Windows Imaging... has it got a bit confusing?

[gshaw]

Just been reading around SCCM as it's the next step up from my trusty SMS 2003 \ OSD pack imaging solution that works lovely at the moment but I'm getting a feeling that everything's getting a bit... messy?

Seems like now there's shedloads of scripts, task sequences and all sorts but yet you still in reality seem to need multiple images or very friendly drivers (relying on sofware behaing itself... dangerous game )

At the moment I just capture an image from a boot CD, upload to SMS server then using WDS legacy either boot the ISO of the install CD over PXE (for bare metal builds) or advertise the program for rebuilds et voila... image sent Seems a bit more messing about now defining everything just to get an image going?

Anyone using SCCM in anger at the moment and also how does it fit with the Deployment Toolkit? Seems another case of MS producing too many options so nothing is the standard practice now?

For our teaching machines we're standardising all new hardware and even the old PCs are fairly easy to get around, would love to have an easy way of reimaging staff laptops (all makes, models and hardware types) but it doesn't seem possible using XP without a lot of aggro from what I'm seeing

[Domino]

why not look at FOG?
FOG as a web-based Ghost Replacement | kallasoft
FOG :: A Computer Cloning Solution - Home

its a much simplier alternative, and has lots more funky features too

[SYNACK]

For our teaching machines we're standardising all new hardware and even the old PCs are fairly easy to get around, would love to have an easy way of reimaging staff laptops (all makes, models and hardware types) but it doesn't seem possible using XP without a lot of aggro from what I'm seeing

Thats because all of the new imaging stuff is designied for Vista, doing a global image for laptops is a snap with the new methods if using it. You simply can't easily leverage all of the newer features in the deployment environment in an OS that is 6 years old.

[j17sparky]

WDS legacy is great. Have a look at Autoimage and DriverPacks.net > DriverPacks > Intro

Got 1 image here which installs on just about anything

[gshaw]

Bring on Windows 7 then

May well stick with SMS for now in that case, doing exactly what we want so maybe SCCM \ Win 7 combo might be better...