Ok, let's talk about using Ghost 2003 to make images.  I've been playing
around with it some lately.

* SERVERS

I haven't tried to image a RAID5 server, but recent threads in this NG
indicate that it's not a problem for the most part (but also not supported
by Symantec for this product).  If you create the Ghost Boot Floppies (two
disks required if you select "use MSDOS"), you'll be booting into MSDOS and
then imaging the server's hard drive(s).  If your server supports USB 2.0,
an external USB HD is a slick way to image your server and transport the
drive off site for security and disaster recovery.  If your server only
supports USB 1.1 (or no USB at all), you may not want to bother with an
external drive - the copy speed USB 1.1 may be frustratingly slow.  Instead,
use a temporary internal IDE drive to store the image, then carefully
package this drive and take it off site.  You could also buy a USB 2.0
controller card, put it in the server and then use an external USB 2.0
drive.  There are a lot of possible hardware solutions here.

NOTE:  I had some problems getting machines to boot properly with a Ghost
Boot Floppy when using the Symantec-supplied PCDOS.  As soon as I switched
to MSDOS for the operating system, the problems went away - your mileage may
vary.

You may also encounter a server that only supports SCSI drives (no IDE
controller).  In this case, you'll need to either buy a USB 2.0 controller
card and use an external USB drive, or buy a SCSI drive large enough to
handle all your imaging requirements (again, the drive used for imaging
needs to be taken off site for security and disaster recover).

Every time you install SPs or add software applications (or make some other
"major" change), you'll need to re-image the server drive(s).  You'll also
need a good tape backup so that you can first restore the image and then
restore the latest backup tape.

* FLOPPYLESS DRIVES

Most servers and workstations have floppy drives (with the exception of some
workstations that have come out in the past few months).  But let's say you
need to image the boss's laptop that doesn't have a floppy drive but does
have a CDROM or a CD/RW (common for laptops purchased in the past year or
so).  Well, you need a bootable CD and an external USB (or Firewire) hard
drive.  However, this Ghost Boot CD is different from the Ghost Boot
Floppies in that it has to provide CDROM support instead of floppy support
at boot up.

Note:  I haven't played with an external Firewire drive so we'll confine our
efforts here to an external USB 2.0 drive (again, external USB 1.1 is
possible, but very slow).

1.   First install Ghost 2003 on a workstation and then use the Norton Ghost
Boot Wizard to create a set of Ghost boot floppies that have external USB
2.0 support and standard SCSI support (just for completeness).  Select "Use
MSDOS" for the operating system and feed it an MSDOS system disk you've
previously created using the "format" option when you right click on the A:
drive from My Computer.  A Win95 or Win98 machine works fine for this; just
be sure to include the system files on the newly created floppy).  If you
don't have a Win95/98 machine handy, you can download a bootup disk at:
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

The result is that you'll end up with a set of two Ghost Boot Floppy disks
that provide external USB 2.0 and standard SCSI drive support for Ghost.
Set these aside, you'll need them later.

2.   Now you need a single floppy boot disk that has CDROM support.  For
that, go to:

How To Create A Bootable Ghost Rescue CD Tutorial
http://www.ping.be/satcp/ghostresq01.htm

and download the Bootdisk.exe file.  Use this to create the required
Bootdisk floppy per the instructions on the web site.  You'll be modifying
this floppy so that it contains the files required by Ghost to access the
external USB drive.  For this, you'll need to modify it's Config.sys and
Autoexec.bat files as well as copy the external USB driver to it.  After
that, you'll create a bootable CD version of this modified Bootdisk floppy.

Note:   Before any modifications, you may want to first test your Bootdisk
floppy in a desktop machine to make sure it was created properly.  The
procedure for this is included on the web site above.

3.   This Bootdisk floppy doesn't have much room left on it.  However, it
contains several files that aren't necessary for a Ghost 2003 Boot CD.  To
make some room, on mine I deleted Format.com and Fdisk.exe.

4.  Now, put Disk #1 from your Ghost Boot Floppy set in your floppy drive
and copy the USB folder, Config.sys and Autoexec.bat to the desktop.

5.  Pop in your Bootdisk floppy from Step 3 and copy the USB folder to it.

6.  Open the Config.sys file on your desktop with NotePad and copy the
following line to the clipboard:
DEVICE = usb\aspiehci.sys /int /all

7.  Close NotePad and then open the Config.sys file on the Bootdisk floppy
and paste from the clipboard after the following the line:
lastdrive=z

(I removed the spaces before and after the equal sign in "DEVICE = usb".
I'm not really sure this is necessary.)

8.  Close and save the Bootdisk floppy Config.sys file.

9.  Now right click on the Autoexec.bat on your desktop and select "Edit".
Copy the following lines into memory:
SET TZ=GHO+05:00
GUEST.EXE

10.  Open Autoexec.bat on the Bootdisk floppy and paste the lines from Step
9 into the file after the "@ECHO OFF" line.  Close and save the Bootdisk
floppy Autoexec.bat file.

Ok, at this point you should now have a DOS Boodisk floppy that has CDROM
support, mouse support, Imega USB Zip Drive Support (the guest.exe file) and
External USB 2.0 support.  What we need to do is create a Bootdisk CD that
can also run Ghost 2003.

11.  Following the article mentioned in Step 2:
How To Create A Bootable Ghost Rescue CD Tutorial
http://www.ping.be/satcp/ghostresq01.htm

set up Nero (or Roxio, or whatever you have) to make a bootable CD from the
Bootdisk floppy you just created.  Before you burn the CD, pop in Disk #2 of
the Ghost Boot Floppy set you created in Step 1 and copy the Ghost.exe file
to your desktop.

12.  Now drag the Ghost.exe file into the CD creation window of your CD
burning software.  For ease of use, Ghost.exe should be at the root of the
CD, not in a subfolder.

13. OK, time to burn.  Create the bootable CD with your burning software.
When finished, you'll have a Ghost Bootdisk CD.

* USING THE GHOST BOOTDISK CD

To use the Ghost Bootdisk CD, you need to connect your external USB hard
drive to the laptop and power it up.  You'll also need a mouse.  In
addition, you may need to go into the BIOS setup program of the laptop to
make sure that the laptop is set to boot off its CDROM first and hard drive
second.

Boot up and make sure you can access the USB external hard drive from the
DOS prompt (it may be drive D: or E:).  Then type "Ghost" at the command
prompt, press ENTER and you should be on your way to imaging the boss's
laptop.

To image the sbs, you need to boot from the ghost boot disk. The OS is not
involved.

--
Les Connor
------------------
[SBS MVP]