How to use ghost without a floppy?

[BD2003]

I dont have a floppy, but I want to make an image of my drive.

Is this possible? Why cant ghost just let me make a bootable cd?


Also, can you have ghost skip over certain directories (music/movies/media etc...just want the OS and programs)?

 

[Danman]

At school we use Norton Ghost w/o use of the floppy drive. The Compaq computers there just recongize it and ask if you want to boot from CD and that's it.

 

[fastcobra]

You have to have a newer version of ghost to burn to cd from ghost. Or you can just make an image onto some free space on your drive, then burn, but make the cd bootable, and put the ghost exe on the cd too.

 

[BD2003]

So just boot off the systemworks 2002 cd and go for it?

Hmm, that doesnt work, just works for the norton antivirus.

 

[THELAIR]

Im in hte same boat

I have norton ghost 2002. My laptop has a removeable floopy/CD-R bay. You can only have one or the either.

IE: I Can only have the floppy in, and no CD-R or, have the CD-R in and no floppy


What I have done is created a PC DOS boot disk, and booted, but i cant image my system because the system will f&ck up if i remove the floppy to switch the cd-r drive in.

So i dont even want to have to create a floppy disk, but when i load the norton ghost boot disk maker program, i only have the option of drive "A" as to where my floppy is to make the boot disk, why cant i tell ghost ot make the boot disc to drive E:\ my cd-r drive and burn it on there????.

I have Nero 5.5, but i dont know how to use it properly to make a bootable CD. I read the readme file, and created a NEW -> Bootable CD, but it wants an image file. Why cant i just paste the files from the ghost floppy boot disk to the bootable cd window in nero?

its not working

argh

 

[DSTA]

have Nero 5.5, but i dont know how to use it properly to make a bootable CD. I read the readme file, and created a NEW -> Bootable CD, but it wants an image file.

Grab Winimage and make an image of your ghost boot disk. Nero should be happy with that.

Why cant i just paste the files from the ghost floppy boot disk to the bootable cd window in nero?

Problem is that a bootable device also needs some sort of boot record code in order to work. If you try to copy just the files (i.e. no disk to disk copy) from your ghost boot floppy to another blank disk you'll find that the copy will not boot either.

The bootable CD-ROM you want to make will need the boot record code just as well, so the Nero guys thought it would be easiest to ask for the image of a bootable floppy.

 

[BD2003]

Well, I'm using XP, so if I make an MS-DOS boot disk, I wont be able to read the NTFS filesystem.

How the hell do I do this?

Also, noone answered my previous question. Can I select exactly which directories I want to image?

And why the hell can't I do this from within windows?

 

[DSTA]

Well, I'm using XP, so if I make an MS-DOS boot disk, I wont be able to read the NTFS filesystem.

Ghost will "see" your NTFS partition just fine, even when started from a MS-DOS boot cd or floppy that has no access to NTFS.

Also, noone answered my previous question. Can I select exactly which directories I want to image?

I don't think so, not with the Ghost versions I've used so far anyway. Best way to avoid this problem in the future is to put all your data on a separate partition.

And why the hell can't I do this from within windows?

Good question. Because MS think media player, video editing and internet clients are more important OS components than usefull partitioning and backup software?

 

[jbod]

<< I have norton ghost 2002. My laptop has a removeable floopy/CD-R bay. You can only have one or the either. (sic) >>



They make cable that goes from scsi to parallel. That way you can have both the floppy and the cdrom working together.

 

[BD2003]

Can I just back up everything I want with the included XP backup tool, and install a clean version of XP, and then restore everything and have it all perfectly tweaked as I have it now?

 

[THELAIR]

I got mine working

Used WinImage to create a .ima file of the floppy Norton Ghost made for me. I then burned that .ima image file onto a blank CD using Nero with the "make bootable option" and after a couple tries, i finally got it.

Booted up the PC with the "Boot CD Disc" in, and it loaded up and made a 3 CD image of my 2.4 GB current install

Weeee

 

[ILikeSprite]

Just buy a friggen floppy drive.

 

[Mday]

you do not have to boot from a floppy to ghost, unless you are restoring an image onto a blank HDD.

and you can skip over certain directories with the switches, read the manual. it's rather cumbersome. the recent versions of ghost can burn directly onto a CDR, but i highly recommend ghosting to another HDD and then burning it, i find it to be safer.

 

[ILikeSprite]

<< Im in hte same boat

I have norton ghost 2002. My laptop has a removeable floopy/CD-R bay. You can only have one or the either.

IE: I Can only have the floppy in, and no CD-R or, have the CD-R in and no floppy


What I have done is created a PC DOS boot disk, and booted, but i cant image my system because the system will f&ck up if i remove the floppy to switch the cd-r drive in.

So i dont even want to have to create a floppy disk, but when i load the norton ghost boot disk maker program, i only have the option of drive "A" as to where my floppy is to make the boot disk, why cant i tell ghost ot make the boot disc to drive E:\ my cd-r drive and burn it on there????.

I have Nero 5.5, but i dont know how to use it properly to make a bootable CD. I read the readme file, and created a NEW -> Bootable CD, but it wants an image file. Why cant i just paste the files from the ghost floppy boot disk to the bootable cd window in nero?

its not working

argh >>



Create a ramdrive and copy the cddrivers onto that once you boot with the floppy then put your laptop into suspend mode and put in the cdrom. Then just load the drivers from the ram drive. That is what I did with my laptop.

 

[Harvey]

If you copy GHOST.EXE to a CD and set your system to boot from CDR, you will also have to include a CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT that enables the CDR in DOS mode, as well as MSCDEX.EXE and a driver for your CDR. Since Ghost also uses a mouse, you should also include a DOS mouse driver.

Assuming your CDR is drive D:|, CONFIG.SYS should include:

DEVICE=D:<driver-name>.SYS /D:MSCD001

AUTOEXEC.BAT should include:

D:\MSCDEX MSCDEX /E /D:MSCD001
D:\MOUSE (assuming that is the name of your DOS mouse driver)

 

[CovertCow]

<<
Grab Winimage and make an image of your ghost boot disk. Nero should be happy with that. >>



How would this be possible if I don't have a ghost boot disk? I can't create one with the wizard because it will only let me copy the files to a floppy.

 

[SuperSix]

A better question..

How do you post in the correct forum? Hmmm??

 

[DSTA]

How would this be possible if I don't have a ghost boot disk? I can't create one with the wizard because it will only let me copy the files to a floppy.

Eh, I was assuming Ghost still ships with a floppy. Quite possible that it does not. But that's no problem thanks to Bootdisk.com. They have links to a nice selection of bootdisk images ready to be used with winimage.

...and you can skip over certain directories with the switches, read the manual...

Doh, I should have RTFMed a long time ago . Thanks for the hint, "-skip=x" is the paramter.

 

[CovertCow]

www.bootdisk.com is down right now. Thanks for the idea, I'll check again tomorrow.