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Ghost/ True Image/ something else?

N

N3rv

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 8, 2001
Messages
493
I work in an IS office, where I generally have 10-20 new computers come though my hands per week. I currently use 8GB flash sticks and Ghost 8.0 to make an image of one of these computers, with full windows install, updated, and basic applications for work. The problem is that these flash sticks are only 8GB in size so they are sort of limiting what I can install and image. I prefer not to do this with a external, USB hard drive. Due to some computers not liking USB external hard drives pre windows.


So what I have decided to do is to build a dedicated box with some software on it that I will be able to make backups to. What I want to be able to do with this software is back up a full image of a computer over the network, and then be able to apply the image back to computers of the same setup here in my office. But I don’t want to install this software on every box that I setup, I just want this software to either be bootable off a flash stick, or located on the backup box only. Just I’m not sure what software I need to look into to be able to do this. I’m not sure if ghost can do this since I have never tried it, plus I hear anything over 8.0 are pretty much trash.

So what I have been looking at is Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation, it says it allows network backups and restores. I just don’t want to install this software on the client machine, just my backup box. So I’m not sure if this is a good solution.


Give me some ideas I’m open to pretty much anything. I’ll even go as far as setting up an FTP server on the backup box, and just booting off flash, and doing an image to FTP backup. As long as it works good!
 
I did this all the time for a company I interned for. Just took a floppy, which pointed to the proper network drive, 20 minutes later, ghost was done.

Do I know how to set it up? No, I wish I did. /sigh
 
Even if you do this, you will still have to sysprep your PC's prior to imaging them. Especially if they aren't corporate copies as Activation will be an issue with them. Additionally the Corporate copies of Windows will have to be sysprepped if they are to be used on a domain.

I know how to do this stuff with Altiris and Ghost Enterprise 7.5, but never versions of Ghost I haven't used.
 
Check out PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost), I think it might do exactly what you want, and it's free.

http://ping.windowsdream.com/

Lets you do network backups/restores. I know it boots off a CD, but flash drive may well be an option.
 
Dan_D said:
Additionally the Corporate copies of Windows will have to be sysprepped if they are to be used on a domain.
Click to expand...

I assume by this, you're referring to the fact that the ghosted machines will have identical SID's. If that's the case, you can use a SID changer instead. Sysprep'ing will be faster all-around, but it's not required.
 
Yes we do have a company corp. volume license, so that will not be an issue since I don’t have to activate them. As for Domain, I don’t actually copy them while the domain is still setup, I still do that manually. After I’m done restoring an image, I change the computer name, reboot, add it to the domain, and all that jazz.
I’ll look into (PING) it sounds intriguing, and should do just what I want.

What I have done in the mean time to eliminate the flash stick limit is setup Bart PE, with Ghost 8.0. This allows me to boot into a Pre Windows environment with a CD, and then image the hard drive with ghost32, to an external hard drive. Right now I’m using a Raptor 150, in a 3.5” external enclosure, formatted with NTFS. The nice thing about this setup over the flash stick is the 4GB file size limit with FAT32 since that’s what Ghost 8.0 DOS requires. Plus the craptacular 8GB flash stick is now gone!
 
Gambit said:
I assume by this, you're referring to the fact that the ghosted machines will have identical SID's. If that's the case, you can use a SID changer instead. Sysprep'ing will be faster all-around, but it's not required.
Click to expand...

Yes and you are correct.
 
we use ghost and ghost server - all the images are on a network share (you can put them on the ghost server itself, but ours are not) and use ghost multicast to image multiple machines. i've done about 40 or so machines at one time. gigE is pretty much mandatory for this, and this also allows for gigantic images (some of mine are 30GB).

our version is 8.3, but we are slowly migrating to newer stuff.
 
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