Re: GHOST issues

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Uncle Stewie (whoever_at_whatever.com)
Date: 02/29/04


Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 15:14:54 -0600

Cary,

Ghost is actually a very good product... the only real issue with version 7
of Ghost is that "ghost.exe" is a 16-bit application, and is therefore
subject to the flaws and limitations of DOS. Perhaps if you knew how Ghost
was functioning this would help... Ghost is simply a sector copier... It
captures disk images bit-by-bit sector by sector until the partition or disk
you intended to copy is transferred into a proprietary file format... The
file limitations of DOS are in play here ... maximum file size is 2 GB for
any one file... If your image exceeds 2GB then the image will be spanned
into subsequent files... i.e. if you save an image file as "myserver.gho"...
then the subsequent files would be numbered as "myser001.ghs" (note the GHS
extension)... and so forth... I have had server images that spanned more
than 6 GB and spanned 4 files or more... Ghost knows the sequence of these
files and it will prompt you for the next image file if it cannot find
one... I believe the problem you are having is network related and not Ghost
related... make sure when you are loading the DOS redirectors (network boot
disk), that you can actually create files over the network as that user... a
simple test without changing anything on the boot disk would be to use DOS
console and create a text file over the network...

1) Type "Copy Con myfile.txt" at a network drive command prompt ("R:\")...
2) Then at the prompt type "Test"...
3) Then "CTRL-Z" and "Enter" to exit and save the file...

If the file is created on the network drive then you should not have a
problem writing to the network drive (nor should ghost.exe).

Another issue may be that one of the files is corrupted... Ghost simply
creates disk image files... these files like any other can become
corrupted... This is rare, but on more than one occasion I have had this
happen as well... you should recreate the image if you can...

Finally...

You can recompile captured images in Ghost Console... By recompiling the
image ghost will adjust the size of each file... Default is 2048 mb (2GB)...
You can change this if you want to put the image on CD... (which is another
approach you can use)...

To recompile the image:

1) Open Ghost Console (Ghostexp.exe)...
2) Open the image file by opening "File\Open" and selecting your image (this
will be your first indication whether your image is good or not)...
3) Under "View\Options" set the "Span Split Point" to 690 Mb (so image can
go on CD)...
4) From the file menu select "File\Compile"... this will prompt you for a
new file name... make sure it is differnet and follows the 8.3 DOS format.
5) Copy your first file "NewImage.gho" to the first of your CD set... and
all subsequent files "NewIm001.GHS", "NewIm002.GHS", etc to subsequent CD's.
6) Instead of creating a DOS boot disk... create a Bootable DOS disk that
adds the drivers for your CD drive and run ghost off of the boot disk, with
image on CD...

You can get fancy and create a DOS bootable CD in the same manner, but for
finding out what your issue is this is one approach to see if your problem
is network related...

Good Luck!

Here are some things to try...

1) You can use Ghost Console and place the images on CD... Then install the
images from CD instead of over a network connection...

Stew

"Cary Shultz" <cary90240@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:48d001c3fedb$f7691da0$a101280a@phx.gbl...
> Howdy All!
>
> I know that this is for WIN2000 so please pardon my
> quesion on Ghost ( clearly not a MS product ).
>
> Here is the problem put very quickly: We are using Ghost
> 7.0 and are now having a problem. On the Windows Server
> we are not able to bring down an image to a workstation.
> It gives us a compression error. We are able to create a
> new image but it gives the 'Disk is full - span across
> another volume' question. Disk space is NOT an issue
> here ( some 56GB are avialable )!!!!!
>
> If you like/need, read below for more details.....
>
> My boss likes to use Ghost. I am not such a big fan but
> it is really useful i nthis environment. Has been set up
> for over three years without issue. Novell was part of
> the network and has since been 'shut off'. Copied over
> the images ( *.gho ) from the Novell server to the
> WIN2000 server. Using a Windows network boot disk to
> attach to the server, change directories and then execute
> ghost.exe to bring down the image to the machine.
>
> Not working on the Windows server. Getting the ghost
> compression error ( sorry, do not remember the exact
> error number ). Copied over the images again using the
> appropriate switch to verify and all ran perfectly. Try
> to bring down the image again. Same error. Replaced the
> ghost.exe on the server. Same problem.
>
> Okay. Let's create a new image. Not happening. Getting
> the 'Disk is full - span across another volume?" question
> with the accompanying warning. Click on YES and it
> continues. However, I notice that there are now two
> parts to the image. If I click on NO I get the
> Application Error 10032 Disk is full, cannot continue....
> message.
>
> BTW - same situation if I try to do this on the Novell
> Server ( we simply turn on the Novell Server - the
> Client32 has been removed from all of the client WIN2000
> Pro machines - with the exception of our 'Admin'
> workstation ). Using the Novell network boot disk we are
> indeed able to successfully bring down an existing image
> but are not able to create a new image ( same error as on
> the Windows side ).
>
> We do not have any Disk Quota in place. On the Windows
> Server we have three 36.2BG physical drives configured at
> RAID5 and have some 55.8GB free. On the Novell Server we
> have three 18.2GB physical drives configured in a RAID5
> and have some 7.5BG free.
>
> Thanks all!
>
> Cary
>



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