Working drivers for broadcom 5720 qp 1gb to use with boot wizard

[Migration User]

Hey everyone im attempting to make an image of our Dell R720 rack server. I pulled off the cover and grabbed the model number of the NIC and discovered that its a broadcom 5720 qp 1gb. I feel like ive tried a ton of drivers with no luck. Ive emailed Broadcom and they sent me this link that has Vista drivers http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_desktop.php . However it says its for desktop and doesnt show the model of my nic. Ive found these drivers and it says its for a server and matches my nic http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_server.php . Either way ive tried both and neither grabs an IP from the router it will say "Local IP 127.0.0.1" when I boot up to the Ghost32 program. Im wondering can you use a USB to Ethernet NIC card with the ghost32 program?? Or will people install a different NIC on the motherboard just to do this if they cant get their current card to work??

[Edward Tippelt]

OK, it looks like you are part way there, but I will cover a few points just in case.  If you have more than one NIC in your server, I think there may be issues, as I seem to recall a discussion a long time ago that specified that Ghost would only work with one NIC. 

For the version of WinPE included with GSS 2.5.1.2266, you need to use 32 bit VISTA drivers, regardless of the operating system you are imaging. It looks like you have already been pointed in this direction, but I would emphasise the 32 bit aspect, as the WinPE build used is 32 bit.  It is unusual for Vista drivers to be made available for a server, as Vista was never released as a server operating system. Trying drivers intended for your chipset under Vista is probably the best way to go.

If you are able to boot the server to a Windows operating system, you can go into device manager via Control Panel, locate the NIC device, and then look for the hardware ID and make a note of it. Your candidate drivers will consist of a .INF .SYS and .CAT file as a minimum, with maybe some DLLs as well. The INF file, if opened in a text editor, should contain at least one hardware ID, and for the drivers to be loaded by the plug and play subsystem, the hardware ID of the NIC must be located in one of the INF files available to the operating system.

Fortunately, WinPE offers a way of loading candidate driver sets from the command line, so that you can test a number of drivers without creating new boot images or even rebooting. See this article for details of how to use DRVLOAD: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH122799

Once you have found a driver that allows you to run IPCONFIG /release and /renew successfully, you can then add it via Ghost Boot Wizard, make sure it is selected, and then burn your boot image.

[Migration User]

If you have more than one NIC in your server, I think there may be issues, as I seem to recall a discussion a long time ago that specified that Ghost would only work with one NIC. 

This server has one quad port NIC and I also spotted a ethernet connection called IDRAC on the back but I have yet to figure out what it does. 

 

Ive downloaded this driver http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_server.php?archive=1 under the Vista 32 bit link and I also copied the hardware ID on the NIC driver and was able to locate it in the INF file of this driver. 

 

At this point we would even settle for temporarily installing another NIC that works with the Ghost software or perhaps a USB Nic adapter.

[Edward Tippelt]

If you have a spare NIC to substitute for the quad port, then by all means give it a try.

[Migration User]

Im not too familiar with the PXE boot however I was curious about it..I do have an option for PXE upon bootup on the server but I have never created a boot disk with 3Com Boot enabled. Its always been using the standard TCP/IP boot. Ive read something about using TFTP but I dont know much about it. If I cant get in using Win PE 512 could running the PXE do what needs to be done?

[Edward Tippelt]

No, as the function of PXE is to load a "loader" program that in turn loads your boot environment. Consequently, you would, in effect, be booting the same WinPE configuration that is not working for you now.

[Migration User]

No, as the function of PXE is to load a "loader" program that in turn loads your boot environment. Consequently, you would, in effect, be booting the same WinPE configuration that is not working for you now.

 

Ahh okay yeah that wouldnt work then..Well my boss went out to try to find a additional NIC that def has Vista 32 bit drivers to install temporiarily to grab an image. Few questions

• Is there any reason why the NIC would not be enabled if its not in the OS?? I've checked the bios settings and it says Port 1 on the Nic will be enabled so im sure its fine.
• Does Symantec relase updates with current drivers periodically or is it just up to the purchaser of the product to hunt down more drivers? 

