SPSTech

This post has been dormant for a bit. I have a very similar question, should I post it here or start a new thread?

When I arrived at the school they were using Paragon for cloning HDD's. This is done in a lab and physically booting each computer to CD and then accessing the image off of a external HDD via USB. I use CloneZilla and have my images on the server, which is in turn accessed from the pc via a bootable cd. Once I boot, I locate the image, and then pull it across the network. My images average 20-40Gb depending on class, and when I clone 12 @once and it takes about 20-30 minutes. I have cloned 30 @ once, but I usually start those and go home. They tend to take a bit longer. I am currently researching the FOG project, and am attending a workshop on FOG here this spring. With FOG one can push images, updates, software installs and more. I don't have enough information on FOG yet to leave an informed post.

RabbieBurns, I apologize, the units didn't get ordered as quickly as I would have liked. Tracking shows delivery for today. The docks show delivery for the 21nd. I really want them today so I can play with the unit over the weekend. I will use a USB cd/dvd drive to install the OS and software. From there I will create my image. Hope the docks show up sooner... Once I have my master image, ( and the docks arrive), I will clone the rest of the units. I will post more information once I get started. Be sure to share the link to the new post and I will follow up there. Thanks again for the input everyone...

Thank you for the input everyone. We have ordered a few of the Dells to have the IT techs play with them and see what they think. I look forward to their arrival. If they perform like I want them to, I will order more and deploy to the teachers. Lastly is the students, which is where most of my concern lies. I would have to carry some "spares" to loan out when a unit gets broken and has to be sent in for repair. I worry about the lower grades, ie. k-5. I am eager to run these units through their paces and see the results. I will post my findings once I have tested.

We are looking at replacing the laptops/notebook computers in our mobile labs and possibly the teacher/staff units. Due to the swiftly changing tides of technology, I wonder if the notebooks shouldn't be replaced with Windows 7 Pro tablets. I have done some research and have found some schools have gone to tablet/slate computing. I am familiar with "convertible" notebooks, but no so much with the tablets. The mobile labs have various uses. Sometimes they are rolled down to a classroom that is working on a project needing more than the available workstations on location. Other times the lab is used for testing. We often hold classes for business training or webinars. I would like to "stay with the times" but don't want to trade off next gen tech for functionality. Of course the units will be connecting via wifi to our domain, and currently we are running LightSpeed Systems for our content filter and endpoint solution. We are looking at moving away from them, but that is a project for the future. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Update: I probably should have put this in the hardware section of the forum.