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a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan? (Read 44935 times)
will von wizzlepig
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a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Nov 5th, 2010 at 1:09pm
 
so, I suspect the thing I seek does not exist, but I thought I would ask the experts-

I would like to find a CD or usb - bootable solution which will scan the local system hard drives for drive images, and just pop up a dialogue prompting the user for which image they want to use.

I do hardware testing, so, I have about twelve ghost 11.5 system images in various configurations, and the current boot process of winPE, check for network, fire up ghost32... I wish I could change it myself, but, that's over my head.

The problem with just hard-coding the path into the boot CD (which I assume is possible) is the images leave behind different drive partitioning on drive 0, so, each time it boots, the list/location of all local drive contents in ghost is changed slightly.

If there were any other drive-imaging tool which had the capability to boot fast and just show a list of the locally-stored image files to use... boy, that would be neat. I suspect not, but it can't hurt to ask.
 
 
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Brian
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #1 - Nov 5th, 2010 at 4:33pm
 
@
will von wizzlepig

Does this seem OK? You can use a BartPE or WinPE CD/USB that contains ghost32.exe. Search for .gho files, then start Ghost and restore your chosen .gho. All done from a single CD or USB flash drive.
 
 
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will von wizzlepig
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #2 - Nov 5th, 2010 at 6:25pm
 
Well, if you mean that I would search for the files myself by clicking around in ghost's not so awesome interface (really touchy mouse button), that's pretty much what I do now.

I am curious if someone has already made something that will scan for ghost files and prompt you with which one to use. I guess I need to learn to program. too many things I want don't exist yet.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #3 - Nov 5th, 2010 at 6:32pm
 
will von wizzlepig wrote on Nov 5th, 2010 at 6:25pm:
I would search for the files myself by clicking around in ghost's not so awesome interface (really touchy mouse button), that's pretty much what I do now.

No, not like that. Search "My Computer" for *.gho. After you have found the appropriate file you would then start Ghost.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #4 - Nov 5th, 2010 at 8:12pm
 
Instead of using a WinPE CD you can use a DOS CD containing TeraByte Explorer and Ghost. TeraByte Explorer is part of TBOSDT Pro. It will find all your *.gho files and you can then start DOS Ghost for the restore. All from the one CD or USBFD.
 
 
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will von wizzlepig
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #5 - Nov 8th, 2010 at 1:06pm
 
Ooo, now this TBOSDT Pro may be just the thing. thanks Brian!
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #6 - Nov 8th, 2010 at 2:03pm
 
I'm confused.....again.  Sorry about that.

But if you made a Ghost backup, wouldn't you know where you put it?  I put Ghost backups in several different HD's and partitions, but it only takes a few seconds and a few mouse clicks to find the one I want.

I've been at this PC thing way too long, admittedly.  But I found out years ago, that some things just should never be done within Windows.   I've run all my backup software and my HD utilities including Partitioning software from DOS boot disks.  With the ever increasing size of the programs involved, I've reluctantly had to graduate from floppy disks to CD's and Flash Drives. 
But working with NTFS drives from DOS isn't easy, but, there a little program called NTSF4DOS that takes much of the sting out of it.
I've included that little APP on my Ghost backup CD and flash drive, so I can run batch files from DOS to clean up the junk on an NTFS drive before I run Ghost to back it up.

I know y'all have heard this before, but I'll say it again, "DOS Rules!"

Cheers Mates!
Old Casper  Wink
 

A man with experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #7 - Nov 8th, 2010 at 2:12pm
 
You would put

tbosdt.exe
tbexplo.tbs
tbexplo.bat

in the same folder. Let's say it is A:\DOS then tbexplo.bat would contain

tbosdt.exe A:\DOS\tbexplo.tbs

You could call tbexplo.bat in your autoexec.bat and you are ready to go.

Mount a drive path, press F3 to start a search, enter *.gho

 
 
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will von wizzlepig
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #8 - Nov 8th, 2010 at 5:56pm
 
Oh, Casper, yes, I can find all the images by clicking around, but let's say you have a PC with three hard drives, and you put win xp on it. now you re-image it with win 7, and then later win vista.

each time, when ghost comes up and you are selecting the ghost image to apply, the list it shows for your hard drives is different. because the partition and drive info each OS leaves behind is not the same.

what I was asking about was just some scripty way to pre-load the locations, prompt the user for which image to apply, and go. no fiddling around. It's a difference of not many seconds shaved off, but the truth is I just wanted to know if it had been done, or if it was possible.

