how to make external usb hard drive bootable using Ghost v10

Hi I used Ghost 10 to copy contents of my internal hard drive C: to my external usb hard drive E: including the wholes OS and the MBR.

Question: How do I make the external usb hard drive E: bootable without using cd and floppy boot disks. I already change the boot priority in bios and copied the MBR also (option in Ghost hard drive copier). It still doesn't boot. It says something about the 1024 cylinder. Note that Ghost automatically created a primary partition on the external usb drive.

Thanks.

PS In case my internal hard drive messes up. How can I restore the exact image of the internal hard drive from the external usb hd without using any cds or floppies. Thanks again.

 

Not possible. This is a BIOS restriction, and while theoretically possible, it doesn't seem to work, at least from what I've been able to find out. You can make a bootable image of the drive to an external HD through the USB interface, but cannot actually boot from it as an external drive. You could always just swap the drives into the actual laptop though and it should boot just fine.

 

Not possible to boot windows off a hard disk without hacking some system files

 

Ghost Version: 11
Date Written: 1-15-08



How To Make An External USB HDD Boot Ghost And Hold Images On A Seperate Partition


by

ghostUser11


(IMPORTANT NOTE!!!: Running Ghost.exe in DOS was over 4 times slower than running Ghost32.exe in Windows When Using The External USB
HDD when using it to Write To/From or whatever else involving the USB
HDD, I'm not sure if this is because USB 2.0 Hi Speed is not supported,
I would appreciate any feedback)

Requirements:
A. Ghost Version 11.0 (Ghost Boot Wizard)
B. Computer that provides a USB Boot in the BIOS
C. Flash(thumb) drive, size >= 32 MB
D. External USB HDD
E. LOTS OF LUCK! THIS WORKED ON ONE DESKTOP WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE
REQUIREMENTS MET, BUT NOT ON ANOTHER


Instructions:



First: Backup the Ext. USB HDD

0.0 In order to retain the images on the Ext. USB HDD, an image needs to be made. So, Back up the Ext. USB HDD to some other location using Ghost

0.1 After an image of the External USB HDD is created,
Right Click My Computer->Manage->Disk Management and
right click the Ext. USB HDD in the lower right pane and delete any partions on it so that
the entire drive says, "unallocated space".



Next: Make A USB Flash Drive Boot Ghost

1. Use the Ghost Boot Wizard to make a Standard USB Flash Drive Boot Ghost(32 MegaBytes worked for me). Check that Ghost
can boot from the flash drive by following the steps below.

Ghost in Dos Setup Guide
1.1. Plug in USB Flash Drive and External HDD to the USB Ports on the computer.
1.2. Power On Computer.
1.3. Press F2 and enter BIOS settings. Go to Boot->USB Boot and change to Enable. Go to Exit and Save Settings.
1.4. Let computer restart to BIOS Screen, then press and release the power button (Perform Power Failure).
1.5. Power the computer back on, press F12 to enter the boot device, and select the USB Flash Drive.
1.6. Ghost should boot, and the external USB HDD should be recognized properly.




Now: Make The Ext. USB HDD Boot Ghost

2. In Ghost, Select Disk To Disk. Choose the Flash Drive as the source, and choose the Ext. USB HDD as the Destination,
Ghost will want to resize the HDD to 2000 MB, select 2000 MB, and enter 32 MB (which automatically changed to 39 MB for me).

3. Check source and destination is correct. Click OK to copy an image of the flash drive to the HDD.

4. Exit Ghost, Shutdown computer, remove flash Drive leaving only the Ext. USB HDD connected.

5. Power on computer, and use F12 to select the External USB HDD as the boot device.
If Ghost Boots fine, then everything was done correctly.




Finally: We are going to restore the image that we took earlier of the external USB HDD in the Unallocated Space

6. In Ghost, Select Partition From Image. Choose the Ext. USB HDD's Image taken earlier as the Source. Set the
Destination as the Large Partition (unallocated space) that is left over. (Note: There should be two partitions currently
on the Ext. USB HDD. One is formatted to boot Ghost and is really small (~ 40 MB), and the other should be much larger(~ XX GB's).

7. Check source and destination is correct. Click OK to restore the Ext. USB HDD's orginal image.

8. That is it. Hopefully the Ext. USB HDD boots Ghost without a problem, and allows you to use its other partition to store images.



Last Note: Ghost will not be able to navigate through the Ext. USB HDD's Large Partition if it is Fat32. If it is and you want to use it,
you must convert it to NTFS (Which is very easy, I have copied the instructions from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881 for
you to follow)




How to convert a FAT volume or a FAT32 volume to NTFS
Note Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion is minimal, we recommend that you perform a backup of the data on the volume that you want to convert before you start the conversion.

To convert an existing FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type the following, where drive letter is the drive that you want to convert:
convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs
For example, type the following command to convert drive E to NTFS:
convert e: /fs:ntfs
Note If the operating system is on the drive that you are converting, you will be prompted to schedule the task when you restart the computer because the conversion cannot be completed while the operating system is running. When you are prompted, click YES.
3. When you receive the following message at the command prompt, type the volume label of the drive that you are converting, and then press ENTER:
The type of the file system is FAT.
Enter the current volume label for drive drive letter
4. When the conversion to NTFS is complete, you receive the following message at the command prompt:
Conversion complete
5. Quit the command prompt.