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New ghost image for Dell Systme Restore - Page 4

post #61 of 143
1/18/07 at 2:22pm


Just wanted to let you guys know that Ghost Corp has been incremented up to version 11 build 1502 dated 12/04/06...

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...nge+notice.pdf

New features for Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (Ghost11.0) linked in .pdf format above!
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post #62 of 143
1/22/07 at 5:53pm
so after all the procces can i re-make the image evey month and just put it on the restore partition? how?
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post #63 of 143
1/23/07 at 10:20pm
Thread Starter 
You could replace the restore image every month, but why?

that would potentially indroduce an unstable build to restore to in the event of a crash. If your data is what you are worried about, I suggest following my process for a 4 partition system, I use it with no worries.

I redirect the MyDocuments folder to the D drive (Data) and do a restore every 3 months.

I am also currently on my 4th version of my image, but always make the image diectly after installing all my apps and BEFORE any production use. This ensures a clean system after a restore.

Make backups of any data on a weekly basis. Good habits will save you alot of time and heartache.

Good Luck.
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post #64 of 143
1/23/07 at 10:21pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by somms


Just wanted to let you guys know that Ghost Corp has been incremented up to version 11 build 1502 dated 12/04/06...

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...nge+notice.pdf

New features for Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (Ghost11.0) linked in .pdf format above!


Does that version make .gho files? Dells System Restore only works with .gho files. not the new file types Symantec adopted. Thanks for the info though. Good lookin out.
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post #65 of 143
2/2/07 at 11:12am
THis is so impressive!
Thanks, PCGeek.
I'm just wondering will Media Direct 3 work fine after doing all this?
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post #66 of 143
2/2/07 at 11:22am
Thread Starter 
Media Direct does not work after this process... you have to follow directions elsewhere on this form to fix the Media Direct Functionality.

THe process of modding the Partition tables or doing Clean installs of the OS kill both the Restore and the Media Direct.

Unfortunately my 3 jobs, college and 5 kids have not allowed much further testing on my notebook...

Way too busy it seems... good thing I think Sleep is something that can wait until I die!!!
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post #67 of 143
2/5/07 at 2:42am
I am in need of some serious help from you guys. I have a E1705. It had the three partitions. The Dell Diag, OS, and restore partition. I tried a tri boot with XP PRO, VISTA, and Ubuntu and had it working. I decided to delete all the partitions execpt the Dell Diag and the Restore partition and start over again with just the original dell image. This time when I went to try the F11 key I got kernel errors and other weird errors each time seemed like something different. It was booting using the grub loader from ubuntu. I have tried the dsrfix and get fatal error which it wont fix. If I use gparted I can still see the dell diag partition and the restore partition. Can any one help me in fixing the ability to get the F11 key to restore the image? In need of geeks smarter than me now.
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post #68 of 143
2/6/07 at 9:45am
Thread Starter 
I think this is an issue with the system not reporting the proper partition table info. I had this happen to me as well. I used Knoppix LIVE CD to look at the Partition table and adjust it automatically, I believe there is a short description with in this thread.. page 3 maybe...

Try that out first... see what happens...

After you fix the partition table with Linux, run DSRFIX again.. let us know how it goes.

That Linux info is the first post on page 3... there is alot of info on the post... just utilize the LINUX LIVE info (about an inch below the Screenshot) for fixing the partition table.

Good Luck
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post #69 of 143
2/8/07 at 11:24pm
I finally figured it out. I had ghosted the drive with the DE, DB, XP, Vista, and Ubuntu with ghost. Trying to restore the linux partitions produced errors that killed the restore. So I was manuall resotring the DE and DB partitions. When I was running the DSRFIX it was telling me that the DB partition was not FAT32. Not sure why. So I did another format and cleaned the drive. Then manually recreated three partitions. Fat16, NTFS, Fat32. Then restored again the DE and DB partitions, then I reran DSRFIX and did not get any fatal errors. It worked. I then was able to go through the process of creating a new image then copying the ghost files into the image folder on the DB partition. Thanks for all the hints and tips guys. This forum rocks.


