Machine imaging...

[ITAandE]

I'm currently using the old tried and trusted Ghost to backup machines to an image before I flatten them and rebuild them and use Ghost Explorer to pull the data out of the image and back on to the machine. It works but I'm finding Ghost Explorer so slow.

 

What would you use in the same situation? Something like an Acronis product?

 

I'll be interested to hear what's good and what isn't

 

Thanks in advance

[Guest Guest]

If you've always done local installs and then ripped an image it's going to be a huge job to move but... MDT/WDS to deploy the OS image and then MSIs/scripts/etc to deploy software either by plain old GP or via system centre. The flexibility it provides is well worth the effort. Provided you use a decent PC manufacturer, when you buy in new PCs it's just a case of importing the driver cab into MDT, attaching the appropriate software to the computer object in AD and pressing "go", rather than wiping the PC, putting an OS on, putting drivers in, putting the software on, testing, capture an image.... And then finding a week later another piece of software is needed or one isn't set up correctly.

 

Or you could just use MDT to capture and deploy images like a glorified ghost, but it is much more powerful than that...

Edited November 15, 2013 by Guest

[ITAandE]

A great suggestion and one similar to what happens in the day job but i'm actually talking about out of the office and at home, or a relative's house, or a mate's house. So for all the stuff on the side I need a portable solution. Currently I have a ghost pen stick with ghost explore on it too, a portable hard drive and a laptop.

[mrbios]

Previously WDS now SCCM, if you're using ghost then SCCM would be a slap in the face with a frying pan as it's quite a shock to the system to use. (you need a lot of time and patience to learn it)

 

WDS/MDT + Fog are the two most common tools for imaging that are simple in both setup and their effect, i'd suggest looking at one of those options first.

 

this thread may be moved to O/S deployment, though i suppose "how do you do it" is also relevant, but look here for more advice: O/S Deployment

 

EDIT: I left this thread open for too long and didn't see your other reply!

 

Personally on that end i've gone for the option of "oh you need PC help? What are you going to pay me" most run away after that, but those who do are normally few and far between so i've just got a large collection of pen drives with different OS installers on. Never bothered with an imaging solution for those, software gets out of date too quickly to try and package applications with them.

Edited November 15, 2013 by mrbios

[MatthewL]

Why not just go into C:\Users or Documents & Settings to said user and pull said data out, i.e. Desktop, Favorites, Documents, Downloads and just copy them. Their own fault if not saving stuff in the right place.

[free780]

You really need to do a usmt script for the profile. By default it doesn't capture the whole profile.

[ITAandE]

I've been bitten a few times in the past when I've rebuilt a machine and the person I've helped has asked for something back I've not backed up. So I started taking images of the machines and that situation has happened since. I'll carry on using Ghost if there isn't anything out there as easy to use