best option for imaging pcs

zweton

hi,

I have bunch of 50 win7 pro machines i need to image. what is the best way to do this? i have a copy of acronis true image.

Fysh

zweton wrote: »

hi,

I have bunch of 50 win7 pro machines i need to image. what is the best way to do this? i have a copy of acronis true image.

If the hardware is all identical, you can set up one installation and then image that to the HDD of each destination system using the Acronis True Image bootable disc. (Even if the hardware isn't identical, you can use the bootable disc if you create it after purchasing and activating the Universal Restore upgrade in your True Image install).

To save on problems, avoid activating any licenced software that's going on the machines until after the imaging step.

Also, you'll need to change the hostname on each system after imaging it. If you've got any inventory software, you'll probably want to install that after the imaging process to save on problems.

Is this a one-time job or could it happen again? Because if you're going to have this sort of job as a regular thing it might be worth investigating Sysprep or some other options.

zweton

actually this will be regular enough, batches of 40/50. Would you recommend sysprep instead?

ZENER

Create a WinPE USB Stick (or download an image file and burn a CD). Copy imagex to it before you burn it. Install one of the machines with everything you need then Sysprep > Generalize > OOBE and then use imagex to capture the image which can then be applied to all the machines. Generalize will clear the SID of the image so each machine will be unique with it's own unique SID etc.

With a large enough USB stick you could copy the image to it all in one go.

Use:

imagex /compress fast /capture c:\ t:\install.wim "Windows Professional"

Where c: is the drive Windows is installed on - Usually C:.
Where t: is the drive letter of the device or mapped drive you want to copy the image to.

ImageX is a free download and is part of WAIK which can be useful.

You could setup a network share with this image on it and use PXE to do the install ? Not too sure how without WDS but I'm sure someone will know

Hope this helps.

Ken

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,

The Symantec Ghost still around and ,in my opinion best solution so far...

And...i've heard that SID is no longer an issue with Win7.

Have fun...

zweton

why do you think ghost is the best solution.

Bebop

If the computers are networked and you have Windows server 2008 or greater then Windows Deployment Service is the best option, this would allow you to boot from network and install an image from the server: you just do a manual install of W7Pro on a sample machine and let WDS make an image for deployment
It takes a bit of setting up but well worth it in the long run
Next best option would be Ghost using the multicast server method