Norton Ghost & Windows

[!!bogus]

Hi,

We are getting a few new computers at our company, the configuration is
identical; what we would like to do is make an installation of windows with
all the common software that we use on one computer and make norton ghost
CDs to copy it to the rest.

Now I've never done this before and I am not sure what issues might come out
of this, but one thing comes to my mind: If I use ghost, I'll probably end
up with a number of windows installations that have the same serial number.
I am not sure whether this is legal (even though we have the correct number
of licenses for our computers).

I have checked the microsoft website for the 'unattended installation'. This
seems OK for installing windows, but I still have to go through installing
the rest of the software, so the unattended installation doesn't seem like
the way to go. The whole idea is to try to save as much time as possible.

Can you give me your thoughts on this

Thanks
Please post only

 

[CWatters]

Might be a job for the rather expensive "v2iprotector" from Powerquest. I
think this can do what you want over the network. I've not used it myself
but it looks like you install a client application on each PC then push the
image out over the network from the master PC.

 

[Dave]

I have used Ghost MANY times to do just what you are describing. This is
perfectly legal as Microsoft also has a program called "Sysprep" that you
use just before you run Ghost. This strips the machine of all unique
characteristics including the SID. After Ghosting and rebooting each
machine, a mini setup wizard will appear to enter serial numbers and other
important info.
So go ahead and load all of your programs, the run Sysprep then Ghost.

 

[Malke]

Hi,

We are getting a few new computers at our company, the configuration
is identical; what we would like to do is make an installation of
windows with all the common software that we use on one computer and
make norton ghost CDs to copy it to the rest.

Now I've never done this before and I am not sure what issues might
come out of this, but one thing comes to my mind: If I use ghost, I'll
probably end up with a number of windows installations that have the
same serial number. I am not sure whether this is legal (even though
we have the correct number of licenses for our computers).

I have checked the microsoft website for the 'unattended
installation'. This seems OK for installing windows, but I still have
to go through installing the rest of the software, so the unattended
installation doesn't seem like the way to go. The whole idea is to try
to save as much time as possible.

If you are only doing this to a few computers, then the regular Norton
Ghost will be fine. You can go in after the installation and manually
change the product key to the right one. If you are doing this on
*lots* of computers, then you want the corporate version of Ghost which
can push the installation to lots of computers, and you would also want
a volume license for XP so you don't need to worry about individual
product keys.

Malke

 

[!!bogus]

Now the big question. How can I get this sysprep. I found some dead links to
it on my Dell computer, but not the actual file.

 

[John E. Carty]

Sysprep and its documentation can be found in \support\tools\deploy.cab on
the Windows XP CD.

 

[Dave]

Thanks, I meant to put that in my post but forgot!

 

[\@@bogus\]

Should I run sysprep before or after ghost?

If you are only doing this to a few computers, then the regular Norton
Ghost will be fine. You can go in after the installation and manually
change the product key to the right one. If you are doing this on
*lots* of computers, then you want the corporate version of Ghost which
can push the installation to lots of computers, and you would also want
a volume license for XP so you don't need to worry about individual
product keys.

Malke

 

[Yves Leclerc]

I believe that Sysprep may make the copied XP accept a new CD key???

Y.

Should I run sysprep before or after ghost?

 

[Dave]

To make an effective Ghost image, run Sysprep first then Ghost the drive.
Then after you ghost another box and then boot up, it will launch a mini
setup wizard

Should I run sysprep before or after ghost?

 

[Malke]

Should I run sysprep before or after ghost?

I Googled for "Norton Ghost + Sysprep" and found this article on
Symantec's tech support site about how to use Ghost and Sysprep (note
that the url is wrapped in my newsreader and you'll need to enter it
into your addressbar on one line):

http://service4.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf
docid/2000081610075225?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=2


Happy Holidays,

Malke

 

[Ziggy]

i used norton ghost 2003 no problems only thing i had to do is reactivate
norton 2004 & all was fine.

 

[\@@bogus\]

I was able to backup the drive to the network and then copy them to a CD
(because my new Plextor CD/DVD writer is not supported), everything is OK.

Now 2 problems: how can I configure my printers for all users at once and
network drives. I have one drive mapped from the profile on my NT server,
but how can I map two more?

i used norton ghost 2003 no problems only thing i had to do is reactivate
norton 2004 & all was fine.

 

[John Tiedt]

We have used ghost to image and clone machines for many years.

Sysprep has always been a problem, we like to have as many settings already
set as possible (makes for less user setup after cloning), Sysprep strips
the SID and other things and is supposed to reinstate all that was stripped
at the first login after cloning. However, it usually replaces all it has
stripped with the default settings, thus losing many setting that were set
before ghosting the image. (We have tried the newest version for XP and have
experienced the same thing)

The SID is really all that needs to be changed, allowing for unique machine
credentials. We have found a free SID changer, FreeSid, That works just fine
and does not lose settings. (Do a google search for FreeSid)

We will be putting out 500 machine in the next few months.

J. Tiedt

 

[Dave]

Exactly what settings are you referring to that you lose with Sysprep. I
have used Sysprep on hundreds of machines and have not had problems.