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imaging XP

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by sue t

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We have 7 laptops that when finished will be identical in OS and programs, hardware is identical. I would like to setup one laptop and then make an image of it to use to setup the other 6. We do not have a volume license so I know I will have to manually change the XP key and activate each one and make sure each has a different computer name but is there anything else I need to change and if so how do I do it? The computers will be on our network. I would like to burn the image to CD and then use that CD on the other 6. I am thinking of using Ghost or Acronis True Image to make the image.

10 replies

by ð

You should look into using Microsoft SYSPREP to automate different computernames, product keys, etc... with Ghost to image the build.

by blitzsonik

The images created may be too big to put on a CD. You may want to put it on a network share. I use a universal boot disk to map a network share, then run ghost.

If you are running AD then AD will assign a new SSID for you, if not then you will need to change this as well. Sysprep will work for that.

by gooser12

You can also use something like power quest imaging center to make your images. But definitiley use SYSPREP for your imgages as you will be able to get past activation codes for office and XP. Make sure that when you run SYSPREP that you check off the box to create a different SID before you reseal with sysprep so that the computers to not have the same SID. Then use ghost or power quest to image that sealed machine to a network drive (that's probably easiest - can even be one of the other machines before you image them) and then load that image onto the other machines.

by raharr

I am doing the same thing as we speak. I have the computers setup. They are all adentical in hard and are from the same manufactor. I am using Symantec Ghost and had it splint the image into 620mb size. I ended up with 5 cd's. Here is how I did it using the network.

1) Setup the computer and install all the software and creat the account. (Ours are set up with the same account for users.)

2) Make a boot disk. Ghost will let you make a boot disk for this.

3) On the disk, put the dos drivers for the NIC ,if you can find them and VLM drivers (Netware, because that is what we use for our network)

4) Login to the network and go to the driver where you want the image at. Make sure you have the ghost.exe *.env, etc copied to that directory.

5) Type in ghost -split=620

Then I made a bootable cd with cd-rom drivers, ghost and the first image and the others in order of creation. When it boots up, go to ghost and select the image. It will prompt you for the next cd. That is it. Takes about 14 minutes to restore a 3+ gig image.

You will also need to test it first to make sure it doesn't ask you to active it. I didn't use SYSPrep and I worked fine for me.

If you have any questions or need more information, contact me at raharr@scdjj.net.

Russell

by jamrock

If U don't use Sysprep, U are asking for trouble latter. 1. create your boot disk and include Ghost.exe on this disk( U can use ghost to create this). 2. Install OS and all your apps. 3. From windows DOS prompt run Sysprep. 4. Reboot system with the disk created in step 1. Ghost v 7.5 or higher will create the image on CDs.

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