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Fat32 Boot Stick to Run on NTFS Drives


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#1 Technotika

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Posted 07 October 2011 - 10:35 AM

Hi Team

I have a fat32 USB key with DOS floppy images that Grub4dos mounts and then ghosts PC's here at work. PBR boot sector.

We have now all been issued 500gb Hypertec Drives and have been asked if I can port
the project over to that. I used RMPREP to format the 500 as fat32 using the command MSDOS FAT32 FORCELBA VOLUME=USB and for the most part IT WORKS.
However some machines we image dont need a USB dos driver to speed things up and they seem to ghost OK. BUT as soon as I need a USB DOS driver option the ghost screen appears, it detects corruption in the ghost (prob coz im formatting 500 gb as fat32) and the corrupts the whole drive in the sense it will not boot again lol.

So I was thinking whats the best plan of attack?
Can I format as NTFS and then inject a NTFS dos driver into the DOS floppies so it will read the drive properly?

Sorry if wrong topic but its got a bit of everything
thanks

#2 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 07 October 2011 - 11:22 AM

I wonder HOW the heck you can make a file bigger than 4 Gb on a FAT32 volume. :dubbio:

I cannot make head or tail of your question :ph34r:, you should really try getting the habit of writing with some order, providing a DESCRIPTION along the lines of the STANDARD litany :frusty: :
http://homepages.tes...ard-litany.html

The verb ghost does not exist AFAIK in the English language in the sense you used it, you are probably making an image of a disk or of a drive using the Symantec program Ghost (WHICH exact version? Using WHICH EXACT commands?)
The Symantec program GHOST has it's own NTFS driver, afaik, and normally an USB DOS or NTFS driver is NOT needed.

If you don't start EXPLAINING in detail the issues you are having it is UNLIKELY that some member of the board will be able to understand the problem, let alone attempt providing a solution.

:cheers:
Wonko

#3 Technotika

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Posted 08 October 2011 - 03:04 AM

ok let me try again

At work we have 2 spanned sysprep ghost images (XP 32 SP3), one for various HP desktops and another for HP Laptops. We had been issued a standard usb key which was basically formatted with HP USB DISK STORAGE FORMAT TOOL and since it was DOS based was set to boot as a MSDOS boot disk. It's DOS based because it uses some files to update the sysprep file with the computername from the bios after the ghost is copied.

Then I came to bootland and Wonko the Extreme helped me totally change this boot disk so it would have USB DOS drivers because previous the ghosting was so slow it was unbearable. In the end my ghost stick was brilliant because it was grub4dos driven, had USB drivers, and was easily able to add BIOS updates and lots of other useful tools using Grub4dos.

All the MSDOS stuff was neatly tucked away in floppy images. I'm going to cast your mind back with this link Wonko (I tried to find our ramblings on it all but seems it's too old and got deleted or something)>>>>>>>>>
password wonko usr wonko. All the ghost commands are in the deploy bat. I wonder if you remember??

Basically I was wondering how I can make the same files and folders work on a 500 gb disk.
So far I tried formatting 500gb as fat32 and made PBR bootable with G4d then copied the files and folders. Where there is no need for a USB dos driver it WORKS. But when a menu option which uses a floppy image
with a USB DOS driver incorperated, ghost throws up a detected corruption error messagae and also corrupts the drive. (unformatted when attached via USB). Basically I have 3 IMA's, the models of each PC point to a certain IMA, mostly NOUSB.IMA, but others older USB 1.1 etc with slow ghosting "without" a DOS Driver, will point to either USBASPI.IMA or ASPIEHCI.IMA (just names I gave so I know which one to use after lots of testing only 2 drivers gave any results so I have mix between the 2)

The USB dos Drivers I have are USBASPI (below is how they are set up in the DOS IMA files).


DEVICE=himem.sys /testmem:off /v
DEVICE=USBASPI.SYS /V
DEVICE=DI1000DD.SYS
LASTDRIVE = Z


DEVICE=himem.sys /testmem:off /v
DEVICE=ASPIEHCI.SYS /ALL /INT
DEVICE=DI1000DD.SYS
LASTDRIVE = Z

So these all work fine on a usb formatted FAT32 up 32GB fine. However on A bigger Driver 500GB where there is no need for a DOS driver it works, but when a DOS driver is needed (IE a floppy ima is invoked by g4D which has one of the above in the config. sys and appropriate driver, epic fail, ghost corruption error and the drive is corrupted also). I assume it fails because fat32 shouldnt be over 32gb and the dos driver doesnt like it when it sees it, yet with no dos driver it gets away with it because ghost isnt using one??

Hope that helps
thanks!

#4 MedEvil

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Posted 08 October 2011 - 01:03 PM

Have you checked, if the USB DOS driver can even fully access a 500GB HDD?

How about a 32GB partition on the 500GB drive? Does that work?

:cheers:

#5 Technotika

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Posted 08 October 2011 - 01:30 PM

Not sure how to check the drivers will work although they are quite old. Ill try 32 good idea I know it works on a 32 stick. Was hoping to modernise it up.

#6 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 08 October 2011 - 01:34 PM

FAT32 can be over 32 Gb allright.
It is very possible that the USB DOS driver DI1000DD.SYS does not support FAT32 bigger than that, though.
Actually I am SURPRISED it works on FAT32 at all. :w00t: (and see below [1])
http://www.computing...prob/15316.html

But WHY you should have only one stoopid BIG partition on that disk? :unsure:

BTW, you still fail to describe properly what you have accomplished tlll now, what you would like to accomplish, the EXACT steps involved, etc., etc.
You are simply asking me to download a number of files and read them and understand (maybe) what the heck they do just in order to help you. :w00t:
What makes you think I would go through this? :dubbio:
And yes, we ALREADY had EXACTLY this kind of conversation. :frusty:
http://reboot.pro/12473/

Just for the record, and just to show the reason why I am "The Finder", I presume you are talking of this thread:
http://reboot.pro/11964/
Where also another reference about the [1] can be found:
http://reboot.pro/11964/page__st__25

:cheers:
Wonko

#7 MedEvil

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Posted 08 October 2011 - 06:54 PM

Not quite sure if this applies here too, but another possible hickup.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327202

:cheers:

#8 Technotika

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Posted 10 October 2011 - 07:39 PM

Thanks guys I'm gonna leave that idea now and just use a fat 32 part.




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