Alternatives to Symantec Ghost

[laserblazer]

I've been using Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 for a while but basically just for cloning because I could never get anything else to work reliably with Windows 98 clients. Now we are upgrading to XP in the ICT suites I'm looking for something that will create images centrally and is more cost-effective than Ghost. Can anyone give me some pointers please?

[tmcd35]

Microsoft RIS. Don't know what it's been renamed to in Win 2k8, but it's built into windows server as standard - so practically free. I found it a bit slower to use than Ghost though.

[jcollings]

Free Open Ghost (FOG)

FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home

[rush_tech]

We use clonezilla

[cheredenine]

I use WDS as well - works very nicely once you've got your head round it. I have it working in combination with a sysprep script that joins the imaged PC to the network. It is a bit more work to take and deploy an image as you've got to supply domain/user details and answer some set up questions, but i've not had a PC fail to image correctly yet.

It was a real pain to get working initially, however, until I'd got hold of a workable boot.wim file. You need to be careful what source you use as Vista media supplied with, for example Dell, laptops or computers have subtly crippled boot.wim's... I took a fellow Edugeeker's advice and downloaded the trial of Server 2008, used the file i needed and ignored the rest (therefore no license issues..)

[rush_tech]

It looks interesting. How difficult was it to set up?

It was fairly easy, as long as you set up DRBL Server first, following the installation guide on the website

[IanT]

I read and watched a presentaion on Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition the other day which impressed me.

Linky: http://www.symantec.com/business/bac...server-edition

Ian

[tmcd35]

WDS is free and working ok for me (except for some Fujitsu desktops with silly ADMTek NIC drivers).

WDS - Thank you! I knew RIS was renamed, but couldn't for the life of me remember what the new initials are!

[CyberNerd]

This worked out pretty cost effective for us compated to ghost as we have a lot of IBM/Lenovo kit:
IBM Director: Extensions: Remote Deployment Manager

[irsprint84]

Ping - PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost)

[jsnetman]

I vote for WDS, as said before hard to initially setup but once working very good and versatile.

[AngryTechnician]

I've always found Acronis TrueImage to be a good alternative to Ghost - not sure what the prices for the non-personal versions of Ghost are like at the moment to compare, but could be worth a look.

[danboid]

We use clonezilla too. Only other imaging tool I've tried is Ghost Corporate Solution Suite. Ghost wins the interface comp. hands down and boots faster off a CD too but I've found clonezilla to be much more reliable and creates images much faster, if you do that often its a big benefit.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to try drbl-live (clonezilla server) multicasting as our switches are too old but I have successfully used it to do a unicast.

I've heard good stuff about PING and Acronis TrueImage too

[rh91uk]

We use Acronis True Image sometimes, but we more than usually use the Personal Backup Appliance and hack together some bootable Insert USB sticks which carry the pba client, rather than burning the ISO to cd.

The Canned OS Project: Personal Backup Appliance Getting Started

[richard.thomas]

Another vote for FOG over here.
FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home