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Ghosting multiple computers over a network


DysfunktinaL

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Hey there guys. I am hoping you can help me out with a problem I am having right now.

I work at an internet cafe, and I we are deploying a new login system for the whole shop. We already have a computer set up with everything on it, and I am trying to ghost another computer to test everything out. We are hoping to have the whole shop up and running tommorow with the new system. The dilema is this... None of the computers on the floor have floppy drives in them. I am having one hell of a time getting a bootable CD to run the ghost program.

Does anyone have an idea that will help me out here? So far I have the following done, and in progress:

Found a program that will let me make an image of a floppy, that can be burned onto a CD using Roxio easy CD creator. However, Roxio doesn't have a demo version available to make the CD. I am having to resort to downloading a copy off bittorrent. As far as I can tell, Roxio is the only program that will let me burn the CD the way it needs to be burned to make everything work.

Any ideas on an alternative meathod?

The next problem is this. I am using Norton Ghost 2003. I can get everything set up for a peer to peer clone, and that is fine for the test I need to run, however if everything is working fine, I need to ghost the other 44 machines we have. I used to work as a tech at my old high school doing this exact thing, but I can't remember what version of Ghost we used. The way it worked for me in the past, is I would log into a computer using the network admin, and run Ghost. Then go by each station and pop in the boot disk, then the computers would connect to ghost and wait for the file transfer to begin. I could get as many computers hooked into it as I needed, and then distribute the image over the entire network at once to every computer. Does anyone know what version of Ghost this is, or what tool I need to get to make this happen.

And the last question I have is this. We are trying to be able to ghost without making an image, so basicly we would be doing a Clone over the network, instead of ghosting from an image on a network server.

Any help here would be IMMENSLY appreciated. Thanks alot.

Matt

DysfunktinaL(at)gmail(dot)com

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Yeah, I know. All of our computers, save for 2 of them have the exact same hardware set-ups, down to the case.

The 2 that are not the same are the newest comps we have. The plan for those 2 is to Ghost them, and before rebooting putting in the windows disk and re-installing windows, then restoring the HKEY_USERS registry directory from the original computer.

Think that will work? Any thoughts?

Edited by DysfunktinaL
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The easy way and 100% sure that it will work it's to use Image for Windows

Create a backup image of the boot (system) partition (disk) from the computer which it's set up and use the disk(s) you created to restore on all other comps It will take like 30min per comp to finish the job

So if you'll use 1,2,3...copys(s) of the disk(s) created with Image for Windows you can set up 2,3..or more comps in the same time!

Don't forget tu install PHYLock before using Image for Windows to make a image of the bootpartition(disk)!

Or you can share the backup image and try to boot other comps with BootIt™ NG and then restore the image over the network(this i haven't done yet so you'll have to read the help file for BootIt™ NG )

Edited by Mercury_22
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Okay, so I managed to get a working bootable CD using a few programs, including Roxio Easy CD Creator 6 and a tool to make an image of a floppy.

However, now I am trying to make my disk image. I set up a shared folder on a local machine, gave full access to everyone, and mapped it as a network drive. Then went to create the image, and I go through the wizard, and when I click the last button that should reboot the system and crate the image, I get an error message stating: "norton ghost error: general exception" and a txt is created in the mapped network drive.

The following is the contents of the txt file:

GhostStart Error File

Version: 2003.775

Processor exception

Generated at E:\2003\src\Trunk\Win32\HardExceptionHandlerWin32.cpp:268

Program Call Stack

Call Stack

Address Frame Logical Addr Module

0x00000000004a04d9 0x000000000012c190 0x0001:0x000000000009f4d9 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004a2957 0x000000000012c1cc 0x0001:0x00000000000a1957 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x000000000049f0fd 0x000000000012c49c 0x0001:0x000000000009e0fd C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004a652b 0x000000000012c4b4 0x0001:0x00000000000a552b C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004a655d 0x000000000012c4e8 0x0001:0x00000000000a555d C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x000000000042f7b2 0x000000000012c5cc 0x0001:0x000000000002e7b2 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x0000000000407c5b 0x000000000012c624 0x0001:0x0000000000006c5b C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x0000000000443ce0 0x000000000012c694 0x0001:0x0000000000042ce0 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004ed72b 0x000000000012c6a8 0x0001:0x00000000000ec72b C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004df24d 0x000000000012c728 0x0001:0x00000000000de24d C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004df1d2 0x000000000012c748 0x0001:0x00000000000de1d2 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004de238 0x000000000012c7a8 0x0001:0x00000000000dd238 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004de440 0x000000000012c7c4 0x0001:0x00000000000dd440 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012c7f0 GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d48816 0x000000000012c858 GetDC+0x000000000000014f

0x0000000077d4b89b 0x000000000012c894 GetParent+0x000000000000016c

0x0000000077d4b903 0x000000000012c8b4 SendMessageW+0x0000000000000049

0x00000000773eaaa3 0x000000000012c94c Ordinal414+0x0000000000000adc

0x00000000773eb0eb 0x000000000012c988 Ordinal342+0x0000000000000057

0x00000000773d8856 0x000000000012c9b4 CreatePropertySheetPageA+0x0000000000000969

0x00000000773dc181 0x000000000012c9d8 Ordinal164+0x000000000000269e

0x00000000773dc6f8 0x000000000012ca50 Ordinal164+0x0000000000002c15

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012ca7c GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d5418d 0x000000000012cae8 PrivateExtractIconExW+0x00000000000002b2