[Edward Tippelt]

Which NIC are you referring to?  The replacement NIC or the four port NIC?

Regarding updates, the latest release is 2266 and there will be no further releases to this ancient revision as the Ghost development team was disbanded some years ago, and maintenance in the form of specific patches to identified issues are now handled out of Pune, India.

Realistically, the rapid growth in portable hardware means there are ever more chipsets that need supporting, so it is nigh on impossible to maintain an up to date driver database for every variant of NIC and SATA chipset out there.

[Migration User]

Which NIC are you referring to?  The replacement NIC or the four port NIC?

I was talking about the 4 port Nic...we actually ended up ordering a new PIC Express nic to slap in the server and hopefully grab an image tomorow. 

 

Realistically, the rapid growth in portable hardware means there are ever more chipsets that need supporting, so it is nigh on impossible to maintain an up to date driver database for every variant of NIC and SATA chipset out there.

 

I figured this much as how you can realisticaly keep up with all the devices out there. 

 

[Migration User]

Something I noticed in the ghost32 menu..the option for Local. It had me thinking can you make an image/clone from the ghost32 locally to an external HD connected via USB?? Say for instance you didnt need to do it via network and your standing in front of the device. Is it this possible and if so can anyone find a instruction link for creating an image locally ??

[Edward Tippelt]

Sure, you can create a USB bootable hard disk running WinPE, run Ghost from there, and image the hard disk on your system direct to the USB device. Since WinPE supports USB, there should be no requirement to load any drivers (unless you have USB-3).

Or you can boot from any WinPE boot device and plug in a USB-2 hard disk and have it visible to WinPE. At that point you can run Ghost and image the local hard disk to the USB drive as long as WinPE is able to "see" the source hard disk. If not, you will still need to load the right SATA or RAID drivers into WinPE, but this could be done via DRVLOAD to avoid having to burn a new boot image.

This article can help you get up and running with WinPE outside the Ghost environment if you want to play:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/readyadventures-winpe

 

[Migration User]

Sure, you can create a USB bootable hard disk running WinPE, run Ghost from there, and image the hard disk on your system direct to the USB device. Since WinPE supports USB, there should be no requirement to load any drivers (unless you have USB-3).

 

Im so close I can taste it lol...So I got the servers hdd drive drivers injected and when I select local I was able to see the Servers HDD which is great. I select it as a "Source drive" and then browse for my 2nd USB stick to put the image...its no where to be found??? For a selection of destination drives I have the CD/DVD drive and X (which is the stick I used to boot up with in the first place)..Is there a possibility that me putting in the raid drivers would make multiple drives not show up for some weird reason?

[Edward Tippelt]

First of all, the X: drive is NOT your USB stick. WinPE runs entirely from memory, and by default creates a virtual disk as the drive X:

What you need to do from a WinPE command prompt, is to check each drive letter one by one and find where the boot USB stick lives.  Depending on your hardware setup, the boot USB device is likely to be somewhere between F: through to I:  and additional USB sticks after that.

[Migration User]

 

First of all, the X: drive is NOT your USB stick. WinPE runs entirely from memory, and by default creates a virtual disk as the drive X:

What you need to do from a WinPE command prompt, is to check each drive letter one by one and find where the boot USB stick lives.  Depending on your hardware setup, the boot USB device is likely to be somewhere between F: through to I:  and additional USB sticks after that. 

 

So I stayed late at work last night and figured out that one of the extra drivers I installed for the Perc HDD was throwing everything off on the ghost32 which was causing only the server HDD to show. I had put raid controller drivers too or something to do with raid that must have throw it off. After that I was able see every USB stick in it and make an image. Problem finally solved, granted I would have prefered to do this over the network to our main "ghost machine" which is only 30 feet away. But for this one time use local will work fine and its great to know we can do this saves me the hassle of scrambling for Nic drivers.