Symantec Ghost 11.5 restore from network location

your boot CD needs to support the NIC card on the PC. How did you create the image? How would you like to restore the image, USB or Network. If you are doing Network then Ghostcasting is an option

I am looking at your idea of the USB key although will need to order a larger capacity one. As for the image created, it was created in Ghost Console and sent to the RAID device. I have succesfully loaded this image onto several laptops which we send out for charity use in Malawi. I no longer have access to Ghost Console but do have a disk entitled Ghost Boot CD which was made at the time. I would like to wipe clean the drive on the laptop and restore the image from the external drive.

Install Symantec Ghost (Standard Tools) on your computer.  You will need to run GhostServer (GhostSrv.exe) either on your PC or or on the server you stored the image. In the last case just copy GhostSrv.exe to the server and run it. Check-out the documentation how to use it. You will need at least to define the name of the session, image to restore and number of clients you want to deploy at the same time.

With Ghost Boot Wizard create WinPE bootable USB key (it has the fastest bootup time and supports most of NICs).

I believe to wipe HDD and then re-image it is overkill but in the case if it's dictated by your rules, copy gdisk32.exe to USB (Ghost Boot Wizard prompts you for the additional files you would like to save to USB). To wipe HDD use command GDISK32 disk# /QWIPE

You bootup the target PC with USB then start ghost32 and select GhostCast as a method of deployment (suggest you select Unicast if you deploy up to 3 PC at a time).
Then enter the name of the session GhostCast server accepts connections on, select the target disk and partition. Once you confirm to go with reimaging (and if the number of clients you set on GhostCast server reached) the imaging will start.

Hope it helps.

Thanks, can I use Ghost 10.0 for this installation as I dont have 11.5 anymore.

Probably it has no WinPE / ability create USB keys.

Just go to the Symantec website and download the new Ghost Solutions Suite 2.5 Trial. Trial will give you everything and only limits the use of ghost console, which you won't be using.
This way you will be able to create the latest and the best boot disk / boot flash drive with the latest drivers. The latest ghost supports much more veriety of NIC's then any other pervious version.

You might also put the image on a bootable external USB hard drive.

I hope this helps !

I have downloaded 2.5 trial. I have created a boot disk using standard settings. It still doesnt offer a path to the network where the image is located. Do you know of a good walkthrough where I can see what settings to apply when creating the boot disk? Thanks

Any reason why you don't want to use GhostCast server for image deployment?
It's much faster (if you deploy multiple computers) and easier to implement.
Otherwise you need to include a full-blown Microsoft network client on a bootable media in order to access network shares.

I no longer need image deployment just to restore one image to one pc.

The quickest option would been either use GhostCast server or just copy the image to external USB hard-drive (the last must be connected to the target PC BEFORE you bootup PC with Gost bootable disk/usb key).

Hope it helps

Yes I agree but at the time I just made a Ghost Boot Disk hoping that would suffice as the image is reasonably large. I will see if I can get the image on to a usb key if not I still need to know how to make a boot disk which will include network locations in it's search

It's only possible if you will create PC-DOS based bootable media.
Then you will get an option for creating Drive Mapping Boot Package (like on the attached screenshot). It implies that your network card either in the list of the supported NICs or you have NDIS driver for your network card. BootWizard will prompt you to enter the username / password / domain to in order to connect to the network shares.

Clipboard01.jpg

Again, my point is that GhostCast server is the easiest and the most reliable option you have.

How big is your Image, and where is it located?

Out of interest the new cd from the trial software will only open images made within the trial. I bought the USB key and copied the image. Ghost got halfway through restoring it and then asked for the rest of the image! This of course isnt there as the whole image was on the key. So of course it crashed. I have now resinstalled from start the loing way round! Thanks for all your efforts through and points awarded.