Newbie at Ghost...what is a spanned image file

DeadSeaSquirrels

Senior member
Jul 30, 2001
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I am somewhat of a newbie at Ghost. Well a real newbie, I've only done it once. Now I am Ghosting my GF's computer (really mine), but she doesn't have a CD-ROM drive so I had to Ghost the image over a mapped network drive to my computer. I was hoping then that I would be able to burn it to a CD or something. But after doing it, I got two files. One is called a "Ghost Spanned Image File" and the other one is the "Ghost Image File." The "Ghost Image File" is 1.99GB, and the spanned image file is a mere 108MB. So what is this spanned image file, and how do I use it. But more importantly is there a way for me to put this image on a Ghost Bootable CDROM at this point? Is there a utility that Ghost provides to do something like that. I must imagine that a lot of people do something like this...namely giant networks...can somebody give me a heads up. Thanks in advance.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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The spanned image file is a continuation of the Ghost file. That is how it handles things when the CDR is full. It is analogous to a bunch of spanned floppies used during the old DOS backup days.

When you restore using Ghost, it should tell you when to insert the 2nd CDR.
 

Heisenberg

Lifer
Dec 21, 2001
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Ghost defaults to 2 gigs for each file. If you want smaller files that will fit on CD's you need to pass it an option when you run it.
Do 'ghost.exe -split=650 -auto' for example to make each file 650 megs. The '-auto' just tells it to automatically name the files instead of prompting for a name each time.

Edit: I didn't mean you should ghost the whole thing over again. Just so you'd know for future reference.
 

Sid59

Lifer
Sep 2, 2002
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you already have the ghost image, don't do it again. Use Ghost Explorer and put togther your image. Then use it again to split the images into CD sized chunks.
 

Sid59

Lifer
Sep 2, 2002
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Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
ah...Ghost Explorer, so that is what it is good for...thanks Sid59, now I just have to figure out how that works.

to gather the ghost together ..

load the smaller ghost file and click File > Compile

to split ghost image

load the image
View Options > set file size
 

DeadSeaSquirrels

Senior member
Jul 30, 2001
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Ok now that I have separate ghost images, and spanned images all smaller than 640MB, how do I burn them properly. Do I just burn them as data files, or image files? Do I have to do it through Ghost or can I do it in Nero?
 

Heisenberg

Lifer
Dec 21, 2001
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Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
Ok now that I have separate ghost images, and spanned images all smaller than 640MB, how do I burn them properly. Do I just burn them as data files, or image files? Do I have to do it through Ghost or can I do it in Nero?

Just burn them as normal data files through Nero. You might want to stick ghost on the first one and make it bootable so you can boot from the CD and then ghost from it.
 

DeadSeaSquirrels

Senior member
Jul 30, 2001
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how do I just stick Ghost on it...just pull over the .exe file? Are there supporting files I need? Or is this an option to put Ghost on it as well?
 

Sid59

Lifer
Sep 2, 2002
11,879
3
81
i took the first ghost image, ghost.exe, and boot 1.44 emulation onto a data disc. then, burned data discs for the remaining ghost images.