IMac Duplicate Image

[TLARWise]

I intend to reformat our 12 IMacs over the summer holidays. The plan is to spend the time getting one IMac installed as required and then image that drive over to the other IMacs. Is there specific software I need to do this successfully or can I just Time Machine the completed IMac and then reformat and recover the other IMacs using the Time Machine backup before finally renaming each individual IMac?

[Norphy]

Time Machine would be horrifically slow. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

There are various ways that you could achieve what you're trying to do however. You could take an image using Disk Utility. You could purchase a copy of OS X Server and set up a NetRestore service, use the System Image Utility to build an image (found in /System/Library/CoreServices) and NetRestore to send it out. Or use a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac Backup Software - Carbon Copy Cloner) to make the image. Or DeployStudio (Home)

 

Seriously though, I wouldn't use Time Machine

[Brimstone]

I intend to reformat our 12 IMacs over the summer holidays. The plan is to spend the time getting one IMac installed as required and then image that drive over to the other IMacs. Is there specific software I need to do this successfully or can I just Time Machine the completed IMac and then reformat and recover the other IMacs using the Time Machine backup before finally renaming each individual IMac?

 

Plus Time Machine will backup all the user account info and not create a properly formatted SUI Image and totally screw up your iMacs

[clareq]

DeployStudio is fantastic - and free.

[Chris_Cook]

Munki might also be worth a look if you are only doing basic software installation. Not as simple as imaging, but does let you quickly fix/update/install individual apps if you get problems in the future. If you do lots of configuration on the system before you image, it might not be so helpful.

[seawolf]

DeployStudio. Takes a little bit of setup, but big benefits afterwards. For a once off, CCC is probably the way to go.