Radified Community Forums - XOSL Image Issue

Kowala

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XOSL Image Issue
Jul 10^th, 2007 at 11:48pm

Respected Radified Community,

A few weeks ago I posted looking for a solution to create a boot menu to restore a local partition image with. Dan Goodell provided an excellent solution!
http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1181940079

He suggested I try out the freeware product XOSL. After a few days of reading and experimenting I learned how to setup my partitions and install XOSL. I created three partitions. One for XOSL, one for the XP and one for my locally stored ghost image. I made sure to keep the additional drives hidden while XP installed. I ended up with a perfect working system. The boot loader works flawlessly. The OS loads without errors. The local image restores without problems.

I presented the finished product to my boss (big mistake it seems) and she loved the idea. I created an image and pushed it via GhostCast to my boxes (hardware matches perfectly). They imaged without errors but when I rebooted I had a black screen with flashing cursor. I assumed I needed to create the image using special switches. I found a few people saying to use a -ib switch. I tried unsucessfully.

Anyway the project has hit a brick wall and my employer is loosing faith in the idea. I am hoping to get some insights from you knowledgable friends. To wrap up my question is.

Question: Is it possible to create/restore a full system image of a machine that is using XOSL (properly installed)? If yes would anyone be able to share proper syntax to make this create/restore functional?

I truly appreciate any help or suggestions.

Kowala

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gavinh

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #1 - Jul 11^th, 2007 at 6:24am

I have no experience with the XOSl

But you could try the switches as follows

-IA -IB

I have used that combination of switches to copy linux patitions, It copys all the data sector by sector.

Its worth a shot..

The other thing it might be doing is setting up the other partition as the boot sector so you could try booting from your OS disk, Getting into a recovery console and running the FIXMBR command.

Good luck

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NightOwl

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #2 - Jul 11^th, 2007 at 9:03am

Kowala

DOS Ghost has some undocumented *features* where it modifies partition designations in the *boot.ini* file--presumably so a newly restored image will boot properly--but, in my experience, Ghost has a bug, and fouls everything up if the Master Partition Table has been modified so that the partitions are not listed in the same sequence as the physical layout would suggest.

If you have made multiple partitioning adjustments--the partition table may have a sequence that is no longer linear.

You can run this tool to see the listing of the physical layout and the order in which the partition table has the partitions--the tool also has a function to re-order the partition table sequence to match the physical layout: MBRWizard - The MBR utility you've been looking for!

Quote:

/List

Display the partitions listed in the MBR, their order in the MBR, partition type, size, and whether active or hidden. The Pos field indicates the order the partitions are laid out on disk, while MBRndx shows them as they're listed in the MBR record.

Quote:

/Sort

It isn't uncommon for the partition entries in the MBR to be unsorted, meaning that their order in the MBR doesn't match the order on disk. This normally wasn't a problem until Windows NT/2K/XP came along with its new boot loader, and the requirement for each partition entry in the boot.ini to point to the actual partition number. This option will sort the entries in the MBR to match their order on disk.

Please post back with the results of your efforts--it would be interesting to know if this is the problem you are having!

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Kowala

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #3 - Jul 11^th, 2007 at 11:09pm

Nightowl,

Thank you for your rapid response. I am currently at a Exchange 2007 boot camp. I delegated data collection with MBR Wizard to another office employee. I will post as soon as we have results.

I asked him to use MBR Wizard to document the working Master Image pc followed by the Restored Image pc. I am hoping this will shed more light on the situation. After he gets the data from each pc he is going to run the /sort option on the Restored Image pc to see if this is a fix.

If we are able to come up with a fix I would be happy to share in a XOSL + Ghost guide.

Thank you again for your time...

Kowala

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NightOwl

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #4 - Jul 12^th, 2007 at 9:29am

Kowala

I've thought about it more--and I'm not so sure that my suggestion will be the answer to your problem!

Why? Well, first--the problem I was describing effects the local system when you restore an image--but you said in your initial post:

Quote:

The local image restores without problems.

Then re-read your initial post more closely:

Quote:

I created an image and pushed it via GhostCast to my boxes (hardware matches perfectly).

Deploying an image of a base setup to other machines is a whole different issue from what your original post was in regards to, i.e. using XOSL as a boot manager to allow for using Ghost on a local machine to automate restores of a backup image:

Quote:

GOAL: Create a restore partition such as Dell's PC Restore Partition that will trigger with a hotkey combo during boot up.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1181940079

Using MBR Wizard to check the partition layout vs the Master Partition Table is a good thing just to be sure it's not the problem.

One can use this tool to look at the *boot.ini* on the restored machine to see if the it has been altered by Ghost in the restore process: TeraByte Unlimited Freeware--See *EditBini*. Print out a copy of the original functioning system's *boot.ini*, and then boot to DOS, and run *EditBini*--see if the *boot.ini* on the problem system matches.

But, based on a number of posts in the past about deploying a base image to other machines--I'm more suspicious of deployment issues to *(hardware matches perfectly)* then other potential Ghost processes!