0x0000000077d53fd9 0x000000000012cb30 PrivateExtractIconExW+0x00000000000000fe

0x0000000077d6e571 0x000000000012cb4c DefDlgProcA+0x0000000000000022

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012cb78 GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d48816 0x000000000012cbe0 GetDC+0x000000000000014f

0x0000000077d4c63f 0x000000000012cc10 IsWindowUnicode+0x00000000000000a1

0x0000000077d4e905 0x000000000012cc30 CallWindowProcA+0x000000000000001b

0x00000000004dec28 0x000000000012cc50 0x0001:0x00000000000ddc28 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004df1e9 0x000000000012cc6c 0x0001:0x00000000000de1e9 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004de238 0x000000000012cccc 0x0001:0x00000000000dd238 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x00000000004de440 0x000000000012cce8 0x0001:0x00000000000dd440 C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012cd14 GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d48816 0x000000000012cd7c GetDC+0x000000000000014f

0x0000000077d4b89b 0x000000000012cdb8 GetParent+0x000000000000016c

0x0000000077d4b903 0x000000000012cdd8 SendMessageW+0x0000000000000049

0x00000000773f6ff6 0x000000000012cdf8 Ordinal384+0x000000000000b1cc

0x00000000773f70d8 0x000000000012ce14 Ordinal384+0x000000000000b2ae

0x00000000773f93dd 0x000000000012cea4 Ordinal384+0x000000000000d5b3

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012ced0 GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d48816 0x000000000012cf38 GetDC+0x000000000000014f

0x0000000077d4c63f 0x000000000012cf68 IsWindowUnicode+0x00000000000000a1

0x0000000077d4c665 0x000000000012cf88 CallWindowProcW+0x000000000000001b

0x00000000773e1aeb 0x000000000012cfa4 Ordinal11+0x0000000000000328

0x00000000773e1e3e 0x000000000012d000 RemoveWindowSubclass+0x000000000000017e

0x00000000773e2000 0x000000000012d024 DefSubclassProc+0x0000000000000046

0x00000000773d86ec 0x000000000012d040 CreatePropertySheetPageA+0x00000000000007ff

0x00000000773e1e3e 0x000000000012d09c RemoveWindowSubclass+0x000000000000017e

0x00000000773e2063 0x000000000012d0f0 DefSubclassProc+0x00000000000000a9

0x0000000077d48734 0x000000000012d11c GetDC+0x000000000000006d

0x0000000077d48816 0x000000000012d184 GetDC+0x000000000000014f

0x0000000077d489cd 0x000000000012d1e4 GetWindowLongW+0x0000000000000127

0x0000000077d48a10 0x000000000012d1f4 DispatchMessageW+0x000000000000000f

0x0000000077d5e097 0x000000000012d218 IsDialogMessageW+0x00000000000000db

0x0000000077d6c6ab 0x000000000012d238 IsDialogMessageA+0x000000000000004a

0x00000000004e111b 0x000000000056edf0 0x0001:0x00000000000e011b C:\Program Files\Symantec\Norton Ghost 2003\GhostStart.exe

End Call Stack

Exception code: 0xc0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Registers:

EAX=0x0012c1a8 CS=0x001b EIP=0x00000202 EFLGS=0x00010246

EBX=0x00000000 SS=0x0023 ESP=0x0056edf8 EBP=0x000201c0

ECX=0x00000000 DS=0x0023 ESI=0x0012c5bc FS=0x003b

EDX=0x00566b48 ES=0x0023 EDI=0x00c04068 GS=0x0000

Jesus this is really p***ing me off.

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You could try Drive image XML to create the image and use BartPE to deploy it. Check out the Drive Image XML homepage and there is a link for a guide to create an image. you also have the option of storing the image on a HD, and I believe you could deploy it from there.

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Thanks for the help guys. I am still working on it. 150g takes a while when I am trying all these different programs do to this.

So far I am at this point:

Using Image for Windows to create the disk image. Almost done with the most recent try. We hade an image done earlyer, but steam put out a huge update, and we wanted to have the most up to date copys on the image to avoid a 30 minute update the first time anyone trys to run steam after the dist.

The question I have now, is how to distribute the image onto the comps. Windows Image runs inside of windows, but if you try to restore the image while windows is loading, since it isn't an image of the original computer, won't windows blue screen at a certain point? We would also need to format the drives wouldn't we? So wouldn't that mean formating and re-installing windows on each system, and then copying the image? And if that was the case, it would probably be faster to just copy the Program files folder from the original computer, and then export the HKEY_USERS, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG, and then enter the registry settings on the computers? I mean, it seems faster then waiting 3 hours to restore an image. It would only take an hour or so to copy the folders over, and like 3 seconds to import the regisrty. Hell, it would proabably be a good idea to put the regisrty files in the startup so that every time the computers re-boot all the settings get set back to the image default.

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You know, for like 70 bucks you can buy Ghost 10. It boots from its own CD and it will install a Ghost 2003 image without a problem. You can copy the disc a few times and run multiple images at the same time. I used to do the exact same thing in a school that you did and I used (I think) Ghost 5.1. But that version isn't NTFS friendly. Your best bet is to go to OfficeMax and buy a new copy OR Clone the drives 1 at a time on your test machine. Just remember to change the Name and IP address(If Static) BEFORE you boot them to the network.

Best of Luck and let me know if I can help you in some other way.

Dr.Who

And Yes, I do look ALOT like Gordon Freeman!

hehe

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