Speeding Up OS Reinstalls: What Ghost Software Would You Use?

[apostle83]

Hello! Thanks in advance for your help.

I run a small network - 15 users. Not my main gig. I've said before that I just do it because I'm the least incompetent. :\

I frequently have to reinstall entire OS's because folks just sort of... well, they do things that would take longer to fix than to nuke.

Unfortunately, we're not just on one standard system type - we use Dell Optiplex systems, and have 3 main models.

I figure the easiest thing to do is to get one system the way that I want it to per model, and make an image of it which I can then reinstall as I get new systems or get rid of old systems:

With that background, here are my questions:
1. Is this a good idea, or should I approach this from a different, better angle? Teach me!
2. Is there anything I would need to do other than change system names?
3. What does it appear to you I'm not thinking of?
4. What software would you use to make these images?

Thanks!

 

[Chiefcrowe]

As for software i'd recommend Macrium Reflect. There is a free version as well that you can test out to see how you like it.

 

[RebateMonger]

I use Windows Home Server on many of my small business clients. It's easy to set up, it automatically makes daily full image backups of up to ten Windows PCs, and it provides automatic monitoring of backup success.

Maintenance is near-zero. System restores are very simple and can be done by the average User with a bit of phone help the first time through. You can restore to yesterday's version of the PC, to the day before's, or from several months earlier.

WHS is $100 for the software, or pre-built servers can be easily purchased. You can have multiple WHS servers on the same network.. If you have a server that's not too busy, you can run one or more WHS virtualized servers.

You can permanently maintain a "base" install from each PC that could be used to restore to a new, similar PC. The one thing though, that WHS doesn't do is provide a "restore to dissimilar hardware" capability. To do that, you'd want to use Microsoft's Windows deployment tools or use Acronis' or StorageCraft's backup/restoration tools that can restore to dissimilar hardware.

 

[ColKurtz]

What about virtualization? You could create a custom reload CD that each user could use to install just the base OS (it would have their hostname, IP, etc already filled in), then have a VM image(s) that have all of the apps. You could even run Ubuntu as the host OS and run the (windows?) VM in full-screen -- it's unlikely anyone would know the difference. This main benefit is that you can take snapshots at certain points, so fixing things later on would be as simple as rolling back to a previous snapshot. Unlike windows System Restore, a snapshot is a true snapshot, same as Ghost/Acronis/etc.

Sun's VirtualBox seems as full-featured as VMware workstation these days. The only catch is that the (free) Open Source Edition does not have USB support on the guest OS, and the full version with USB support is not free for production use (unless this is an educational institution)... but may be less expensive than VMware Workstation.

Just something to consider. Since you were looking at alternatives, snapshotting with VMs may be a simpler solution long-term than ghosting, and easier on the disk space. It's extremely easy to set up and configure these days, even if you're not "IT pro". Throw Ubuntu 10.04 on a spare machine if you have one handy, go to Ubuntu Software Center, search for VirtualBox and install. You'll see how incredibly easy and seamless it is to configure and use.

Good luck!

 

[Jeff7181]

Buy a few spare hard disks... clone a base build and keep spares on hand. When a user screws up their machine, spend 5-10 minutes swapping disks and let 'em have at it again.

This will also help you prepare for inevitable hard disk failures as the equipment ages.

Just make sure they're putting all their documents on a network location or be prepared to recover their data from the old drive before you wipe, clone and redeploy it.

If the machines aren't all identical, I'd read up on sysprep. It's free and should allow you to reinstall an OS AND applications.

 

[Nocturnal]

What about using Windows Deployment Toolkit?

As long as you don't have a hundred different makes and models, you should be ok. With 3 different models it's pretty easy to setup and configure it to install the drivers, and a set of programs you need installed.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm a fan of Clonezilla myself... I just store my system images on a network share, and restore them from a bootable Clonezilla CD as needed.

You can also make a bootable "rescue CD" with the image pre-installed, if you prefer that route. For the images themselves, you should be able to set them up to run sysprep after restoring to redetect the hardware for all three models and reinstall drivers as needed.