Deploying images to new PC's

[versa]

Coming into the new year, I have about 30 PC orders due within the first 2 months. Previously, I may get 1 a month on average. Does anyone have experience with creating a base, or customized image, and deploying it over multiple systems? I've read up a little on MS, and their guides are a listen disheartening. If anyone has any guides, can describe how they do it, or list software that can do it easily, I'd love to hear it.

I'm also in the market for a good imaging/cloning tool for workstation migrations and backup prior to doing bench work. Any good recommendations? Any of these that will help with Problem #1 above?

Thanks!

 

[Martyn]

For your last paragraph I would say look at the Acronis website. www.acronis.com.

 

[ATTech]

If you're looking for a long term solution, MDT is a good option. Essentially, you create a reference image that contains common drivers and applications. That image is captured. You add drivers, applications, and packages to MDT, create a task sequence to deploy the captured image and select the appropriate applications.

If you're looking short term, imaging software with universal restore capabilities will work fine. Create a base image with all the common drivers and applications. Deploy the image to each computer and make any necessary adjustments afterward. This can be done with a ImageX and WinPE, Acronis or Paragon. If you're not up to learning and customizing the solution, and just need something to get the job done, choose the latter two. The former can be long term, but takes work to set it up how you want it.

 

[fixitdaz]

I had a play with sysprep and image x works great but it is not easy, I have had a look for an in-depth guide but I haven't had much look, after reading about acronis it looks the best to use if I could get my hands on a anronis universal copy and restore boot disk (hint hint nudge nudge ) I would go that root till i have lernt how to use mdt sysprep ect.

 

[Robert]

If you're a Microsoft System Builder partner, log into the OEM partner centre, they have some excellent pdf's that will walk you through step-by-step how to create deployments with their SIM (System Image Manager).

We use it for our custom builds - instead of spending an hour in front of the PC, we pop in the DVD & flash drive, come back in 45 minutes, and it's in windows, complete with our branding, installed office & apps (adobe, ccleaner, etc), ready for windows updates and any non-standard drivers.

Once you've loaded all you need to, you run sysprep which seals the computer so the customer can run the OOBE (as you're required to do under the System Builder licensing agreements).

Of course, if you're building identical machines, there are easier solutions (direct imaging), but for custom builds, that becomes a bit trickier.

 

[dbdawn]

MDT 2010 is really easy to setup and then deploy Vista/Windows 7, not tried to do XP on it yet. Another option is to use Acronis universal restore.

 

[fixitdaz]

Am wondering if anyone has made a win pe disk with a menu on it to automate imagex to take a image of the drive and to restore it.

ie: 1 to copy
2 to restore
3 to format
4 to check drive

 

[ATTech]

Am wondering if anyone has made a win pe disk with a menu on it to automate imagex to take a image of the drive and to restore it.

ie: 1 to copy
2 to restore
3 to format
4 to check drive

Yup. I've made multiple WinPE disks for backing up/restoring using imagex, backing up/restoring/rebuilding the MBR as well as applying sysprepped base images after updating the HAL information.

 

[fixitdaz]

@ATTech is it easy to put a menu on the pe so you can select the operation you wont to use and and it asks you wher you wont to copy from and to ect , would you be willing to sher a iso of a pe with menus (cheeky grin)

 

[ATTech]

@ATTech is it easy to put a menu on the pe so you can select the operation you wont to use and and it asks you wher you wont to copy from and to ect , would you be willing to sher a iso of a pe with menus (cheeky grin)

Well, it's easy, but It can get tedious to manage. My PE doesn't ask for a save space. A predefined share is initialized at start-up, and any back-up made is saved into a Backup\MAC address folder. It's name is essentially the date/time plus the proper extension (WIM for backups, and I use MBR for, as you can guess, mbrs). Example:

\\servershare\Backup\1A_2B_3C_4D_5E_6F\2010_12_10_04_35.wim
\\servershare\Backup\1A_2B_3C_4D_5E_6F\2010_12_10_04_45.mbr

 

[fixitdaz]

Ok thanks I have tried to set up a disk to ask you were you wont to save from and to, a bit like acronis do but I haven't managed to get one to work like that it was just to mack life a bit easier

 

[Necroman]

I used ghost from symantec and it worked great especially if the pc hardware is near identical.

Necroman

 

[Computer Repair Vancouver]

PING (Partimage is not Ghost) is another good choice. We used to use it before moving over to FOG (which is a tad more complicated in regards to setup). In regards to PING, you can set up a simple server which will house your images and then reimage several machines at a time. The documentation is also fairly well done (although there seems to be a bit of a language barrier once in a while). The docs are at http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/howto-2.01.html.

 

[fixitdaz]

I think I am trying to do the imposable with selecting a location with a menu, I will stick to typing the full path at prompt I use this to capture a image D:\Imagex /compress fast /capture C: Z:\Temp\Customers name.wim "ostyp" /verify

 

[fixitdaz]

PING (Partimage is not Ghost) is another good choice. We used to use it before moving over to FOG (which is a tad more complicated in regards to setup). In regards to PING, you can set up a simple server which will house your images and then reimage several machines at a time. The documentation is also fairly well done (although there seems to be a bit of a language barrier once in a while). The docs are at http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/howto-2.01.html.

I should check the links before I post, ping looks a good bit of kit,the best of it is I have it already on disk and I have never used it, I will give it a go see what its like, Thanks for the post.

 

[kwisher]

PING (Partimage is not Ghost) is another good choice. We used to use it before moving over to FOG (which is a tad more complicated in regards to setup). In regards to PING, you can set up a simple server which will house your images and then reimage several machines at a time. The documentation is also fairly well done (although there seems to be a bit of a language barrier once in a while). The docs are at http://ping.windowsdream.com/ping/howto-2.01.html.

I will second this posters recommendation for FOG, only if you are familiar with Linux. They have excellent instructions for getting FOG running on Ubuntu and CentOS based distro's.

http://www.fogproject.org/