Norton Ghost command line restore

[Shadowmistress]

I'm using Norton Ghost 2002 ver 7 to clone and restore my hardrive. I had entered the registration number on install ages ago and made the bootable floppy but the program still requires I re-enter the license number every time I do a restore (the one on the splash screen). I just never figured out a way around that.

Recently, I got a new comp and gave my old one to my comp-illiterate mom so she could learn to surf and stuff. Well, soon enough as expected, she totally mucked things up. I had made an image of the C: drive and parked it on the second physical drive D: but now I have to go over to her house to run the ghost program every time she screws things up.

I'm looking to write a bat file where she can just type "help" from the C: prompt and ghost will just restore the clone completely unattended. My problem is that what I've got so far works only up until the screen where I must enter the license number. It opens and sits there waiting for input. I have the license number, but I don't know how to get it typed into the box automatically (no, mom can't be trusted to do it, she'll screw things up). I've looked into command line switches provided by symantec, but I can't find a solution to unattended restoring.

So far, my bat file looks like this:

cd D:\ghost\ghost
ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=load,src=D:\rescue.gho,dst=1

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[promark]

Well this intrigued me so did a bit of research it seems like it cannot be done but you could try this create a text file with the license number in with a carriage return at the end and save on pc or i guess you could put on the floppy now the trick bit your batch files will need to include this

ghostpe.exe /force <filename.txt

ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=load,src=D:\rescue.gho,dst=1

buit not sure of how would fit with the other cli options you would need to play
like i said a bit of a shot in the dark... here is where i found it

http://www.computing.net/programming/wwwboard/forum/12812.html

What OS are you you using? if XP would not system restore be so much easier

Good Luck

Thinking about it would have to go before all the other CLI options

[Shadowmistress]

That didn't work.

I'm using win98 on both systems and the reason I prefer a clone to a restore is that I can copy empty sectors as well. This gets rid of any internet garbage or viruses the computer has picked up by overwriting them.

When making the ghost disk the program asked me for a dos disk, so I'm pretty sure that's the language I'm dealing with. What I need is the command or syntax to have dos input the password as if it were coming straight from the keyboard. I can just put it on the second line I would imagine.

When it halts now, it's at a screen where you can only input information in one place and the cursor is already there blinking, waiting for input. I just can't remember all the old dos commands.

[ozymango]

We used to use Ghost all the time to do imaging (I work for a college) and I dunno if the "home" version has the same options as the pro stuff, but you can take a look and see if you have a file named "ghost.env" in the same folder your ghost.exe file is at. When you enter a license number (in Ghost 7 EE, anyway), it generates the .env file and you can "register" that to your executable so it won't ask for the license number whenever you run the program.

Normally the ghost.env file is in the ghost program folder, but who knows, maybe it gets written somewhere else in the home version. Anyway, search your system for a file named "ghost.env" or "ghostpe.env" or whatever matches the "ghost" executable name minus the extension name. If that made sense.

If (here's hoping) you find an .env file, copy both the ghost.exe and .env files to a bootable floppy, boot the floppy, and at the DOS prompt type-

GHOST -#E=XXXXX.ENV

where xxxx is the name of your env file. This should register the serial/license number to the executable; then just copy both these files to a safe place and you can use them in whatever script or CD or whatever you create to restore an image.

If there's not .env file in the home version then I dunno what else to try, sorry. But hopefully there is and this'll work for you. Good luck!

[dipstick]

See if you can get Ghost 2001. It doesn't ask for serial# when restoring image. Then you can use an automated batch file to restore. Ghost 2001 is more than up to the task of restoring Win98.

[Shadowmistress]

GHOST -#E=XXXXX.ENV didn't work. It said that the disk is now registered but the window to input the license number still popped up. Tried it several times and still wouldn't change.

Ghost 2001 is very difficult to find. They're up to 2005 now.


A friend on another board did turn me onto keyboard stuffers though. I was able to copy Stuffit to the ghost floppy and modified the autoexec file so that Stuffit automatically enteres the license number. The autoexec looked like this:

@echo off
MOUSE.COM
LH \MSCDEX.EXE /D:cd1 /D:cd2 /D:cd3
CD GHOST
echo Loading...
Stuffit ' ' +60 "###license number###" +1 13 +1 13 +1 "y" 
ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=load,src=D:\rescue.gho,dst=1 
cls 
@echo Please *** REMOVE THE FLOPPY DISK *** and *** RESTART YOUR COMPUTER *** now

Now all she has to do is pop the floppy in, start the comp and then pop the floppy out and restart to get a fresh new comp setup. I did have to go into the ghost options on the floppy and set and save the exit to dos feature though. Now she never has to bug me about fixing it again.

[jimmalenko]

WOW !


That's pretty kewl, SM. Glad to hear you got it sorted