Help with "Clone/Copy" ?

[Barbarossa]

I'm stuck with googling this question, as I can't seem to get the terminology right.

If I have 9 identical computers to be installed on a network.

I know I can set one up how I want all of them, and then basically clone that drive for the other machines.

Searching for information, I'm not seeing anything about doing this with fresh installations.

Am I losing it?

[meaty-btz]

clonezilla
flat type WDS image
dd
ghost
etc.

If they are windows machines it is probably best to use WDS Flat imaging. It does work with OEM disks and keys (like the ones you get from dell) as they authenticate off of the BIOS and so can re-authenticate as they have technically unlimited authentication on that keyset as you'd have to have a DELL/HP/etc bios in order to authenticate. Easy peasy on duplicate machines. It gets more sticky when you are trying to use a commercial level disk as those have limited authentication or edu/enterprise as those require a KMS.

[pc_load_letter]

I think Windows Deployment Services might be a little more complicated than he needs for nine machines.

There are plenty of free and low cost tools out there that will allow you to "image" a hard drive to another. It's often called disk cloning as well.

My goto disk image tool is Active Disk Image, found here...http://www.disk-image.com/

They have a free version and a couple low cost paid for options. The "standard" version will suit your needs.

It's best if you clone and image your machines from outside of the running operating system. Less prone to error and more effecient. It's often referred to as a "rescue image creation" or just boot disk.

You basically boot to this disk (can be a USBstick as well) and run your disk image tool. Very fast and effecient.

Then, once you apply your image to the other machines, be sure to rename the machines in order to avoid what's called SID duplication. Machines with the same name made from the same image will not communicate well on a network.

Some other free options are...

http://www.realcopy.com/

http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

Someone might chime in with Clonezilla but it will probably overwhelm you with options and features you do not need.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

[Germz]

Acronis is the best. I've used it extensively and exclusively in Afghanistan re-imagine literally hundreds if not more than 1000 laptops.

[Ricky-Ray]

Acronis on sale at Newegg right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=2775804&SID=

[cid`]

I'm stuck with googling this question, as I can't seem to get the terminology right.

If I have 9 identical computers to be installed on a network.

I know I can set one up how I want all of them, and then basically clone that drive for the other machines.

Searching for information, I'm not seeing anything about doing this with fresh installations.

Am I losing it?

What I think you're searching for is "unattend"

Are these machines going on to a network, if so, domain or workgroup?

What OS?

If on a windows domain, AND if you clone, you'll have to run ghostwalk to change the SID's per machine otherwise it wont work on the domain properly due to idtentical SID's

Windows Vista and above require kms activation whether in house or through microsoft on the internet.

Ghosting in general sucks, causes machines to be unstable. The best way to do it is to do an unattend installation, because you can tweak and update the software packages and use it for the future, not just this instance...

[stilly]

WHA???

Acronis FTW.

Unattended installation. LoL. Yeah that works if you have one or two, but imaging a HD if done properly works in about 1/10th the amount of time.

[Wallabing]

Acronis migrate easy. Been using it after Norton ghost destroyed my windows installation.

The demo version does a very good job.

[Germz]

WHA???

Acronis FTW.

Unattended installation. LoL. Yeah that works if you have one or two, but imaging a HD if done properly works in about 1/10th the amount of time.

^This. strap your machines up to a 3750 (or some type of switch) and blast through all of them in one go. way faster than unattended setup. works even better if your master image has sysprep.

[cid`]

WHA???

Acronis FTW.

Unattended installation. LoL. Yeah that works if you have one or two, but imaging a HD if done properly works in about 1/10th the amount of time.

you can laugh all you want. its faster but not as solid, look at all the factory machines out there, run like crap, slow and bloated due to the same generic image. Unattends do take longer, but you can load a usb stick and load up whatever you want. I have different customers with different requirements, so i always use unattend with conditional post installation batch/autoit scripts to modify hives, install specific software and join to domain. imaging is quicker but you still have to ghostwalk it, and no 2 boards/computers are identical, there comes in the whole instability issues.

RIS is cool but there is too much overhead if you're doing it once.

i get paid $150 an hour to do this, so im fine with it being slow. do it slow, do it right, do it fast, do it twice..

[meaty-btz]

Um, WDS/RIS Imaging works and works well and takes maybe an hour to setup and maybe 30 min to create the base image. On a good network you can push 60-100 machines at once. Did it for years. Things like acronis and similar consumer systems are slow and unreliable. Unattended Installation works as well but not as well as a flat image on identical hardware. For the same HAL you can just use WDS and still use a flat image with drivers added to WDS itself to cover all driver needs. Again on a good network you can push hundreds of boxes at once. We've even done it across a MAN, our fiber loop that spans a city. We use Dell's system right now though and it's been a bit buggy but also workable.

WDS Flat Image does not need ghostwalker, it spins the GUID on domain join, WDS should be backed up by a robust and properly configured Active Directory where every WDS box automatically names based on a naming convention and joins the domain in the proper OU.

Even on the smaller scale I'll take WDS over any other solution really. I can have it up and running in an hour and easily maintain images and drivers, keeping them current.

[pc_load_letter]

There is no question that WDS is a good tool but you might be assuming a little to much on the part of the OP.

He may not have another machine around (to run WDS on). He never said anything about a domain and we don't know his skill level. Since he is here asking about how to image nine machines, he might be new to all this and these terms might be foreign to him.

He also may not even have a server OS to add the WDS role.

Um, WDS/RIS Imaging works and works well and takes maybe an hour to setup and maybe 30 min to create the base image. On a good network you can push 60-100 machines at once. Did it for years. Things like acronis and similar consumer systems are slow and unreliable. Unattended Installation works as well but not as well as a flat image on identical hardware. For the same HAL you can just use WDS and still use a flat image with drivers added to WDS itself to cover all driver needs. Again on a good network you can push hundreds of boxes at once. We've even done it across a MAN, our fiber loop that spans a city. We use Dell's system right now though and it's been a bit buggy but also workable.

WDS Flat Image does not need ghostwalker, it spins the GUID on domain join, WDS should be backed up by a robust and properly configured Active Directory where every WDS box automatically names based on a naming convention and joins the domain in the proper OU.

Even on the smaller scale I'll take WDS over any other solution really. I can have it up and running in an hour and easily maintain images and drivers, keeping them current.

[high_revs]

assuming it's windows here...

acronis... make sure you change the machine name since not all will have same machine names (especially if you're networked). assuming 5 are exactly identical h/w-wise, you won't need to worry about setting the right drivers and stuff.

the other part is licensing. hope the license key is some kind of multi-user/corporate one since the machines might be validating it.

[Tripper]

Just FYI
SIDs are irrelevant
You don't need to ghostwalk anything to change the SID

[cid`]

Just FYI
SIDs are irrelevant
You don't need to ghostwalk anything to change the SID

good to know.. i havent imaged anything for a while due to the fact ghosting sucks. Only single machines for backup now a days. I did alot of unattends with flat images before HAL so that it would install properly and be rock solid, versus ghost after HAL. different strokes i suppose