Radified Community Forums - USB Automated Ghost Need Help

snowdude

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USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Jul 21^st, 2011 at 12:59pm

Hi, I am trying to set up a flash drive to use with many less experienced users that would otherwise take hours to walk through the process of ghosting in our conventional CD boot with USB drive containing the image. My goal is to have flash drives that we can mail to users and all that would be required would be for them to stick the drive into their computer and, with no instructions besides booting from USB, ghost an image onto their machine.

My process so far was to use ghost boot wizard to put a typical PC-DOS ghost boot package onto a USB, I then plugged that into my computer and created a folder called Base which contains my image files, inside that folder is 5 files, Base.gho, Base0001.ghs, Base0002.ghs etc.

I then edited the autoexec.bat to read as follows:
Code:


@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+08:00
if exist MOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM
echo Loading Ghost...
rem CD \GHOST
\ghost\ghost.exe -clone,mode=load,src=\Base\Base.gho,dst=1 -sure -quiet -auto -rb

This is the current revision after many attempts at fixing an Error Code 684 error I keep getting that says my file preservation metadata file conflicts with the location of the image destination or something like that. It suggests I use -pfile switch to set a new location for the file, I have tried multiple locations on the USB drive, I have looked at these forums for answers as well as many google searches and found a few responses but none that got solved or at least not in a way that has fixed my errors. If you need any more information to try and help please let me know. I am using GSS v11.5 and the machines so far have all been HP.

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Brian

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #1 - Jul 21^st, 2011 at 6:21pm

snowdude,

I can get the auto restore to start but the restores fails at around 80%. The image verifies OK.

This is my autoexec.bat
Code:

@echo off
set path=C:\;C:\Ghost
ctmouse.exe
ghost.exe -clone,mode=load,src=C:\Base\Base.gho,dst=2 -sure

The dst is 2 (your USB flash drive is 1)

See if it works on your hardware. I didn't use the Ghost wizard to create my bootable USB flash drive. I used the HP tool and added DOS files.

One of my interests is auto restores but I almost exclusively use TeraByte apps. I have about 10 auto restore methods. A double click and the restore happens.

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NightOwl

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	Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help Reply #2 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 11:27am Today, 7/22/2011--there are 613 views of this thread--and it was only initially posted yesterday! Really, is that correct?! Wow!
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snowdude

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #3 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 1:41pm

thanks that made quite a bit of progress, however I am still running into problems, it now starts the image fine and gets to about 25% and then asks for the next image span. Here is my autoexec.bat:

Code:


@echo off
set path=C:\;C:\Ghost
SET TZ=GHO+08:00
if exist MOUSE.COM MOUSE.COM
echo Loading Ghost...
\ghost\ghost.exe -clone,mode=load,src=C:\V2.071511.gho,dst=2 -sure

I have tried this same autoexec with -auto -quiet -rb added to the switches, what am I doing wrong?

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snowdude

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #4 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 3:23pm

I tried changing the switches to -rb -batch to get it to reboot afterwards and it gets to the same about 25% and goes back to dos and shows "ABORT: 651, Unable to locate next span. Operation aborted at user request."

How do I get ghost to automatically locate the next spans like it does when you image it normally? I direct its source to the .gho file, I tried renaming this to Base.gho then the spans to Base001.ghs Base002.ghs etc, I've tried them in a folder as well as on the root of the flash drive. What am I missing?

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Brian

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #5 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 5:29pm

@

snowdude

I've seen several errors. Anywhere between 30 to 80%. Error 546, Memory allocation error, ?

My image is only 700 MB so it's not spanned. It restores if it's on a HD but not on the flash drive. I've tried about six times. Maybe Ghost needs to run in a ramdrive with more memory but I'm just guessing.

I just tried a manual restore of the image on the flash drive. It succeeded.
I tried an auto restore without a mouse or any switches and it succeeded. I had to answer "Yes" twice.
I tried an auto restore with a mouse but no switches. It failed at 10% with a Memory allocation error.

Can you try a restore without a mouse or switches?

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Brian

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	Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help Reply #6 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 5:47pm Another auto success with no mouse and no switches.
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snowdude

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #7 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 6:42pm

Ok so I just kicked off a restore without a mouse driver loaded and without switches, so far so good, however I have no way of getting away with smaller images, the current image I am testing with is 8.2gb and its not our smallest. As far as I understand this means there is no way to get around spanning when the image is that large. If I can maybe that would fix the problem? The autorestore with no mouse and no switches still asks for the next image span which is currently no better then when I had the switches and mouse. I am leaving the office for the day and will not be back til Monday and will be unable work on this until then. I will be back on this forum Monday and testing again. Thanks for your help Brian, if your around on Monday I'd appreciate some more help.

