Ghost from DVD's
A client is developing a piece of hardware to potentially sell to the U.S. Military...That piece of hardware is attached via USB to a Dell laptop...The Dell is sold along with the hardware to the Military...
A custom application has been developed to control this piece of hardware...this is the only application installed on the laptop...
Laptop runs XP Pro, SP2 with all criticals...
The U.S. Military had a 32 page guide book on how to "harden" the OS for their use...most modifications were in gpedit.msc...
That little project took me about 6 hours to accomplish...but that's another story...:)
Now that I have the laptop fully configured, I made a Ghost image of that laptop and it is stored on a server shared drive...
That image is 4.8 Gb is size...slightly larger than one DVD...
Now I want to develope a bootable DVD (or DVD's) that holds the holds the image so that the Tech Sargent in the middle of the dessert can re-image the laptop should it be necessary...
I would like this "re-image" DVD to operate as closely as possible to the Dell, (and other) types of re-imaging CD's...
It needs to be as automated as possible, with some type of "progress" indicator so that the user knows what is supposed to be happenning is actually working...I cannot assume that the person operating the laptop with the attached device is computer literate...
In other words, in a dead laptop, I want to be able to insert the DVD and shortly thereafter have the OS up and running again...
I don't think the DVD player in the Dell laptop is capable of reading the new double layer DVD's, so this will either have to be a bootable CD and then a DVD to follow, or 2 DVD's...
Been reading various posts on EE the last couple days, been to Barts page and some others, built Barts bootable CD, but have not built his PE yet...
I have Ghost 2003 to work with...
At this moment I am burning a CD-RW (my test "dvd") with the bootable W98 files, made an autoexec.bat file and going to put a Ghost DOS executable on and see if this will work...
But I need ideas, thoughts, etc on how to make this work...
Thanx
steve
A custom application has been developed to control this piece of hardware...this is the only application installed on the laptop...
Laptop runs XP Pro, SP2 with all criticals...
The U.S. Military had a 32 page guide book on how to "harden" the OS for their use...most modifications were in gpedit.msc...
That little project took me about 6 hours to accomplish...but that's another story...:)
Now that I have the laptop fully configured, I made a Ghost image of that laptop and it is stored on a server shared drive...
That image is 4.8 Gb is size...slightly larger than one DVD...
Now I want to develope a bootable DVD (or DVD's) that holds the holds the image so that the Tech Sargent in the middle of the dessert can re-image the laptop should it be necessary...
I would like this "re-image" DVD to operate as closely as possible to the Dell, (and other) types of re-imaging CD's...
It needs to be as automated as possible, with some type of "progress" indicator so that the user knows what is supposed to be happenning is actually working...I cannot assume that the person operating the laptop with the attached device is computer literate...
In other words, in a dead laptop, I want to be able to insert the DVD and shortly thereafter have the OS up and running again...
I don't think the DVD player in the Dell laptop is capable of reading the new double layer DVD's, so this will either have to be a bootable CD and then a DVD to follow, or 2 DVD's...
Been reading various posts on EE the last couple days, been to Barts page and some others, built Barts bootable CD, but have not built his PE yet...
I have Ghost 2003 to work with...
At this moment I am burning a CD-RW (my test "dvd") with the bootable W98 files, made an autoexec.bat file and going to put a Ghost DOS executable on and see if this will work...
But I need ideas, thoughts, etc on how to make this work...
Thanx
steve
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SOLUTION
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SOLUTION
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...just caught your later question... :)
ASKER
Hi all...
Thanx for the ideas...
Some comments...
The DVD on the laptop is NOT a burner...combo DVD player and CDRW...
Am trying to get under about 4Gb in size so ghost will fit on one DVD...
I also have this related question on EE...considering some kind of "hotkey" if possible to ghost from a second partition...
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21201122/Hot-Key-ghost-restore-from-2ed-partition.html
If I go the DVD ghost route, I am forced into a situation where I will have to ghost the laptop to a server share, then burn DVD's from that share...
Right now there are 10 laptops to do, and if this project works, there may be quite a few more...
Continueing to learn, test, and ask questions :)
Will post back
Steve
Thanx for the ideas...
Some comments...
The DVD on the laptop is NOT a burner...combo DVD player and CDRW...
Am trying to get under about 4Gb in size so ghost will fit on one DVD...
I also have this related question on EE...considering some kind of "hotkey" if possible to ghost from a second partition...
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21201122/Hot-Key-ghost-restore-from-2ed-partition.html
If I go the DVD ghost route, I am forced into a situation where I will have to ghost the laptop to a server share, then burn DVD's from that share...
Right now there are 10 laptops to do, and if this project works, there may be quite a few more...
Continueing to learn, test, and ask questions :)
Will post back
Steve
Connect an external USB dvd burner to laptop for ghosting. Today they come cheap and once you have finished with the rollout of the laptops you will be happy to use it for other purposes.
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Vladonator, you don't need to do that all by hand. Ghost has options with which it makes the cd onto which it makes the image bootable, and adds ghost.
You can also use the span option which results in the image being split if it is larger than the CD would be.
You can also use the span option which results in the image being split if it is larger than the CD would be.
Rindi, I cannot comment on how well ghost create's a bootable image for you, I have never used it.
Been using the above for the last 4 years. Maybe I should buy a new copy of ghost and check it out :)
Stevem5000 was asking for different ideas, maybe my solution will suit him...
Been using the above for the last 4 years. Maybe I should buy a new copy of ghost and check it out :)
Stevem5000 was asking for different ideas, maybe my solution will suit him...
vladonator;
Its a good idea...
:)
Cyber
Its a good idea...
:)
Cyber
ASKER
Thanx to everyone for the great ideas...
Even though I am not going to use any of your suggestions...I'm gonna divide up the points, I hope, fairly...
This is what we are going to do:
http://xpoint.com/en/OBR/MobileUsers_solutions.asp
This program creates a "restore partition" like the IBM laptops use...if you need to restore, just hit F11 during bootup and that's it...
For the problem at hand, this seemed like the best solution for potentially non-computer types that might be working with it...
Thanx again
Steve
Even though I am not going to use any of your suggestions...I'm gonna divide up the points, I hope, fairly...
This is what we are going to do:
http://xpoint.com/en/OBR/MobileUsers_solutions.asp
This program creates a "restore partition" like the IBM laptops use...if you need to restore, just hit F11 during bootup and that's it...
For the problem at hand, this seemed like the best solution for potentially non-computer types that might be working with it...
Thanx again
Steve
REad your comments and the following discussions ,I thing if a hard disk is going to fail then thats it u r stuck unless u have a spare one in your pocket.
so a second partion whith the ghost image on will do u no good ,i think u realy need to
create a dvd bootable :seems the safest way to me or why not just use linux move it and tailor the laptop to function with that
that way u dont need a hard disk just carry a 64mb usb stick which will hold config data and u r up and running.
so a second partion whith the ghost image on will do u no good ,i think u realy need to
create a dvd bootable :seems the safest way to me or why not just use linux move it and tailor the laptop to function with that
that way u dont need a hard disk just carry a 64mb usb stick which will hold config data and u r up and running.
hi guys
need help.
using Ghost to back up my laptop (Fujitsu / Siemens Amilo 7440)
HAVE a DVD burner, but when in DOS i cann only burn CD and NOT DVD.
any help ???
need help.
using Ghost to back up my laptop (Fujitsu / Siemens Amilo 7440)
HAVE a DVD burner, but when in DOS i cann only burn CD and NOT DVD.
any help ???
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