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Imaging (Ghosting) Across a Network

Let me preface this section by saying I have never created or restored an image across a network myself. On this page I have included notes from people who have (since there's no substiture for first-hand experience).

The following comments come from Patrick Glynn, who used the"corporate edition" of Ghost: v7.5. Note that Symantec has recently renamed their corporate edition as Ghost Solution Suite (which includes Ghost v8.3).

Note also that the "corporate edition" (now called Ghost Solution Suite) contains more bells and whistles (more networking features) than the average home user needs.

Below you will also find a link to a page which guides you thru the details of how to use Ghost 9 (the consumer version) over a network.

Perhaps you'll find Patrick's guide helpful. It addresses how to use the corporate version across a network. See here:

Create the Boot Disk

1. Select: Start > Programs > Symantec Ghost > Ghost Boot Wizard
2. Choose: "Drive Mapping Boot Disk".

This boot disk will allow you to map a network share from another system in the domain. Although I have been told that having a domain is not a requirement to use this method, I have not been able to get it to work without having a domain up and running.

3. Select: the Network Interface Card (NIC).

Ghost supports a large number of NICs. However, I had a Netgear FA310TX and Ghost does not appear to have native support for this card. It is possible to point Ghost to the requisite DOS drivers for the card, but I had no luck with this method either. I swapped out the Netgear for a 3com 3C905C-TX for which Ghost had a native driver.

4. Choose: the DOS Version

The default is PC DOS as you mention on your web site, and I didn't change it.

5. Add the Network Client Configuration.

Here is where you will be prompted for the domain logon information:

Client Computer Name: {the system you will be imaging}
User Name: {your domain username}
Domain: {the domain you are in}
Drive Letter: {the drive letter the remote drive will be mapped to after booting}
Maps To: {the remote system drive to map}

In my case, the domain controller for my home network is my Linux box (RH 8.0 running Samba). The settings for me are:

Client Computer Name: PORTHOS
User Name: root
Domain: WORKGROUP
Drive Letter: D
Maps To: \\ATHOS\root

6. Configure the Network Client Address.

You have the choice of specifying the IP address and Netmask or using DHCP. I chose DHCP because my Linksys Cable/DSL router is setup as a DHCP server and it is one less thing I have to configure.

7. Select the Destination Drive, etc. to write the disk to.

The defaults worked for me: one copy of the boot disk written to the floppy drive which is formatted prior to writing.

8. Review and accept.

Once you accept the setup, your will be prompted to format the floppy. The boot disk is created after formatting is complete.

Creating & Restoring Norton Ghost Image

To Create a Ghost Image: Boot from the disk you just created. After showing some interesting stuff on screen, you will be prompted for your User ID. You can simply hit ENTER if you plan to use the same one you specified when creating the boot disk. Afterwards, you will be prompted for your Domain Password. Assuming you have the required credentials, you will note that the system has successfully logged you in under the username provided above.

After some trial and error, I discovered that to make this work, you have to have a copy of the Ghost executable on the destination machine!

Once the drive is mapped, you change to that drive (D:\ in my case) and run the Ghost executable. When you have done that, the image creation proceeds exactly as you have documented for disk-disk image creation. Image restoration proceeds in exactly the same manner as you have documented.

Using Ghost 9 over a Network

Added 26.july.2005 - For those of you using Ghost 9, and want to image across a network, one of our forum members, Brian (who lives in Lennox-Head, Australia), has kindly thrown together a little guide on how to get that working for you. See here:> Using Ghost 9 over a Network

Using Norton Ghost over LPT connection

These steps come from roxe in THIS post. SUCCESS!! Here's how I did it:

1. Using Ghost's boot floppy wizard, make two standard boot floppys. Be sure to check the LPT box under Peer-to-Peer when you get to that screen. Also make sure you have Mouse.com included with your DOS files in the Command folder inside Windows. You will need to leave these two boot disks unlocked. Use one for each computer.
   
   
2. Check the port settings on both computers in the BIOS. Make sure they both are set for the exact same mode - bidirectional, ECP, or EPP. Do not set them to unidirectional.
   
   
3. Turn off both computers.
   
   
4. Attach a hi-speed bidirectional LPT (printer) cable to the real parallel port of each computer. Ghost does not support virtual ports. You can use a Belkin (what I used), LapLink, or pcAnywhere cable.
   
   
5. Decide which computer will be the Master and which will be the slave. In all cases but two, the source computer should be the Master and the destination should be the Slave. The exceptions are when restoring a Disk Image or a Partition Image. In these cases, the destination drive should be the Master and the source drive should be the Slave.
   In my case, the laptop speed was only 133mhz; my tower is 800mhz. Since I wanted to image the laptop, it worked very well using it as the Master. I would guess that going from "slower" speed to "faster" works better than the other way around, which I haven't tried.
   
   
6. Boot the SLAVE computer FIRST! When Ghost starts and displays the splash screen, hit enter or click OK. The next screen displays the menu. STOP - don't go any further yet.
   
   
7. Now boot the Master computer. STOP when you get to the same screen as shows on the Slave computer.
   
   
8. Using the Slave keyboard and the arrow keys, navigate to Peer-to-Peer - LPT - Slave, and hit enter. Or you can use the mouse to do this.
   
   
9. IMMEDIATELY, using the Master keyboard and arrow keys, navigate to Peer-to-Peer - LPT - Master, and hit enter.
   
   
10. The Slave computer will show on the screen "Program connected in LPT slave mode". It will continue showing this screen through the entire process.
    
    
11. Timing with a second hand, WAIT AT LEAST TWO WHOLE MINUTES!! This is important. It can take that long for the connection to really set up.
    
    
12. Using the MASTER keyboard or mouse, start your Ghost menu for making the image. When you get to the destination drive screen, you should see the Slave computers' drives showing in the drop-down menu.
    
    When the image is completed and you continue so to make another image, you will need to redo steps 8 and 9 above. Only this time, you won't need to wait the two minutes before starting the imaging process.

The nice folks at Binary Research, who originally developed Ghost, asked me to mention their training course for the Corporate version (renamed as Ghost Solution Suite, which includes v8.3) which contains more bells & whistles than the home user needs:

Rad, I'd like to compliment you on your Ghost guide. I can see how it would help the new or occasional user. However, I was surprised there weren't more contributions from users of the Network version. [Ghost Solution Suite]

I'd like to mention that we offer a training course for the Corporate Edition. As the original developers of the software, we also developed courseware. Since 1999, we've conducted training workshops at our Milwaukee location, as well as other locations in the US, Canada and UK.

If you ever receive requests for info on Ghost training courses, we'd appreciate you passing along the details of our workshops. Heck, if you'd mention it on your site, we'd appreciate it even more! Thanks for the help you provide to users of Ghost.

Douglas Wells
Director of Training & Consulting
Binary Research International Inc.
5215 N. Ironwood Rd. Ste. 200
Glendale, WI 53217
Toll-Free: 888.446.7898