I have a stand-alone PC running Win-XP w/ 2 internal Hard Drives.  One 40GB (w/ Win install) & a formatted blank fat32 20GB hard drive for image destination.  Also a Win-7 box w/ a 250GB appx internal hard drive & a USB external about the same size.  All NTFS but the 20GB image drive in XP box.

I am able to use the GUI in Windows to reboot to Virtual Partition where autoexec.bat is scripted to image entire drive to spanned files on 2nd drive w/o prompts & then auto-reboot. I need a way to run from a batch file via sched task to reboot TO the Virtual Partition in DOS if possible w/o buying anything additional.  Work for County Government & $$$ not easy to eek out of them.

I have included by batch short of what the Virt Part creation puts in there like [ @echo off ] & altering the prompt to say "to reboot to windows, type ghreboot & press enter."  Pretty easy straight-forward stuff.

@ echo off
GHOST -CLONE,mode=Create,src=1,dst=D:\Image\testimg.img -Sure -Batch -Z9 -afile=ghosterr.txt

ghreboot

  ~Thanks

pushin1sAnd0s

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I don't know of any way to *schedule* the Windows based Ghost GUI to run.  Using the Windows Ghost *Virtual Partition* requires setting up the task manually in the Ghost GUI first--and there is no utility or script to automate that process that I'm aware of (but, thinking about that statement--I seem to remember there was some sort of ability to have Windows record a series of steps and save them as a batch file that you then can run and it would re-create those recorded steps--I never used it--and I don't know if it's still an option--may have been back in the Win98se era!).

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Ghost 2003 and Ghost 8.x are essentially DOS based--and can be set up to run from batch and script files--and you do not need anything additional to *buy*!  The *Virtual Partition* is really just a bootable primary DOS partition created in RAM on the fly by the Windows Ghost program.  And the Windows Ghost GUI passes the necessary Ghost DOS command line to carry out the procedure you set up in the Windows GUI onto that *virtual partition* once it's booted to DOS.

Without any further *purchases*, you can create a DOS primary partition on the system, make it bootable, and then create batch files to close down Windows, switch which primary partition is active and which is hidden, boot to the DOS partition with the needed Ghost script files, have Ghost carry out those scripts, and then have the Ghost autoexec.bat file re-set which partition is active and hidden and re-boot back to the Windows partition.

To *Schedule* everything, you would simply use Windows Scheduler to point to the batch file to start the process on whatever schedule you want.

Of course, the *devil is in the details*!  There are a lot of variables to keep track of--and several different *skill sets* that you have to get comfortable with--writing batch files in general, creating batch files that can change which partition is active and which is not, hiding and unhiding partitions for creating the active, boot partition, creating the Ghost script files to carry out your Ghost procedure, and using a Master Boot File Manager in a batch file for taking care of the details there!

And, if you plan on using the batch files on more than one machine, then, unless all machines are laid out identically, the batch file(s) have to be customized to each different layout.

Here's an example of how it could be done:  NightOwl's *automated* files

What's missing from the above reference--the batch file to start the process from Windows--I can help with that easily if you need help with that.  And, my above batch file keeps three backups, deletes the oldest when next run and adds the newest to the backup list--so it's a little more sophisticated than it would have to be--but, that can be easily adjusted as well.

Earlier in that reference, we discuss creating a bootable DOS partition to use for this technique.

pushin1sAnd0s

pushin1sAnd0s wrote on Mar 14^th, 2011 at 11:15am:

Yes, it can reside in the C: drive. But this is just icing on the cake. It's easier to leave the small DOS partition in place unless you have a reason to remove it. I guess one advantage of partcopy.bin is you can just copy it to other computers and it will work. It is easy to edit the batch files in partcopy.bin for use in other computers. Alternately you can restore an image of the DOS partition to other computers and edit the batch files.

Are you familiar with TBOSDT? I didn't mention partcopy.bin in my first post.

Brian

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I think he read down to your post #48 in my above link NightOwl's *automated* files

Way back when, I never followed up and tried this TeraByte technique--but, I'm going to have to now..... !