PS. Does any one have a answer for this question. The image file in the Dell DB partitiion is .gho and ghs files. For some reason if I try to open the gho file with ghost 2003 I get a message "Invalid Drive Details. This probally isnt a ghost image file." I am confused as to why it says that.
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post #70 of 143
2/10/07 at 12:27am
Another question. Tell me if I can do this and if I cant why. I want to have a single drive with the following partition structure. DE(Fat16), NTFS(XP), NTFS(Vista), Extended(Fat32(Share) / linux/swap, ext3, DB(Fat32). When I partion my drive this way, and run DSRFIX I get a fatal error on pbr3 saying that it is not fat32. So I ran the DSRFIX /PBR4 and dont get an error, but when I run the DSRFIX /F get fatal with PBR3 not fat32. I know that the DB partition is the very last one. So in the configuration is it possible to fix it so that I can still run the ctrl-F11 and use DSRFIX to fix the mbr?

As a test I deleted the two linux partitions and remerged them back into the Fat32(Share) partition. This left me with

Fat16(DE)-NTFS-NTFS-Fat32-Fat32(DB)

I then ran the dsrfix /pbr4 /f and it fixed the boot mbr. So why is it I can have 5 partitions and this work but if I add the Linux partitions it doesnt?
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post #71 of 143
2/10/07 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
you need to make sure that the RESTORE partition is always the 4th partition if you use /pbr4 ... the additional partitions would need to go AFTER the Restore partition then..

have you done this?

Give it a whirl...

I have tested this with my 4 partition setup, both with the Restore partitoion being 3rd as well as being 4th...

I had no issues... but the DSRFIX utility may not like the Restore Partition being any later than 4th...

let us know how it goes.
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post #72 of 143
2/10/07 at 9:08pm
I have both Acronis Disk Director Suite and Partition Magic 8. How do you go about moving or making the restore partition the third or fourth. How do you move them?

When I use GParted to look at the partitions I see the following when trying to use the linux partitions:

1.Fat16-DE - Partition1
2.NTFS - Partition 2
3.Extended - Partition 4
NTFS - Partition 5
Fat32 - Partition 6
EXT3 - Partition 7
Swap - Partition 8
4.Fat32-DB Partition 4

In this configuration DSRFIX reports two fatals. That pbr1 and pbr4 are not fat16 nor fat32. Even running dsrfix /pbr4. Isnt the DB in this case 4? If I go into PTEDIT all the partition information for partitions 2-4 are all 0's. Not sure what to do to fix this and make it work.
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post #73 of 143
2/11/07 at 4:48am
Thread Starter 
I use GParted as well, and there is a MOVE funtion within that app from what I remember, its been awhile... or maybe you could only move them within 1 block of unallocated space... a "slide" of a partition.. can't recall off the top of my head..

If not, then you would need to delete the partitions and create them in the proper order.

THe extended partition structure gave me issues for awhile too....

Let me see if I can find my notes from that troubleshooting session...
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post #74 of 143
2/12/07 at 7:29pm
OK, could someone possible give me a hand? I created a custom image on the restore partition, but doing a CTRL+F11 shows "Loading PBR for descriptor 3 ...done" message and the computer hands. This is what I did from this post and many others that I could find.

1. Unhide the Restore partition.
2. Shrink the OS partition (by ~2G).
3. Moved the Restore partition to the unallocated space created by shrinking the OS.
4. Resized the Restore partition to encompass all the remaining space.
5. Booted to a Ghost Boot CD and created new FI.gho image in IMG dir of RP.
6. Ran ptedit to change RP type back to DB.
7. Ran dsrfix /f to fix changes in the partition table.
8. Rebooted into windows as a check.
9. Rebooted and attempted to run CTRL+F11 at which the system hangs with "Loading PBR for descriptor 3".

