Norton Ghost Expert Question

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
09/14/2018 at 19:02 • Filed to: None

I have a dozen Dell Latitude E4310s that I need to deploy for school. I created an image — Windows 7 — on one of them and copied it to disk using Ghost. When I copy the image onto the next laptop, Windows 7 won’t boot, but BSODs and tries to repair, yada yada. Any suggestions?

DISCUSSION (39)

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2018 at 19:31

Is the BSOD “Inaccessible Boot Device”? You might need to repair the MBR.

Also check if your source machine uses the right SATA mode, i.e. ATA or AHCI.

someassemblyrequired > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2018 at 19:40

Usually this is hardware incompatibility, or an issue with the controller - see this article:

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.HOWTO4015.html

Are there SSD drives in the laptops? That can also cause issues. You may need to install the SSD maker’s utility and use that and a USB enclosure to duplicate the disks, instead of using Ghost .

404 - User No Longer Available > someassemblyrequired
09/14/2018 at 19:52

Actually most modern cloning software handles SSDs just fine. Problem is with cluster alignment, which would cause premature wear.

Ghost itself hasn’t been updated for ages, but OC probably has work reasons on why Ghost was used, e.g. licensing.

I personally use Macrium Reflect , and cloned many different drives from spinning to SSD drives. Only haven’t done NVMe.

facw > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/14/2018 at 20:06

Yeah, my experience is that Reflect is a more useful product.

someassemblyrequired > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/14/2018 at 20:10

Yeah it has been probably 10 years since I did that stuff, so my info is way old. That being said, even then Macrium Reflect was superior in every way to Ghost if that’s an option for OC (edit: and now it’s free, even for commercial use, so it’s a no-brainer).

Ha I doubt NVMe is on OC’s radar screen with old donated laptops.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2018 at 21:32

Get a Mac.

/Not helping

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
09/14/2018 at 23:10

From the guy who owns more Windows PCs than Macs...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/14/2018 at 23:14

OC is trying to image a stack of donated government surplus laptops for teachers to use. I’ve been using Ghost for years, don’t know any other way. I don’t think I need any advanced features.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > someassemblyrequired
09/14/2018 at 23:15

I’m looking into it; thanks. These are donated government surplus laptops I’m trying to image for deployment to teachers. (I’m a teacher.)

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2018 at 23:19

Well Macrium is essentially the same thing, but because of changes to Windows it supports the newer boot sectors, Macrium handles it much better than Ghost. I don’t think Symantec is still supporting it, the whitepaper it lists for the current version still lists Windows 8.1 as “new supported OS. ”.

You can use it the exact same way as Ghost, create a bootable disk/USB and do the cloning. I used to swear by Ghost as well until I started running into issues with newer Windows versions.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/14/2018 at 23:54

Actually, I have one iMac, two Mac Minis, and two MacBooks. But only three peecees.

someassemblyrequired > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 08:31

It’s actually easier to use than Ghost, it shouldn’t give you any trouble, but if it does post your difficulty on Oppo and we will figure it out.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
09/15/2018 at 10:15

As opposed to zero PCs...

I just had the battery swell in Kate’s MacBook Pro and it was shoving the track pad out the top of the wrist rest. I know that swelling batteries are a thing, but in countless laptops, I’ve never had one do that.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/15/2018 at 10:18

Thank you for the info. This is all Win 7, but I’ve been wondering how long until I’d find Ghost unusable.

Would I install the Macrium on a PC first do create the bootable media?

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 10:39

Yup. Use WinPE 3.1 since you’re dealing with Windows 7.

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Creating+rescue+media

There are several ways to approach this, you can create a bootable recovery media and restore the image from an external drive. When I did something like this before, I actually pulled the drives all out from the laptops and used an external dock on my faster main PC with eSATA to do the actual cloning . Restoring each machine took minutes, and on top of that the OOBE setup per laptop. Got like 50 laptops done in one night.

Also when cloning Windows , you might want to look into creating the image and using Audit Mode and Sysprep to install all the software before setting each machine up. This avoids problems with activation and machine names colliding. There is a flag you can set in the unattend file for Sysprep to keep all the drivers, so your image will boot up like you opened a store bought PC, drivers and software ready to go.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/319903-windows-7-image-customize-audit-mode-sysprep.html

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 11:47

Nothing I’ve ever experienced.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn
09/15/2018 at 12:10

Did you know it was a thing? Crazy: it basically broke open the case of the laptop.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/15/2018 at 12:17

¡M uchísimas gracias!

I am aware of Sysprep the Thing, but I am reluctant to try and learn that right now, as I have only 15 laptops to deploy and otherwise only have onesie-twosie things most of the time. I don’t mind imaging one at a time, as I’ve done dozens upon dozens that way over a number of years. (I used Ghostcast Server for awhile some years back to good effect, but I’m not supporting a network these days.)

Context: I’m a teacher with IT experience, somewhat dated, and I have 15 donated government surplus laptops that I’m hoping to press into service. I may have already mentioned this...

