Hi,

I have a question!  

My Laptop came with a Recovery DVD-ROM containg a Ghost Image which works extremely well. However, this OEM Recovery Image is out-dated, and it has been recommended by Computer Support to create a fresh Ghost Image for recovery. I purchased Norton SystemWorks Premier which includes Ghost 10, and also an older version (8?) on the Symantec Recovery Disk.

Unfortunately, I am suffering from a problem described here:
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1136563554/19#19

With Ghost 10, I am unable to burn/write a Ghost Image to a set of DVDs. In addition, my Laptop does not have the ability to boot from an external USB Hard-Drive, and I don't have a Floppy Drive. The OEM Recovery Disk does not offer an option to create Partitions, and it restores the OEM Recovery Image to a single Volume.

My Laptop has two hard-disks, but before installing the OEM Recovery Image, I configure the disks as a single Hardware RAID-0 Array. The RAID configuration is carried out by the OEM Recovery Disk operation. I end up with one large volume (equal to the sum of both hard-disks), and, as I mentioned, the Recovery works very well. I am happy with this uncomplicated but fast setup.

My problem is that I have not been able to devise a way to utilise Ghost for an up-to-date Recovery Image. Ghost 10 is stated to be compatible with HardWare RAID-0 and RAID-1, and I have no problem creating an Image File of my C: Drive, which I can only write to the same C: Drive... fwiw!

The OEM Recovery Process involves rebooting several times: firstly to reformat (with Windows 98), then to install RAID, thirdly the Imaging/Cloning Process, then the XP Setup... (from memory... its been a while since I've done it).

The application that runs the OEM Recovery Image is a collaboration between Norton and Toshiba called TGHOST.EXE. The disk also contains GHOST.EXE in the same directory. The OEM Recovery Image File is password-protected (variable TGHOSTPS), and I have been unable to open it with any of the versions of Ghost that I have or with TGhost. Of course, the OEM Recovery Process does open it by running and calling various Batch Files. The main Batch File, which starts the Imaging Process contains the following lines:

CALL %CDDRV%\BASE\PREDATA.BAT
SET TGHOSTPS=%FILENAME%
cls
IF ".%CDDRV%"==".Q:" goto DiskLoad
call %DATADRV%\TOOLS\RECBOOT RecGhost
if exist R:\GHOSTERR.TXT goto Abort
goto ImgDone
:diskLoad
%CDDRV%\BASE\TGHOST -clone,mode=pload,src=%CDDRV%\BASE\PREINST.GHO:1,dst=1:1 -afile=P:\GHOSTERR.TXT -auto -sure -fni
%CDDRV%\BASE\MBR /C0 > NUL
%CDDRV%\BASE\LBA /C > NUL
if exist P:\GHOSTERR.TXT goto Abort
:ImgDone
%CDDRV%\bin\seq -rst 0

Finally, here is my Question. Can I exchange the OEM Recovery Image, "PREINST.GHO" for an up-to-date Image of my own which I would create with Ghost, and change the batch file to call Ghost rather than TGhost??  Supplementary Question   .... If so, how? There are three other Files in the same directory, but I don't know what they are for: "PREIN001.GHS", "PREIN002.GHS", and "PREIN003.GHS".

I am satisfied with the OEM Recovery Disk (apart from the lack of a Partitioning Option). It seems Robust and Fool-Proof., and it offers the option to set up either RAID-0 or RAID-1, or neither. However, I would sleep much better if I knew that the Image was more current. The desired Image File would be similar in size to the present Recovery Image: no user files which are backed-up with an archiving type of Programme; just the OS and a few important Programmes.

All thoughts and comments will be appreciated before I start.

edited: Added "HardWare" to references to RAID; added "OEM" to "Recovery" where appropriate, to make a clear distinction between a Personaliized Ghost Recovery and the OEM Factory Recovery.

Hi again,

I cannot believe how enjoyable these Forums are to read. If I keep going, I may become a Ghost aficionado without ever having had the pleasure of using the programme. Give me a year or two.  

I've been down a few blind alleys though.

There must be a logical explanation, but I wonder why Ghost 10 is not on the bootable Symantec Recovery Disc (SRD). Even if I could disentangle it from SystemWorks, it (or the Image Files it creates) would probably not fit on my proposed Recovery Disk. I'm trying to duplicate the OEM's Recovery Disc as near as possible to avoid complications.

