Win 7 Image rollout

[tobiasclarity]

Hi Guys,

 

Can anyone see any issues that may occur if we were to build an image of windows 7 onto an SSD and place that SSD into another machine on the network which would be identical in specification. The only thing i can think off the top of my head would be MAC address but i would assume this would refresh when on the new machine.

 

Ideally out of this we have created a new windows 7 image that we want to push out to a few machines and would like to minimse on downtime by pre building for example 6 images and pushing them out that way but just arriving at the said computer and swapping HDD

 

Many thanks for any suggestions

[localzuk]

Shouldn't be any issue at all with this.

[tobiasclarity]

Shouldn't be any issue at all with this.

Yeah i mean all we would be doing is adding to domain etc on our build machine then installing hdd straight at users desk....job done and practically no downtime

[glennda]

No - the only thing you may get is that the network card appears as local area connection two (if its slightly different hardware). Apart from that ok.

[tobiasclarity]

No - the only thing you may get is that the network card appears as local area connection two (if its slightly different hardware). Apart from that ok.

 

Wonderful news, this should make our life a little easier

[glennda]

You will need to ensure you install all the drivers for any hardware you may come across before doing it.

 

Also I would test of a few machines first!

[tobiasclarity]

You will need to ensure you install all the drivers for any hardware you may come across before doing it.

 

Also I would test of a few machines first!

 

Ok thanks, we have some time to do testing, the hardware on the machiens are identical, apart from Gigabyte changing their network chips now and again on different board revisions grrr

[3s-gtech]

Exactly how I deployed a few PCs this Summer, mopped up the last few PCs that had slightly corrupted images by building them in my office on an identical machine then trotting that SSD over to the classroom. Saved many grumbles over downtime.

[arron]

If your using a proper image, meaning a single image that you would deploy to many computers, then you would need to sysprep the image before deployment... not doing so would cause Active Directory to think they're all the same computer which would cause many issues. But if your doing a complete fresh install per computer then the only issues i can think of would be the odd driver and screen res change.. though there not really issues.

[glennda]

If your using a proper image, meaning a single image that you would deploy to many computers, then you would need to sysprep the image before deployment... not doing so would cause Active Directory to think they're all the same computer which would cause many issues. But if your doing a complete fresh install per computer then the only issues i can think of would be the odd driver and screen res change.. though there not really issues.

 

Only if you want to automate the process. these days you can get away without sysprepping machines you just need to rename each machine before joining domain.

[arron]

Only if you want to automate the process. these days you can get away without sysprepping machines you just need to rename each machine before joining domain.

 

Did not know that, thanks

[SYNACK]

Did not know that, thanks

 

It's not entirely the case, if you are using KMS or Windows Update it is much better to sysprep it otherwise it will make a big mess.

[tobiasclarity]

Exactly how I deployed a few PCs this Summer, mopped up the last few PCs that had slightly corrupted images by building them in my office on an identical machine then trotting that SSD over to the classroom. Saved many grumbles over downtime.

 

We have just tested the whole process but are getting problems with IE not working, it is on network and seeing network drives etc just wont launch internet, adapter saying connected to internet. Ip has been released/renewed and adapter removed and scanned for hardware changes and still nothing

 

Any ideas?

[tobiasclarity]

We have just tested the whole process but are getting problems with IE not working, it is on network and seeing network drives etc just wont launch internet, adapter saying connected to internet. Ip has been released/renewed and adapter removed and scanned for hardware changes and still nothing

 

Any ideas?

 

Just as an update everything else on ent seems to work fine it has been isolated down to the Intranet that isnt connecting properly it takes a very very long time to appear.