Boot from USB, and then run DOS version of Ghost

Question

I have a Boot CD with a DOS version of Ghost in it (Ghost 11). I used to use it for booting a PC, running Ghost from there, and creating an image of a hard drive partition. I did that under Win Vista, Win 7, Win 8.

Now I have a PC with Windows 10 and no CD reader. My intention is to be able to backup and restore images, without having Ghost installed in my system. So I would need to boot from a pendrive, and run Ghost from the command prompt (as I did before with no problem).

What I got so far: I booted from a pendrive formatted with Rufus and FreeDOS. I copied the exes there. But:

1. When I execute ghost32.exe or ghost64.exe I get "This command cannot run in DOS mode".

2. Using dir a:, etc. I do not find my hard drive.

So, my questions are:

1. I wonder if there is any other thing that I can do to be able to boot from USB and run my exes.
   I think I do not have installation disks for a Windows version, since my Win 10 came preinstalled. I have another Win 8 PC, which also came preinstalled.* And I have another Win Vista PC (I may not have the installation CDs).

2. Even in this case, I wonder if ghost will find my hard disk partitions. Perhaps if I manage to make a bootable USB with some Win installation, that automatically allows the OS to recognize the HD partitions.

EDIT - PS: I found How can I run Ghost from a bootable USB key drive? . I tried the Hiren's way (as pointed out by ubiquibacon). It successfully booted and opened Ghost in the Win 8 PC. But in the Win 10 PC it started booting and expanding programs to the ramdrive R:, where it hangs.

* All sources that I found pointed to methods requiring the installation CDs (e.g., this). It is worth noting that I only need to be able to boot. Many pages warn that I would not be able to make a bootable USB out of a preinstalled Win PC, since the preinstalled Win is intended only for one PC. The argument would not apply, since I only want a bootable USB, not a boot+WinInstall USB.

Solution

This video provided a partial answer: The issue involves the high memory (perhaps due to having a solid state hard drive?). I could open Ghost, but it does not recognize my hard drive.

But this probably belongs to a separate question.

Comments

[Tom Yan]

Sounds like you need WinPE: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn613860.aspx

[sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio]

@TomYan - Interesting suggestion. I am not acquainted with Win PE. I will check that. In the meantime, do you have any experience with it that is relevant to my case? (perhaps Win 10 + Ghost... that would be awesome, but if not at least Win 10).

[Tom Yan]

To be honest, I don't have experience with WinPE or Ghost at all. But I think you just need to prepare a USB drive or so following the documentation, and then run the ghost executable in WinPE. (In other word, I don't think the two ghost executable you mentioned are really dos program)

[sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio]

As stated in my PS, I managed to boot, and start loading HBCD. But it hangs in the process. I didn't use YUMI, but Hiren's method, and I suspect this is not the issue. I did not try entering Win XP mode with HBCD, either. I would try both things. In the meantime, what system do you use this with? Win 8/10? And (probably not relevant) what PC brand?

[b14smith]

I run a Dell Latitude 790 Running Windows 10. Yes running through the GUI might be your best bet. Also keep in mind if this is a newer machine to disable secure boot, otherwise you won't be able to read the HDD in Ghost.

[sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio]

Tried loading Mini Win XP, and got a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). Technical information: STOP: 0x00000A5 (...). On an ASUS K501U, 256GB SS HDD.