Cloning

[TechSupp]

Yes, done it before, and yes it blue screens or just reboots as it starts, just rebooted on the setup CD and installed over the top, it detects the new processor and keeps the existing software settings etc, hey presto new PC..may be I 've just been lucky but so far its been OK.

[RabbieBurns]

We use a bit of software called ShadowProtect for this. It has a Hardware Independant Restore mode which you can use the image of anything onto anything else. The boot CD has a load of drivers on it and generally finds them all during the imaging process.. Highly recommended but dunno the price sorry.

 

http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_IT_edition.php

Edited January 12, 2010 by RabbieBurns
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[Techie101]

We use a bit of software called ShadowProtect for this. It has a Hardware Independant Restore mode which you can use the image of anything onto anything else. The boot CD has a load of drivers on it and generally finds them all during the imaging process.. Highly recommended but dunno the price sorry.

 

Backup Software | Disaster Recovery Software | Disk Image | Mirror Software

 

Thanks for that, I'll try the demo to see if it works for me, if it does and the price is right it may be the way to go, will get back to you with the results of how the demo software went.

 

Bugger just checked the site they dont do a demo for the IT Edition, will any of the other versions of Shadow Protect allow me to image regardless or what hardware i have?

Edited January 12, 2010 by Techie101

[plexer]

$275.00 for a 2 week licence.

 

http://store.storagecraft.com/acb/stores/1/ShadowProtect-IT-Edition-Technician-Subscription---2-Week-P118C8.aspx

 

$3,520.00 for a year.

 

Ben

[RabbieBurns]

Hmm im not sure what the mention of the USB key thing is on that page, we certainly dont have one?

 

Try the demo of the server/desktop edition, I honesltly cant remember what else it does. We run it to backup servers live, it does a sector by sector backup rather than a file by file backup and it backs up to a file, it uses the technology VMWare license from them to create virtual disks from physical disks. So if a server dies we can just bring it up in a VM within minutes. Im sure you can use it though for this, give it a try?

[Techie101]

Thanks for that, gonna give it a go i'll let you know how i get on, cheers

[Arthur]

As most modern cpu's are dual core or hyperthreaded (or both) most systems use the Multiprocessor HAL nowadays so there seems to be less of an issue between HAL layers now than there was a few years back.

As long as your hardware isn't ancient, most of the time you can get away with creating a single image which uses the ACPI Uniprocessor HAL since this will also work on PCs which normally use a Multiprocessor HAL. IIRC, the last time I created an image like this, the HAL was changed automatically the first time the SysPrep'd image was booted.

 

Also, now that you can create hardware-independent images with Windows 7/Vista, HAL problems are even less of an issue these days.

 

Cloning however has other issues, remember that you MUST use sysprep or sidwalker to ensure each cloned machine maintains a unique GUID otherwise you can have some dire repercussions later on.

While you should always SysPrep the machine prior to cloning, changing the machine's SID is not necessary. Mark Russinovich has a great article on his blog explaining it and why it doesn't matter. In fact, future versions of SysPrep will not change the SID at all.

[pritchardavid]

Have you tried Windows Deployment Services (WDS)?

[ricki]

Hi

 

I know you will not want to hear this but yes you can do repairs on images and do all sorts of repairs to get them running but its time consuming and a pain.

 

I would make a new image and bite the bullet now instead of having Hassle later then get the head to check the image is exactly as he wants it before knocking the machine off the network and syspreping it and ghosting it.

 

That way if you find any differences the head cannot complain when time is needed to change something.

 

Richard

[Techie101]

Thanks all

 

I'm not back at that school now until Tuesday so I'll fill you all in on how things go, thanks again.

[Techie101]

Ok guys and gals, I'm back at the school with the cloning problem and guess what??

 

IT WORKED!!!

 

Yippy, now previously I tried Acronis True Image with Universal Restore, that gave BSOD on bootup, today tried Shadow Protect as recommended by RabbieBurns, that also gave BSOD on bootup, but then I found this on the net –

 

Installing XP: ***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)? - Cyber Tech Help Support Forums

 

A guy called thegladi8tor suggested this –

 

I had the same problem with a Dell Optiplex 330. I received the

STOP 0x0000007B(0xF78DA63C,0x0000034,0X x0000000,0x0000000 error message if I booted with Windows XP. I resolved the issue by the following actions

 

1. On start up (Dell logo), press F2 to enter BIOS

 

2. Expand the "Drives" section

 

3. Go to "SATA Operation"

 

4. Change this from "RAID Auto/AHCI" to "RAID Auto/ATA"

 

So simple, but the damn laptop booted up, happy days are here again. Just want to say a big thank you to all you that helped, much appreciated, thanks guys.