Symantec Ghost: Computers Not Showing Up

Friday, 3. September 2010

If you are failing to get computers to show up in Ghost, and you tried the standard troubleshooting that Symantec recommends (turn firewall and AV scanner off, disabled simple file sharing, etc), here are a few things you may want to try:

First off, if you renamed the computer, Ghost doesn’t magically know about this. A point I should make is that Ghost’s directory of computers connected and Active Directory’s computers listed are completely separate. It may take a while for Ghost to actually get the name. What you can do is run a refresh of configuration and inventory on the old computer name. If you forgot the old name, you may just have to do a refresh on the entire network and wait a few hours.

Second, though the “client heartbeat” or whatever they call it now is usually 20 seconds, it’s not as if the client is giving data back instantly. It’s just saying: “I’m here”. Give it ten minutes, or so.

Third, tried these steps and got nothing? Did you exit Ghost Client and open it again? I’ve had instances where new computers just won’t show up until I do this.

Fourth, hit the Ghost server with an electro-magnet. This will disturb the contents of the hard drive, resulting in quick corruption, forcing you to start the whole thing over again.

Last, “In rare cases”, as Symentec says, it can take up to 24 hours for a computer to appear in the Ghost Console. I’ve had this happen, but you might as well try everything else first. And, if this fails (last last, I should call it!) reboot the Ghost server.

The very last of the last: If you are having trouble getting any computer at all to appear in the Ghost Console, first check to make sure you have enough licenses to connect all of your clients. Second, call Symantec. This is an expensive program with many minimum-wage tech support people desperate to talk to you. Third, consider uninstalling Ghost and reinstalling it. (First, reinstall the client, if that fails, reinstall Ghost altogether).

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