Norton Ghost 7.5 - Realtek RTL8139 NIC

After replacing the motherboard in a Gateway system with a new motherboard, I needed to update the driver used for Norton Ghost 7.5 backups. The system was running Windows XP Professional. The Windows Device Manager identifies the NIC built into the motherboard as a "Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC"

I downloaded the NDIS2 driver for DOS (Support MSclient,Lantastic,Lanman, Norton Ghost) for the RTL8139 NIC. I extracted the contents of the RTSND2.327_EXE39/EXE/NDIS2DOS directory within the zip file to a directory on the Ghost server's hard drive. If needed, you can download a zip file with the contents of just the NDIS2 directory needed for Ghost below or you can download the entire zip file provided by Realtek.

Downloads

RTL8139 NDIS2 driver needed for Ghost only (24 KB)
NDIS2 driver for DOS (Support MSclient,Lantastic,Lanman, Norton Ghost) - Complete zip file as obtained from Realtek (1.6 MB)
Realtek Download Link

I then took the following steps to use the driver with Norton Ghost 7.5

  1. Start the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard.

  2. With Network Boot Disk selected, click on Next.

    Norton Ghost Network Boot Disk

  3. Click on the Add button to add a driver for another network card.

    Norton Ghost Network Interface Card

  4. Select NDIS2 driver and click on OK.

    5. Norton Ghost Template Type

  5. Click on the Setup button on the Template Properties window.

    Norton Ghost Template Properties

  6. Browse to the location of the NDIS2 driver for the NIC. Click on OK when you've located it.

    RTL8139 Template Properties

  7. Click on OK at the Template Properties window.
  8. When you are returned to the Network Interface Card window, provide a new name for the template, rather than the default name of "New Driver Template", e.g. Realtek RTL8139.

    RTL8139 NIC

  9. At this point, unless you really want to create a boot floppy with that driver, you can click on the Cancel button.

  10. In my case, the Ghost client software was already installed on the system I wanted to backup with Ghost 7.5. If the client software isn't installed on the remote system, then open the Symantec Ghost Console and click on Tools then Remote Client Install. If it is already installed, you can skip to step 14.

  11. Select the client system on which to install the Norton Ghost client software and click on the Install button.

  12. When prompted for a userid and password for an account with administrative rights on the system, enter those, e.g. the domain administrators userid and password.

  13. You should see a message indicating the client software was successfully installed. If instead you see a message that "1 client(s) unsuccessfully installed", click on the Read log file button.

    Norton Ghost Remote Client Install Failed

  14. Presuming the client software installed successfully on the remote system, you need to ensure the right driver will be used for that client, so under Machine Groups in the Symantec Ghost Console, select the default group or whichever group is appropriate in this case.

    Norton Ghost Machine Groups

  15. Then right-click on the appropriate system and select Properties

    Norton Ghost System Properties

  16. You should see any existing adapter, e.g. "Intel(R) PRO/100 VE" in this case, specified for the system listed in the Network Adapter field, but you need to click on the Client tab to select the appropriate template so that the Ghost client software uses the right driver.

    Norton Ghost Properties Client Tab

  17. Click on the Browse button to use a manually selected template and then select the name you assigned to the template earlier, e.g. "Realtek RTL8139".

    Norton Ghost Browse Template

  18. Click on the OK button.

  19. Click on the OK button again at the Properties window.

You should now be able to backup the system using Norton Ghost 7.5.

Note: On this particular system, where I replaced the motherboard, the previous NIC was an Intel Pro/100 VE NIC, while the new motheboard had a Realtek RTL8139 NIC built in. I couldn't successfully run a backup from the Symantec Ghost Console even after I changed the template associated with the machine to be the Realteck RTL8139 one I created. In order to get the backup process to work, I had to take the following steps within the Ghost Console on the Ghost server:

  1. I went to Machine Groups, right-clicked on the relevant machine, and then chose Client Uninstall. That resulted in the Ghost client software being uninstalled on the remote system and caused a reboot of that system.
  2. After the system rebooted, I clicked on Tools and selected Remote Client Install to put the client software back on the system.
  3. I then recreated the backup task under Tasks within the Symantec Ghost Console.

References:

  1. RTL8139D(L)
    Realtek
  2. Software: Drivers & Utilities Realtek