GHOST Shell

A discussion of a non-supported use of Norton Ghost 2001

March 18, 2001

What is GHOST?

GHOST is a program used to make archives of hard drives. It is a Symantec product included in Norton SystemWorks 2001 Professional Edition.  See http://www.symantec.com/sabu/sysworks/pro.

I originally purchased GHOST in March 1998 from Binary Research in New Zealand, through Timpani in southern California. I worked with Steve Ball and Sean Connolly helping them to get GHOST to work right with “large” HDs. Later, Symantec obtained GHOST.

GHOST is an excellent way to easily make backups as you make changes to a system. All of my computers are configured with C as a 2GB FAT16 drive, and all of my data is on a FAT32 D drive. In this way I can easily make a GHOST image of C that will fit on a CD. As I build, rebuild or modify a computer, I make many GHOST images. It makes building a computer similar to playing a computer game. When you screw up (and get killed by the monster) you merely back up to the last saved “game” and play the next episode over.

Doing a backup of a 60GB D drive is another matter, and this discussion covers my way of using GHOST and GHOST Explorer to make selective backups of directories without backing up an entire drive. In this way I can use the Ghost Explorer functionality for fully copied C drives and for partially copied drives.

GHOST explorer allows you to read, copy, add or subtract files to or from a drive image. However, there is no process for creating a GHOST image file without saving the entire contents of a logical drive. What I needed was an empty GHOST “shell” into which I could place files for backup or storage.

I found that I could make a GHOST image, bring it up in GHOST Explorer, delete all of the files, recompile, and then save the empty “shell” for use as an archive. Once you have the empty shell, GHOST Explorer will allow you to copy and paste directories into the shell, which can then be copied to CD or stored on a HD. One advantage to this over merely copying files to a CD is that the file attributes are not changed; the only file marked as “read only” is the GHOST file itself. All files within the GHOST file retain their original attributes.

Making a GHOST “shell”

To create a GHOST shell, make a GHOST image of a drive; pick one with very few files if possible. I use “high” compression, but that doesn’t seem critical. Next copy that file as x.gho. In Windows Explorer, double click on the x.gho file to bring up GHOST Explorer. Delete all of the directories in x.gho. Then compile the file (File|Compile) and save it as shell.gho. If the original drive was FAT16, the resulting file will be around 6350 bytes. If the original drive was FAT32, the resulting file will be around 22750 bytes. I haven’t seen any difference between files originally created as FAT16 or FAT32, but I am using the larger FAT32 shell, “just in case”.

Making an archive GHOST file

Once the shell is made, it will only be used as an original empty shell. Copy it and rename the copy to fit the needs of the backup.  GHOST implies that the standard DOS 8x3 (with .GHO as the extension) file naming convention be used. However, I’ve used long filenames with no problem. For instance, copy shell.gho as 18Mar2001.gho for archives to be made on March 18, 2001. To copy files or directories, use Windows Explorer to select the file or directory, then open GHOST explorer on the shell file. Select the drive image in the left column, and then paste the file or directory into the right column. That’s all there is to it!

Compression

I’ve noted varying amounts of compression in using this scheme. If the file or directory is already compressed, the GHOST image is likely to be a few Kbytes larger. If the file or directory can be compressed, then some reduction in size will be realized. For instance, I get an 8 percent reduction in size with a directory of 481 MB, 211 sub folders, and 1365 files. This process isn’t intended to save disk space; it is intended to make backups easier.

Caveats

I suspect that you would run into a problem trying to copy a file that was “in use”. I also suspect that there would be a problem trying to use DOS based GHOST to “restore” an image that was made from a shell to a full drive, especially if the file was named with a “long file name”. Don’t do these things!

Conclusion

This is an unsupported use of GHOST. My correspondence with Symantec on this subject is copied below for reference.
This works for me. It may not work for anyone else. Use this process at your own risk.
I am not prepared to offer any technical support on this subject.
I would like to hear from you if you have any corrections to suggest to this web page or any additions to this subject that can add to the use of a GHOST “shell”.

Jay O’Brien
jayobrien@att.net   http://jay.mbz.org

Correspondence with Symantec:

Author:    Jay O'Brien
Date:       12:08 pm, Mar 04 PDT
Subject:   Image of partial partition
Product:  Norton GHOST 2001 (SystemWorks 2001)
Supported operating system: Windows 98
Hard drive type: Standard IDE

I made an image of my D drive, then using Ghost explorer, I deleted all of the directories and saved the empty shell. It's just under 23K in size. I make copies of the shell, rename them, and then using Ghost explorer I place selected directories into the shell. Thus I can "ghost" single or multiple directories rather than an entire logical drive. This works great for me, as I have several very large directories in D that I do not wish to place into a Ghost image.