From the SRD, I guess I can run D:\I386\SHELL\GHOST\GHOSTEXP.EXE and D:\I386\SHELL\GHOST\RESTOREGHOST.EXE, and I have managed to integrate RestoreGhost.exe (Ghost32.exe v8.2) into BartPE. It is dissapointing that that the CD/DVD-burning capabilities of the Ghost32.exe have been disabled in this crippled version. I have not discovered a way of modifying the SRD to incorporate my RAID Drivers (- no floppy drive - is there any help on this? -), whereas BartPE does this very well. So BartPE is my bootable Ghost DVD.

When trying to run the GHOST.EXE on the OEM's Recovery Disk, it seems to freeze at the first instant. Running TGHOST.EXE without switches or parameters yields nothing except the version - Version 2.0. Running the whole shebang as an OEM Recovery Process reveals the standard DOS Ghost Interface - bluish colour with ghost pic, progress bar, etc, except for the title - Toshiba Restore Tool v. 7.5.1, Copyright Toshiba Corp and Symantec 2001.

I seem to have been caught out of step with regard to Ghost 9.    
It was interesting to read the following:
Brian wrote on Apr 27^th, 2007 at 3:45pm:


If the entire Programme loads into RAM, will it work in reverse for creating Image Files on optical media when only a single Optical Drive is available? Anyways, it seems that I've missed out on Ghost 9.

You see .., the brick wall that I've hit (should have seen it coming) is that I have a single RAID-0 Volume (apart from a special hidden LINUX partition), and no capability to write any Image File to any other location.

So, before I can get anywhere, it seems that I am going to have to open my wallet for an external drive. The big question is: Can the SRD version of Ghost32.exe, when used in BartPE, write Image Files to external drives? Or: Is there a way around the crippled Optical-Media-Burning capabilities of that version?

I'm not up on these things.... Should I be looking for a Hard Drive or some other type of USB Device? Perhaps a third HD for my Laptop with a USB Enclosure, or a self-contained USB HD? What is recommended?

I am hoping to create Image Files similar in dimension to the following OEM files (I'm not even sure if this is possible):
PREINST.GHO          660,478 KB
PREIN001.GHS         660,479 KB
PREIN002.GHS         660,477 KB
PREIN003.GHS         338,704 KB
TOTAL                  2,320,138 KB

Because this thread has been deathly quiet, apart from my thinking aloud, I would appreciate a response from anyone who can see that this project is doomed for failure.

You may be thinking that purchasing an external drive will make my experience with Ghost 10 hunky dory, and render this project redundant. I have been communicating with owners of the same model Laptop who advise that an external drive does not provide a solution with either Ghost or Acronis TI. One owner claims to have squeezed from Acronis a special edition of TI for our Laptops!? But this has been refuted by another.

Nero seems like a possibility for simply writing Ghost 10 Images onto bootable DVDs. I have Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, and the dedicated Forums, such as the Green Button, are chock-a-block with users describing conflicts between the CD/DVD Burning Engines of Nero and MCE.

Partitioning? Well, everywhere I look I see warning signs: Firstly about post-partitioning a RAID Array, and secondly about writing an Image File (even in a separate partition) on to the same RAID Array that is being Imaged. I haven't looked closely, but I am not aware of any Partitioning Utilities compatible with RAID... at least not the free ones.

What other alternatives?

Again, any advice will be gladly welcomed.

Good prices.

http://www.shopbot.com.au/p-20350.html

Al,

Your project sounds fascinating. I'm not trying to talk you out of it. I'm just presenting an alternative.

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Not bitter experience. Just disappointment with the process. Say you had an image spanned over 5 discs. Then the restore order would be 1 5 1 5 1 2 3 4 5 1. The DVD shuffle. Your image will be on one disc so that is practical.

I've only used DVDs for testing. With Ghost 10, writing the image to DVD takes about 5 times longer than writing direct to a HD. In fact that is a method some use to speed up the process. Writing the image to a HD in 4480 MB splits and then burning the splits to DVDs with Nero. You can imagine how long a restore will take and if you have a single "bad" DVD then the whole image is useless. This scenario has been reported several times in the Acronis True Image forum.

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Writing an image to a HD from Ghost 10 would be ten times faster than this speed.

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Good point.

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What is it for? Video/Music? If you can't see it in Disk Management or a partitioning app then it's likely to be HPA. Using the MHDD app will confirm this. If I had a Dell laptop with a System Restore partition and a HPA, I'd delete both as they are of no use to me. Others may think they are great.

I like your "HELLO WORLD" analogy. Where are you from?

Also thanks to NightOwl for this piece of wisdom:

"In DOS (Windows independent--therefore no F6 Windows driver is required) the RAID chipsets support DOS access to the RAID array through the BIOS integration of the RAID controller and the rest of the system."

Ten days ago, I had no idea what he was talking about.  

Brilliant!