Ghosting on old HP Vectra with WinXP

[Edgar Noah]

Hi,

I have several HP Vectras XU 6/200 (196 MB RAM) each one with 2 SCSI
(fixed) hard drives (2.3 and 4.5 GB respectively).

Working individually with one of them, i installed WinXP Professional
in one of the hard drives (2.3 GB).
I´d like to create an image of the initial installation of XP
(installation has been cumbersone !) I tried unsuccesfully with Norton
Ghost 2002. By the way, i found out that it would be better to
partition the hard drive so I can create images accross partitions,
not entire disks.

What are my options for creating and restoring images, working with
smaller capacity hard drives (WinXP will occupy more than 50% of the
hard drive). I am newbie in what partitioning, imaging SCSI devices,
and system backup and restoring it respects, so I appreciate your
understanding

I appreciate very much your help and suggestions.

Thank you!

Alex.

 

[Guest]

In order that you can proceed with the desired approach, you must have a
separate licence agreement for Windows XP to register for each PC.

It wuld be best to install XP onto the larger drive in each case, allowing
for additional space for applications as well as system files, swap files and
temporary file space on C Drive [4.5Gb] and then allocate the 2.3Gb for the
'My Documents' folder and other data files.

In order to succeed with Ghost you will need to create your Ghost boot disk
including SCSI drivers. The difference between partition to partition or
disk to disk is irrelevant when considering if Ghost will work or not in your
configuration.

My understanding is that you need a newer version of Ghost to support SCSI
and XP.

Simply Ghost from the source disk 4.5Gb 'complete installation system disk'
to a target 4.5Gb formatted disk. Attach the target disk to the computer
temporarily and after is has completed, then place it into the second PC.

A Ghosted disk will only boot if all the following are the same for two
separate PCs:
1.Display Adapter,
2.SCSI Adapter,
3.IDE Adapter,
4.Network Adapter MAC Address,
5.RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc),
6.Processor Type,
7.Processor Serial Number,
8.Hard Drive Device,
9.Hard Drive Volume Serial Number,

It may be possible that it will boot provided that 8 of 10 of the above
items are the same. If less than 8 are the same, then you may be required to
perform a repair installtion to set the Windows Environment to meet the new
configuration.

As for the basics of Partitioning etc: one should acquire an appropriate 3rd
party application for this purpose. XP will only partition and then format
[to NTFS only] NEW hard drives. To properly manage, partition and format
[NTFS, FAT32 or other] you should try Partition Magic 8.

It is worthwhile, considering what your objectives are, that you buy Norton
System Works 2005: which includes Ghost and Partition Magic 8.

This will aloow you to perform all the functions you want: however you
should also consider the legality of what you propose to do.

Again, I caution you that it is illegal to use the same Product Code /
Licence Agreement for XP on any more than ONE PC: unless of course you have
purchase a volume licence agreement from Microsoft.

 

[Bob Harris]

My own experienced with XP are that 2.3 Gig is not enough to (1) install XP,
(2) provide for swap space, (3) provide for hibernation space (which you
could turn off), (4) provide for some temp space (like internet files), (5)
provide for a few installed programs (even those that install elsewhere seem
to leave something on C:\. In short, you will be a lot happier if you get
larger disks. More RAM would also be good, but I have run XP on as little
as 128 Meg, and if you do not open too many programs, it will work.

As for GHOST 2002, that usually works on any disk that can be seen from the
BIOS, and that is not software RAID. Hardware RAID is not officially
supported, but it often does work. My own disks are on a Promise SATA RAID
controller and the GHOST 2002 floppy sees them, but then they at FAT32.
However, GHOST 2002 can not save TO a partition with format NTFS. It can
save NTFS to FAT32, but not the reverse.

