Thomas M. Turner's Tech Ramblings
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If you have a Dell OptiPlex GX270 with integrated Intel Pro 1000 MT (i82540) networking and a SATA hard drive, you will likely have problems imaging the computer with PowerQuest's ImageCenter 5.x (5.51 and 5.50 tested). I spent several hours trying every trick I could think of with various boot disks and several versions of both MS NDIS2 and Novell Client32 NIC drivers I found, but ImageCenter (as part of DeployCenter) - PQIMGCTR.EXE - would always hang at various stages. I never got past the part where you name the image you want to create; the program would always lock up, usually even before that point.
The trick I eventually found is to use the /IDE=OFF switch: PQIMGCTR /IDE=OFF
It also "appears that the PowerQuest direct-to-CD-R feature may conflict with some hardware configurations", for which one should try the /NOCDR switch.
How did I come across the /IDE=OFF switch? Not from Symantec's KB site (PowerQuest was bought by Symantec). I also could not find this tidbit on the web, via Google searches either.
Even more strange was that I found out a couple of other tech guys on campus had successfully used ImageCenter with their GX270 systems. I then tried their boot disks, just in case they had done something just different enough to magically make all the difference. Nope. (I came to find out, though, they did not have SATA hard drives in their systems, like mine did.)
In my desperation to figure out what the heck was going on, I even bought a copy of Symantec Ghost 2003, just to see what would happen. Ghost worked just fine, but unfortunately we don't have a site license for it and there are no funds to license the campus, so it didn't really do anything for me. Or did it?
At this point, I figured it just had to be some sort of conflict with the integrated Intel networking. The missing link that led me to the discovery I needed was this KB article on Intel's site about Ghost hanging with integrated networking. I probably would not have thought about doing a search for Ghost on Intel's site, if I hadn't bought a copy of it to test out. I couldn't find anything about PowerQuest imaging on Intel's site.
However, once I found out what the -FNI switch in Ghost did, which Intel suggested to try, I took a guess that /IDE=OFF might do the same thing for ImageCenter, despite the fact I had no evidence that setting was even valid - the tech links on Symantec's site only talk about either no /IDE switch at all or using it as /IDE=ON.
So far, so good. I am finally able to start imaging these OptiPlex GX270 computers, just as I have for every other various Dell, Micron, Gateway, AlienWare, and custom built system I've worked on over the years.
Subsequently, a response from Symantec tech support, after I had already figured it out on my own, said to use the /IDE=OFF and /NOCDR switches when ImageCenter locks up or hangs. How hard could it be to add that little tip in a KB article on their support site?
The trick I eventually found is to use the /IDE=OFF switch: PQIMGCTR /IDE=OFF
It also "appears that the PowerQuest direct-to-CD-R feature may conflict with some hardware configurations", for which one should try the /NOCDR switch.
How did I come across the /IDE=OFF switch? Not from Symantec's KB site (PowerQuest was bought by Symantec). I also could not find this tidbit on the web, via Google searches either.
Even more strange was that I found out a couple of other tech guys on campus had successfully used ImageCenter with their GX270 systems. I then tried their boot disks, just in case they had done something just different enough to magically make all the difference. Nope. (I came to find out, though, they did not have SATA hard drives in their systems, like mine did.)
In my desperation to figure out what the heck was going on, I even bought a copy of Symantec Ghost 2003, just to see what would happen. Ghost worked just fine, but unfortunately we don't have a site license for it and there are no funds to license the campus, so it didn't really do anything for me. Or did it?
At this point, I figured it just had to be some sort of conflict with the integrated Intel networking. The missing link that led me to the discovery I needed was this KB article on Intel's site about Ghost hanging with integrated networking. I probably would not have thought about doing a search for Ghost on Intel's site, if I hadn't bought a copy of it to test out. I couldn't find anything about PowerQuest imaging on Intel's site.
However, once I found out what the -FNI switch in Ghost did, which Intel suggested to try, I took a guess that /IDE=OFF might do the same thing for ImageCenter, despite the fact I had no evidence that setting was even valid - the tech links on Symantec's site only talk about either no /IDE switch at all or using it as /IDE=ON.
So far, so good. I am finally able to start imaging these OptiPlex GX270 computers, just as I have for every other various Dell, Micron, Gateway, AlienWare, and custom built system I've worked on over the years.
Subsequently, a response from Symantec tech support, after I had already figured it out on my own, said to use the /IDE=OFF and /NOCDR switches when ImageCenter locks up or hangs. How hard could it be to add that little tip in a KB article on their support site?
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