How to make Ghost Network Boot Disks for HP dx2450 [nForce] - Updated

. Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Sorry for a almost a two weeks lack of news or posts, but the 3 days July's 4th and hunt for new furniture dragged me a bit away.
Anyhow, this is something i feel like sharing with my small (yet) audience.

As I already mentioned, we recently bought new HP dx2450 workstations which originally came with Vista and rebuilt them for XP Pro.

Next task is of course lets build an image and put it on GhostCast Server. Here I had a small speed bump, finding the right network drivers for Ghost.

This is how this is done:

Go to http://nvidia.custhelp.com and type ghost in keyword search field, and click on "Where can I locate DOS/NDIS/ODI drivers for my NVIDIA nForce ethernet controller?"
Then download and unzip attached file -
ZIP document ndis.zip

RDP to your GhostCast Server and create “Nvidia DOS NDIS Ethernet" (w/o quotes) directory under
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template" and copy content of ndis.zip.

The rest is really simple - Run the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard to create a network startup disk. The NVIDIA DOS NDIS Ethernet driver appears as a choice in the adapter list.

Update:
It looks like few things expired since I wrote original article :
1) tinyurl links got expired  (never going to use them again)
2) Nvidia removed Nvidia DOS/Ndis driver :( and suggested to go on wild goose hunt on your original equipment manufacturer web site – which in our case – HP – is a hopeless one.

I’ve decided you make your life a bit easier and simply to post online floppy image of boot floppy of Symantec Ghost  - No, It doesn’t include ghost app, and since It’s built on FreeOs (Not MsDOS) and in addition includes only couple of drivers , I feel pretty safe assuming sharing it would be legal.

So I assume you already got 2nd floppy with ghost.exe app itself, just download the image and extract it with WinImage.

I hope MediaFire will keep the file for now, but if any of you guys can host it, it’ll be great.

Download here 

 

Good Luck!

Related:
Windows XP drivers for HP dx2450 Workstation

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best instructions on getting a floppy to work with this stupid machine... Never fails that when something works they (the company) will start using something that doesnt...

Anonymous said...

fantastic...i was beginning to rip my hair out as to how to get the image to the machines.

I was able to take the image using PXE, but restoring it, it would just hang. Thanks for the info...so far so good with it!

BoredSysAdmin said...

Yea, Nvidia based boards include PXE only for sake of making V on checklist - usually the damned thing never works right. If you get it going, please comment with details

Anonymous said...

Hello, I've scoured the internet, and you are the only one that has a post about fixing this exact model. The NDIS file you linked did not work for me, and following the links you posted on this one sent me on a wild goosechase all over the internet.

I beg of you, can you send me that NDIS file?

Any help would be appreciated :)

makeitabudlight86@hotmail.com

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Thank you soooo much!!!
I have spent hours looking for the drivers and how to create the ghost boot disk for this PC. I can now put an image on my server and cast it around to the other 15 machines we have.

Again, thanks so so much