But, every PC is different, so it is possible that GHOST does not work on
your SCSI disks. However, maybe all you need are DOS drivers for the SCSI
disk, really for the disk contoller. If the controller happens to be by
Adaptec, the odds are good that they still offer the drives as a download;
check their support website. You might try tinkering with a plain win98
boot disk and see wther you can get it to see the SCSI disks. If that
works, then add the same things to the GHOST 2002 floppy. You might get
some additional info about boots disks from www.bootdisk.com.

Bart's website also seems to have info about DOS and SCSI:

http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/scsitool/

 

[edgarnoah]

In order that you can proceed with the desired approach, you must have a
separate licence agreement for Windows XP to register for each PC.

It wuld be best to install XP onto the larger drive in each case, allowing
for additional space for applications as well as system files, swap files and
temporary file space on C Drive [4.5Gb] and then allocate the 2.3Gb for the
'My Documents' folder and other data files.

In order to succeed with Ghost you will need to create your Ghost boot disk
including SCSI drivers.

How can I create a Ghost boot disk with SCSI drivers ?

My understanding is that you need a newer version of Ghost to support SCSI
and XP.

Simply Ghost from the source disk 4.5Gb 'complete installation system disk'
to a target 4.5Gb formatted disk. Attach the target disk to the computer
temporarily and after is has completed, then place it into the second PC.

A Ghosted disk will only boot if all the following are the same for two
separate PCs:
1.Display Adapter,
2.SCSI Adapter,
3.IDE Adapter,
4.Network Adapter MAC Address,
5.RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc),

Does this mean that it will work if, for example, PC1: 96 MB RAM and
PC2: 192 MB RAM ?

6.Processor Type,
7.Processor Serial Number,
8.Hard Drive Device,
9.Hard Drive Volume Serial Number,

How can I find out this last one ?

It may be possible that it will boot provided that 8 of 10 of the above
items are the same. If less than 8 are the same, then you may be required to
perform a repair installtion to set the Windows Environment to meet the new
configuration.

As for the basics of Partitioning etc: one should acquire an appropriate 3rd
party application for this purpose. XP will only partition and then format
[to NTFS only] NEW hard drives. To properly manage, partition and format
[NTFS, FAT32 or other] you should try Partition Magic 8.

It is worthwhile, considering what your objectives are, that you buy Norton
System Works 2005: which includes Ghost and Partition Magic 8.

This will aloow you to perform all the functions you want: however you
should also consider the legality of what you propose to do.

Again, I caution you that it is illegal to use the same Product Code /
Licence Agreement for XP on any more than ONE PC: unless of course you have
purchase a volume licence agreement from Microsoft.

Please indicate what is a "volume licence agreement"

Thanks.

 

[edgarnoah]

In order to succeed with Ghost you will need to create your Ghost boot disk
including SCSI drivers.

How can I create the above mentioned Ghost boot disk ? Is it possible
to create it in a single 3.5" floppy or the more recent the version
the larger the space needed to create it ?

My understanding is that you need a newer version of Ghost to support SCSI
and XP.

Do you know which exact version will be suitable, at least, from what
version up?

Simply Ghost from the source disk 4.5Gb 'complete installation system disk'
to a target 4.5Gb formatted disk. Attach the target disk to the computer
temporarily and after is has completed, then place it into the second PC.

A Ghosted disk will only boot if all the following are the same for two
separate PCs:
1.Display Adapter,
2.SCSI Adapter,
3.IDE Adapter,
4.Network Adapter MAC Address,
5.RAM Amount Range (i.e. 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc),

Does this mean that, for example, PC1: 96 MB, and PC2: 192 MB will be
compatible ?

.....

9.Hard Drive Volume Serial Number,

How can i find out this last one ?

Again, I caution you that it is illegal to use the same Product Code /
Licence Agreement for XP on any more than ONE PC: unless of course you have
purchase a volume licence agreement from Microsoft.

What is a "volume licence agreement" ? sounds like several licences for
the price of
just a few ?

Thanks for the feedback.
Alex.