Creating Ghost Image

[Migration User]

Hi There - I was going to ask if there was a limit to the number of GHS files when creating an image - as the one I am trying has failed twice at exacty 6 GHS files (Ghost 11 - Solution Suite 2.5.1) - but sounds like the poster is able to get more than 6. Any ideas why mine would be failing?  Actually the 6th file is "only" 1.6 gig.. but the whole thing is at about 85%.  Should I try your switches and see if that will get it to work?  Any other thoughts would be appreciated..  Thank you.

[Edward Tippelt]

What error message is displayed?  

What is your environment?   Are you using compression?

There is no specific limit to the number of GHS files that can be created. Could you be running out of storage space on your target system?  Are you imaging a file that the antivirus detects as a virus, thus blocking the system from reading the file?  I would recommend running CHKDSK on your source volume and then running an antivirus scan to ensure that the volume is healthy. You could also try the -split=0 switch to generate a single GHO file and determine whether your imaging process stops at the same point.

[Migration User]

Compression = High, No space issues on Target,

On the PC I was trying to image from was something "could not allocate the page table memory - so first I found that the Hard Drive was set Raid - so I changed it - maybe I put it "to" AHCI - but I think I did not - not sure - I am not at the pc this weekend.. It did have Raid as part of the option I picked.. They all seemed to have Raid.. I have done Many other Dell Optiplex 780's just like this one.. I will check the bios on another one in the a.m. and see what it's set to.. and I will try the split=0 - I didn't realize (until I read that other forum last night) that you could even do that. I had put an existing image onto this PC. Done some windows updates and added some software (big - Visual Studio 2010), sysprepped it and was then trying to take an image.. We do this all the time. I doubt an issue w/antivirus only because we do this all the time with the same machines, same setup and the same symantec antivirus software.

If anything I wrote here gives you other ideas for me - please let me know..Otherwise, I'll try those suggestuions in the a.m. - the split 0 and/or the chkdsk..

Thank you so much for your prompt response.

[Edward Tippelt]

I forgot to ask, but are you booting to DOS or WinPE?  The reference to page table memory made me look for a past posting by Nigel Bree, one of the Ghost developers. Here is the text of the original question and answer:

 

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Could not allocate page table memory

I am getting this error trying utilizing Ghost 11.5.1.2266 from a boot CD trying to image a Dell OptiPlex 755.  I have the SATA set to ATA, and still no joy.  I'm at a loss for what to try next.

This is most likely a defect in the Dell BIOS

Some years ago reports of failures to allocate memory started appearing in Dell machines; this is due to a design fault in the machine BIOS; there are a number of BIOS APIs to report the available extended memory in the machine, and the DOS-extender software used to run 32-bit code in DOS tries a number of them in sequence.

In many Dell machines, all these various APIs return a single fixed size, typically 16Mb, which is the capacity limit of the very oldest of the APIs. On normal BIOSes all the APIs return different sizes depending on the era in which they were introduced, but Dell machines force Ghost to work in merely 16Mb of memory.

The workaround I developed for this many years ago was to ask customers to use the FreeDOS equivalent of the classic DOS HIMEM.SYS extension. That utility understands the relatively new ACPI data table BIOS API introduced in the Windows 95 era, which is the only BIOS API that works properly in these Dell models. This then makes the results of that one working API available to Ghost's DOS extender via the XMS API, and so running the FreeDOS HIMEM.EXE will let Ghost use a great deal more of the installed memory than a mere 16Mb.

Unfortunately because FreeDOS is not licensed cleanly it can't be bundled or redistributed by Symantec alongside Ghost, but it's easy enough to obtain this tool by itself and include it in the PC-DOS templates used by the Ghost Boot Wizard, since it does work as a drop-in replacement for the IBM one.

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I hope this helps you get it working if I have correctly targetted your issue

[Migration User]

We are using DOS - unfortunately for purposes of knowing the resolution - we changed several things at once and were successful:

I double checked the drive setting in the bios and I had set it to Raid ACHI, so I changed that to Raid SATA.. (but my own PC is set to RAID even though we're not using that)

We used Ghost 11.5.1 exe the following switches  -ws -wd where last friday I was using Ghost 11.5 exe with no switches - although I don't see how these would have an affect - but anyway, we were successful. 

Sorry I didn't try these things individually - basically I just used someone else's flash drive to boot from and call Ghost and after it worked I looked to see what was diffferent.

Thanks so much for your help.. Also - I had seen that guy's post above on Friday - but it didn't really make sense for my situation.. I have imaged lots of these PC's but recently messed up my flash drive that I boot from.. However I have used it successfully on other PC's.

[Edward Tippelt]

Glad to hear you have got it sorted. ;-)

[Migration User]

Thanks again for all of your prompt replies.