Everythings seems straightfoward, I'm just missing something here. Any ideas?
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post #75 of 143
2/23/07 at 10:53am
what if i destroyed my original dsr partition? can i still make a coustom dsr?, waht is the structure of the dsr partition?, what is there besides the image?
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post #76 of 143
2/23/07 at 10:20pm
Is it possible and or has any one done this with dual boot with xp and vista. For some reason I am at a point where the Dell diag works, I can boot into XP and Vista, but can not get the F11 key to work. DSRFIX reports everything good, and the fat32 partition is there and is in the fourth position, but cant get the F11 to work. Any ideas what to try next?

If I hit the F11 key too much I get a NTDLR missing and it wont boot. If I run the dsrfix it fixes it where I can boot into both os's. But if I try the F11 key again too much it gives me the NTDLR.

Update: Afer I get this message and run ptedit, the boot partition is getting changed from the os partition to the DB partition. Why is this happening when I hit the F11 key. I can run DSRFIX and I can boot again but again hitting the F11 key screws up the boot partition. Need help PCGEEK04.
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post #77 of 143
2/24/07 at 8:53pm
Thread Starter 
The Dell System Restore process does indeed make the Restore partition ACTIVE... that is how it is able to boot itself and restore the image. Under normal operations... once the RESTORE process is complete... the REstore Process Makes the Windows partition active and re-hides itself... your process is HANGING after it un-hides and makes itself active, but before the restore kicks off.

Yo uare stating that you are running DSRFIX... are you using the pbr4 function? If the Restore Partion is the forth then you need to run DSRFIX /PBR4...

give it a shot.
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post #78 of 143
2/24/07 at 8:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_scarecrow
OK, could someone possible give me a hand? I created a custom image on the restore partition, but doing a CTRL+F11 shows "Loading PBR for descriptor 3 ...done" message and the computer hands. This is what I did from this post and many others that I could find. 1. Unhide the Restore partition. 2. Shrink the OS partition (by ~2G). 3. Moved the Restore partition to the unallocated space created by shrinking the OS. 4. Resized the Restore partition to encompass all the remaining space. 5. Booted to a Ghost Boot CD and created new FI.gho image in IMG dir of RP. 6. Ran ptedit to change RP type back to DB. 7. Ran dsrfix /f to fix changes in the partition table. 8. Rebooted into windows as a check. 9. Rebooted and attempted to run CTRL+F11 at which the system hangs with "Loading PBR for descriptor 3". Everythings seems straightfoward, I'm just missing something here. Any ideas?
Are you running normal 3 partiton or a 4 partition drive?
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post #79 of 143
2/24/07 at 9:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicocam
what if i destroyed my original dsr partition? can i still make a coustom dsr?, waht is the structure of the dsr partition?, what is there besides the image?
No worries...you can restore the functionality. You will need to get a GHOST image of that partition from someone... I would suggest eliminating the FI.GHO files before creating the image... Also, you will then need to adjust the Service Tag numbers within the files once restored. GooDells has instructions for this on their site... I will not duplicate the wonderful content they provide.. Check em out. NOTE: In testing... I did this very thing to make sure it worked. I GHosted my Restore Partition (minus the *.gho files), then deleted the partition. Rebooted and verified windows worked properly... I also took an image of my wife's E1705 RP... I then proceeded to put My wifes RP on my system.... It worked fine, but you have to use an imagethat has captured the boot information... simply copying the files will not work. My system restored properly, but then showed my WIfes Service Tag info... I went to GooDells and found the info for editing this... All good in Notebook Land again... IT will work.. If you get it done properly... Take your Time. Double Check everything. You will be fine.
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post #80 of 143
2/25/07 at 10:07am
this thread still kicking ? I may write up another one soon with the easy process..... that only if I have time to mess around....
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