GHOST Software Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the purpose of the DEMO?
A. For testing GHOST, determining what it does, and how it works. The DEMO is NOT for commercial gain or profit. It is not to be used as a migration tool, it is for evaluation only.

Q. Does GHOST resize FAT32 partitions?
A. Yes. GHOST clones and resizes FAT32 without difficulty. A common question regarding FAT32 is if GHOST will convert a FAT16 partition to a FAT32 partition. The answer to this is no - GHOST replicates, it does not convert.

Q. Does GHOST support resizable NTFS partitions?
A. Versions 3.1 and greater support NTFS resizing.

Q. Does GHOST allow me to specify saving and loading partitions?
A. Versions 3.1 and greater support partition selection.

Q. Does GHOST support spanning of multiple JAZ or ZIP media?
A. Yes.

Q. Does GHOST support writing directly to a SCSI tape drive?
A. Versions 3.2 and greater support writing directly to SCSI DAT devices. You must load your ASPI driver to gain access to your tape device at a DOS level.

Q. Can GHOST compress an image file?
A. Yes. There are 2 levels of compression available via the GHOST menu interface and 9 levels of compression available via its command line options. Please see the -Z switch in the switches.txt file.

Q. Will GHOST save and load UNIX and NetWare drives?
A. GHOST should be able to save and load UNIX and NetWare volumes. However, resizability is not available and hardware must be the same.

Q. Does GHOST support Macintosh?
A. No.

Q. How is GHOST priced and licensed?
A. GHOST is licensed and priced based on how many end workstations that you use GHOST on. For example, if you use GHOST to prepare 200 workstations for Windows95, you must purchase a 200 machine license pack. Please contact a distributor to discuss your licensing needs.

Q. Do I run GHOST inside the operating system such as Win95, NT or OS/2?
A. GHOST will run inside of Win3.x and Win95. GHOST will not execute properly inside WinNT or OS/2. Even though you may successfully create images in Win3.x or Win95, you will need to create a DOS recovery bootdisk in the event you have no operating system to boot into.

Q. If I don't run GHOST inside the OS, how should I launch GHOST?
A. It is best to execute GHOST at the "true DOS" level, not a DOS window inside the O.S.. Hitting F8 at the "Starting Windows95..." display works well, or you can create a bootable DOS diskette and run GHOST from it. To create the DOS diskette, insert a blank floppy diskette, type "format a: /s" at a DOS prompt and copy GHOST to it.

Q. I know I should launch GHOST outside the OS, but then I don't have access to the Network, JAZ, ZIP or CD-ROM drive for saving and loading disk images. How do I work around this?
A. Create a bootable diskette with nothing on it but the DOS based drivers or network stack required for access to these devices. See our GHOST Operation page at http://www.ghosthelp.com for additional information.

Q. I just downloaded the DEMO, launched GHOST, got an error message stating "Invalid System Date". What does this error mean?
A. GHOST DEMO versions check system date and all files to verify the trial time period. There is most likely a file, or set of files, beyond the DEMO timeout range. For Example, if the DEMO times out on March 1st, 1997 and GHOST finds a file beyond that date (May 13th, 1997), it will timeout. The only way around this error is find the file and "touch" it or move the file(s) to a floppy and delete it from your hard drive. The registered version does not check file dates.

Q. I go to launch GHOST and it reports the error "Bad GET Parameter...". What does this mean?
A. If you have two drives in the system, be certain that only one is master, and one is slave. If FDISK fails to load, the master/slave relationship is NOT proper. If you have just one drive in the system, ensure that all cables are firm and that FDISK can load and see the drive properly.

Q. I'm running Norton Anti-Virus. After a GHOST clone NAV comes up with an error on boot-up.. I select "Repair". After that the machine does NOT boot and the partition information is wrong. The hard drive is corrupt. What happened?
A. Unfortunately the selection for this is a bit misleading. The proper selection is "Innoculate". The "Repair" option tries to restore the native partition size and FAT information. The "Innoculate" option deletes the original NAV FAT table and rebuilds it fresh. Choose "Innoculate", not "Repair".

Q. I accidentally specified the wrong cloning, is there any way to restore the original contents?
A. No. GHOST completely overwrites the target drive. Select your drives carefully. If you have two identical drives, you could remove all partitions from your destination drive with fdisk before the cloning process. This way you know, beyond a doubt, which is your source drive (which contains one or more partitions) and which is your destination drive (which contains no partitions).

Q. I'm using an earlier version of GHOST, and it fails with COMPAQ system diagnostic partitions. Do you have a fix for this?
A. Version 1.6.7 and beyond fixes this for DEMO versions. Version 2.0.7 and beyond fixes this for registered users.

Q. What network protocols does GHOST support?
A. For Network Clients: GHOST supports ArcNET, Ethernet and Token Ring, TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI. As long as you have the clients loaded, and resources mapped, GHOST can save and load to and from these resources.
For Multicasting: GHOST (version 5 or greater) supports TCP/IP and Token Ring.

Q. I'm using GHOST to save an image file up to a server. I'm using a boot disk as instructed. I am running TCP/IP. GHOST takes a long time to save and load an "image" to and from the server. Why?
A. GHOST rides the network layer or "stack" created. Not all stacks work the same as the next. GHOST only executes as fast as the network layer that you've created. The stack may work well normally, saving files normally, but GHOST will ride the stack more aggressively. You may have to experiment with different clients.

