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ROT: Bloody Windoze - or is it???

Right, I've loads and loads of Dell Poweredge servers all happily running *nix distros of various flavours without hassle. Got a spare one here and decided to try and do a bit of learning about Windows - specifically W2K Advanced Server. (This is all so I can offer some support to a local voluntary group - and W2K is what they have the 'Certificate of Authenticity' for!).

Right - got it installed, got all of the zillions of service packs and updates on, did a nice basic config then - as I do on the linux boxes, decided to back it all up before playing so I can roll back when I bugger it up.

Obviously Doze doesn't have rsync - but I've used Ghost a fair amount and it's always been fine - so, decided to ghost one drive to 't other with the clone (I've done this lots before...)

Server shuts down Doze, loads PC Dos - starts Ghost then hangs - overnight. I reboot this morning and it's all fecked - the ghost partition is there - and hidden away is the Doze partition (NTFS), but cannot get any further.

OK - load the W2K CD, drop into consol mode, see the Doze partition, login as root (or "Administrator" as doze like to call it) and run the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands (the same as fdisk /mbr) - reboot, still fecked...

Now, tisn't an issue as I can reinstall and have lost nout, but WTF happened? Is it likely to be anything to do with the drives being SATA? Do I need to get a more recent version of Ghost (currently using 2003)?

Finally, should the drive have contained all the accounts or whatever, what would I have done (more importantly, had I done it at the customers, how would I have got the old partition back?).

I really hate windows but will not be beaten...

... easily...

Reply to
Mother
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Put a proper OS on the box then put VMWare Server on top, f*ck about, get used to winblows, then once you're comfortable then you can put it on it properly. With VMWare Server (which is free) you can even set up a virtual network of virtual machines using virtual network cards, virtual subnets and so on so you can prototype common setups, e.g. a domain server, backup domain server, and a desktop box, all using the one machine and all with a snapshot facility to get you out of trouble so you can experiment freely.

Other than that, I can't help with windoze problems ;-)

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

I've been using VMWare for kin years - this wouldn't help me to deploy what needs to be deployed - in other words, I need to do it in real-time, on the same platform and with the same config that will be rolled out eventually. I generally advise customers who use windows to try Ghost - and make regular clones. I'm wondering if this is still good advice if Microsloth or Dell have done something to break an otherwise foolproof strategy.

Agree totally with your sentiments - though.

Reply to
Mother

Is the Doze partition marked as active?

Reply to
EMB

I had the same issue years ago with a box. Turned out it was Ghost. I changed the Ghost boot OS from PC DOS to MS DOS and all was well.

No idea why ...

Karen

Reply to
Karen Gallagher

Ive never had any luck backing up with ghost using the hidden partition/same machine stuff, it always seems to bugger up the machine i try it on. I always back it up using the DOS client over the network onto a mapped drive and this seems to work perfectly all the time.

Also - the newer versions of ghost are nothing like the older ones (up to 2003). They dont run from dos for starters. I bought a newer version but it didnt work under windows server (which considering that i bought it after reading a symantec knowledgebase article saying that it did pissed me off somewhat!). It did however come with a free copy of the old version in the box! (which tells you something..) Stick with the DOS version. you can also get away without installing it in windows and just boot off the CD to use it (or roll your own boot disk)

Reply to
Tom Woods

On or around Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:53:03 +0100, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

there's an oxymoron if ever I saw one.

I wouldn't touch anything that's been near symantec with a long barge pole.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Feck it! Why couldn't you have posted this before I went out and bought Ghost 10 last night and found exactly what you point out. WTF doesn't it work with W2K Server???

Reply to
Mother

Generally yes, I'd agree (more so now), however Ghost was the only Norton prog I'd ever have recommended - having used it a great deal myself.

Reply to
Mother

What else is there for disk cloning anyway ?

Steve

Reply to
steve

Knoppix and dd, works a treat for me ;-)

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

I was fairly pissed off too!. I actually bought ghost 10 after trying to clone a raided windows server with the DOS ghost and it failing and then reading on the site that the newer version would do it. Since it wouldnt even run under the OS it was a bit useless! I thought it was funny that the new version was obviously so good that it comes with a free copy of the old version...

Reply to
Tom Woods

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