I have need to image multiple machines of various types. I purchased Ghost as a reliable product to do so. With Ghost 15, I have been able to use the cold-imaging ability to take images in .v2i formats. When I use an external hard drive, I am able to boot using the Ghost 15 CD and grab the before-mentioned image from a flash drive that I have taken of a machine to successfully image the computer. No problems here.
I have need to put this same Ghost 15 CD on a USB drive that is then bootable the same as an external CD drive would do to the Ghost 15 CD and therefore allow me to follow the exact same process to both take, store, and apply various images to a number of computers.
One thing to note is that I store the images for several different computer types/brands in one location and on a machine that does not, but could, have Ghost 15 installed. In other words, the machines I am applying images to are not ones that I am just trying to do a regular backup on, but rather I am trying to configure a lot of sysprep'd computers.
By the way, I have successfully made a bootable flash drive that works great in every way to the process I want, but then it comes to an error at the end of applying the image and says: "Please provide the location for the service pack files for Microsoft Windows XP - Service Pack 3." Basically, I need to get past this error.
I have need to image multiple machines of various types. I purchased Ghost as a reliable product to do so. With Ghost 15, I have been able to use the cold-imaging ability to take images in .v2i formats. When I use an external hard drive, I am able to boot using the Ghost 15 CD and grab the before-mentioned image from a flash drive that I have taken of a machine to successfully image the computer. No problems here.
I have need to put this same Ghost 15 CD on a USB drive that is then bootable the same as an external CD drive would do to the Ghost 15 CD and therefore allow me to follow the exact same process to both take, store, and apply various images to a number of computers.
One thing to note is that I store the images for several different computer types/brands in one location and on a machine that does not, but could, have Ghost 15 installed. In other words, the machines I am applying images to are not ones that I am just trying to do a regular backup on, but rather I am trying to configure a lot of sysprep'd computers.
By the way, I have successfully made a bootable flash drive that works great in every way to the process I want, but then it comes to an error at the end of applying the image and says: "Please provide the location for the service pack files for Microsoft Windows XP - Service Pack 3." Basically, I need to get past this error.
I haven't seen that error. Have you considered using Ghost Solution Suite 2? I'd expect it to be less expensive on a per license basis than using Ghost 15.
That's definitely an alternative that I will look into. However, I want to get through this error with Ghost 15. It happens when booting off of a USB drive right at the end of the image.
You don't have to read all the pages but basically when the restore gets to 99 or 100% they get an error prompting for the recovery disk and if they click cancel they get an error saying "cannot find the driver database directory"
But they are able to reboot and the image has been restored and everything works.
Except for the different error message, is it the same that is happening here?
When the restore gets to 99 or 100% they get an error prompting for the recovery disk and if they click cancel they get an error saying "cannot find the driver database directory"
But they are able to reboot and the image has been restored and everything works.
Dave
No. It is not the same error. I know because I got that same message when using the CD in an external drive. I don't get that error this time while using my bootable USB, only to "Please provide the location for the service pack files for Microsoft Windows XP - Service Pack 3." That's the exact message as it asks me for a location. By the way, I even tried putting an executable service pack 3 on another drive and browsed to it, but it would not use it.
Are you creating a generic image and applying the image to differing hardware machines? You're cold imaging a syspreped system?
If so, this isn't what Ghost 15 was designed for. Repurposing the images for deploement to multiple machines requires the Restore Anywhere Option available in Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR). As Brian mentioned, Ghost Solution Suite would be the other product that can do this.
Are you creating a generic image and applying the image to differing hardware machines? You're cold imaging a syspreped system?
If so, this isn't what Ghost 15 was designed for. Repurposing the images for deploement to multiple machines requires the Restore Anywhere Option available in Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR). As Brian mentioned, Ghost Solution Suite would be the other product that can do this.
No, I am using and did use cold imaging to both take and apply the image to the exact computer as it was taken from. But yes, they are sysprepped. I am using a USB flash drive I attempted to put the Ghost 15 CD on. It works great except for the fact that it is somehow missing the Service Pack 3 files that it has no problem with when I use the actual CD in an external drive.
So the CD works properly but not the USB flash drive? Could you try booting the Ghost 15 ISO on a Grub4DOS USB flash drive? Maybe that will work better than a standard USB flash drive
So the CD works properly but not the USB flash drive? Could you try booting the Ghost 15 ISO on a Grub4DOS USB flash drive? Maybe that will work better than a standard USB flash drive
Yes, the CD works properly in both taking and applying the image via cold imaging. I am not familiar with Grub4DOS, but from what I can see it is a fix for not being able to boot off of the flash drive in the first place. That, unfortunately, is not my problem at the moment.
Just copy and paste the Ghost ISO you downoaded (or your custom ISO) onto the flash drive. Add it to menu.lst. If it doesn't boot, make sure the file isn't fragmented.
Just copy and paste the Ghost ISO you downoaded (or your custom ISO) onto the flash drive. Add it to menu.lst. If it doesn't boot, make sure the file isn't fragmented.
I did just that. I was able to bring up Ghost 15, but it still came up with the exact same error asking for the Service Pack 3 files. If there was an image option (is there?) I could post a picture to show you exactly what it is. Thanks for the option, I was truthfully hoping it worked!
How are you getting Restore Anywhere to ask for a file? I know images made by Ghost 15 Cold backup say it's allowed, but the recovery wizard does not even to use Restore Anywhere. Is there an option to uncheck it? Since you ran Sysprep, maybe Ghost does not need to know about it.
How did you make your USB flash drive? There must be something different about it than the CD that worked. Did you try both on the same PC? My guess is that it is looking for the drivers it thinks are needed to start Windows.
How are you getting Restore Anywhere to ask for a file? I know images made by Ghost 15 Cold backup say it's allowed, but the recovery wizard does not even to use Restore Anywhere. Is there an option to uncheck it? Since you ran Sysprep, maybe Ghost does not need to know about it.
How did you make your USB flash drive? There must be something different about it than the CD that worked. Did you try both on the same PC? My guess is that it is looking for the drivers it thinks are needed to start Windows.
I personally did not intentionally use "Restore Anywhere" with this. It is via cold imaging and worked fine without "Restore Anywhere" with the external CD. And with that, I am not aware of any option to un-check to get rid of this. I made my USB drive bootable using the HP Utility and I believe by copying over the files directly from my Ghost 15 CD. There were a few methods I used, a number of which were from Symantec Forums as well -- but with each one I obtained this exact same error. And yes, I did try both the bootable USB and the CD on the same machine. The CD works perfect in the external drive, but with the USB I have no luck.
When you are going through the restore wizard is Restore Anywhere checked but grayed out?
I will get back to on that you when I am able to reenact the exact circumstances as I had before with a formatted USB. Thanks for the direction so far.
I was actually able to get back to this a little sooner that anticipated. After walking through to the point where I would initiate the imaging process, the only mention of "Restore Anywhere" is the "Permitted" note as seen at the top of the image application outline. I attached a picture that can hopefully display this.
" icon above the area you type your reply in to insert an image. It will take a little while for the mods to approve it.
