How can I make an image on cd to be easily deployed.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray F
  • Start date Start date
R

Ray F

Situation is as follows: I have roughly 140+ stores
across Canada that I take care of their store computers.
I have just upgraded them all to brand new machines, with
Windows XP Pro. The odd time a machine will go down and
be corrupt. I cant direct them on how to setup a clean
install of XP over the phone because they dont have the
know how to do it, and frankly it will take to long. So
what I have been doing is staging a new computer here at
head office, sending it to them and havig them send their
old one back.

My Goal:
I want to create a bootable cd that has an image on it,
that requires minimal setup, enough that I can direct
them how to do it over the phone. I want to have their
software installed on the image already and it setup and
ready to go, so all they have to do is pop it in, a few
easy setups and away we go.

Is this possible? im not sure.

Thanks,

Ray.
 
Nobody You Know said:
What you need is Norton Ghost, or something like it. It makes an exact image,
that is highly compressed, and will fit on a CD that can boot. As long as all
the computers are identical, this would be an ideal solution.

Adding to this...If the machines are in any way different you must create the bootable cd's/dvd's on each individual machine. This will be a lenghthy process but will give you the facility to leave the discs at the different sites and keep a masters discs for each machine at your base. I've just set up 4 machines myself from scratch in this way. To get to boot image state took roughly 10hrs each. If any disaster occurs now I can have fully rebuilt machines within 30 mins.
Click to expand...
When using Norton all disc's must be erased if they are rewrittable. DO NOT
let Norton erase them or you will get an failure in the image integraty check.
Norton sell site licenses and it will save you a lot of effort and money in
the long run.
Hope this helps.
 
Ray F said:
Situation is as follows: I have roughly 140+ stores
across Canada that I take care of their store computers.
I have just upgraded them all to brand new machines, with
Windows XP Pro. The odd time a machine will go down and
be corrupt. I cant direct them on how to setup a clean
install of XP over the phone because they dont have the
know how to do it, and frankly it will take to long. So
what I have been doing is staging a new computer here at
head office, sending it to them and havig them send their
old one back.

My Goal:
I want to create a bootable cd that has an image on it,
that requires minimal setup, enough that I can direct
them how to do it over the phone. I want to have their
software installed on the image already and it setup and
ready to go, so all they have to do is pop it in, a few
easy setups and away we go.

Is this possible? im not sure.

Thanks,

Ray.
Click to expand...

Here is an way that saves you shipping PCs all over the place:

1. Make sure that every PC has a split disk: C: for the OS
and for the applications, D: for data.
2. Create a hidden folder "d:\Images".
3. Place an image file of drive C: into this folder.
4. Create a rescue boot diskette. Arrange it so that it
automatically restores drive C: from the image file when
booting.

When a PC gets corrupted, local staff simply whip out
the rescue floppy disk, boot the machine with it, and
thirty minutes later the machine is back on air.

Doing it like so will require an initial effort but it will pay
off handsomely as time goes by. You need, of course,
an imaging program that can be scripted, e.g. DriveImage
Professional (or whatever it is called these days).
 
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