With the advent of NT based OS's, the concept of *identical machines* is more complicated than a list of hardware devices that are the same on two different systems: Windows Product Activation (WPA) on Windows XP

Quote:

What hardware gets checked?

The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware:

Display Adapter
SCSI Adapter
IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
Processor Type
Processor Serial Number
Hard Drive Device
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

It then calculates and records a number based on the first device of each type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your hard drive. Initially, this is sent to Microsoft in an automatic dial-up, together with the Product ID number derived from the 25-character unique Product Key used in setting up Windows.

There's any number of devices that have unique signatures such that two systems will never be *identical* from the WinXP perspective!

Different systems seem to handle and react differently to restoring an image from one machine to another machine--so some folks report success--while others report failures! I've not done this myself, but I've heard others report that they have run a *repair install* from the WinXP installation disc and have recovered their systems this way.

Looking at the list of items above made me think of a possible Ghost switch that might help--Ghost by default does not preserve the HDD *NT ID* stored in the Master Boot Record--it zeroes it out and forces NT based systems to re-calcuate the HDD drive letter assignments. You could use the switch that forces Ghost to preserve that ID to see if that is the issue. Start Ghost with this switch both when creating the baseline image and when restoring to the other systems: ghost.exe -fdsp -ib

You may also have to look into *SysPrep* which prepares a baseline OS setup for deployment to multiple other machines.

I have no personal experience--but, here's a list of links that I have gathered over time regarding *sysprep* resources:

Google Search on *Sysprep*

SysPrep Guide

SysPrep Guide--The Video

Sysprep

How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of Windows XP

Description of New Features in Sysprep for Windows XP

How to use Sysprep with Ghost

http://entkb.symantec.com/security/output/n2000081610075225.html

[Info] Ghost Sysprep

Using SYSPREP to Create XP Pro Images

Using Sysprep--Example of Steps

Creating a Sysprep Image Library for Virtual PC

Again, I'll be interested to hear what you finally find out about your problem solving of this issue!

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Kowala

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #5 - Jul 17^th, 2007 at 11:05am

Respected Radified Community,

Apologies on the delay. I am now home from boot camp.

1. Ran MBR Wizard

I ran MBR Wizard on the Master Image pc as well as the Restored Image pc. The following results were returned.

Master Image
Pos    MBRndx    Name    Size    Active    Hide    Start Sector    Sectors
0    0    78unkn    47mb n       n 63 85,365
1    1    07-NTFS 66g    y       n 85,428 135,985,122
2    2    0c-fat32x    9.9g    n       n 136,070,550    20,225,835

Restored Image
0    0    78unkn    41m    y    n 63 85,365
1    1    17-NTFS 66g    n    y 85,428 135,974,160
2    2    1c-fat32x 9.9g    n    y 136,070,550 20,225,835

To create the above example I started a Ghostcast. Create. Used no special switches. Booted the Master Image box to Ghost. Multicast. To restore to the Restored Image pc I started Ghostcast. Restore. Used no special switches. Booted the Restored Image box to Ghost. Multicast. This process dosnt give any errors. On reboot Restored Image box had the partition info from above and has a single black screen with white flashing cursor.

2. Ran Editbini

I ran Editbini after the above process. The .ini file from the working Master Image pc matched the .ini file from the Restored Image pc exactly.

3. Using recommended switches (-fdsp -ib)

I started a Ghostcast. Create. In the command line used -fdsp and -ib. Booted the Master Image box to Ghost. Using ghost.exe -fdsp -ib and chose multicast. To restore to the Restored Image pc I started Ghostcast. Restore. In the command line used -fdsp and -ib. Booted the Restored Image box to Ghost. Using ghost.exe -fdsp -ib and chose multicast. This process dosnt give any errors. On reboot Restored Image box had the partition info from above and has a single black screen with white flashing cursor.

4. Recheck with MBR Wizard & Editbini

Master Image
Pos    MBRndx    Name    Size    Active    Hide    Start Sector    Sectors
0    0    78unkn    47mb n       n 63 85,365
1    1    07-NTFS 66g    y       n 85,428 135,985,122
2    2    0c-fat32x    9.9g    n       y 136,070,550    20,225,835

Restored Image
0    0    78unkn    41m    y    n 63 96,327
1    1    17-NTFS 66g    n    y 96,360 135,974,160
2    2    1c-fat32x 9.9g    n    y 136,070,550 20,225,835

Editbini showed matching .ini files.

Open to any ideas.

Kowala

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NightOwl

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Re: XOSL Image Issue
Reply #6 - Jul 18^th, 2007 at 12:30am

Kowala

Look at the *Active* column and the *Hide* column--Ghost is modifying which partition is *active* (and therefore, bootable!) on the restored HDD vs the Master image source!

And, Ghost is hiding two partitions on the restored HDD.

You can use the MBR Wizard to make the first partition *inactive* and then make the 2nd partition *active*. Then unhide the 2nd and 3rd partitions.

Does the system boot now?

In your second test--the 3rd partition of the Master Image is listed as *hidden*, where as it was not listed as *hidden* in the first test--is that a typo or accurate report?

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