Hi Rad, Christer, NightOwl, El_Pescador!!!!
so glad you are still here!! 

roxe

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Hey--I remember you!  It's been awhile....but, always glad to welcome a member back to talk about Ghost, imaging, computing, etc..

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Hmmm...that seems to be a *loaded* statement--dare I ask?  Or, just leave it as is?

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It always makes me smile how a poster on a forum can condense a *simple* question down to such a short one line statement--but, the response could produce *reams* of replies and other questions! 

So here the questions come!

*the earliest version of Ghost*  You mention Ghost 2003--does your question want to know if Ghost 2002, or Ghost 2001 can be used with Win7?  Or, are we going the other direction--Ghost 14, or Ghost 15?

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I forget, were (are) you using Ghost 2003 from bootable media that you boot to DOS, and perform your imaging from there?  Or, are you installing the Windows Ghost 2003 interface, and doing your imaging by setting up the procedure within Windows, and allowing Ghost to close down Windows, perform the imaging, and then re-boot to Windows?

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So, have you taken the *special* steps to prevent Win7 from doing its default installation that creates the special boot partition (the SRP) in addition to the OS partition.

And, if you wish to use Ghost 2003 without using special settings, one needs to *generalize* the boot files so the boot process does not look for a specific HDD ID number, but instead just looks for the boot *device*.  Ghost 2003 will erase the HDD ID number by default, and that will prevent Win7 from booting without doing a *boot repair* to fix that problem (by using the Win7 installation CD to do the repair).  Or, you can use special Ghost switches to prevent Ghost 2003 from erasing the HDD ID number when restoring an image.

Christer wrote on Sep 18^th, 2013 at 2:01am:

There have been a number of different threads--I suspect this is the one Christer is referring to:

Ghost 2003 strategy for Windows 7

To help with searching, here are some other links that might offer additional help and reading to further your quest:

Windows 7 and SRP    

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions!     (Dan Goodell's explains why SRP exists!)  Quoting:  "The rub is that BitLocker is only available in the Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows 7.  So for 99% of us, BitLocker isn't an option--and thus isn't a legitimate excuse to saddle us with a System Reserved partition.")

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions!       (Brian explains how to remove SRP--apparently have to use Vista or Part PE, Bing, and Win7 installation CD do make boot repairs!)

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions!--Reply #42   (Brian outlines how to remove SRP (or Dell's Recovery Partition)--using only BING--Not Win7 installation CD)

Ghost + Windows 7 Questions!--Reply #49
(Brian re-states the outline for removing the SRP (or Dell's Recovery Partition)--Using only BING!)


Win7--Installing without 100 MB Partition from Win7 Installation CD:

How to Prevent Windows 7 from Creating a Hidden /Recovery /System Reserved Partition during Installation

Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7

roxe

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Short answer:  http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsd/g/disk-signature.htm

Longer answer (scroll down to the *Disk identity* section):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

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Well, are you starting Ghost manually from the A:\ prompt after booting to DOS?  Do you simply type *ghost.exe* to start Ghost?  If *Yes* and *Yes*, then you just add a Ghost *switch* to that command line that you are typing to start Ghost.  So type:

Code:

ghost.exe /fdsp

or 

ghost.exe -fdsp 

There's a space after *ghost.exe*, and you can use either */* or *-* to indicate to the Ghost command line that what follows is a *switch*.

The *-fdsp*--I don't know for sure what the *f* stands for, but the *dsp* stands for *disk signature preserve*.  Probably do not have to use that switch when creating the image file, but definitely need it when doing a restore of an image file (if using Ghost 2003 with Win7 that requires use of the -fdsp switch, I would probably use it every time I start Ghost just to be sure)--Ghost 2003's default behavior is to erase the disk signature when restoring a *whole disk* image to a HDD (the disk signature is not erased if you are just restoring a partition to the disk).  The Ghost people added that as a safety measure so folks could not clone a system disk (disk to disk, or image to disk) on a system where both HDDs would still be connected upon next re-boot to Windows.  Because Windows now *remembers* drive letter assignments in the registry which persists from one boot to the next, if two HDDs are on the system that have *identical* disk signatures--basically all hell breaks loose, and it's any body's guess what drive letters are assigned to what HDD--actually probably depends on which drive is seen as the first physical HDD.  But the results are not pretty.  Most people can not recover unless they have a current image file so they can restore that to the main HDD, and start over.