TBOSDT Pro looks like the way.
 
 
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will von wizzlepig
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #9 - Nov 11th, 2010 at 12:00pm
 
aaah... so, I figured out an easier solution, just took a little work putting a batch file together.

ghost.exe has pretty decent command prompt access, so, I made a bootable USB stick with PCDOS and ghost on it.

Then I moved all my ghost images to the root folder of the drives they are on.

I made an echo information list in the autoexec.bat,

echo enter 1 for win 7
echo enter 2 for win xp
(etc)

then I made batch files named 1, 2, etc, containing-

ghost.exe -clone,MODE=restore,SRC=3:1\win7.gho,DST=2

this fires up ghost with the parameters, and prompts you to verify them, and then it starts.

Once I know all of these work, I will edit it to use the "sure" command, and remove the prompts, so it just starts after you enter the number.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #10 - Nov 11th, 2010 at 1:22pm
 
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will von wizzlepig

That sounds good. I'll be interested to see your finalized batch file.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #11 - Nov 12th, 2010 at 12:08pm
 
Ok, here we go. Again, my project is to quickly get images stored on a local machine's secondary drive written onto its primary drive.

I have it down now to 25 seconds from Post screen to ghost starting to write the ghost image to primary drive.

I created a PCDOS boot USB stick using ghost boot wizard included with Ghost 11.5. My solution is a combination of three things:

Modification of autoexec.bat: adding "echo" text to inform the user of what number to enter and removing the default entry of "ghost.exe" created by ghost boot wizard.

addition of batch files named with those numbers, and containing the command prompt info, like-a-so:

filename is : 1.bat

ghost.exe -sure -clone,MODE=restore,SRC=4:1\732.GHO,DST=2

And finally, one extra bat file which will disk-to-file the current drive 0 to a file drive 2, compress it "high" and name it makenew.gho:

ghost.exe -sure -z2 -clone,MODE=create,SRC=2,DST=4:1\NewGhost.gho

something I noticed:

ghost's numbering of disks starts at 1, and when using ghost on a USB stick, the USB stick ends up as c:, and ends up numbered as disk 1, which makes what you would normally think of as disk 0 (probably your boot drive) actually numbered disk 2.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #12 - Nov 12th, 2010 at 1:17pm
 
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will von wizzlepig

That's really interesting as I'm doing the same thing on my test computer with Image for DOS rather than Ghost. I have a big Choice menu and as you are doing, just press a number and the restore (or backup image) happens.

will von wizzlepig wrote on Nov 12th, 2010 at 12:08pm:
USB stick, the USB stick ends up as c:, and ends up numbered as disk 1, which makes what you would normally think of as disk 0 (probably your boot drive) actually numbered disk 2. 

Same with IFD.
 
 
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will von wizzlepig
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #13 - Nov 12th, 2010 at 1:23pm
 
granted, I did not come up with a solution which searches the drives and prompts you, I ran with the solution I was currently capable of, which requires hard-coded file names and editing batch files. Luckily when you make these USB sticks, you can edit them all you want. handy.
 
 
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Re: a question to the experts - boot cd with hard drive contents scan?
Reply #14 - Nov 12th, 2010 at 1:37pm
 
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will von wizzlepig

Quote:
Modification of autoexec.bat: adding "echo" text to inform the user of what number to enter and removing the default entry of "ghost.exe" created by ghost boot wizard.

addition of batch files named with those numbers, and containing the command prompt info, like-a-so:

filename is : 1.bat

ghost.exe -sure -clone,MODE=restore,SRC=4:1\732.GHO,DST=2

And finally, one extra bat file which will disk-to-file the current drive 0 to a file drive 2, compress it "high" and name it makenew.gho:

ghost.exe -sure -z2 -clone,MODE=create,SRC=2,DST=4:1\NewGhost.gho

Are you using the *menu* command that you setup using *config.sys* as well as *autoexec.bat* so you can select from a menu list?

How about posting the actual text in those two files to see the actual structure you are using?
 

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