Saving Ghost Image

Question

Dell Inspiron 700m. I'm about to nuke the default XP Home installation and start fresh using XP home setup CD from Dell. Before I do that, I'd like to save the ghost image from the 4GB (hidden) partition to another machine/CD/DVD. I have ghost 8. Has anyone done it successfully?

I tried booting from CD, run Ghost (DOS mode). I can see 2 large files (2GB and 1GB). I suppose those 2 files are the only ones I need to restore the image. Am I right?

jmwills · Answer

Why not just extract the discs from the partition?

rj1127 · Answer

How do I do that? I'm trying to copy those 2 large files to another location. I'll make a bootable DVD containing those images.

dg1261 · Answer

See www.goodells.net/dellrestore.  Boot from a real-DOS boot disk, run ptedit, use it to change the 'type' of the dellrestore partition from 'DB' to '0C'.  Now reboot into your existing XP and it will assign the dellrestore partition a drive letter.  Once it does that, just access the two files (*.gho and *.ghs) like any other files, burn them to DVD.  Also save recover.exe from the dellrestore partition--that's the utility to restore the image file when the time comes.  (You can use Ghost 2003 if you have it.  If not, then make sure you save recover.exe.) Dan Goodell

rj1127 · Answer

Excellent. I'll give it a shot. Thanks Dan.

rj1127 · Answer

Yup, that did it. I got the 2 image files (.GHO and .GHS). Total size is approximately 3GB. Now I'd like to make a (Win98) bootable DVD with the above 2 files + RECOVER.EXE and I'm missing one more thing, CDRW/DVD-ROM DOS driver to enable CD/DVD drive so I can read the content.

Does anyone know where I can get a DOS driver for my CDRW/DVD-ROM? The model number is TS-L462C (CD drive removed to see the model #).

Thanks again for your help.

rj1127 · Answer

@jmwills wrote:
Good, I have bookmarked Dan's link for reference.

That link was already given by rickmktg on the (sticky) thread subj: No XP CD - Click Here. It's an excellent site. Great Work Dan!

If you just want to enable the partition, follow Dan's instruction on this thread. You'll need PTEDIT to change the partition type. Upon reboot, the recovery partition is accessible. Cool.

Now I'm stuck because I can't find a driver to enable my CD/DVD in DOS mode. That's all I need before I start burning the image to DVD. If anyone knows a generic driver, please post it. Thanks.

Message Edited by rj1127 on 08-05-2005 11:49 PM

jmwills · Answer

Good, I have bookmarked Dan's link for reference.

jmwills · Answer

YOu have to be specific with the NIC driver and search Symantec for any updated images.

rj1127 · Answer

hellooooo.... i'm talking about CD driver, NOT NIC driver. What does Symantec have anything to do with it?

jmwills · Answer

Before you start being so RUDE, maybe you should look and see who actually makes the software, DUDE, it's SYMANTEC.  I,m out of this thread.  Too many other nice people need and appreciate help.

dg1261 · Answer

'Does anyone know where I can get a DOS driver for my CDRW/DVD-ROM? The model number is TS-L462C (CD drive removed to see the model #).' Are you saying the generic Win98 driver doesn't work?  While it is possible it wouldn't work, that would be rare. If you haven't done so already, try a Win98 boot floppy--either make a 'Startup Disk' on a Win98 machine, or download the file to make one from www.bootdisk.com.  You'll need to create the floppy on any machine that has a floppy drive, then use that floppy as the source image when creating a bootable CD.  Create a test CD on a RW disk and see if the floppy-less machine will boot from it and give you access to the CD (via a different drive letter). BTW, if you're going to roll your own, you'll want to add a DOS mouse driver to your boot disk.  There are plenty of generic ones floating around, or grab mouse.exe from the restore partition.

rj1127 · Answer

jmwills,None of your responses in this thread is helpful, sorry. I do appreciate your taking some time to post useless info. No, I don't have any questions about Symantec Ghost, I'm fine with recover.exe in Dell recovery partition and I don't need any updates. Umm.. I know they make Ghost :smileywink: dg1261,yeah, I use generic Win98 CD/DVD driver and it does enable my CD/DVD drive. Btw, I can work with the keyboard while in the Recovery window. There isn't anything much to select other than Source, Destination. Keyboard Tab, Arrow Up/Down and Enter keys are all I need :-) I now have a bootable DVD with the image files. Thanks for your help.

dg1261 · Answer

'Btw, I can work with the keyboard while in the Recovery window. There isn't anything much to select other than Source, Destination. Keyboard Tab, Arrow Up/Down and Enter keys are all I need :-)' Yeah, that works.  Too many people nowadays seem lost if they can't use their mouse.  Glad to hear you're not one of them.

farmer70acre · Answer

how can I do this with acronis? I don't undersatnd some of the info on http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/  I would like to be able to format the drive and make new partitions and still be able to put the dell content back on the c drive.. and also have the extra partions remain... I asked on the acronis forum and they said it can't be done. You have to restore all or nothing??? Has anyone done this succefully even after deleting the restore partition? Thanks for the help

rickmktg · Answer

@farmer70acre wrote:

how can I do this with acronis? I don't undersatnd some of the info on http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/

I would like to be able to format the drive and make new partitions and still be able to put the dell content back on the c drive.. and also have the extra partions remain... I asked on the acronis forum and they said it can't be done. You have to restore all or nothing??? Has anyone done this succefully even after deleting the restore partition?

Thanks for the help

You cannot use Acronis to restore an image created with Ghost to my knowledge...

Windows General

Saving Ghost Image

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