Copying a WinXP Partition To Numerous Computers

[Jeff Grossman]

My company is currently switching from a Mac environment to a Windows
environment. We have purchased all of the new equipment and it just
arrived this week. On all of the desktops and laptops, Windows XP
Professional came pre-installed. Is it possible for me to set one of
those machines up exactly how I want all of the other machines and
Ghost the image of that computer to put on the other computers? What
happens with product activation if I do that? Or am I going to be
stuck just setting up each machine independently, and hope I get them
all the same?

Thanks for any help you can offer me.

Jeff

 

[Jerry]

I guess it would depend on if you got a Product Key (25 letters and numbers)
for each machine (usually a sticker stuck to it somewhere) or one license
key for ALL the machines. If one for all then one activation would work; if
one on each then individual activations are required.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

Yes, they all have individual Product Keys. But, if I set one machine
up completely, and Ghost the drive. Can I safely use that same image on
another machine? When I boot up that other machine, won't it think it
is activated for the other machine with the original product key? How
would I go about putting in the original product key for that second
machine?

Jeff

 

[Guest]

You'll need a volume license for that.. Since they are all independant
right now you need to have each individual set of numbers tied to each
machine. Otherwise yoru audit group will frown on that. After you get that
you can ghost one base image and ghostcast it to all the other machines with
no issue.

 

[Star Fleet Admiral Q]

What you want to do requires you to have purchased the machines with NO OS
installed, and purchased a Volume License separately. Then you can setup
one machine the way the company likes, create a sysprep image for a mini
setup so you can change the machine name and network settings as needed, and
it will be up and running.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

You'll need a volume license for that.. Since they are all independant
right now you need to have each individual set of numbers tied to each
machine. Otherwise yoru audit group will frown on that. After you get that
you can ghost one base image and ghostcast it to all the other machines with
no issue.

I was afraid you were going to say that. Thanks for the information. I
guess I will be setting each machine up individually. What a pain.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Grossman]

What you want to do requires you to have purchased the machines with NO OS
installed, and purchased a Volume License separately. Then you can setup
one machine the way the company likes, create a sysprep image for a mini
setup so you can change the machine name and network settings as needed, and
it will be up and running.

I was afraid you were going to say something like that. Thanks for the
info. I will need to get started on setting each machine up
individually.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Grossman]

You'll need a volume license for that.. Since they are all independant
right now you need to have each individual set of numbers tied to each
machine. Otherwise yoru audit group will frown on that. After you get that
you can ghost one base image and ghostcast it to all the other machines with
no issue.

One more quick question. If I was doing this with either Windows 2000
or Windows 98, would I have been able to do what I wanted and after I
installed the ghosted image, run a bat file to change the product key
back to the original for that machine? I imagine because Windows XP
requires product activation, and the product key is assigned to that one
particular machine, it is not possible.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

You'll need a volume license for that.. Since they are all
independant right now you need to have each individual set of
numbers tied to each machine. Otherwise yoru audit group will
frown on that. After you get that you can ghost one base image and
ghostcast it to all the other machines with no issue.

One more quick question. If I was doing this with either Windows
2000 or Windows 98, would I have been able to do what I wanted and
after I installed the ghosted image, run a bat file to change the
product key back to the original for that machine? I imagine
because Windows XP requires product activation, and the product key
is assigned to that one particular machine, it is not possible.

You could do it with Windows XP that way as well - sort of.
(Win9X/ME/2K just didn't have activation - but changing the installation key
before activation isn't that hard.)
Not as easily - perhaps not even automated - but maybe - I have never tried.

But if you used something like:

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/ (network)
or
http://unattended.msfn.org/ (cd/dvd)

with whatever media you wanted, then you could likely do what you are
desiring.. Using the CVS method from the first place might allow you to
enter different keys for the same OEM media - and thus automate the entire
thing - and it is a lot more flexible (albeit slower) than an imaging
process.

You would be better off with a volume license - of that there is no doubt.
=)

 

[Jeff Grossman]

You could do it with Windows XP that way as well - sort of.
(Win9X/ME/2K just didn't have activation - but changing the installation key
before activation isn't that hard.)
Not as easily - perhaps not even automated - but maybe - I have never tried.

But if you used something like:

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/ (network)
or
http://unattended.msfn.org/ (cd/dvd)

with whatever media you wanted, then you could likely do what you are
desiring.. Using the CVS method from the first place might allow you to
enter different keys for the same OEM media - and thus automate the entire
thing - and it is a lot more flexible (albeit slower) than an imaging
process.

You would be better off with a volume license - of that there is no doubt.
=)

Thank you for that information. I will take a look at it and see if it
will work for my objective. Yes, I know the volumne license method
would have been better. But, all of the equipment is already purchased
and has arrived. A little late now to order the machines with no
operating system. For future use, if I ever do a project like this
again, I will make sure to purchase the machines with no os so I can
just copy the image over to every machine.

Jeff