Read what R. McCarty wrote.
The objective is to COMPLETELY configure all aspects of the source platform. Update it to
make sure all aspects are up-to-date, Office Updates, Service Packs, etc. Let say that you
are logged on as USER_A, now logon to Administrator and then Right Click on "My Computer"
and go to user profiles and COPY the USER_A profile to "C:\Documents and Settings\Default
User" (If you can not see it, change the attribute of the directory from Hidden to
not-hidden). You can then logoff as Administrator and then again logon to the USER_A
account. You can then delete the Administrator profile. Any new Domain Users (or local
users) who subsequently logon to the platform will inherit the settings in the "C:\Documents
and Settings\Default User" profile.
I don't know how you expect to clone the platform but I suggest using TCP/IP. I also have
no idea what Ghost version you are using but if you are managing platforms for a corporation
then Enterprise Ghost is apropos. Ghost 2003 is good, but for one PC or two that;'s it as
it is a retail not corp. product.
You can use the SAME CD key as long as you can prove you own the correct number of license
or use a Client Access License (CAL). You would then execute SysPrep and the create a Ghost
image. If you are using Ghost Enterprise v7 ~ v8 you can take advantage of the IP Multicast
capability and restore the clone of the source PC to all sedtination platforms at the same
time. Otherwise you will have to do one after another.
Upon reboot of each destination PC you will be confronted with the MiniSetup Wizard in which
you will be able to set; Host name, Admin Password, CD Key, IP stack, etc. If you create a
sysprep.inf file you can store some of these as defaults whuich will ease the execution of
the MinSetup Wizard.
To give you an idea of how I do it...
I have a Win2K platform with two hard disks deemed the "Cloning Platform". Drive "C:" is a
20GB drive that boots Win2K SP4. Drive "D:" is a 80GB drive and is meant to store Ghost
images. I have an Intel Intelligent Server NIC (it has its own i960 RISC CPU and clock
doubles the PCI BUS to 66MHz) and is connected to a 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet switch. All
destination platforms also connect directly to this E-switch. This is to increase
performance by allowing the Cloning Platform and destination platforms to go into
Full-Duplex mode. Using a Ghost Boot Disk that is either setup using Crynwar Packet drivers
or NDIS2 drivers, the Ghost image is transferred via TCP/IP to/from the Ghost Cloning
Platform.
Remeber one thing. You can ONLY Ghost platforms that are the SAME make & model (with slight
exceptions "IF" the vast majority of the motherboard chip-sets are the same). That means
you can only Ghost a Dell GX240 to a GX240 amd a Dell GX400 only to a GX400.
Ghost -- The only Symantec product I swear by and not swear at.
Dave
| I've got an XP machine that I've built that needs duplicating to about 12 new
| PC's we've just purchased. I realise that this may be a bit naughty, but
| knowing that it's possible to de-activate WPA, I was wondering if I could
| just de-activate WPA on the machine I need to duplicate, Ghost it to the
| other 12 machines, re-enable WPA on each PC and then change the CD key to the
| legal key that comes with each machine.
|
| I'm not installing anything illegal, its just that I've already built the PC
| to the spec that I need and don't really understand how to use SUS and other
| similar tools. I just need the easiest way to copy the config to my new PC's
| and am willing to listen to any suggestions.
|
| Thanks.
|
