Hi...

Maybe this is a system problem, or maybe a software problem, I am not sure. I am having troubles using Ghost -- I just started trying to use it and have not yet been successful in completing an image. I hope someone has an answer to this problem:

I put backups on my D drive -- a 30GB HD. In multiple tries, neither Drive Image nor Ghost would write an image of my 10GB C drive to D. Both programs aborted the process and claimed there was not enough room on D, even though Windows Explorer showed there was ‘way more than enough room left to hold the image. I then formatted D using Partition Magic, and now D will accept a Drive Image image, but Ghost still aborts. When it aborts I get a notice that D is full, and then that the file allocation table is bad (though I have no trouble accessing files if I put some on D).

Does anyone have an idea what is going on here, or how to fix it? Ghost always aborts after writing about 2,147,461,041 bytes, so could this have something to do with the 2.1GB partition size limitations for DOS? Is it possible I don't have some switch set right in Ghost? How do I repair my file allocation table if it is bad -- shouldn't that have been taken care of when I recently formatted D? I have tried to read up about this but haven't found the right information yet...

Thanks!

edelran

When saving image files, Ghost will only save image files up to 2GB in size. If more "room" is needed Ghost will span the image across several files. ( of course with newer versions of Ghost this may no longer be true.)

Also Ghost uses DOS, so make sure that the version of DOS you boot your computer with can "see" the size of your partition correctly. (IE: use the windows 98 startup disk.)


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif




[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 02-15-2002).]

Also have you checked that the images you have made are OK? If not go to options and tab down to check image file. If there is an error in the file this will tell you.

GH
Thanks for the info. I use Ghost 5c and didnot know about size restriction. With Xp I am just about that size

------------------
Ernie

Thank you both for your responses. The Ghost documentation, though lengthy, is obscure and misses some main points. I refer those with Ghost questions to a site I just found: http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm
which has a good third-party user guide. In short: for the problem I outlined, when Ghost starts in DOS, be sure to choose Options and then Auto Name, and you won't have the problem I had. Ghost is a good program -- once you know its ins and outs.

edelran

Thanks for the link edelran http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Take a look at the command line switches if you get a chance. I like using them better than the "options" menu.

Interesting that your version of Ghost doesn't prompt you for a file name when spanning files. (I always use the "autoname" and "size" command line switches because I run Ghost unattended and don't want it to stop late at night when I'm not around.) I wonder if that's a bug with your version??

Anyway, glad you fixed your problem.



[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 02-20-2002).]

Thanks for the tips, GH!

I'd like to use the command line switches as you suggest, but unfortunately I am completely DOS-illiterate. For instance, the User Manual lists the switches, but says "In the Ghost dirctory, type one of the following", giving examples. But I do not know how to navigate in DOS and get lost. Is setting command line switches something that can be explained in a forum like this, or too complicated?

Thanks,

edelran

Adding to my own reply above, here is my situation, and recent bafflement:

Using Ghost 2002 personal edition, I want to make an image of my OS partition, which is the first partition of C, and place the image on my 3rd hard drive, E. Not knowing DOS, I use the Options and set only the Auto Name switch, which should (I thought)see that the imaging can run unattended and create proper file(s) on my destination drive for the ~8GB I need to image. However, lately the imaging halts at the 2364MB point, warning "Not Enough Room on Drive E". I even formatted E, a 30GB HD -- so the warning is wrong. I presume this has something to do with the DOS 2GB limits, but I thought Auto Name was all that was needed to proceed? Obviously not...

Any feedback, including specific instructions about how to set command line switches (For Dummies!) if needed, will be appreciated! Sorry I don't know DOS...

edelran

Working with Ghost commands is easy. Just place your "ghost" exe file on a floppy. This will get rid of having to navigate to it's directory. (But if you need to navigate in DOS use the "CD" command. Example "cd c:\ghost" would take me to a directory called Ghost on my C drive. If you need to list the contents of a directory use the "DIR" command. Example "dir /w/p" would list the contents of the directory you're currently in. The "/w/p" switches cause the listed output to be displayed in columes for easy reading and also for the display to be paused if the information is to large to display on the screen all at once. If you need to move up one level in the directory tree use the "cd.." command. So if you where in the C:\ghost\hacker directory and typed "cd.." you would end up in the C:\ghost directory. )


Ghost commands are always seperated by a comma. So if you wanted to autoname Ghost image files and limit their size to 600MB ,for instance, you would type this at the command line. (using Ghost personel edition)


ghostpe -auto,split=600

After Ghost opens just choose the rest of your settings (drive location, file name, etc, etc, ) as you normally would.

When Ghost has finished you'll have several image files of 600MB each ,that you could then burn to CD. When you go to restore this image Ghost will prompt you to insert the next CD when needed.

Hope this helps http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif




[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 02-22-2002).]

Sir GH,

Thank you for the DOS tutelage! If it's not too much trouble, could you help me set up an automated image process, if that can be done. Could you string together for me (so I don't screw it up) the commands that will make an image of my ~8GB First Partition of C and place it on E? This is what I would do each time I make an image.

Is this set of commands something I can put on a floppy and have it run automatically without going through the Ghost settings each time? How would I do this -- i.e., how would I write the commands to a floppy and be able to simply stick the floppy into its drive, hit Boot and walk away, coming back to a completed job. I am hoping to do this at least once a week and the automation would save a lot of steps. Norton just doesn't give enough info in their manual to make this clear to me.

