Ghost Multicasting on the Lenovo T60 "A SOLUTION"

[RG4ORDR]

I have had so many problems tracking this down the past few days. I felt regardless of where it is spaced out elsewhere, I would put it in a concise document here.

I have been imaging a new T60, to have the original factory image, just for "CYA". Upon testing to verify, I noticed that I could single cast only. Multicast was failing within the first 10 seconds, all machines but one would time out.

TAKING THE IMAGE FROM THE T60:

1) Enter <Setup> at startup.
a) Under Config -> Serial ATA (SATA) Set the SATA Controller Mode Option to [Compatibility].
b) Under Security -> Predesktop Area Set the Access Predesktop Area to [Disabled].
c) Save and Exit Setup

2) In the Ghost GUI, select Options-> Image/Tape tab, select Image Boot and Accept.

3) Upload your image as normal using Ghostcast.

MULTICASTING THE IMAGE

ON EACH CLIENT MACHINE:
1) Enter <Setup> at startup.
a) Under Config -> Serial ATA (SATA) Set the SATA Controller Mode Option to [Compatibility].
b) Under Security -> Predesktop Area Set the Access Predesktop Area to [Disabled].
Save and Exit Setup

2) In the Ghost GUI, select Options-> Image/Tape tab, select Image Boot and Accept. (You can script this at your leisure...)

3) Multicast to the Client Machines.

CLEAN UP:
ON EACH CLIENT MACHINE:
1) Enter <Setup> at startup.
a) Under Config -> Serial ATA (SATA) Set the SATA Controller Mode Option to [AHCI].
b) Under Security -> Predesktop Area Set the Access Predesktop Area to [Normal].
Save and Exit Setup


I hope this helps someone out. I know it would have saved me alot of headaches.....

Ian

[sapsteve]

Ian,

I want thanks you for taking time to post this topic. I had fits with enterprise ghost trying to create a ghost Image of T60. We were using an older version of ghost enterprise 7.0, but in the past I was able create and multicast of SCSI, SATA and ATA drives. I was able to create and multicast image of T4X, but T60 would not work. Based on your post I think the problem is to do with SATA mode. I will try this to night and post back my results tomorrow.

Steve

[at339]

Here's another helping hand for those who have encountered the problem of the T60's hard drive being invisible in the Ghost Recovery environment (Ghost booted from the CD) when the T60's SATA controller is in AHCI mode...

The trick is to simply email Symantec at "nic_drivers@symantec.com" and request an update for the Lenovo Thinkpad T60 and they'll send you a ftp link from which to download a new Recovery CD .iso file that is updated to include the AHCI driver.

This means you'll know longer need to switch to Compatibility mode!

Enjoy!

[Cassirer]

for what it is worth I have tried a number of ways of making an image -- including the Ghost, IBM's B&R, and TrueImage ... and I must say that TrueImage has proven to be the best, most reliable, and simpliest solution. It is by far faster than the other two, it is reliable, it takes up less space in the secured partition, I can recover with a boot and the recovery time is about 15 minutes, and it has never failed. I back up my documents automatically and it does it without interferring with my work -- I am not sure why they call it Ghost? Because it hunts your system and does things without you knowing? Certainly not because it works without being seen. The problem with all of Symantec products is that they are designed to be in your face? Only this way do most users know they are working.

again for what it is worth try TrueImage

Steve

[snife]

I've not really done any testing to try and resolve it but all imaging software seems slow on the *60 range.

Truimage took about 2 hours for 8gb worth of image and ghost/drive image are taking about 30 minutes for 2gb worth of image.

I would have the SATA set to compatibility - has anyone else experienced similar speed issues?

[Cassirer]

2 hours

I have almost 20G and TrueImage does it in 30 to 40 minutes every time. Perhaps you are using the most compressed level which does take longer but does not really save that much space.

Steve

[at339]

One of the primary and overwhelming reasons I prefer using Ghost instead of TrueImage is because a Ghost image can be directly opened and run on a *completely separate computer* using the FREE VMware Player. This is a monumental advancement in recovering from a hardware failure!

