Imaging

[Jamie Vail]

I have a group of about 40 Dell Dimension 2400 Workstations, with the
computer name numbered W1000-W1039. Each department has a certain set of
applications that they need to use, in addition to the standard build of
Windows XP SP2, and Office 2003 (so I will be making an image for each
department). As of right now I am currently employing a solution of taking
the desktop, erasing the contents of the HD and reinstalling the build of XP
and Office from the respective CD¹s. I need a more efficient way of doing
this, being a somewhat novice at this, explain this in a particular manner,
would be much appreciated. Things I need to accomplish:

1. How do I make an image of a HD, that can later be distributed (I would
like to store the images on a USB 2.0 HD)
2. How do I go about erasing the contents of a workstations HD, and then
transfer the image onto that computer, from the USB drive. (Do I need to
worry about giving it a different computer name i.e. W10xx?)
3. Is there an application that will allow me to do this in an even more
efficient manner, than having to hook-up the USB drive to each individual
computer. SMS looks like it is too much for our needs.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

I just took a survey about the Microsoft Shared Computer Tool Kit that seems
to have just what you're looking for. It's a free download located here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx

- John

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have a group of about 40 Dell Dimension 2400 Workstations, with the
computer name numbered W1000-W1039. Each department has a certain set of
applications that they need to use, in addition to the standard build of
Windows XP SP2, and Office 2003 (so I will be making an image for each
department). As of right now I am currently employing a solution of
taking
the desktop, erasing the contents of the HD and reinstalling the build of
XP
and Office from the respective CD¹s. I need a more efficient way of doing
this, being a somewhat novice at this, explain this in a particular
manner,
would be much appreciated. Things I need to accomplish:

1. How do I make an image of a HD, that can later be distributed (I would
like to store the images on a USB 2.0 HD)
2. How do I go about erasing the contents of a workstations HD, and then
transfer the image onto that computer, from the USB drive. (Do I need to
worry about giving it a different computer name i.e. W10xx?)
3. Is there an application that will allow me to do this in an even more
efficient manner, than having to hook-up the USB drive to each individual
computer. SMS looks like it is too much for our needs.

A disk imaging program and sysprep is the supported way of doing this. The
image can be stored on an external drive or a network share. Here are some
links. The first one is very long and may not work. It is a search of the MS
Knowledge Base. If the link doesn't work go to the second link and run your
own search for sysprep.

http://support.microsoft.com/search...t=0&comm=1&ast=1&ast=2&ast=3&mode=a&x=11&y=13

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

In a nutshell the procedure is as follows. Configure one system exactly how
you want it. Run sysprep on the system. Image the system. Deploy the image
to the target computers. On first boot of the targets they will run a mini
setup which will do various tasks depending on what options you used with
sysprep.

Kerry