K.C.Leblanc

If it's the same as the HP DC7600, we have loads (I would think about 75) of the Ultra Slims version. Very reliable we've had a few hard drives go and maye one or two PSUs but that's it.

Do you have any imaging software in place? This could certainly be done very easily using ghost with a boot CD (or maybe a USB stick) with preset parameters. Have you looked at MS Steadystate (free) or Faronics Deep Freeze (not free)? Not quite what you're after, but on the right track.

You could redeploy them to a building with subsidence or issue them to all your one legged students.

Call it Boris.

It might worth trying ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges. They might have some dud drives that you can nick the caddies from. But bare in mind from a support point of view you should be using pukka HP drives.

I would agree with that. I know someone who's witnessed the stig dehelmeting and it was Jason Plato. I doubt Schumi is the perminant Stig. He'd be listening to Krauftwerk everyweek.

How much are you spending, a school I know have bough a lot of used ProCurve 2650s off ebay. Although they're not full gigabit they have gigabit uplinks and if matched with a good gigabit core switch should be a lot faster then the switches you have (they're also managed). One other thing, get measuring your cabinets. Modern managed switches tend to be deeper then old unmanaged ones. You might have to change some cabs (remember to make a allowance for the power cable).

I'll see your £10 brekkie and raise you a burger. http://blog.pennlive.com/afterdark/medium_burger.jpg It's from Deny's beer barrel pub, in the USA (well there's a supprise).

We have HP procurve kit. Very dependable, not had one fail is 3 years. Our core is a 5408zl with a mixture of 26 and 28 series in other locations. You could probably use a 2810 as a core switch if you don't need many fibre connections. How big is your network? What's you budget. Oh I know it has it's fans on here, but I wouldn't buy Netgear.

I'm disapointed, I was hoping for a political thread full of uber neocommies.

I think you do have to restart the virtual servers after rebooting the physical server. However you don't have to leave the physical server logged with the console open. You should be able to connect to the VMWareware server from any computer on your network.

I had it on a circa 2002 P4 laptop with 512mb ram, it was usable but not quick.

I think it only applies on Hire Purchase, and you have to half way through the deal. Since you mentioned milage charges I assume you're on PCP or a lease. Honest John Car Buying Advice - Home might have the answer, or you could always phone the finance company and ask. Please tell me you're not this chap.

You can also control services with GPOs.

A few appliances here, two One Lan boxes, a SmartCache (not a good advert for Linux), and a Mutiny Monitoring box. I've also got a Smoothwall + Advanced Proxy + Sarg VM will be using with an open SSID so sixthformers can use there own laptop. Hopefully gonna bung it on ESX when we get it. Oh and one Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS VM that runs openfire server.

I tend to use PCLOS or Ubuntu, but I then I'm far from being a Linux expert. And please not more mentions of OSX, it's not Linux, it's not even an OS, it's a form of cruel and unusal punishment.

Erm, I do kind of misplace my little tupperware coffee tub about three times a week.

Did the adverts happen to be really tiny or perhaps advertising in a free sheet 15 miles away with a deadline of the next day?

That's a big shame I used to buy it every month in the late 90s (when I moved on from Amiga Format). I remember reading the odd copy my dad got in the early 90s where sellers like Software Warehouse (who became jumgle.com) and dabs often had 50 pages of advertising.

QBASIC can be run under DosBox, you might find GWBasic is the same.

Advanced Installer is very quick and easy for writing MSis from scratch. If all the program needs is a folder full of files in programs files, a few shortcuts and a registry entry to associate a filetype I find this the quickest way. The other thing you can do is use PSEXEC to push out your silents installs.

PSEXEC is what you need.

We've got about 3 teachers who play it as well as me and our technician. It does actualy get discussed in the staff room.

How about coasters for the staff room.

Make big shiney glasses out of them, you could dress your whole school up as Elton John.