Question about whether Ghost 2003 disk is bootable

[jimdagys]

I have a Ghost 2003 install disk (over 100mb) that installs Ghost. In the past, I have made a rescue DVD disk ( and this disk boots the computer into Ghost), but this time I put a Ghost backup image on the D drive. I thought I could use the original Ghost 2003 install disk to boot the computer into Ghost to access the backup image. I tried with 2 different XP computers, but the disk doesn't seem to be bootable. One one computer, I was able to start PC Dos, navigate to the cd drive and find ghost.exe on the cd (inside SUPPORT folder) and then start Ghost to access the backup image. However, on a second computer, I couldn't seem to find any way to start PC Dos.
My question is:
1) How come the Ghost 2003 install disk doesn't boot the computer into Ghost? Is it possible to get another Ghost 2003 install disk that will boot the computer into Ghost? It seems very useful to have the original install disk be able to boot the computer into Ghost.
2) On the second computer, why couldn't I start PC Dos? Doesn't every xp computer have PC Dos as part of the motherboard? Or is PC Dos a separate program that must be installed? If Windows is completely corrupted, will PC Dos remain usable?
Thanks for the answers to these questions.

[biviray]

I Use a floppy boot disk made from 98 with Ghost 2003 files or folder. Then made a bootable CD from floppy. If you know how to use DOS then you can make it boot and run Ghost 2003.

[stiltman]

I would make sure the DVD/CD is set as first in the boot order in the BIOS.
Yes, the Ghost 2003 is bootable.

However, what I usually do is,
Install ghost
Use the Floppy disc wizard, Create the disc I want
Use winImage to save the floppy to an image file
Create bootable Disc with winImage file and include the ghost gho file(s) on the CD/DVD

[Nelson37]

1. In order to boot from the CD, you have to tell the computer to, guess what, boot from the CD. It does not "boot into" Ghost, it boots an operating system and then runs Ghost.

2. DOS built-in to the motherboard? This is actually possible, but extremely rare. Most mobo have no OS, they access it from a disk drive. Modern Windows no longer boots DOS, it boots Windows. The DOS you appear to see is actually more of an imitation than an actual Operating System. You want to boot from some disk OTHER than the one you are imaging.

[TimA-C]

I seem to remember that there were a number of updates that improved using Ghost 2003 with SATA and USB drives but you need to install ghost, run the liveupdate and then generate a boot floppy from the updated version. Then you can make a bootable CD or DVD using the newly created floppy as a boot source. If you have problems getting past the splash screen and you have SATA drives then you may need to start Ghost with the -noide switch. Installing Ghost also installes the Ghost Explorer which allows you to browse a backup image and restore individual files/directories.

[stiltman]

The major problem is ghost uses/used to use DOS as it's OS. That places a LOT of restrictions on you right off the bat.

I would use BartPE or similar for booting into a 32bit OS and it also can load many many more device drivers too.

I would also search the net for ghost32.exe

BTW, that's what i switched to and have not looked back

[Nelson37]

My version of Ghost is a lot older that 2003 and I have had no trouble at all going IDE to SATA or the other direction.

I use Ghost almost exclusively to make bit-for-bit drive duplicates, usually to a larger drive. The use of a DOS floppy or CD IMO is an advantage, not a problem. The OS is irrelevant when making such a copy.

To me, you either make a complete bootable disk copy, or you just back up data. Ghost is not a data backup tool, it is a drive duplicating tool.

If you backup an image file onto the primary HD, that is just silly. If you put it on a secondary, that's fine but if the primary fails, now you need a third drive to restore the image file onto. If you use Ghost without a boot disk, thru the OS, then you will first need to install the OS in order to run your restore.

[TimA-C]

Ghost 2003 has it's pros and cons. It is OS independent which is a plus and once it recognises source & target drives it has never let me down. I can't think of any other backup utils I've tried that I can say that about! Having said that, I will hunt out Ghost32 and give it a go. Thanks.