Ghosting Vista.

allllec · 6 Aug 2007 at 21:26

m4cc45 said:
I only use the DOS disks and create an image of the hard-drive as a master image rather than a daily backup.

As far as I am aware pretty much every version of Ghost supports Vista as it uses NTFS - it doesn't really know the Operating System as it just makes an image.

M.

Aye, thats what i thought but apperently once you've ghosted vista back you start to get activation problems and stuff or something, have no idea never done it myself!

marc2003 · 6 Aug 2007 at 21:30

m4cc45 said:
As far as I am aware pretty much every version of Ghost supports Vista as it uses NTFS - it doesn't really know the Operating System as it just makes an image.

M.

that would have been my assumption too. as it works at the file system level, i can't see what difference the OS is going to make. unless the ntfs version is different with vista?

skanky · 7 Aug 2007 at 06:49

i've had to restore an image of an activated oem install, and it works if everything is the same, the image was as-is.

however, i tried ghosting onto a different disk, no chance. i dont know if changing partition sizes also prompts for reactivation or not.

m4cc45 · 7 Aug 2007 at 07:14

With Ghost you can change the partition sizes, disks, etc. and it's fine (strangely the activation doesn't care what size your disks / partitions are) however with the backup and restore feature the disk has to be exactly the same (same with the partitions as well).

It's a very strange situation, and I can't emphasise enough how much better Ghost is than the standard backup feature in terms of what you can do with the image after you have taken it off.

It should also be noted that if you ghost to completley different hardware it will require activation.

M.

BoomAM · 7 Aug 2007 at 11:02

So....why is it that if i ghost my laptop windows complains about being tampered with and that its not genuine, forcing me to faff with cd keys and activations all over again?

Magsy · 7 Aug 2007 at 14:39

I could not make a Vista image with Ghost version 8/8.2 or 'home' version 2003, there is a known problem with it. It maybe NTFS but it writes to sectors Ghost does not image by default and when you reboot Vista will not boot.

You can either use a newer version of Ghost or tell Ghost to preserve the disk signature. For this to work you need to take a full disk image, not a partition image, the switch is -fdsp. Additionally you can Ghost as usual and then boot to a Windows PE (BartPE) CD and do the following :

cd c:\windows\system32\
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot

The last option works for me and gives me back an installation which is still activated even though I have changed the drives.

Trueimage failed for me too

m4cc45 · 7 Aug 2007 at 16:03

Ah sorry I don't use the home versions so can not comment.

M.

m4cc45 · 7 Aug 2007 at 16:04

BoomAM said:
So....why is it that if i ghost my laptop windows complains about being tampered with and that its not genuine, forcing me to faff with cd keys and activations all over again?

Are you ghosting within Windows or from DOS?

M.

BoomAM · 7 Aug 2007 at 16:59

m4cc45 said:
Are you ghosting within Windows or from DOS?

M.

From DOS.
When i try to ghost it errors, i reboot, then it complains.

beano · 9 Aug 2007 at 00:45

I just used the Vista 'Back up Computer', and it fit on 1 DVD!?! Does that sound right to you guys that have used it before?

I think i'd rather have an image file, but it'll do for the moment i guess.

m4cc45 · 9 Aug 2007 at 08:00

Yes it does sound about right - I must admit the compression in the backup is phenomenal. I think it beats ghost on this score.

For some reason from DVD I couldn't get it to restore properly so you may want to ensure it works (it worked from within Windows but not from the Vista DVD).

M.

BoomAM · 9 Aug 2007 at 10:32

Am i correct in thinking that theres a way to backup and restore Vista to a completely different hardware setup? Because if so, thats a cracking move on Microsofts part, makes upgrades to new systems so much more painless.

InsomniaCalls · 9 Aug 2007 at 10:45

I backed up a Vista image with ghost and every time I restore it I have to repair the bootmgr.
Anyone else had this?

m4cc45 · 9 Aug 2007 at 13:13

BoomAM said:
Am i correct in thinking that theres a way to backup and restore Vista to a completely different hardware setup? Because if so, thats a cracking move on Microsofts part, makes upgrades to new systems so much more painless.

It's true though you'll have to activate it again. It's basically because of the way that Microsoft now deals with the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).

Microsoft has several products out there designed to do this such as WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) and the traditional Sys Prep and there are more whos names escape me at the moment.

M.

m4cc45 · 9 Aug 2007 at 13:15

InsomniaCalls said:
I backed up a Vista image with ghost and every time I restore it I have to repair the bootmgr.
Anyone else had this?

You're not using an IBM machine are you or a machine with two bootable partitions (i.e. a recovery partition which comes with most IBM / HP / Dell machines)?

Basically you can go into Ghosts options and select Image Boot All (which makes a replica of the boot sector) this is not on by default and should fix it.

M.