Friday, 6 February 2009
Ghosts in the Machine
Despite being an avowed Linux user, I do have occasional need to boot back to Windows for certain things, including iTunes and BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
Every two or three months, I rebuild my Windows XP environment and, for many years, have used Norton/Symantec Ghost 2003. I created a DVD containing a "clean" image of Windows XP SP3, with the most recent set of Windows fixes, AV updates, Firefox/Thunderbird versions etc.
Problem No. 1
For some reason, neither one of my 2008 Ghost DVDs would boot ( they were fairly well scratched ) so, after a bit of faffing around, I bit the bullet and performed a brand new installation of XP. This took a while, especially as I needed to download drivers for the Thinkpad T60p etc.
However, after a day or so, I had a nice clean machine, ready to re-image using Ghost.
Now I've been using Ghost 2003 since .... 2003, and am very happy with it - it just works; I can Ghost to a DVD or an external USB drive, and it takes a matter of minutes to backup and restore.
Given that I had some spare USB drive capacity, I decided to use that (a) for a quick backup and (b) for a slightly less error-prone restore.
Problem No. 2
No matter what I did, I was unable to get Ghost to write to any one of my three USB drives. In one case, I got a General Protection Fault in Ghost ( wow, back to the '80s ), in two other cases, Ghost just failed to find the drives, despite me selecting USB 2.0.
As with most situations, I decided to go Google, and found this document: -
Updates to Norton Ghost 2003
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2002102509582825?Open&docid=2000101617144125&nsf=on-technology.nsf&view=docid
which includes a bunch of updates, including some USB fixes.
It's my assumption that Microsoft and/or Lenovo have updated their USB 2.0 drivers and support since 2003, meaning that Ghost could no longer cope.
The aforementioned Symantec document was very helpful, and pointed me to a set of archived updates for their products: -
How to obtain the programs updates that are archived on Symantec LiveUpdate server
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2007010219171513
In conclusion, I have a clean machine, a nice backup ( and I did backup the backup before you ask ) and have learnt yet another lesson in the wonderful world of IT.
Time for a coffee ...
Every two or three months, I rebuild my Windows XP environment and, for many years, have used Norton/Symantec Ghost 2003. I created a DVD containing a "clean" image of Windows XP SP3, with the most recent set of Windows fixes, AV updates, Firefox/Thunderbird versions etc.
Problem No. 1
For some reason, neither one of my 2008 Ghost DVDs would boot ( they were fairly well scratched ) so, after a bit of faffing around, I bit the bullet and performed a brand new installation of XP. This took a while, especially as I needed to download drivers for the Thinkpad T60p etc.
However, after a day or so, I had a nice clean machine, ready to re-image using Ghost.
Now I've been using Ghost 2003 since .... 2003, and am very happy with it - it just works; I can Ghost to a DVD or an external USB drive, and it takes a matter of minutes to backup and restore.
Given that I had some spare USB drive capacity, I decided to use that (a) for a quick backup and (b) for a slightly less error-prone restore.
Problem No. 2
No matter what I did, I was unable to get Ghost to write to any one of my three USB drives. In one case, I got a General Protection Fault in Ghost ( wow, back to the '80s ), in two other cases, Ghost just failed to find the drives, despite me selecting USB 2.0.
As with most situations, I decided to go Google, and found this document: -
Updates to Norton Ghost 2003
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2002102509582825?Open&docid=2000101617144125&nsf=on-technology.nsf&view=docid
which includes a bunch of updates, including some USB fixes.
It's my assumption that Microsoft and/or Lenovo have updated their USB 2.0 drivers and support since 2003, meaning that Ghost could no longer cope.
The aforementioned Symantec document was very helpful, and pointed me to a set of archived updates for their products: -
How to obtain the programs updates that are archived on Symantec LiveUpdate server
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2007010219171513
In conclusion, I have a clean machine, a nice backup ( and I did backup the backup before you ask ) and have learnt yet another lesson in the wonderful world of IT.
Time for a coffee ...
# posted by Dave Hay : 19:35
Comments:
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I would highly recommend you take your Ghost DVSs and turn them into ISO images. All VM solutions (VMWare, VirtualBox) allow to mount them as CD/DVD. This removes the scratching problem. You also could read/write them using ISO Master.
Hi Dave
did you know System Rescue CD
http://www.sysresccd.org/?
It don´t have many features like Ghost, but is a good alternative
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did you know System Rescue CD
http://www.sysresccd.org/?
It don´t have many features like Ghost, but is a good alternative
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