You simply take your Ghost image file, plug it into any other Windows (or Linux) PC, download and install the free VMware Player, click Open, point to your Ghost image file and literally RUN your entire T60 operating system and ALL of your apps and data instantly, just as if it all was reallly running on your T60! (of course, this disaster recovery method is not just limited to T60's, it applies to any Windows PC that Ghost can backup).

BTW, hardware driver compatibility and all that other frustrating stuff is handled transparently by VMware.

Talk about an incredibly simple and ultra-fast way to get back up and running with all your apps, data and settings!

[Cassirer]

I have VMware on my system because I use Linux a lot ... and had never thought about this ...

too bad you could not but the image on a USB stick because you could use the same system at home and work

will look into this but for the time being I will continue with TrueImage as it is set up and working

having enough trouble with the CSS 7 ... made the mistake of loading

steve

[Dimitri_P]

for what it is worth I have tried a number of ways of making an image -- including the Ghost, IBM's B&R, and TrueImage ... and I must say that TrueImage has proven to be the best, most reliable, and simpliest solution. It is by far faster than the other two, it is reliable, it takes up less space in the secured partition, I can recover with a boot and the recovery time is about 15 minutes, and it has never failed. I back up my documents automatically and it does it without interferring with my work -- I am not sure why they call it Ghost? Because it hunts your system and does things without you knowing? Certainly not because it works without being seen. The problem with all of Symantec products is that they are designed to be in your face? Only this way do most users know they are working.

again for what it is worth try TrueImage

Steve

Now try putting that image on a smaller and/or bigger hard drive, than original...

Good luck, won't boot, and fixing MBR won't help either

[goku]

Do you happend to have the correct drives to use with the gost cast server 8.3 i have tried many different ways and had not luck with this matter. Any suggestions would be helpfull.

thank you

Goku

[Dimitri_P]

Do you happend to have the correct drives to use with the gost cast server 8.3 i have tried many different ways and had not luck with this matter. Any suggestions would be helpfull.

thank you

Goku

Seriously, forget about Ghost, will not do the job right in the end anyway.

Try Acronis Snap Deploy for those purposes.

[goku]

Do you happend to know were I can get a compy of the program. Also do you have the Netowrk drivers for the Ghost boot disk i found out that it works but its missing some files from it.

thank you

goku

[Dimitri_P]

acronis.com

[foryourinformation]

I just contacted the NIC_Drivers@symantec.com e-mail address, and the guy there told me that they can ONLY add NIC or Storage drivers to Norton Ghost 10 (Consumer Product), Norton Save and Restore (Consumer Product), LiveState Recovery (Enterprise Product) or Backup Exec System Recovery (Enterprise Product). If you are needing to add drivers for Symantec (not Norton) Ghost then you will need to contact Symantec's technical support.

[tevelision]

I just wanted to say thank you to the ThinkPads.com Forum and especially RG4ORDR for posting this very helpful thread. I'm using Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) to create and deploy images to all of the computers in our company network. We just got in 3 new T61p laptops, and for some reason they kept failing at image deployment. After scouring google, I ran across this thread and the advice worked!

All I had to do was set SATA Controller Mode to [Compatibility] before taking the image. I didn't see "Predesktop Area" anywhere in the BIOS Security Menu, so I just skipped over that step. I guess this feature was left out of the T61p.

Other sites said to try using the -ib switch, but that didn't make any difference in my scenario.

Anyways, thank you! Thank you! ThinkPads.com rules!

[crashnburn]

One of the primary and overwhelming reasons I prefer using Ghost instead of TrueImage is because a Ghost image can be directly opened and run on a *completely separate computer* using the FREE VMware Player. This is a monumental advancement in recovering from a hardware failure!

You simply take your Ghost image file, plug it into any other Windows (or Linux) PC, download and install the free VMware Player, click Open, point to your Ghost image file and literally RUN your entire T60 operating system and ALL of your apps and data instantly, just as if it all was reallly running on your T60! (of course, this disaster recovery method is not just limited to T60's, it applies to any Windows PC that Ghost can backup).

BTW, hardware driver compatibility and all that other frustrating stuff is handled transparently by VMware.

Talk about an incredibly simple and ultra-fast way to get back up and running with all your apps, data and settings!

Wow - I had no idea you could do that with Ghost images. When did that change happen during the Ghost Versions?