Imaging with Ghost
Imaging with Ghost |
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| The University of Findlay's College of Education | |
Creating Boot Disks
There are several types of boot disks that can be used for imaging. The type of disk you will create is determined by the method you use to image the computers.
The imaging process can only work at the DOS level. In this way, the hard drive of the machine being manipulated has no open files or file locks. In order to make the imaging process work, everything has to be accomplished at the DOS prompt. This includes mounting a CD ROM or connecting across the LAN to a server.
CD Boot Disk
If the image is on a CD, you will need a boot disk that loads the DOS version of the CD driver. An original Windows 98 boot disk (the one that comes with Windows 98) should be able to boot your computer and make the CD ROM drive available. If you don't have a Windows 98 boot disk available, you can find one at
Boot from the floppy disk, and change your directory to the CD ROM drive. It is important to put everything you will need on the CD when you burn the CD. Along with the image, make sure the imaging client software (with supporting files) is on the CD. Running everything from one floppy disk might not be possible. Having to include the imaging client software on the floppy might require more space than the floppy can hold.
Imaging from a CD is very fast. Depending on the speed of your CD ROM drive, you should be able to transfer 100 MB per minute or more. The down side to using a CD is the limit on the size of the image. A CD can only hold 700 MB of information. It is possible to split an image across multiple CD's, but that can become a hassle when the images are large enough that they require four or five CD's.
LAN Boot Disk
All of the imaging tools used in this workshop have a program that automates (some more than others) the process of creating a LAN boot disk. Before you begin to use the built-in tool to create the disks, you will need a DOS device driver for your network interface card (NIC). If your computer has a popular NIC, the driver may be included in the tool used to create the boot disks. The only way to determine this is to fire up the LAN disk creation tool and check the list of available NIC drivers. If the NIC isn't included, you will need the driver. Most NIC's come with a driver disk. If you don't have a driver disk, a good on-line source for drivers is
It will be easier to create the boot disks if you have a DHCP server on your network. Otherwise, unique IP number information will have to be included with each boot disk.
Use the imaging software tool to create your LAN boot disk. You may be asked for a default username, password, domain and share. If you supply all this information, the software tool (depending on the product being used) will automate everything right down to the mapping of a network drive to the drive letter you specify. Most of the boot disk tools will create a bootable floppy using either DR DOS or IBM DOS. Some of the imaging utilities let you specify that you already have a bootable floppy disk, and only add the imaging software to the floppy.
If you plan to image multiple machines at the same time over the LAN, make sure each machine has a unique boot disk. The boot disk has an INI file that contains a COMPUTER NAME that is assigned to the machine during the boot process. On a LAN no two machines can have the same Computer Name. If you copy the LAN boot disk, edit the SYSTEM.INI file and make sure each floppy disk has a unique computer name.
Place the image and the imaging client software on the server in a share that is available to the network. Boot from the LAN floppy disk, and connect to the share with the imaging software and image files. Run the imaging client from the server and proceed with restoring the image from the server.
The speed of the imaging process is dependent on the network speed. The process will take ten times as long on a 10 Mb network as compared with a 100 Mb connection. Also, moving an image across a network will use a tremendous amount of bandwidth. You may want to do this kind of imaging during off hours. On a shared network (one without switches), one image will pretty much kill all the bandwidth for the duration of the imaging process.
If an imaging program supports multi-casting, the same tool that is used to create a LAN boot disk can be used to create a multi-cast boot disk (and select the multi-cast option). Multi-cast disks vary from program to program. Some require each disk to be unique while others permit the same disk to be used by all machines participating in the multi-cast. See your program's documentation for details. It will be easier to create the boot disks if you have a DHCP server on your network. Otherwise, unique IP number information will have to be included with each boot disk.
Image From a Second Partition
If your computer has two hard drives (or one hard drive with multiple partitions), an image file can be placed on a second partition and restored from there. To re-image a machine like this, you will only need a standard boot floppy (no network or CD drivers). Make sure that the image and imaging client software are located on the second partition. Any time the computer needs to be re-imaged, run the client software from the second partition and replace what is on the main partition of the computer.