[I.M.O.G.]

This is for creating a USB drive that boots into WinPE and loads ghost32.exe (from symantec), which allows you to backup disk images and drop saved images onto drives. I've used these instructions with version 11.5 of the Symantec Ghost program for a while, and its useful if you are testing different OSes or benchmarking on different OSes.


1) Open the Ghost Boot Wizard from the Program Menu.
2) Choose a PreOS (WinPe) Click Next.
3) Choose the Standard Boot Package. Click Next.
4) Leave boxes unchecked in the 'Additional Services' window. Click Next.
5) Add any Ghost switches in the 'Client Type' window. Click Next.
6) Leave boxes unchecked in the 'External Storage Support' window. Click Next.
7) Choose USB Disk in the 'Destination Drive' window. The device should populate the 'Available Devices' field. Click Next.
8) Click Next to view the Summary.
9) Clicking Next will overwrite any data that is on the thumb drive and create a bootable USB thumb drive that contains Ghost

Reference: http://www.symantec.com/business/sup...7&locale=en_US

[thideras]

Any idea how to do this a virtual machine where we don't have access to the hypervisor to pass through a USB drive? I'm new to our help desk here and no one seems to have access to it. I can have it create an ISO, but it isn't valid. We are currently using our only copy of the previous system admin's boot disk, but I fear that it won't work on newer computers because it will be missing the driver.

Either way, I'm going to try and get a written suggestion for CloneZilla instead. It takes me 1.5 hours to restore a 14gb (~5gb after compression) image with Ghost and it takes CloneZilla 290 seconds with the exact same image.

[I.M.O.G.]

Part of the slowness problem you are seeing in ghost is likely the environment Ghost is running within. My instructions above suggested WinPE, as it has more advanced hardware support than PCDOS, which is commonly used by many still - it will be slower.

Not sure about your virtual machine issue however - on the VM's I've worked with in past lives, we'd duplicate VM's using VMware tools, so imaging wasn't necessary. Similar to imaging, just different.

[thideras]

Just found out talking with another tech that we are not using the Ghost bootable environment, but something else. Basically, disregard my posts here.

Regarding the virtual machine, that is the server that is running in one that we don't have access to. The boxes are standalone desktop HP6000's.

[I.M.O.G.]

By the way, regarding performance - I was getting about 1000MB/min going from HDD to SSD during the image backup process, going from SSD to SSD I was getting about 2500-3000MB/min.

[thideras]

I wish I could get anywhere near those numbers. It will start at 200 mb/min and drop to 60-80. It is pretty horrible.

[c627627]

How do you tell what the transfer rate is during the imaging process?


And also my notes on this topic:
Everything below can be done from Windows 7/Vista DOS prompt. [Windows XP DOS prompt cannot be used for this].


So either just use Windows 7 DOS prompt or boot with Norton Ghost Symantec Recovery Disk CD > Analyze > Open Command Shell Window >
• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk #
[of USB Flash drive]
• clean
• create partition primary
• select partition 1
• active
• format fs=NTFS quick
• assign
• exit

Then you just simply copy the contents of the Norton Ghost Symantec Recovery Disk (bootable CD):
Analyze > Explore My Computer


Bootable Norton Ghost CD iso is required to do this, you can't just use the Norton Ghost Windows install program.

Make sure the USB Flash Drive is formatted to the NTFS file system because the boot process will not work with FAT32 file system.



There is also this freeware
http://sourceforge.net/projects/unet...3.exe/download

and it may or may not work with Norton Ghost. I found it to work with 8GB or smaller USB Flash drives but had some problems with 16GB or larger USB drives. I did have success using method 1 above with a 32GB USB Flash drive.


To make a bootbale USB Flash drive out of a bootable Norton Ghost CD ISO file:
Format the USB Flash drive to NTFS (since UNetbootin will not work with FAT formatted USB Flash drives) > Start UNetbootin > Leave Distribution unselected >
SELECT: Diskimage ISO and browse to the ISO file > SELECT the USB drive letter > OK > Exit

Delete AUTORUN.INF from the USB drive as antivirus programs now intercept AUTORUN.INF files.


If you cannot format the USB Flash Drive to NTFS format, then Format it to FAT32 and then go to DOS and if your USB Flash Drive has a drive letter B:, use this DOS command: CONVERT B: /FS:NTFS

[TempliNocturnus]

Originally Posted by thideras

Any idea how to do this a virtual machine where we don't have access to the hypervisor to pass through a USB drive? I'm new to our help desk here and no one seems to have access to it. I can have it create an ISO, but it isn't valid. We are currently using our only copy of the previous system admin's boot disk, but I fear that it won't work on newer computers because it will be missing the driver.

Either way, I'm going to try and get a written suggestion for CloneZilla instead. It takes me 1.5 hours to restore a 14gb (~5gb after compression) image with Ghost and it takes CloneZilla 290 seconds with the exact same image.

I use a Plop boot manager ISO to boot to USB drives. It'll work as long as you can connect the USB drive to you VM.

[I.M.O.G.]

C627627: In the version I'm using, speed is clearly marked. I picked this video because the soundtrack is hilarious and you can see the speed very clearly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzVCgq-sd8

[c627627]

I see. Using Norton Ghost 15 to create an image from within Windows on a multi boot, it does not display the speed but I used a stop watch:

Restored 10GB out of a 5.47 compressed file: Calculating 20 seconds, then 1 minute 40 seconds once it started to completion.


Creating the same file:
Calculating 1 minute 59 seconds
Actually performing the operation: 3 minutes 42 seconds
Completes and displays that the elapsed time was 5 minutes 31 seconds.

from 7200 RPM HD to SSD.


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