Is there a downside to this procedure? It fits my needs entirely.

Is there a way to create an empty Ghost shell, or must a process as described above be used?

If I take a shell to another logical drive or to another computer, is some kind of problem likely? Or, should I use shells only for the drives used to originally create the shell?
 

Author:   Daniel Stark [Symantec]
Date:       03:51 pm, Mar 05 PDT
Subject:   Re: Image of partial partition

Hello,

If this actually works for you, then I say go ahead and do it. Ghost of course was never designed to do quite what you are doing, but I find no fault in it. The way you are doing it is probably the best way to do it.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance for this issue.

Daniel Stark
Symantec Online Technical Support
 

Author:   Jay O'Brien
Date:      10:10 pm, Mar 05 PDT
Subject:  Re: Image of partial partition

Daniel,

Thanks for confirming that what I am doing is reasonable from your standpoint. My concern is that if you don't know the product is being used this way, the next release could prevent me from doing what I am doing. I believe that this is a saleable use of Ghost, and I would like to see you promote it. Images made this way are much easier to use than ones made with competitors, such as WinZip.

Can I bring you back to a minor point? If I make a "shell" with no files in it, is there a problem using it in a drive other than the one in which it was created? If not, I suggest that a future Ghost release include such generic shells to which you would add directories and files. Again. my question; is there a reason to NOT use such a shell in another drive than the one where it was created?

By the way, I use Ghost as it was designed to back up my "C" drive; all system files are there. I keep all data and many programs on D, plus copies of CD's, etc, that do not require backups. Thus my reason for creating a Ghost of D by adding files to an empty shell rather than making a GHOST of the "full" D and deleting those files that don't need backups.

Jay O'Brien
(and I used GHOST before Symantec obtained it!)
 

Author:   Stephen May - Symantec
Date:       03:01 pm, Mar 06 PDT
Subject:   Re: Image of partial partition

Hi Jay,

Can I bring you back to a minor point? If I make a "shell" with no files in it, is there a problem using it in a drive other than the one in which it was created? If not, I suggest that a future Ghost release include such generic shells to which you would add directories and files. Again. my question; is there a reason to NOT use such a shell in another drive than the one where it was created?
I cannot think of any reason why this would cause problems, especially if you have been successful in the past.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance to you in regards to Ghost.

Thank you.

Stephen May
Symantec Online Technical Support
 

Author:    Jay O'Brien
Date:        02:47 pm, Mar 18 PDT
Subject:   GHOST Shell: Backing up partial drives using GHOST

I've posted a reference on how to make a GHOST "shell" into which directories and files may be placed for retrieval using Ghost Explorer. I have found this to be auseful way to make and use backups. It also includes correspondence with Symantec on this subject. I hope this is of use to others.

http://jay.mbz.org/tech/ghostshell.html

Jay O'Brien
Rio Linda, CA
 

Author:     Daniel Stark [Symantec]
Date:         02:50 pm, Mar 19 PDT
Subject:    Re: GHOST Shell: Backing up partial drives using GHOST

Hello Jay,

I read through your page, and I find it to be very complete and well done. You mention in your caveat section that you wouldn't try restoring this image to a drive. Except for the long file, you should actually be able to restore that file to a drive. Your new drive would then just look like the Ghost image.

I also want to thank you for including that Symantec does not support this function. That little disclaimer may help save unneeded posts.

Please let us know if we can provide more assistance to you on this issue.

Daniel Stark
Symantec Online Technical Support
 

Author:     Jay O'Brien
Date:        04:53 pm, Mar 19 PDT
Subject:    Re: GHOST Shell: Backing up partial drives using GHOST

Daniel,

Thanks for the response. I did send a suggestion that Symantec should tout this as a feature, perhaps building in a way to make an empty "shell" with a click of the mouse. But in the meantime, it's just something useful, unplanned, and unsupported.

It's a lot easier to use than WinZip and avoids the "read-only attribute" problem encountered when backing up directories/files directly to a CD. I use it a lot, and perhaps others will find it useful as well.

As far as restoring to a drive, that seems like a bit of overkill given how easy it is to use GHOST Explorer! But, it's nice to know there should be no problem.

Feel free to use the information on my web page in any way you wish. I will add your comments to the web page, along with this message.
 

Since March 18, 2001:

All pages on http://jay.mbz.org are in the public domain unless otherwise specified.