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 12:25

I hadn’t heard of it specifically, but I’m not surprised.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/15/2018 at 12:30

you can create a bootable recovery media and restore the image from an external drive.

So I would install Macrium on the “master” or “golden” laptop and create a restore media for that image? In other words, there would not be a generic or universal Macrium boot disk like I have with Ghost?

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 13:33

No, install Macrium and create the recovery media on any PC. Build the master and configure anything, Sysprep it. Either:

A. Pull the drive and connect it to another PC to create the master image, and store somewhere, or

B. Boot the master with the created recovery. It’ll boot into the USB/CD copy of Macrium with a minimal environment, create the image onto somewhere.

Then take the USB and created image, hook that onto the others, boot USB and restore, rinse and repeat. This way you aren’t copying Macrium onto all the machines.

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 13:34

Even with 15 machines I would go the sysprep route. As I was saying, less headaches with machine names and activation. Windows 7 and the likes are pickier about that stuff.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/15/2018 at 15:40

So I’m still having no joy. Let me tell you what I’ve done so far:

* Installed Macrium on my desktop.

* Installed a full Win 7 image on one of the E4310s.

* Remove the drive from the master 4310 and slide it directly into another 4310 and the boot fails. You get “Starting Windows,” and the little Close Encounters colored fireflies, a momentary flash of BSOD and it starts rebooting.

* Take the “master” drive — all are identical Samsung SSDs — and use Macrium on the desktop to clone the master drive directly to one of the other SSDs.

* Install the master drive clone into the master 4310 and it boots just fine.

* Install the master drive clone into a second 4310 and same BSOD event described above.

Macrium is slick; I like it. I think my troubles are related to some idiosyncrasy with the 4310s, but I don’t know what to try next.

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/15/2018 at 15:46

One thing I would check is in the BIOS if they are set properly all to AHCI, RAID or SATA, and make sure that setting is the same on all.

That sounds exactly like “Inaccessible Boot Device” I was talking about, basically the drive interface mode is set wrong and it can’t find the system partition.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/15/2018 at 18:09

But wouldn’t I expect the laptops to be set exactly the same?

Could different BIOS versions possibly cause this? One thing that is different is that the master laptop has a much later BIOS version than the others...

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 00:38

Quite possible. I would update them.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 01:06

I have to figure out how because the BIOS updaters I have run from Windows. Does the Hiren Boot CD do a mini Windows 7 yet?

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 08:40

The BIOS tool says it can run from DOS? Try extracting it with a ZIP tool or something.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/cabsdt1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=WYXP3

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 10:48

I hope I am not being a nuisance. All of the laptops have wiped drives. So to test the BIOS version theory, I either have to update the BIOS without an OS present ,because wiped drive, then try imaging the drive, or create a new image on one of the machines with the earlier BIOS version and try cloning that drive to another machine with the earlier BIOS version.

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 11:06

No worries, I don’t mind helping people with these things.

Just create a bootable DOS USB, place the flash tool on it. You don’t even need the hard drive plugged in.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/46707-ms-dos-bootable-flash-drive-create.html

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 11:38

Thanks, Tony. This is an interesting challenge.

So I have eliminated the BIOS version possibility. I updated the BIOS on one of the laptops, then swapped the HDD with the master HDD, and it did the fail-to-boot thing.

The laptops likely were running full-disk encryption before they were wiped. Could there be some residual thing that could cause me problems now?

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 11:47

Not that I know of. Usually for BitLocker it does tie it to TPM chip on the motherboard, but since you completely wiped the drives it shouldn’t matter.

Since Macrium does the cloning in the Windows environment, if you can see the data then it’s already decrypted.

Is the hard drive controller mode set to AHCI? Might also want to try this:

http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50168.aspx

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 11:54

I’ll check the controller mode. I would not have expected the BIOS to be an issue, but since it was a significant upgrade (had to go from A05 to A15 in two steps), I figured it’d be worth eliminating.

Again, much appreesh you taking an interest and sharing your expertise with me.

An aside: the same guy that helped me receive these laptops, says there’s an IT position open at the US Treasury where he works and he would be the hiring manager. He says I should apply and as much as I enjoy all of this, not to mention working with the end users, I am tempted. But believe it or not, I probably make more money as a teacher right now... I certainly get more time off now...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 21:38

It turns out that the machine I grabbed to be the master is set to ATA. Do I set the others to ATA or do I make a new imake with the controller set to AHCI?

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 22:27

Ideally all to AHCI for best performance but considering you already built the image using ATA you can use that.

Just make sure they are all set to the same.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/16/2018 at 23:06

I can do it again in AHCI. Not a huge deal.

NojustNo > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/16/2018 at 23:51

http://blog.jahnstek.com/2011/04/switch-from-ata-to-ahci-in-windows-7.html?m=1

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > 404 - User No Longer Available
09/17/2018 at 00:09

Yup; that was the deal. Fresh image under AHCI and off to the races. I think I have enough e nclosures and such to clone four drives at a time.

404 - User No Longer Available > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/17/2018 at 09:26

Nice, glad it all worked out.