Single or mulitple partitions

[NetworkGeezer]

When set up a PC for school use do you just have one large partition with maybe the small OEM utitility partition?

Do some have a separate partition for documents and settings?

Do you keep some space spare just in case you decide to change things later on?

[localzuk]

We use a single partition that does the lot. I can't see any advantage with multiple partitions on client machines as they don't need them as far as I can see.

[Ric_]

I'm with localzuk on this. All my desktop clients have redirected documents to the server so there is nothing saved to disk other than tempory profiles, etc. The laptops synchronise to the servers using offline files so I cannot see a need for separating out the documents on those either.

As for OEM utils, I take it you mean the like of the Dell system partition with all the pointless tools... can you tell that I don't bother with those?

[mac_shinobi]

Is re directing my documents done via GPO ? if so where is that setting ?

also how do you stop users from saving to the desktop and making sure they save any work they want to the my documents , am guessing that is down to setting the permissions some how via GPO so that they cant save to the desktop and they will be forced to save to the my documents ?

[SimpleSi]

I partition them and save an image on the D drive and use that to restore the C drive.

In non-domain controlled machines with 2 users (pupil and staff) I redirect the My Documents folders to the D drive.

This is because, if the network fails (particularly wireless ones) , they save into My Documents instead of the networked folder and I don't end up wiping out work if I re-image the machine when their not looking

regards

Simon

[ICTNUT]

Single image here, why complicate things.

We image our PC's using RIS and partitioning make life difficult for very little benefit.

We do have 30 stand-alone music media PC's that have a 200Gb sata drive in them partitioned into 2 100Gb sets the second being hidden and holds a ghost image on it but other than that all other Pc's are as above.

[limbo]

I used to partition the hard disk and keep a copy of the global ghost image on the second partition so it was always there to pull back (meant I could do a whole room at once with no network / CD utilisation issues).

The PC's checked every night to see if there was a new image appeared on the central server, and if there was, download and install it.

I have gone away from doing this in favour of using the recovery CD from the manufacturer plus MSI rollouts because a reinstall is required much less often these days (maybe one PC out of 600 per term) and the hassle of setting up a ghost image is no longer as time effective as it was under Windows 98 and 2000.

[djm968]

Is re directing my documents done via GPO ? if so where is that setting ?

also how do you stop users from saving to the desktop and making sure they save any work they want to the my documents , am guessing that is down to setting the permissions some how via GPO so that they cant save to the desktop and they will be forced to save to the my documents ?

This guide provides info on folder redirection implementation.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/window....mspx?mfr=true

There are so many settings that can be applied through GPO to "lock" the environment down to obtain an environment that best fits your establishments requirements and the best way is to experiment.

Create a new OU add some test accounts, link a test OU and play with GPO settings. That way if it all goes Pete Tong you have not messed up the “live” environment and any chance of a pay rise this year!

[webman]

On CC3, the workstation disks are split into partitions. You can have a small (configurable) backup partition for the image, or you can split the size equally if you have a big enough disk. There's also a small 8MB partition in the middle of these for RM DOS utilities I think.

[SimpleSi]

@limbo

The PC's checked every night to see if there was a new image appeared on the central server, and if there was, download and install it.

Do you still have your script/batch/thingy for doing this?

Is so - could I have a copy please?

regards

Simon

[limbo]

It was not really a script - more a collection of scheduled tasks and processes that happened in a certain sequence to make it happen.

And this depends largely on what operating system you use.

But a basic overview would be something like:-

At x'clock a script runs on the PC (which can be after a wake on lan event).
does an xcopy of the directory on the server that contains the ghost image down to the partition (using xcopy with the /d switch menas it only copies it if it is newer) plus a tag file that lives in the same directory.

Once it has copied it down it can trigger the machine to reboot and install it.

To reboot and install it you need to change the default booting OS to be a dos or basic windows 98 install that lives on the d: drive whose sole purpose is to unpack the ghost image.

Once the ghost image is unpacked - booting to the second partition again - the local answer file for sysprep is then copied over to the main partition and the OS boot reset.

[Oakie]

I partition them and save an image on the D drive and use that to restore the C drive.

In non-domain controlled machines with 2 users (pupil and staff) I redirect the My Documents folders to the D drive.

This is because, if the network fails (particularly wireless ones) , they save into My Documents instead of the networked folder and I don't end up wiping out work if I re-image the machine when their not looking

regards

Simon

My exact technique using the same line of thinking. Although I also use the Microsoft shared toolkit and it needs an extra partition 'for unallocated' space.