hi, i want to ghost xp over the network, what do i need to achieve it?

[meatmeatof]

1. i want to use something call universal network bootcd or pxe and boot the pc.
2. then use "net use" command to open the network drive and run the ghost.exe command to start ghosting the xp image from the server on the client pc.

what do i need to achieve above task??

 

[58sniper]

What have you tried? What's your network setup?

You could use the built in Windows Deployment Services.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[meatmeatof]

the environment i am working is a computer repair and service store. We have about 10 computers come in for fix $ repair everyday. We store xp images on usb, but alot of the PCs are old. The USB on some of the old machines don't work. Some have usb1.0. We used to boot the machine into minipe and ghost the xp from external USB HD.
Sometimes, i find that the external usb HD is not always detectable..

we have windows server 2000 cds. IF deployment needs it, i can install it.

 

[meatmeatof]

regarding to the network environment, every computer is connecting to the switches. It's singe small peer-to-peer lan.
it looks like the following.

(internet)---(DSL router)---(switch)---PCS(many pcs)

 

[58sniper]

WDS requires PXE boot capabilities on the PC. Ghost and related products generally require a license for every PC you use it on.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[w33mhz]

You could use Acronis, the home edition is all you would really need about $35 bucks. You can backup the whole computer to a single file on a network share. All you need to do is boot from cd and it has a very easy wizard to walk you through it. It will compress the image, but you still need some disk space to store multiple images on a network share, the disk space will go fast if you don't watch out.

 

[jshurst]

If you want to try a free product then you could try DriveImageXML, I have never tried to restore from this, but it is free and might be worth a shot.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

 

[meatmeatof]

thanks for reply.

we use slimstream make image.

i am thinking about 2 possible ways.
The 1st one is the pxe, but it requires pxe server. My network environment does not own any real ip adderss. And this is a peer-to-peer network environment. I don't know if it works. I don't know about if RIS, DHCP need real registered ip address. We don't have real register IP address.

The second one is that maybe using universal network boot cd and just "net use" command to connect shared network drive. does this method work on peer-to-peer network? do i need to install any server such as tftp server for this method?

 

[58sniper]

You don't need public IP addresses. WDS uses PXE, which older machines aren't going to support anyways.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[meatmeatof]

58sniper , thank you very much.
if the old machine doesn't support pxe booting, does unverisal network bootcd solve this problem?

i am going to read and learn wds. thanks again. 58sniper.
can i list all things i need to make it work?

 

[meatmeatof]

i think i don't have windows server 2003. i only have windows server 2000

 

[bobbyforhire]

I have been using Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 the ghost cast server has been awesome. You install the client piece on the desktop. Then when ever you want to back it up just click backup device, select where you want the image to go. It will reboot the box, ghost it, boot it back up....Really was happy with this one!

 

[58sniper]

i think i don't have windows server 2003. i only have windows server 2000

Well then, this is posted in the wrong forum.

Pat Richard MVP