Thanks!

edelran

I can't give you the exact wording because I don't know how your computer is setup. However, I can give you an example that, with a little editing and further research on your own, should work. ( never just type in the commands someone else has given you unless you understand first what those commands do,especialy if the person giving them to you has a nick like "Ghost_Hacker" . http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif )


OK...First create your Windows 98 boot disk and place ghostpe.exe on the disk. Now open the disk in Windows and look for the autoexec.bat file. If it isn't there, then simply create it. Now in our example I have a 8GB "C" drive and a 32GB "D" drive both drives are FAT32 and are on the same hard drive. So, in other words the "C" drive is partition 1 on disk 1 and the "D" drive is partition 2 on disk 1. (this is important to know as Ghost needs this information in order to know where the drive or partition to "ghost" is and where to copy it if your doing a "copy" operation.) OK, I want to "ghost" the "C" drive and leave an image file of it on the "D" drive.The file will be 1.5GB in size and ,if need, any spanned files will be automatically named.To do this I will edit the autoexec.bat file to included the following lines.


cd a:\
ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=d:\image.gho-auto-size=1500


(note: I just noticed that I said before that command line switches in ghost are seperated by a comma. This is wrong. Command line options are seperated by a comma, switches are seperated by "-" or "/".I don't usually think about it and so didn't notice till I typed the command above.)

Ok, lets look at how the command breaks down. First the "clone" switch is need to automatically start Ghost and run it. The clone options in the above line are "mode" which in this case says to do a partition dump to a file, "SRC" which states that the partition to dump is the first one on the first hard drive, and "DST" which says to create an image file called "image.gho" on drive "D". The "auto" and "size" switches tell Ghost to automatically name spanned files and to limit their size to 1.5GB.


Don't forget to take a look at the command line switches in your manual as there are more options to them then I have mentioned.


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 02-22-2002).]

GH,

Whew, your exposition is so clear that even I can follow it. I have a hangup though: the startup disk I have made has too much written to it to allow adding ghostpe. Present content=1.22MB, and ghostpe is 633,688. Presumably not all on my disk is needed for our Ghost purpose, but I do not know what to keep and what to discard (and probably shouldn't list the 26 files here).

Is it easy for you to tell me what I need on this disk to make a Ghost disk that will run commands similar to your previous post? Or would it be easier for me to run the Ghost Boot Wizard and get a boot disk that way, then edit the autoexec.bat of that disk with my new commands?

Finally, boy there is a lot of stuff in the Startup Disk autoexec.bat. The final several lines look like this:

:QUIT
echo To get help, type HELP and press ENTER.
echo.
rem clean up environment variables
set CDROM=
set LglDrv=

Can I simply add the lines as you suggested (suitably modified) at the end of this autoexec.bat and the computer will move right on to the Ghost operations?

Thanks,

edelran

Proably the best way to get around the startup disk's limited space is to place Ghostpe on your "D" drive. (again using my example) Then change the line,

cd a:\ to cd d:\

This will accomplish the same thing.


Can I simply add the lines as you suggested (suitably modified) at the end of this autoexec.bat and the computer will move right on to the Ghost operations?


Yes, that's why the command cd placed before the ghost command is important. It tells DOS where it should be before it runs the next line.

GH, thanks a lot for the advice! I'll post back here if I run into trouble...

edelran

Ran into trouble.

Here is the operative line I wrote to autoexec.bat:

ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=e:\image.gho-auto-size=1500

The Problems:

1. The loading process aborted, saying it expected a ',' or 'null' after the extension 'gho'. I repositioned the '-auto-size=1500' to right after '-clone' but the process choked again (a different warning I neglected to write down).

2. My user manual for Ghost 2002 PE doesn't list a '-size' switch, but lists '-sze' and says it is for setting the size for the destination partitions for either a disk load or disk copy, which doesn't sound like my application.

A bit confused, I wrote this to autoexec.bat:

ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=e:\image.gho

and after starting the program with that, I set the Auto Name and Spanning switches via Options, and saved the options. This generated a ghost.ini file with those switches set (NSW -- NumbSkullWorkaround) and the resulting boot disk runs Ghost in the mode I desire.

I guess the only question left is, somewhere in the process Ghost asks if I want to proceed with the partition dump -- the only required interaction left at this point. Is there a way to automate this interaction so I can stick in the floppy and walk away?

Thanks for any comments.

edelran

Ok.. first your command line should be edited to look like this.

ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=e:\image.gho -auto -split=1500 -sure

Notice the space between the switches. that should fix your "null" error. (the program expects a "space" or other delimter between the switches.)


The "sze" function is an option of the clone switch. The switch you want is split not size ( which is my mistake http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif )


To not be "prompted" try the -sure switch at the very end of the command line.( don't forget that "space" between it and the "split" switch.) Note the "sure" switch may not work with GhostPE.


Good Luck http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 02-27-2002).]

Thanks for the update, GH. Guess I had missed it about the needed spaces. So I will try it anew. Now taking what you wrote:

ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=e:\image.gho -auto -split=1500 -sure

If I don't care to split into a particular size, am I right I can use this:

ghostpe -clone,MODE=pdump,SRC=1:1,DST=e:\image.gho -auto -span -sure

and the resulting files from my ~10GB partition will end up around 2-plusGB each?

phenarius

Yes, the span option should create several 2GB image files.

Mr. GH, you have been a wealth of information. I appreciate it.

edelran