How can I run Ghost from a bootable USB key drive?

Question

I have a laptop that does not have a cd-rom or floppy drive. It is able to boot from USB though.

I have a disk image (ghost) of the disk that I need to restore back onto the laptop. I can't find a way to actually run the Ghost utility from a USB key though.

I believe the ghost.exe should run from within DOS just fine but I can't seem to create a bootable USB key with DOS on it that allows me to run an EXE.

Edit: I managed to find a Ghost utility that I could load from a bootable USB drive. Unfortunately, when I plug in my NTFS external drive (USB), it is not detected.

Solution 1

You can use Hirens Boot CD. Newer versions have a free alternative to Norton Ghost, older versions have the real Norton Ghost (though it is shareware). Directions on their site how to make the "boot cd" a bootable usb stick. Very simple, only takes a few clicks with the right software (all explained in the link).

Update:

Newer versions of Hirens Boot CD contain Parted Magic, which has many disk management tools, including Clonezilla, a free alternative to Ghost. All in all I think Parted Magic is the best disk management utility I have ever used. Clonezilla doesn't have a polished GUI like Ghost (maybe it will someday?), but it still gets the job done.

Solution 2

We use Symantec Ghost Boot Wizard here. I am unsure what Symantec program suites it is included in.

Comments

[That Brazilian Guy]

I have tried unetbootin, fusbi, and rufus. This was the only answer that was able to get a non-linux, bootable ISO cd, booting from a USB flash disk.

[user3763403]

Since I answered this I have discovered Parted Magic, which is a Linux live environment that offers a lot more than just cloning/restoring discs. The cloning tool it uses (Clonezilla) isn't as polished as the Ghost GUI, but it has all the features of Ghost and it gets the job done. To top it all off Parted Magic is included on Hirens Boot CD (v15.2 is the one I am using), so you don't need a separate boot disc just for Parted Magic.