More about that different hardware configurations..more importantly
I should have asked if the computers were from the same manufacturer.
The only problems I have had ghosting dissimilar computers was corrected by this article:
http://support.microsoft.c
My experience in this is limited compared to others here and I have always ghosted
machines made by the same manufacturer. I have never tried to mix and match
Hope this helps!
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by: mdiglioPosted on 2003-08-26 at 21:42:12ID: 9229734
Hello,
m/ntw2k/so urce/newsi d.shtml
If you have the time to spend I think it is a great idea to start with a fresh install!
Depending upon the hardware configuration of the 20 XP machines here is one suggestion for you.
You won't need a 98 boot disk but you can just set the cmos to boot from the CD on 1 XP machine
Boot from the Windows XP CD and reformat the drive using NTFS. If htey already are NTFS you can
just do a quick format.
Once you have all the Service Packs, updates and software installed you can then ghost that computer
to a network share. Oh yea, disjoin it from the domain before you ghost it!
To ghost a computer you will have to create a boot-disk using symatec ghost boot disk wizard.
It is an easy to follow walk through to use their utlity.
You will boot the machine you want to use as a base image with that Ghost boot disk.
This will bring you to a small graphical program where you will tell it where to save the image and
what name to give it.
Once that image is created you will then boot your other XP machines using that same disk
and once the graphical part comes up you will then tell it to overwrite the existing disk with
the image you created earlier.
Can't remember exactly but I think at the user interface you will click local >> from image (image you created earlier) >> to disk
Once that image has finished cloning itself to that XP machines you will then have to run a utility
to change the SID of the machine. If you have ghost-walker..great. If not here is a program that
you can use:
New Sid
http://www.sysinternals.co
You can send an image to more than one computer at a tme if you would like.
Earlier I said "depending upon your hardware configuration" If these XP machines are smiiliar
you should have no problem at all using this method if they are VERY different like some 400MHZ computers and some 2.0GHZ computers let us know and we can give you some procedures to ensure it goes smoothly.