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NightOwl wrote on Sep 18^th, 2013 at 9:32am:

Are we talking about an existing Win7 installation?  Does it have the special boot partition, the SRP (System Reserve Partition)?

The files that need to be modified are the Win7 boot files--not any of the Ghost 2003 files.  Once you *generalize* the Win7 boot files, then you would no longer have to worry about using the *-fdsp* switch.

If the SRP exists, then the whole system is dependent on the SRP for booting properly--so Ghost imaging requires that both the SRP and the OS partition be backed up in case of HDD failure.  And both have to be restored for successful booting.

In my previous post, there are references as to how to install Win7 so as to avoid having an SRP created.  Or, you can remove the SRP and modify the Win7 installation so all the boot files are placed in the Win7 OS partition.  This make creating and restoring Ghost 2003 image files easier--you no longer have to worry about backing up and restoring both the SRP and the OS partitions.  It's now like using Ghost 2003 on a WinXP system!

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We can get into the details once we know what your starting point is. 

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force disk signature preserve

Most of the switches and their respective function are listed in Switches: Alphabetical list of switches

roxe

roxe wrote on Sep 19^th, 2013 at 11:46am:

So, you have to swap out HDDs in order to boot to Win7 on your laptop?

Where do you save Ghost image files when doing a Ghost image creation?

So, I'm assuming your *extra hdd* was already partitioned before you installed Win7, and you chose to install it in that existing partition--is that accurate?

Just to confirm--have you gone to *Disk Management* for the Win7 system, and there is only one partition (drive) listed in Disk Management, and/or if you have booted to DOS and started Ghost, the Win7 HDD shows only one partition in the Ghost interface if you select to create an image using partition to image?

I'm trying to pin that information down *for sure*--because some of the instructions for *generalizing* the Win7 boot file depends on the answers.

I have several projects that I have to work on for the next couple days--so I may be slow to post the steps you need to do, but they are coming.......

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Yes, I have 4 -  2.5" hdds... one for the internet with xp pro; one for doing audio and video with xp pro; one for w7pro; last one for my ghost images from the first three.
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see answer #1... last line. I use a little sata usb adapter to hook it up to my laptop... have no problems with imaging to or from with it... so far
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yes, I partitioned the entire drive into two partitions... one primary and one extended/logical... so the entire drive was partitioned and formatted before installing w7pro into the primary active partition.
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didn't need to... after installing w7pro, I just booted into the system... w7pro is on the primary drive, and the extended/logical is empty.
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that's OK... better safe than sorry...

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It's been a week since installing... patience is a virtue... I'm pretty sure I can wait for your info

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BTW....
Since burning the ghost floppy files onto CD, I have been able to image both to and from with many different configurations... partitions being larger than, smaller than, on a logical drive, on a 2.5 to 3.5 and 3.5 to 2.5, SSD to SATA and back, SATA to IDE and back. It doesn't seem to matter what I try, it takes it and works (except for w7pro)! All the target drives are in the machine and the sources are connected by USB cable.

Maybe I'm just lucky...

Right from the start I have always partitioned my drives before installing the OSs... except for W7... the first time I let it do it's own thing... didn't like what I saw - found out it could be installed into one partition and from then on, have put it into one.

I probably should put all my OSs onto one drive... but haven't found a boot program -  or manually -  that would boot them the way I want them booted... which is -- whichever OS I choose would be the ONLY OS showing when it's booted... none of the other OSs would show being on the rest of the drive. I would have one logical drive to put all the docs and stuff taken from the OS drives (like the bookmarks etc for Firefox) and when each OS is booted only that primary partition and the logical would show up.

And want to use images to put the 3 OSs on the drive...

I'd like to have two of XPpro and one of w7pro... and one logical for "stuff" from all 3 OSs...
that way, I could just hook up a hdd by USB for all the docs, video, audio, etc and wouldn't need to swap out drives.

Is there a way to *manually* do something like that?
(step by step)

Brian,

Thanks for the link... I saw that yesterday but don't want to spend $$ to modify boot files if I don't have to...
I'd really like to learn the hands-on method...

thanks again