Brian

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Thanks for your testing--I've wondered if Ghost 9/10 offered an option for those who might have special needs with programing in those first 0-62 sectors of the boot tract.

I guess not all the functions of Ghost 9 are available in the ReatogoXPE plug-in--that's important information as well for some!

Hello Night Owl again,

It just occurred to me to use my cell phone cam to take the pics in DOS so you would exactly know what messages are being displayed by this bootable CD.

Sorry about the pics, I know they are low quality since am not that great a photographer    & N 93 has only 3.2 mega pixels & 3x zoom……

Regards!

Ivanov

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Looking at your recent images of your boot to DOS--I don't think you followed my

Guide

!  You may have used it as an *outline*, but you have substituted other programs than what I recommended--this could have any number of possible incompatible side effects--I have never used the programs you apparently are loading--so I don't know how they may effect loading Ghost successfully!

Looking at your images, here are my questions:

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What program are you loading that give that result--that does not look like the *Panasonic* USB DOS drivers?

Or, is that something your BIOS is automatically doing for you?

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Again, what program is giving you that response during boot?

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Looks like you are installing a DOS Driver to load and read NTFS partitions--with Ghost 2003, that should not be necessary--once booted to DOS, and you load Ghost, Ghost should be able to read the NTFS partitions on its own without a separate NTFS DOS reading driver--this could be causing program conflicts and may be responsible for freezing your system!

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Based on the above results of loading the NTFS partition DOS reading driver--it seems to have loaded your C:\ partition--so I am assuming it is properly detecting your internal SATA HDD--what HDD are you referring to?--a USB external HDD, or your internal SATA HDD?

It would help if you posted the contents of your boot files *autoexec.bat* and *config.sys*, plus a list of boot files that you are placing in the boot sector.

I would also recommend you try using the MS-DOS files and the Panasonic USB DOS drivers that I mention in the previous references I listed in reply #9 rather than the files you are using to see if they function correctly on your system!

Again, this reference outlines how to put the Panasonic USB DOS drivers onto the bootable CD disc: 

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

Ivanov

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No apologies are needed!  When I made this observation:

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I was just trying to make statement of fact--I didn't mean for it to come across as *judgemental*!

You are very likely much smarter than me--I have no foreign language skills at all--and I wouldn't know a *stem cell* from a *branch cell*--I just spend *way too much* time playing with things related to Ghost software--not too sure what that says about me and my skill levels!



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That summary details how to change the basic Bootable optical disk as outlined in the

Guide

so that it also had PartitionMagic included, plus adds the drivers so the Panasonic USB DOS drivers are available.  ckcc had asked how to do that in his reply #1 at the beginning of the thread.

If you do not have PartitionMagic installed on your system, you will not have that option to include those files on the boot CD.  You would have to obtain the program and install it.



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That's part of setting up the burning program to create the bootable CD.  I do not have Nero, so I can't create a screen shot, but look at this screen shot from the

Guide

for using Roxio v5.xx: 

Recording the boot CD step using Roxio 5

.

In the lower panel on the left side where it says *Ghost Boot CD*, if you right-click that, you can select *new folder*, and you can then type *Ghost*, and enter and it will be added underneath that *Ghost Boot CD*, and it will be added as a sub-directory in the lower panel on the right side as well underneath where it says *Bootcat.bin* and  *bootimg.bin*.

You can then browse using the upper panel to find your other files that you want to include in the data portion of the CD, and then *drag n drop* them from the upper panel to the lower panel in that *Ghost* sub-directory--so you would browse in the upper panel to where you have *ghost.exe*, and then select it, and drag it and drop it on the *Ghost* sub-directory in the lower panel on the right side.

Nero's interface will be somewhat different, but similar.



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*Edit.com* is a text file editor for DOS--it allows you to make changes to your files like *autoexe.bat* and *config.sys*.  If you have booted to DOS, but want to change something in *autoexec.bat* to change its behavior while testing--you can do that before you re-boot to see the results.

You type from the A:\ prompt:  edit autoexec.bat  (and press enter)

It will bring up the *autoexec.bat* file and you can make changes and re-save it, and re-boot to see the effect of your changes--without having to re-boot to Windows and use Notepad or some other basic word processor to make changes.

Handy to have available--but completely unnecessary for using the boot CD and Ghost!

Both *Edit.com* and *himem.sys* can be found on the Win98se boot disk file that you load using the

Guide

outline and using WinImage--see the *Step #2* of the 

Step-by-Step Instructions

, the second screenshot: 

Screen Shot--Win98 Boot Disk Files in WinImage

, and you will see *himem.sys* listed there--you can pull it out the same way you are instructed to extract the other files in the

Guide

in the next Step #3.

*edit.com* is buried in the *ebd.cab* file that you can see in the image above!

Step #6 of the

Step-by-Step Instructions

, tells you how to extract the *mscdex.exe* file from that *ebd.cab* file--you can also extract the *edit.com* file in the same way!

