Norton Ghost images and bootable CDs?

Sep 6, 2002
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I need help with Ghost and how to burn its image files to a bootable CD.

First, I have Ghost 2003 and used "spanning" to create the image files. What I have is one .GHO and one .GHS file. Shouldnt they both be .GHO files? I know the .GHS file is because of spanning, but is this file ok for restoring my backup?

Secondly, I want to burn these files to a bootable CD using Nero but I dont know what settings to use -- specifically the kind of emulation. Do I leave it at the default "1.44 Floppy" or change it to "no emulation"? What do these settings mean? What about other settings?

Thanks!!!!
 

operaghost

Member
Oct 18, 2001
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I always use Ghost to write directly to the CD. Norton can make the first CD bootable by copying a "boot floppy image". You boot up with a floppy and it copies that floppy image to CD #1. I use this all the time.

good luck,

OG
 
Sep 6, 2002
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operaghost, what happens with images that are bigger than one CD can hold? Is the second image also on a bootable CD, or just the first one?

I'd redo the image straight to CD, but my system now has many programs, etc compared to the image I made for a clean system (XP and drivers only).

Does anyone else have any suggestions to burning the image file after being created?
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
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Secondly, I want to burn these files to a bootable CD using Nero but I dont know what settings to use -- specifically the kind of emulation. Do I leave it at the default "1.44 Floppy" or change it to "no emulation"? What do these settings mean? What about other settings?
First, if you are using a bootable floppy disk as the source of your boot image then you do not need to enable the 'expert settings'. Nero will automatically use default settings for the El-Torito bootable CD standard, which should be compatible with just about any system produced within the last few years.

Only if you are using an image file as the source of your boot image data will you need to select the expert settings. If you are using an image file, then just keep the default 'expert settings' for 1.44 floppy emulation, if the image file was created from a bootable floppy disk and is less than 2MB in size then you should be fine.

As for spanning, you should probaby have used the "split" function instead of "span", but it may not be important. It works the same way, but gives you file extensions .GHO for the main image file, then extensions like .001, .002, .003, etc. for the other parts. You can define the size of your image 'chunks' with the 'split' function so that no image file is larger than your media can hold, I do not believe 'span' will allow you to define image size limits, but I don't know for certain, because I just always use 'split'.

Anyway, if you are using a bootable floppy diskette as your boot image, keep a couple things in mind. Anything on that diskette (or image file) will be incorporated into the CD's bootable code or area. So if you have your Ghost executable and license file (.env) on that diskette, it will become part of the CD's bootable code, which will be 'hidden' on the CD.

The boot code is loaded as a drive unto itself, so the boot image of your CD will become drive A: via floppy emulation. Your actual floppy disk drive becomes drive B:

Any CD files that are incorporated into the bootable CD code can be accessed or ran via drive A: without DOS CD-ROM drivers. Any CD files that are not part the bootable CD code cannot be accessed or ran without DOS CD-ROM drivers.

So you could put your system boot files (command.com, io.sys, msdos.sys, et al) on the floppy diskette along with your Ghost executable and license file, and use a batch file like AUTOEXEC.BAT to automatically run Ghost. But once Ghost is running, it cannot access any files on the CD which are not part of the bootable CD code (A: drive) unless you have loaded CD-ROM drivers. You can still access your HDDs or partitions via their logical drive letters (C:, D:, etc.), and your floppy disk drive through B: drive, as though you booted from a floppy diskette.

You could also forego the autoexec.bat and run Ghost manually at the A: prompt by typing ghost or ghostpe (whichever the case may be) and pressing enter. Since the Ghost executable is in the boot area of the CD, it will run, but cannot access any files on the CD which are outside of the boot area without CD-ROM drivers loaded.

Therefore, CD-ROM drivers are a necessity, unless all files you wish to work with are on your HDDs or floppy disk.

Typically, you can fit your system boot files, the Ghost executable, license file (.env), CD-ROM driver, himem.sys and mscdex.exe, and the batch files autoexec.bat and config.sys to load them, all on your floppy diskette. All of these files will then be incorporated into your CD's bootable area and will be hidden.

Ok, so how to create your boot CD...

Make a bootable floppy diskette just as you would if you intended to boot from that floppy diskette, with the appropriate CD-ROM drivers, himem.sys, mscdex.exe, and batch files to load them. You may define the drive letter of your CD drive in the batch files. If E: is the last drive on your system, I'd skip a letter and specify G: for the CD drive letter. Or you can leave this open if you want and the CD driver should automatically choose a free logical letter for you.

