par & I didn’t like, thus wanted to fresh nstall the OS & customized software.

It did have a hidden 7GB EISA NTFS Recovery partition on the hard drive.

& had the option of creating restore CDs/ DVDs, using the wizard, but it slipped through my mind & I formatted the entire drive & installed the OS, drivers & my choice of soft wares.

Once I know what files to burn on the Ghost 2003 bootable CD, I shall be able to answer the rest of your questions.

Hoping to hear from you,

Regards,

Btw while formatting I formatted the hidden 7GB recovery partition too & since I didn’t make a Recovery kit, had to order one from Sony for 17.95 bucks for a DVD, contains OS & drivers, just to have as a backup.

PS: Sorry about my English & knowledge about computer related stuff.

Ivanov.

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Ivanov

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	Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop? Reply #8 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 6:22am One more question Night owl, Does the type of hard ware devices, CPU, USB ports etc influence, what changes are needed to be made in the Ghost 2003 bootable CD? Sorry for bothering you so much but you are the uncrowned King of Ghost 2003!
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NightOwl

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #9 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 9:41am

Ivanov

Thanks for the compliment Wink

!

BTW--your english is fine.

Quote:

I hope you aren’t being sarcastic about my VGC-LS1

No sarcasm--really! It looks nice--how do you like it--what's good and bad about it?

Quote:

Could you explain how I could make a bootable Ghost CD...PC DOS, MS DOS, switches if any.....?

And *no floppy drive* to work with! One of my favorite topics:

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

Additional information:

Placing *ghost.exe* on the bootable CD/DVD project disc

Summary of adding USB support and DOS PartitionMagic to Bootable CD--see reply #6

Quote:

Does the type of hard ware devices, CPU, USB ports etc influence, what changes are needed to be made in the Ghost 2003 bootable CD?

Maybe--will not know until you start with the basics and see what works and what doesn't!

Does it have SATA HDD's--they can cause issues:

Re: Bootable cd without floppy

I'll be out of town for the next week--so if you post with additional questions--I'm not ignoring you--just away from the computer for awhile!

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Ivanov

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #10 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 10:04am

Hello Night Owl,

You deserve it & I mean what i say, feel or sense....

Thanks for the encouragement regarding my English; I am trying to improve it further along with my pc skills. Wink

As far as the machine is concerned it’s great, versatile…no cords hanging around, built in web cam, speakers, mic & the display is awesome. Watching Movies is real pleasure…….its both a TV & a PC…… the only drawbacks are that it doesn’t have a Bluetooth just an infrared & isn’t really a gamers machine…….well I am not gamer so doesn’t make a difference to me. 8)

Yes it does have one SATA 250 GB WD Cavier SE hard drive.

It has an Intel D 945 GM chipset & Intel Duo Core T2400 CPU & 2 gigs of memory at 533MHZ.

Slots for 2 types of memory sticks i.e. 1 GMB MS PRO DUO & 2GMB MS PRO.

Plus it has a built in TV tuner card.

Regards!

Ivanov.

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Ivanov

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	Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop? Reply #11 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 10:33am Btw have a great week off & chill out big time…..you deserve the chilling for your neurons to fire quicker.
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NightOwl

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	Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop? Reply #12 - Oct 27^th, 2006 at 10:48am Ivanov Thank you! Quote: you deserve the chilling for your neurons to fire quicker. I know electrons flow faster in electrical circuits as they near absolute zero--but, I'm not sure that applies to biological (wet-ware) circuits ! (Brrrrrrr/shiver!)
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Ivanov

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #13 - Nov 1^st, 2006 at 7:34am

Hi there Night Owl,

Sorry about the above 2 posts, they were made by my ISP administrator as I was having issues logging in…..some thing to do with cgi websites…I was getting logged in but the moment I wanted to make a post or reply it displayed an error that you are a guest need to register or log in….. Undecided

Coming to the point my machine’s mouse is neither PS/2 nor USB it’s a infrared…..so what changes would I need to make for it, as per your guide for making a bootable CD/DVD……& the hard drive is SATA. Sad

Hope you had a nice chill…… Wink

Hoping to hear from you,

Regards!

Ivanov.

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Brian

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Re: Ghosting A Highbrid desktop?
Reply #14 - Nov 3^rd, 2006 at 6:18pm

NightOwl wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2006 at 9:47pm:

So, if there is special code in the Master Boot region sectors 1 thru 62, then you should use that *-ib* switch--and now a restore of that image will restore that region too--and should preserve that *F10* function!

NightOwl, I thought I'd better test this in Ghost 9. I marked a few sectors in Track 0 and Ghost 9 (from the RE) does restore Track 0 if Copy MBR is ticked in the restore process.

If a restore is performed from the Ghost 9 plugin in ReatogoXPE there is no option to tick Copy MBR. Track 0 isn't restored. You just get a generic MBR.

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