How to Clone PCs

[TimNg]

Hello there,
I'm new to image creation process and I think this site will help with some good ideas.
1. My boss is planning to buy about 60 to 100 new desktops, with the same hardware and system specs. He wants me to figure out the most cheapest and reliable way of doing it. He is not ready to spend money unless he has to. The OS might be either 2k pro or XP pro.
I've never cloned pc before and I need some links where get some info ( kinda step by step) nature.
Your help is highly appreciated .
Thanks,
Timng

 

[kippy13]

Hi,
Symantec ghost site is pretty good as is the Zenworks site on Novell.
U could just build one then copy the harddrives contents to another one through DOS, ud have to have time on your hands but its cheap.
JP

 

[igortsin]

Don't forget prepare workstation before creating image.
Run sysprep from win2k or XP.

 

[TimNg]

Thanks,
I heard that one can burn the image into a bootable cdrom and use it to install the OS. Is that true.

 

[kippy13]

Yes, However u need an application like symantec ghost or PQimage quest to do this. Not sure how much these cost but there would be more details as well as faqs on their sites.

 

[TimNg]

Thanks for your input.

 

[firestormsp1]

Powerquest Drive Image (PQDI) can be used to image your boxes over a network too, and i believe it has a SID changer if you have already authenticated the original pc on a network. If you havent sysprepped your image, dont foget the PC's hostnames will all be the same so you'll have to change them, as will any static IP addresing.

 

[slicsaw]

Process is fairly easy using ghost..

Prepare one workstation the way you want. (Spend some time ensuring that it is configured exactly the way you want them ALL to be)

Then you image and save to network, or CD-Rom. (Network is best, because to deploy images, you can plug machines into network and do as many at the same time as you need. You might want to NOT do this on your production network, however, due to bandwidth issues. We use a Hub thats separate from normal network.)


You might want to make several versions of image, with different software packages. We also usually save a "prototype image" , then Sysprep it to get a "production" image. (save both, just in case..)
Its even easier if you use DHCP to deploy network addresses...less to change during deployment.

I deploy 100 workstations a year or so, using variations on this.


Zen would make this easier still.

 

[tlindsay42]

*If you have room, you can save the image to a network drive. I find it a lot easier to manage.

*Remember, the imaging program copies everything, so be sure to clear the recently accessed documents, set the computer name to a standard like

"GHO-"[model][os][version]

and like slicsaw said, even if you use a static network, you still want to leave it on DHCP for the image.

*Also, if the hard drive is over 32GB, you may want to span the drive. If you add

[image executable]" -auto -span -split=635 -z9"

to the end of Autoexec.bat on the boot disk it'll span the volume to whatever you need it to be.

*If you want to do more than one image at a time, change the computer name in the network.ini file for each boot disk.

*If you use MS SMS, don't install the client on the image. It doesn't work well at all.

And that's all I've got.

Thanks,
-Big T

 

[tlindsay42]

Oh yeah, and don't join the PC to the domain unless you want to set up a dummy account.

Thanks,
-Big T

 

[alfa21]

Hi
About Imaging.
I always create Images using Norton Ghost, and it goes all fine, but however I can't make a bootable CD with an Image, I can run it using Standard Ghost Floppy, but I couldn't make a bootable CD, so no need for Floppy each time I install a PC. I tried

http://www.bootdisk.com,

but didn't work to me, I use Nero 6 and CD Writer AOpen USB.

Any help?

 

[PZGuy]

I'm a beginner with Ghost v8.0
Question:
1. Do you run sysprep in windows after the model PC is setup then create the image? Or, do you create the image first then after it's imaged, let the sysprep run?

2. After the clonning, during the bootup,I get a prompt that it need a file in the windows\i386 directory. Any ideas? (Sorry I don't remember exactly what file it was looking for).

Thanks everybody in advanced.

 

[Ger2111]

Run Sysprep after you have completed building the PC. When Sysprep finishes it shuts down your PC, Now create your Image using your Boot disks or bootable CD rom. This image can then be used on all (Hardware Identical) PC's on your network.

On the missing file. Are you cloning to a new machine or are you cloning to a new partition the target machine. And is the OS W2K or XP, I never had any problems cloning W2k, but have not worked with XP and cloning as yet.

MCP

 

[PZGuy]

OK thanks..Let me get this straight.

1. Build a PC with all the apps/patches you want.
2. Run sysprep on that PC. (This will reset the SID)
3. Boot from a floppy or cd to create an image.
4. Use that image to build the new PCs.

If that is correct, then I have another question. I'm using Ghost ver.8.0 and within the console, I can install the ghost client to the "model" PC and create an image that way. There is also an option for me to run sysprep on that PC during the image creation. Have you done it that way?


Missing file:
I am clonning to a new PC. Someone told me that the ghost server has a SYsprep directory that you're suppose to coppy the whole i386 folder to. Is that correct?

Thanks!
PzGuy