Ghosting Program

[Fishguy]

Hey Everybody!

I have several computers set up at a store that some friends of mine own and we want to ghost the computers so that they all have the same OS and software. There are 5 computers, 4 of which need to be ghosted, the 5th is a server. I would like to know what program(s) are effective and user friendly for ghosting over the network; a quick run-through on how to use it would be helpful as well.

Thanks.

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Fishguy

 

[jrbarnett]

Fishguy

The Ghost program will only work properly across different systems if they have identical peripherals - eg NIC, sound card, video card, motherboard chipset, HDD controller etc.
If you create an image of one and restore it to a system with different peripherals it is very likely that the system won't boot up or will have problems with conflicting drivers.
There are two well known programs for imaging, as it is properly called. Norton Ghost is one, PowerQuest Drive Image is the other. Personally I've not found any difference between them in usability or power, but in either case, you need the program either on a boot CD or network share with bootdisk.
You can then boot the system up from a DOS or Win9x boot floppy and run the executable from it, and store the image to the network server, save it to the hard drive or write it to a CD (not all CD-RW drives can be written to from DOS) - or download it to the system.

John

 

[TheZeDD]

jrbarnett pretty much summed it up in a nutshell for you fish..

As far as setup, look over the documentation included and/or wai for someone here to post back a link wiht some help. The newest version of these imaging ghosts are pretty stuper-friendly.

GL!

Keep Us Posted!

-Z

 

[Fishguy]

Thanks guys, i decided to get Norton Ghost 2003, and boy oh boy, is it ever easy to use. But thanks again for the suggestions.

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Fishguy

 

[TheZeDD]

Sorry for the typos in my last post.

Yeah, the new 2003 is perty ezy =)

Good to hear all is working out and thanx for dropping us a reply!

-Z