Repost:What strategy to use to deploy Win2k

[Daniel]

Hello,

I need some advice and links to various website of interest. Firstly, I
must state that I am really new to the IT/Networking world (so
explain/elaborate as much as possible).

I currently work in an expanding office that includes about 20 pc or
laptops. When we need to reformat a pc, I have to manually input the win2k
cd on each individual machine and then run through the various steps of the
installation, retrieve and install all the service packs and hotfixes.....
(everyone knows the longs way of doing things!). My question is a simple
but complexe one, how can I do this better?! There has to be a better
approach. I looked at various approaches but have run into numerous road
block and thus the reason for this post. I cannot use the RIS method (don't
meet the requirements), then I turned to sourceforge and came accross the
ANI but you cannot automate the installation if you want to format using
NTFS before the install.....

Although this isn't necessarily the right post, windows installation goes
hand in hand with office installation and as such, I am also looking for
input as to an effective way to install them sequentially (with all the
latest updates).

Any advice, input is welcome!

Daniel P

 

[Patrick J. LoPresti]

I cannot use the RIS method (don't meet the requirements), then I
turned to sourceforge and came accross the ANI but you cannot
automate the installation if you want to format using NTFS before
the install.....

But you can format using FAT and convert to NTFS, which works just as

Although this isn't necessarily the right post, windows installation
goes hand in hand with office installation and as such, I am also
looking for input as to an effective way to install them
sequentially (with all the latest updates).

We have scripts for automating this, too.

You also might find <http://unattended.msfn.org/> interesting.

- Pat

 

[Gerry Hickman]

meet the requirements), then I turned to sourceforge and came accross the
ANI but you cannot automate the installation if you want to format using
NTFS before the install.....

Regardless of which tool you use (or even if you don't use any 3rd party
tools at all) you can convert to NTFS in about six seconds.

I currently use DOS 6.22 FDISK to zap existing NTFS partitions, create a
new primary DOS, then format it (2Gb FAT). This is much quicker than
using Windows 98 FDISK which (on defaults) will "check integrity" for
ages, then try to the format the whole thing into one massive FAT32
volume. There are also scriptable options.

Alternatively, if you prefer CD-ROM based builds, you can create and
format the partitions at install time. You can also build machines if
your server or network is broken (for some reason) or over-run with
viruses for some other reason, and you can carry it to other sites that
are not on the LAN and biuld there too.

If you've got laptops, and if they're not all the same make/model, you
could find it somewhat tricky getting all the correct drivers into your
build and keeping them in line with newer hardware. You'll find some
dirvers will supersede others, some drivers will support earlier
hardware so you can zap the old version, but others will not so you'll
have to keep the earlier one too - look out for PnP ID conflicts. Don't
forget - if you add new drivers you need to be sure you are not trashing
earlier drivers, otherwise your build will cease to work on the oldest
machines.

 

[Jacki Slough]

We use Powerquest Deploycenter to roll out new PCs. I think Symantec bought
them out now. We get one pc ready just how we want it, then we sysprep it
with "sysprep -reseal -mini", then we boot with a deploycenter boot disk,
create an image from the pc and upload it to a server. Then we just go from
pc to pc loading the image off of the server. After an image is loaded onto
a pc, you boot windows and mini setup runs which asks you a few things like
computer name. We then have a short checklist of things to change, like ip
address, etc. and we are on our way. This is also great when you have
trouble with a pc - it is easy to just start all over again. We keep
different images on our server for our different departments or any pc that
has a specialized function. It has worked great for us. We have 4
locations and about 150 pcs.

There are other imaging software solutions out there such as Norton's ghost.
You would just have to investigate to see which one you like best.

 

[Daniel]

Jacki,

We have Deploycenter, and correct me if I am mistaken, but this would not
work in my current situation because no 2 computers (PCs) are of the same
build (hardware wise)?!

Please tell me if I'm mistaken of this.

Daniel

 

[Daniel]

Thank you very much for the insight, I had missed this one completely!

Daniel

 

[Daniel]

One quick question about format as FAT32 and then converting to NTFS. Will
the file structure be as secure as if it had simply been formatted as NTFS
in the first place or can there be security issue or moreover, reliability
issue by converting FAT32 into NTFS?

Thank you once again,

Daniel

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Daniel,

Actually, I personally use a 2GB FAT16 because FAT32 takes far too long
to format on modern drives.

Once the build begins, the answer file tells it to convert to NTFS and
also to ExtendOEMPartition up to around 14Gb.

It then begins the "proper" Win2k install, and security is just the same
as if you'd began with NTFS.