The many steps makes it look complicated, but really--once you get used to the process--it's quite easy and straight forward.



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The *path statement* is fine.  The *path statement* is simply to make it easier for DOS to search for programs--it tells DOS where to look, and in what order to look--for a program that you type at the DOS prompt.

If you do not have a *path statement*, then you have to use DOS commands to change to different *drives* (partitions with drive letters), and to change to different sub-directories.

Typing a *drive letter + a colon* will change to a different drive letter--so if you are at the A:\> prompt, typing *X:* and pressing enter would change to the optical drive's drive letter given this boot disc's boot file to make the first optical drive drive letter *X*.

Type *cd + sub-directory name* and press enter will change to a different sub-directory that's in the current directory--so at the X:\> prompt, typing *cd ghost* and pressing enter would put you in the *Ghost* sub-directory (assuming you created that sub-directory when you burned the CD).

Type *dir* and press enter for a listing of the files and sub-directories below the current sub-directory that you are in.

Type *cd + two periods* (cd..) and press enter and you will move up one sub-directory from the one you are currently in.

If all your partitions are NTFS partitions, then you will only have the A:\ drive letter and the X:\ drive letter of the optical drive--and no C:\ drive--unless you have an external USB HDD hooked up and successfully using the Panasonic USB DOS drivers--then that USB HDD will be C:\--unless you have formatted it to be NTFS also!

You will be able to *see* and *access* NTFS partitions in Ghost, but not from DOS!



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That is correct--but if you do need a *mouse.ini* file, you just use Notepad to create it--as mentioned in the link, and save the file using the *mouse.ini* as the filename.

Let us know how things go--I'm curious to see if your system will respond to basic DOS and Ghost 2003!

Ivanov

Here's a work-around that was found for the issue you're having:

How to *fool* NeroExpress to use boot image file other than Nero's default

.  See *Reply #14*.

recneps left the original Nero's default boot image file in the program directory until after he passed the point of selecting the *Boot locale*, then he stopped and used Windows explorer to move the Nero boot image file out of the program directory (or renamed it), and replaced it with the boot image file created following the Bootable CD guide--of course still substituting the Nero name for the new boot image file.

Ivanov

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Great!--glad to hear you finally got it working!

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Again, being as I do not have an infrared mouse to experiment with--I don't have the ability to work that out--but, did your system come with a *drivers* installation CD?  If *yes*--are there any DOS drivers listed on that CD? 

Is there a system *User Guide*--either a booklet or a pdf file on the system CD if you have one?  Does it mention anything about being able to use the Mouse under DOS?

Do you have PartitionMagic 8's installation CD--it can be booted to DOS and it loads a mouse driver--does the mouse work with that program in DOS?

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Marking the HDD's during the loading of Ghost 2003 is a built-in behavior of Ghost 2003--you do not have to, but it will always stop you at that screen and ask if you do not--personally, I always let Ghost *mark* the HDD's.

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If you want the DOS PartitionMagic program available from the CD, then *yes*, you would have to add those.

First, as mentioned above--the PartitionMagic 8.x installation CD is bootable--so you can just use it separately.

But, if you want to add the DOS PartitionMagic files to your present Ghost boot CD, you can without too much effort:

1.  On your HDD, create a temporary sub-directory (folder) labeled *pqmagic*.

2.  On my PowerQuest version of PartitionMagic 8.x, the DOS files needed to run PM 8 are located in this sub-directory of the installation CD--*X:\ENGLISH\DOSMAKE\DISK2\*.  The files you need are listed below:

PMHELP.DAT
PQMAGIC.EXE
PQMAGIC.OVL
PQMAGIC.PQG
PQPB.RTC

Copy these files from the installation CD to the temporary sub-directory *pqmagic* created previously.

3.  Edit the *path* statement of the boot cd project to include the future *pqmagic* sub-directory you will be adding to the CD:

path=a:\;x:\;x:\pqmagic

4.  Look at your response #23 above, the second screen shoot that has the title line *Disc Content* and the description below *Add data to your disc.*  This is where you can add whatever you want to the data portion of you bootable CD--the optical DOS drivers will give you access to this data after those drivers load.

So click the *Add* button, browse to the *pqmagic* sub-directory you created with the DOS PM 8.0 files--and add that sub-directory to your burning project--the PM 8.0 files will be brought along with the *pqmagic* sub-directory.

Everything else as far as the

Guide

remains the same.  Now, after booting, at the A:\ prompt, type *pqmagic*, and DOS PM 8.x should load!

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If you want access to USB storage devices from DOS--then *yes*.

When you add USB DOS drivers--*ghost.exe* will no longer fit in the 1.44 MB boot sector of the bootable CD--so it must be placed in the data portion of the CD similarly as to what was done with PM 8.0 above. 

A summary of what to do was in reply #9 where I listed a link--here it is again:

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

Let us know how your efforts come out!