You can also add a line to AUTOEXEC.BAT to automatically run Ghost, or you can run it manually at the A: prompt.

Once you've created your bootable floppy diskette and your Ghost image files, fire up Nero and chose CD-ROM (bootable). Keep the default settings for the boot information as I mentioned. Under File options, chose ISO Level 1 or 2, it doesn't really matter in this case as long as you use the 8+3 file name restriction, I use Level 2 all the time and it works fine under DOS, format Mode 1, ISO9660 Character set, Joilet, and no relaxed ISO restrictions since neither is required for a typical Ghost restore CD with only a root directory and one file. Chose Disk At Once as your burn method and 'finalize' CD, then click "new".

In the new compilation window, set the volume label to whatever you want within allowable characters, then simply drag your FIRST Ghost image file into the new compilation window and drop it, then burn the CD. Your subsequent CDs for each image file (#2, #3, etc.) need not be bootable, just burn the Ghost image file onto the CD as you would any other Data CD.

As to whether the .GHO or .GHS image file should be on your bootable CD or the regular data CD, I don't know since I don't use spanning. But it isn't really 'critical' because you can switch CD's to find the right image file.

That's it, your CD is bootable. Remember to change the boot sequence in BIOS to CD-ROM first.
 
Sep 6, 2002
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Thanks for your help tcsenter! That information is thorough!

To answer a few of your questions, I did use the -split=650 command but since its not available in Ghost 2003 the span command was automatically selected. The .GHO file is 665Mb and the .GHS file is 634Mb so I guess the span command kept the sizes suitable for CD burning.

When you say "if the image file was created from a bootable floppy disk and is less than 2MB in size then you should be fine", how is it possible for the image file itself is to be less than 2Mb?

Another potential problem is that the ghost.exe file wont fit on the floppy with the system files, so I had to create a bootable floppy with a separate floppy for the ghost.exe file by itself.

In addition, my bootable floppy doesnt have any of the typical system files; this is probably because WinXP doesnt have MS-DOS so Microsoft didnt bother to give XP proper DOS functionality. I guess I should manually add the system files, so which files should I add? I didnt know that the 1.44 Floppy emulation would use my actual bootable floppy, so I dont know how difficult this is going to be..

Thanks for your help!!
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
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When you say "if the image file was created from a bootable floppy disk and is less than 2MB in size then you should be fine", how is it possible for the image file itself is to be less than 2Mb?
There I was referring to the image file which contains your boot data, like an image of a bootable floppy diskette, not the .GHO/.GHS image file of your HDDs or partitions. You can use as the source of your boot data an actual floppy diskette or an image file of a floppy disk.
Another potential problem is that the ghost.exe file wont fit on the floppy with the system files, so I had to create a bootable floppy with a separate floppy for the ghost.exe file by itself.
Ah, well its fine either way. What you can do is leave the ghost.exe and .env license file OUT of the bootable area. Instead, just drag them into the compilation window in Nero along with your Ghost image file.

To run the Ghost program from this arrangement, you can run it automatically or manually. If you want to do it automatically, you have to specify a drive and path of your CD-ROM in your autoexec.bat, since the Ghost executable in this case is not contained within the boot area of the CD. Remember, anything that is "inside" the boot area of the CD is accessible as A: via floppy emulation because the boot area is treated as a drive unto itself. Anything "outside" the boot area of the CD is not emulated as a floppy and is a different drive letter, which your CD-ROM drivers are responsible for accessing.

If you want to manually run Ghost at the A: prompt in this arrangement, you don't have to bother with any lines in autoexec.bat, just change your prompt to the CD-ROM's drive letter, type ghost then hit enter. Should start up fine.
In addition, my bootable floppy doesnt have any of the typical system files; this is probably because WinXP doesnt have MS-DOS so Microsoft didnt bother to give XP proper DOS functionality. I guess I should manually add the system files, so which files should I add? I didnt know that the 1.44 Floppy emulation would use my actual bootable floppy, so I dont know how difficult this is going to be...
If you want, I can create using WinImage a self-extracting image file of a bootable floppy with DOS system files + everything you need including CD-ROM drivers.

You can download the image file, run it, and it will automatically make a bootable floppy disk. You can then copy your ghost.exe and .env license file to that floppy disk. Its complete. All you need to do is fire up Nero and use that floppy disk as your boot data source when creating your bootable CD-ROM.

If you want to go this route, I will have to know the make/model of your CD-ROM so we don't have to load a half dozen generic CD-ROM drivers. If you are using any mass-storage devices (RAID hardware or PCI-IDE cards), it will complicate things a little because those drivers have to be loaded, too.