Do you know when you execute the *bootfile* command in Windows to load the *partcopy.bin* file, and you boot to the OS (that apparently does not need to use one of the 4 max partition table slots), can the files that are loaded in DOS--do they have the ability to *write* to the booted partition?

The reason I ask--you talk above about adding a DOS mouse driver (ctmouse.exe)--does it need a *mouse.ini* file associated with it?  One problem some folks have had in the past in creating a bootable optical disc with DOS files is that some versions of the DOS mouse driver require a *mouse.ini* file that the mouse driver creates on the fly as the system boots and loads the mouse driver.  The *virtual A:\ drive* created by an optical boot disc can not be written to, and so if there is not a *mouse.ini* file already included--you get a boot failure!

Also, if DOS Ghost experiences an error while booted from the optical disc's *virtual A:\ drive*--it attempts to write an *ghosterr.txt* file--again, if using Ghost booted from an optical disc, that fails and one doesn't see why--the system appears to *freeze*.

Just wondering if you have any insight into those issues?

This is another way of doing Method #1

Copy tbosdtw.exe from the win folder to the dos_tbos folder. Work from the dos_tbos folder.
double click tbosdtw.exe
type    list hd 0   (and press Enter)
write down the ID of your DOS partition. Let's say it is 25
exit

Create a text document containing (use your ID in place of 25)

copy partition 0 0x25 c:\partcopy.bin /b
mount 0: c:\partcopy.bin
copy file bootfile.exe 0:
set textline 0:\autoexec.bat "bootfile.exe" /b
exit

Save this as part.txt. Change the extension to run. Now you have part.run

Create a batch file called part.bat. It contains

tbosdtw.exe part.run

All these files are in the dos_tbos folder.

Double click part.bat and partcopy.bin will appear in C:\

You only have to make one partcopy.bin. To use it in another computer you simply need to edit ghost.bat, the file containing the Ghost command line.

Copy tbosdtw.exe and partcopy.bin to C:\ on the new computer.
Double click tbosdtw.exe and type these lines

mount 3: partcopy.bin   
copy 3:\ghost.bat C:\ /y

ghost.bat is now in your C: drive. Make the needed edits and type these lines to put the edited ghost.bat into partcopy.bin

copy ghost.bat 3:\ /y

To view ghost.bat inside partcopy.bin, type   (yes, you have to type "type")

type 3:\ghost.bat

Before using partcopy for the first time you should view autoexec.bat to make sure the first line is bootfile.exe

type 3:\autoexec.bat

After viewing the file, type

exit

The reason for having the first line of bootfile.exe in autoexec.bat is to change the MBR partition table back to your normal table. If bootfile.exe wasn't present, Ghost would run but then you wouldn't be able to boot into Windows because you would be in the virtual partition. To fix this, run the dos_tbos version of bootfile.exe from DOS or tbos. Simply type

bootfile

This has only happened to me once. The first time I used partcopy.bin. I used it from HD1 instead of HD0.

Brian

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Made me laugh!  Yes, that would probably make most folk's day appear pretty *bad*!  How did you figure out to use *bootfile.exe* to recover?

Haven't heard from *pushin1sAnd0s* recently--hope he's been taking notes!--this is some good info.....

Was out of town last couple days--started working on this this evening.......haven't finished following the outline as yet--ran into a couple issues--maybe you have insight(s)....

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I had to make the new 8 MB partition *active* before the partition was available in DOS and I could do the *sys.com C:*.

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What am I missing here?  I'm using WinXP.  When I boot back to WinXP after using PartitionMagic to create the 8 MB FAT16 partition (I had to make the WinXP partition *active* again, so the 8 MB DOS partition was now not active (and hidden--using PartitionMagic)--in WinXP I don't have access to that hidden 8 MB DOS partition.  How are you getting access to copy files?

So, out of computing time for this evening--I might not be available 'til Tuesday.

NightOwl

I'm looking forward to you replicating my steps. It's nice when someone else confirms the steps are reproducible.