Q. I'm using a Xircom Pocket Ethernet adapter, and GHOST fails. Why?
A. GHOST supports parallel port cloning, as such, you may lose your network connection through the parallel port network adapter on PE1 or PE2. PE3 seems to be a better network adapter for stability. Drivers and BIOS levels on these devices may also play a role in stability. Try using PCMCIA for faster, more stable connections.

Q. After cloning and restarting with various NIC cards with Windows95, Windows95 keeps finding a new NIC card. The NIC card is the same as on my model machine. Why?
A. Plug and Play, at times will "see" and "find" devices twice or more. To avoid this, remove the device and all the protocols from the model BEFORE saving the image or cloning. After cloning, restart, Windows95 will "See" and "Find" the card for the first time, then add the clients, etc.

Q. Can I use Windows NT 4.0 Client Administrator to create a Multicast boot disk?
A. No. A TCP/IP boot disk created using the NT 4.0 Client Administrator is NOT compatible with GHOST Multicasting. GHOST includes it own internal TCP/IP stack which can not be run while another TCP/IP stack is loaded. See Multicast Client on our GHOST Operations page at http://www.ghosthelp.com for helpful information.

Q. Why does GHOST need a Packet Driver for Multicasting?
A. GHOST’s internal TCP/IP stack uses a packet driver to communicate to the network card. The Packet Driver specification allows Software writer in DOS to access the Network card capabilities. The Multicast documentation outlines two methods for installing a packet driver so GHOST Multicasting can be used.

Q. Which Packet Driver setup option is best to use with GHOST Multicasting?
A. The two documented options are:
   1. NDIS drivers with a packet driver shim.
   2. Network card dependent packet driver.

Option 1 - Network card dependent packet drivers Network card dependent packet drivers require less effort to set up. They are not always supplied with some network cards. Some packet drivers are not completely compatible with Multicasting and require additional configuration to work correctly.

Option 2- NDIS drivers and a packet Driver Shim NDIS drivers are included with network cards more often than packet drivers. The setup of a NDIS boot disk currently requires more steps to be carried out. They do not have the Multicasting compatibility issues that some network card dependent packet drivers have.

Q. What is a Packet Driver Shim and why do I need it?
A. There are several types of drivers available for network cards. These include the Microsoft/3Com defined NDIS drivers, Novell ODI drivers, and Packet Drivers as well as several others. A packet Driver shim allows the user to use a -non packet driver- driver to provide access the network interface cards services and uses this driver to give GHOST Multicasting and other applications a packet driver interface to communicate to.

Q. The Multicasting option is greyed out in GHOST. Why can’t I use GHOST Multicasting?
A. The Multicasting option will not be available if there is no packet driver interface setup on the computer GHOST is running on. Alternatively, the option is disabled when the version of GHOST being used, or the license of GHOST, does not include GHOST Multicasting as an available feature.

To enable GHOST Multicasting, set the system up to have a packet driver interface installed as demonstrated in the Multicast Client area on our GHOST Operations page at http://www.ghosthelp.com, or contact your local distributor for further details on upgrading to a Multicast license.

Q. I have set up the packet driver for my Network Interface Card (NIC) and GHOST is unable to contact or connect to the GHOST Multicast Server. What do I do next?

A. 1. Ensure you are using the latest version of the GHOST Multicast Client and GHOST Multicast Server. Check that they are both of the same version number. For example, GHOST version 5.0 build "d" and GHOSTSRV version 5.0 build "a" are compatible.
   2. Check that all NIC’s and cables are correctly connected.
   3. Check that the NIC has been set up correctly using the setup program included with the NIC.
   4. Check the setup of the driver. Read the documentation for the driver you are using, and note if there are any special options needed to be used for your network setup.

For an NDIS 2 Driver, review the documentation or example protocol.ini file included with the NDIS 2 driver and add in any additional parameters into the protocol.ini file on the boot disks PC_CARD section.

For a Packet Driver, review the documentation and command line options for the packet driver and add any additional switches and values.

   5. Check the wattcp.cfg file and/or DHCP/BOOTP Settings. Check all TCP/IP configuration settings. Ensure both the server and client have valid IP addresses and are on the same subnet with the correct subnet mask. If routers are present between the client and server, ensure the gateway is set up on the local subnet and is specified in the wattcp.cfg file or the BOOTP/DHCP response.
   6. If you are running the GHOST Multicast Server on Windows 95, and you have not already installed the Winsock 2 update, then download it from http://www.ghosthelp.com/downloads/multidl/ws2setup.zip.
   7. Start the GHOST Multicast Server and set up the session name and file name for the Multicast session. Press accept clients.
   8. Start the GHOST Multicast Client and attempt to contact the Multicast session. Check that the session names are identical.
   9. If this fails, and you are using an Ethernet NIC, retest with an alternative receive mode of the Packet Driver. Add the line RECEIVE_MODE=x in the WATTCP.CFG file (where x can be 4, 5 or 6. 4 is default.). Refer to GHOST User Guide Appendix D for more details. Token Ring uses receive mode 3 and currently does not need this to be specified in the WATTCP.CFG file.
   10. Try an alternative packet driver set-up for the NIC. For example, If you are trying to use the NIC's packet driver, then set up the NDIS 2 DOS driver with the GHOST supplied NDIS Packet Driver shim.
   11. Start the GHOST Multicast Server and GHOST Multicast Client with full Multicast logging (ALL logging setting). For details on how to do this, refer to the GHOST User Guide Appendix G. These logs will assist in further diagnosing the problem.
   12. If you require further assistance, contact GHOST Technical Support and provide full details of the problem along with the Multicast logs generated.

Need more help? Please visit our Technical Support Web Site at http://www.ghosthelp.com.