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Brian

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	Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help Reply #8 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 6:50pm @ snowdude What method have you been using that has proved successful on the clients' computers? Edit... I tried running ghost.exe in a ramdrive but the auto restore failed. If you have the flash drive formatted as NTFS can you have a non spanned .gho?
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snowdude

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #9 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 8:36pm

So far we have successfully restored tons of computers using a seperate network with a server and client computers that we boot off of ghost boot disks set up for pc-dos using ghost boot wizard. The image files are located on the server, spanned, which is where i got the image that i copied onto the flash drive. We also have successfully booted off of the same ghost boot disk with a flash drive containing just the image needed plugged into the computer and manually select the image .gho file. Doing it this way we still never have to deal with choosing the next span.

As for the flash drive, ghost boot wizard seems to automatically format the drive as FAT without an option to change that. If you know how to create a bootable flash drive in NTFS format that works I would be happy to give that a shot on Monday, also, is there any way to combine spanned images into a single image or would I have to image a computer with that image, and then create a new image of that computer with settings to not span the image?

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	Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help Reply #10 - Jul 22^nd, 2011 at 9:40pm I must have been half asleep when I made the suggestion about NTFS. Did you say you can do this, manually? Boot from a Ghost disk and restore an image on a separate flash drive? Can that be automated? Having the image on the Ghost boot disk seems to be our problem.
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Brian

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #11 - Jul 23^rd, 2011 at 1:29am

@

snowdude

I think I've nailed it. This works every-time and it's four times faster than DOS ghost on my test computer.

Use a WinPE USB flash drive with ghost32.exe. Have the ghost script run automatically on startup. On completion of the restore, the client will need to manually shutdown the WinPE otherwise another restore would take place if the computer restarted with the USB flash drive still present.

I used this script..

Code:

set path=F:\user_files\brian
start ghost32 -clone,mode=load,src=F:\user_files\test.gho,dst=1 -sure

You must use the correct drive letter for the USB flash drive.

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Brian

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	Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help Reply #12 - Jul 23^rd, 2011 at 5:36pm @ NightOwl Quote: there are 613 views of this thread--and it was only initially posted yesterday! It seems too large for the short period of time.
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NightOwl

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #13 - Jul 24^th, 2011 at 10:14am

@

snowdude

This thread appears to be a *moving target*--the test parameters keep changing! I understand that when testing and trying to resolve a problem, we change what we have tried previously. But, we here in cyberspace can not *see* all the changes you have made--so we are at a distinct disadvantage in trying to figure out what's going on!

Why did I say the above?

In you original post:

Quote:

I then plugged that into my computer and created a folder called Base which contains my image files, inside that folder is 5 files, Base.gho, Base0001.ghs, Base0002.ghs etc.

and

Quote:

I then plugged that into my computer and created a folder called Base which contains my image files, inside that folder is 5 files, Base.gho, Base0001.ghs, Base0002.ghs etc.

In reply #3--a *new* ghost file name! And, it's 9 characters in length--DOS requires 8 dot 3 formats:

Quote:

src=C:\V2.071511.gho

In reply #4, the *.ghs* file naming has changed:

Quote:

I tried renaming this to Base.gho then the spans to Base001.ghs Base002.ghs etc

Quote:

How do I get ghost to automatically locate the next spans like it does when you image it normally? I direct its source to the .gho file, I tried renaming this to Base.gho then the spans to Base001.ghs Base002.ghs etc, I've tried them in a folder as well as on the root of the flash drive. What am I missing?

You might be interested in the results found in this thread: Asking for next span file

Did you rename the files so they do not follow Ghost's naming convention for spanned files? Does this help with Ghost finding the next spanned file correctly?

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NightOwl

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Re: USB Automated Ghost Need Help
Reply #14 - Jul 24^th, 2011 at 10:29am

@

Brian

Quote:

I tried an auto restore with a mouse but no switches. It failed at 10% with a Memory allocation error.

Can you try a restore without a mouse or switches?

and:

Quote:

I tried an auto restore without a mouse or any switches and it succeeded.

Interesting! I've not personally run into this issue before when I have loaded a mouse driver.

Any chance you still have the *config.sys* and *autoexec.bat* files you used that generated this problem?

What DOS mouse driver are you using--there are any number of them out there?

Is the mouse a PS/1 serial port, or USB type? Does the system have *legacy USB support* enabled if a USB mouse?

Quote:

I tried an auto restore without a mouse or any switches and it succeeded. I had to answer "Yes" twice.

The *-sure* switch should eliminate the need to answer *Yes* twice--but, having to answer *Yes* twice may only apply to Ghost 2003--Corporate Ghost may behave differently--not entirely sure about that, however.

But, if it is an *automated* procedure, then loading a DOS mouse driver should be unnecessary!

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