I need to be able to access the GHO/GHS files from within Windows, to be able to send updates down to that partition. PARTITION4 -> FAT32 partition to store GHS/GHO files. PARTITION3 -> Recovery partition w/ Altiris Agent + Ghost PARTITION2 -> Real production OS (Windows XP) PARTITION1 -> Boot partition (GRUB), not in MBR (Altiris sees this as the Production OS) The only problem with using Linux is that this would complicate my partition structure to be the following: This is the best solution I can seem to come up with to do what I want.Īlternatively I could use GRUB as the chained boot loader, which would then be able to boot a LINUX recovery partition which would give me access to network drivers. This will auto load the Altiris Agent (to be able to set the dirty bit), and then auto launch GHOST to execute a restore rather than using rapideploy.Īltiris -> NTLDR (boot.ini configured with a menu, 2-3 second time-out to select either Production OS or Recovery partition). PARTITION2 (Secondary) -> Recovery Partition with Altiris Agent + Ghost + GHO image file (FAT32, PC-DOS). So I was thinking about doing the following: Once you get into an OS and load the Altiris client, it resets this bit as clean which tells Altiris to load the production OS. Upon bootup, Altiris boot manager sets the bit as dirty. This is great, it works perfectly for what it does.īut I also need the ability to manage this machine with Altiris and force it into recovery mode.įrom my understanding about Altiris' boot manager, it has a 'dirty bit' so to speak.

This automatically launches into a Ghost session which re-images the OS partition with the included. This allows me to have the simple functionality of pressing F3 on bootup, it unhides the hidden recovery partition, and then boots that partition. I installed the SRFIXMBR bootloader to the MBR of the machine.

I am currently (though this will be changing) using an OEM recovery partition (created by Ghost) to restore machines locally. I'm going to get pretty technical here so if someone here has some knowledge that would be great.

Best boot manager