I have burned numerous CDs and DVDs for the “SRD” Ghost recovery disk. In every one of them, I have either manually entered the license key or use the option to use the product key of the installed product. However, no matter what I do, I always get prompted for the license key when booting from/running the recovery CD. This just plain does not seem to work and contradicts the documentation and user interface. I don’t know if it’s related, but when making the recovery CD, I am using SP1. It prompts to insert the product CD which is not SP1. It appears to copy all the non-SP1 files. Does this cause a problem? Has anyone gotten their burned recovery CD to work right in this regard?
I checked for the license file in \1\Windows\Shell\V2i\ using 7-zip. No such file there. Who knows why? This software is more like alpha. I downloaded SP1 SRD ISO and will try that next. Thank goodness for this community. Thanks!!!
Nope. Still doesn’t work. No license key file and still prompts for product key when using recovery SP1 CD. Still wasting my time and filling up my trash with CDs. Considering how many problems I’ve had with doing such simple operations, I really cannot say I trust this software.
Try to enter the key instead of letting it automatically detect it from the install. Do not burn the SRD to CD. Instead, save as ISO. Now open the ISO file with 7-Zip and go down the tree until you get to boot.wim and finally the V2i folder. Now is the license key file there?
If yes, burn the ISO to CD.
If not, I'm not sure what is going on, but we can use DISM or ImageX to unpack boot.wim, add Licensekey.txt and repack the boot.wim file. What version of Windows are you running? Do you have access to a Windows 7 install CD? If you want to proceed, let me know and I'll post the commands to use.
Nope. The license key is not in the ISO either. I have tried both choosing the one registered on the machine as well as manually entering it. It is always listed on the confirmation screen before burning/creating the ISO, but it is never in the result. What junk! I am running Vista 32-bit, but I have all versions including Windows 7 available as I am a developer/in IT. That’s why I like Ghost (the old one anyways)–because I am always trashing on my PC(s). Your idea of slipping in a Licensekey.txt is interesting as long as I get the exact details (format, case, etc.) I tried slipping a file in using 7-zip, and I only get No such interface supported. If it is simple to try, I’ll give it a go, but honestly, I have given up on this product. It should work out of the box, not after 20 hours of wasting my time. Shame on Symantec. I’ll stick with Ghost 2003. I can’t imagine all the problems I’ll run into doing a restore like others have. The only real reason to stop using Ghost 2003 is it’s DOS-based and won’t boot on my primary Gigabyte motherboard with a SATA BD-ROM. Maybe because it’s using a junk secondary JMicron IDE/SATA controller? (BD SATA is not on that controller–only the IDE DVD.) I just tried Ghost 2003 on a Core i3 machine, and it works fine (except no burn to optical). That’s the same functionality as I might get with Ghost 15, if I can ever get it working. At this point, I am surfing new motherboards as I could build a new machine that works with Ghost 2003 in less time than it takes to debug/hack this product. The community’s support here, though, is impressive!
I have burned numerous CDs and DVDs for the “SRD” Ghost recovery disk. In every one of them, I have either manually entered the license key or use the option to use the product key of the installed product. However, no matter what I do, I always get prompted for the license key when booting from/running the recovery CD. This just plain does not seem to work and contradicts the documentation and user interface. I don’t know if it’s related, but when making the recovery CD, I am using SP1. It prompts to insert the product CD which is not SP1. It appears to copy all the non-SP1 files. Does this cause a problem? Has anyone gotten their burned recovery CD to work right in this regard?
Sorry about your trouble but in all the time I have been here I have never seen a problem with the serial not taking to the CD.
Perhaps you might want to try a un-install and re-install. The service pack mainly deals with copy disk as far as I know, but you'll know right away if the serial number problem was solved.
It could have just been a problem with the install, since it's unable to do that for you it could be causing the driver problems as well because they are also releated to user added files.
Dave
I agree with Dave's uninstall / re-install suggestion. If you manually want to add the licensekey.txt file, here is how to do it using Dism that is available in Windows 7 or on the Windows 7 install disc (sources\Dism.exe). I'm Not sure if it is available in Vista because we don't have any Vista computers here.
Create two folders on the C drive named SRD and MOUNT.
Use 7-Zip to extract NGH1501_AllWin_English_SrdOnly.iso to the SRD folder you created.
You can delete the "[BOOT]" folder that 7-Zip made in there if you want.
Open a command prompt and navigate to the root of C. Without quotes, type "DISM /Mount-Wim /WimFile:SRD\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:MOUNT" [ENTER] (Do not close the command prompt yet.)
This will take a couple of minutes to mount.
When you get the message "The operation completed successfully.", navaigate to C:\MOUNT\Windows\Shell\V2i and create a text file named "licensekey.txt".
Open the file and enter your 16 digit license number without spaces or dashes. Save the file. (The file should be 16 bytes.)
Now close Windows Explorer if it is still open.
At the command prompt, type "DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:MOUNT /commit".
Now from Ghost, create another Custom SRD (ISO) using C:\SRD as the "Symantec Recovery Disk media location". This time say to prompt for license key. (It will copy the licensekey.txt in boot.wim to the new ISO).
NOW is the file there?
Did you ever get this working?