How to Uninstall/Reinstall Ghost Solution Suite 3.x

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

You need to uninstall and reinstall Ghost Solution Suite from its server.

Below are the steps that need to be taken and in what order.

Reinstallation may fail if a prior uninstall was not performed in the correct order or if the server was not rebooted after uninstall. Symptoms include installations that freeze up and fail to progress. 

Reinstallations that complete after improperly uninstalling can also lead to missing components. 

Environment

GSS 3.x

Cause

There are a variety of reasons you may wish to uninstall or reinstall Ghost Solution Suite, including but not limited to:

• Migration to a new server
• A change in IP address on the current server
• Retasking the server for a new role 
• PXE component failure 

Resolution

BEFORE proceeding with an uninstall/reinstall, backup your Image Files - if you store them under the default eXpress share location, you must move them to a different location or they will be deleted. Step 4 of this process will direct you to delete the entire Ghost Solution Suite file structure. 

Steps to Uninstall GSS: 

1. Close any Ghost Solution Suite applications that are open on the server.
2. From the Add/Remove Programs uninstall the following components in this order.
   1. Uninstall Altiris PXE Server (if PXE components are installed)
   2. Uninstall Altiris PXE Manager (if PXE components are installed) 
   3. Uninstall Altiris eXpress Deployment Console
   4. Uninstall Altiris eXpress Deployment Server
   5. Uninstall Altiris eXpress Deployment DataStore
3. Reboot the server
4. After the reboot you will need to clean up the registry and file system
   1. File System Clean Up
      • Browse to the installation location of the product - The default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Altiris\
      • Delete the entire Altiris folder and all sub-folders (again, make sure to backup all images and any custom files, such as drivers added to WinPE, present in the eXpress share)
   2. Registry Key Clean Up
      • Run Regedit
      • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Altiris
        • Delete the entire Altiris key
      • Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products
        • There are GUID folders located under the Products key
        • You'll need to arrow down through each GUID folder and locate any folder that references Ghost
        • Delete these keys
      • Reboot the server
5. To uninstall the Standard Tool, you can uninstall it from Program and Features in Control Panel and Delete the Program Files x86> Symantec>Ghost
6. To reinstall Ghost Solution Suite run the Symantec_Ghost_Solution_Suite_x_x.exe file or the Setup.exe in the DSS folder 

NOTE:  In some instances, a more thorough removal may be required.  Please see the attached PDF for additional manual removal steps.