Using Ghost 2003 on SATA to set up multiple exact model systems
OK...Here goes.
I have been able, in the past with PATA drives, to set up one system with all the software needed and simply create a ghost image of the drive for later use when more systems come in for setup. It works perfectly. Now, however, I am unable to do so with SATA on the newer systems I am getting.
I use Ghost 2003 on Windows XP on an IDE only MB with a SATA add-in card. The drives are recognised just fine and creating the image works fine. When I go to restore the image to the next hard drive, it is successful.
I place that hard drive into an identical system model (example. Dell Optiplex GX280 or GX620) and the system acts like it is going to boot normally; however, I get just a cursor flashing in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It's almost like there is an issue with the boot partition.
If I take the drive out of the system and connect it to (what I call my Image System), I can read it and it looks to have all the files from the drive where I created the image. I can browse through and see everything right down to desktop shortcuts. I just cannot get the drive to boot when connecting it to an identical system i used to create the image.
Your help is much appreciated. Should I be looking for another software to create these images? Ghost just does it so quickly on both backup and restore, I would hate to lose it.
Thanks!
I have been able, in the past with PATA drives, to set up one system with all the software needed and simply create a ghost image of the drive for later use when more systems come in for setup. It works perfectly. Now, however, I am unable to do so with SATA on the newer systems I am getting.
I use Ghost 2003 on Windows XP on an IDE only MB with a SATA add-in card. The drives are recognised just fine and creating the image works fine. When I go to restore the image to the next hard drive, it is successful.
I place that hard drive into an identical system model (example. Dell Optiplex GX280 or GX620) and the system acts like it is going to boot normally; however, I get just a cursor flashing in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It's almost like there is an issue with the boot partition.
If I take the drive out of the system and connect it to (what I call my Image System), I can read it and it looks to have all the files from the drive where I created the image. I can browse through and see everything right down to desktop shortcuts. I just cannot get the drive to boot when connecting it to an identical system i used to create the image.
Your help is much appreciated. Should I be looking for another software to create these images? Ghost just does it so quickly on both backup and restore, I would hate to lose it.
Thanks!
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This is the Ghost that came with Norton System Works 2003. I thought I remembered being able to Ghost the slimline GX280s and one day it just stopped working. I have since replaced the motherboard in the machine for buldging capacitors with (I think) an identical IDE board with the same SATA card I had on the other board.
I boot to Windows and create the image using the program. Let it run the backup and restart. I also restore the image from Windows. IDE is perfect. SATA won't boot from the imaged drive.
I boot to Windows and create the image using the program. Let it run the backup and restart. I also restore the image from Windows. IDE is perfect. SATA won't boot from the imaged drive.
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So I should be able to boot with the floppy and ghost the drive that I have set up to an image on a storage drive and restore it to another drive for the next system? I will not have an available hard drive to just ghost from drive to drive.
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You can make the boot disk through 2003, right? Here's the overall goal. I want to create a Dell image of every system that comes into my shop so that I can quickly restore a system after backing up a customer's data. The only way to do this is to create an image of every Dell that comes in and have it immediately available. Make sense? The way I was doing it with IDE worked perfectly. It's the SATA I have to overcome.
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Thank you for your help. Have a great one!
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AHCI is not listed in the BIOS.