rocknrollstar

If you're going to do just a single drive, I would use Clonezilla. It's bootable from a cd (burn the iso), and allows you to plug in a usb hard drive to save the image to. Pretty straight forward and quick. Depending on what's installed, the image size will be around 10GB for an XP machine. If you are going to want something that allows you to image multiple machines, like ghost, I would use Fog. You'll need a spare (but low spec) machine though. Both free

Oh dear- don't want to get screwed by MS, we are honestly trying to do everything by the book. I orginally thought we had a VLK, as all the machines supplied by Centreprise had the same key (identified using software utility). Turns out now that it's an OEM key, but the supplier must have used this as an image or at the very least reused the same key in the machines they supplied to us. Interestingly, I am pretty sure these machines didn't need to go through the activation process manually. Wouldn't that point to it being an VLK? However it does say OEM in according to: Cheers for any ideas!

The strange thing is that there were a few machines that were imaged and successfully activated after this problem machine didn't activate, so it appears that it hasn't run out of times to be activated!

Well, basically I follow a trick posted on edugeek, where the shortcut icons are copied locally to the machine in a startup script using robocopy, so it's quick and easy. The benefit is that if the network goes down, the icons are still there (although it is an issue if the network goes down!). Also, it prevents the start menu or desktop temporarily freezing whilst 32 computers all access the start menu folder on the server. The downside is as you say, that if a new program is to be installed, it requires a reboot for the local icons to be updated, but this doesn't happen that often, and a reguar speedy start menu outweighs the update problem. In the students GP, instead of the star menu & desktop folders redirecting to a folder on the server, they redirect to a folder on the c drive (c:\shortcuts\startmenu). There is 1 teacher account at our school, with local profiles and a shared My Documents, so a shared start menu or desktop isn't needed. This all works fine on 99% of machines, the issue is where the fresh install of XP Pro SP3 doesn't seem to follow the desktop and start menu redirect (but does follow the my documents redirect). Thank Michael for your continuing help and advice though. If you're going to the edugeek conf, I'll happily paypal you for a drink, as I'm not going!

But do I not need to buy CALs as well? From what I gather, this is the expensive bit, obviously depending on the number of machines that you have. As you say, a new server would be the preferable way forward.

Thanks dtakias, that's useful to know. I've found out it's not a VLK, but an OEM. What I don't understand is why it makes a difference when I try and activate it. I've got 24 pcs that have activated fine with the OEM key, and one that hasn't! They are all imaged from the same image, with sysprep filling in the same OEM key in each one. Any thoughts?

Not sure if it's applicable, but the pupil's profile folder on the server has Start Menu, Desktop and "testaccount's Documents", which was the username I had when creating a minimal default profile. It's not 'My Documents' but I think that MS makes it look like this. Should I rename the folder 'My Documents'?

Thanks babagee, I'll give it a go asap. Running rsop is a good idea, with verbose output. Hadn't thought of checking the logs either. Always good to have another avenue to explore. Will report back. Thanks again.

Thanks babagee. I did as suggested, copy over SP2 fdeploy.dll and used bombprof to delete the local profile (only the teacher account was there). However, it's really the student's roaming mandatory profile that is the issue, so there isn't a local copy of it on the machine, as it gets pulled from the server, and deleted at logoff. Didn't solve anything I'm afraid. Do you think reinstalling SP3 with all upgrades would help? Also, I take it it's ok to just copy and paste the SP2 fdeploy.dll over the SP3 one? Don't need to do anything fancy with it? Thanks.

Cools: The server is Win2k, a little ancient, but seems to work fine. Do you think this might be an issue with the redirection?

Sorry about this, but need to bring this up again. I've got 8 laptops that have XP Pro SP3 on them. They've just been rebuilt using a CD that isn't SP2, but SP3. So they haven't been upgraded from SP2. They are joined to the domain ok, and when a user is logged on, the My Docs folder is redirected ok. Problem is the desktop and startmenu shortcuts aren't. I have a folder on the c drive with the shortcuts, and the GPO says that the Desktop and SM shortcuts are to be redirected to these local folders. I know it works, because it's fine on all the other pcs at school (which are SP3 but upgraded from SP2). The fact that it's a local redirect should make any difference (and yes, the folder does exist on the c drive!). I've tried copying an fdeploy.dll from an SP2 machine, but that doesn't seem to do anything. Just overwrit it in the system32 folder, registered it, rebooted, and no joy. Also, the default profile and roaming profile both have the default empty folders in them. Also tried WindowsXP-KB958058-x86-ENU.exe but no luck. Any thoughts? It is rather an irriating problem. Thanks in advance.

Thanks Batman for the really useful summary. Nice to have things in plain English! Certianly need to be careful not to violate any agreement/law as far as licensing goes. Thanks for the reminder. The desktop PCs are made (badged) by Centerprise. They are several years old, but aren't giving up yet. They were all ordered before I arrived at the school, and we haven't got any support contracts with them anymore.

So I take it an OEM key doesn't rely on the actual copy of windows being installed (i.e. they aren't tightly paired), but it's more the fact that the OEM key is registered with MS, and can effectively be used with any OEM installation of Windows XP Pro, but only a certain number of times before MS get suspicious. I'll try stick in an OEM XP Pro Key- We have several HP Laptops that I am pretty sure are OEM. Thanks again for your help.

Sorry, no I only sysprep'd the imaged machine.

Thanks Batman for your help and ideas. I'm not sure really if it's an OEM or VLK, however I do know that there aren't any license stickers on the side or back, and that all the pcs purchased at that time share the same key (I checked on several before I imaged them). Forgot to mention that I also tried putting in the Microsoft VLK key for XP Professional 32bit (although I can't remember it's exact name), but that didn't work either. Thanks for any continuing ideas!

Thanks srochford. Gotta admit, routers and switches scare me, not really sure what to do with them. No worries, I'll just use fog to do a unicast, but queue them up a few at a time. Won't be as fast as multicast working properly, but probably faster than multicast not working.... Thanks for your help anyway.

AS mentioned in previous threads, I'm almost through re-imaging all the desktops at school. Having setup a fog server and sysprep'd all the machines, I've got 1 final issue (that I know of, anyway!). The desktops I am rebuilding are all from the same company, and the same batch- same spec, same hardware and installed at the same time. They have a VLK, which I have used keyfinder.exe to get. All the machines have worked fine, apart from one. Sysprep has automatically entered the VLK, and they don't appear to have needed to be activated (at least Windows Activation doesn't show up on the desktop). Apart from one! A machine has had the same image put onto it, but doesn't seem to be activated. It goes through sysprep ok, and has the key put in automatically, but when booting into windows, it then starts the activation wizard (both the keys icon in the taskbar, and the newer Windows Activation stamp/star). Other machines were imaged after this pc, so it can't be that the number of machines that can be activeated with this VLK has been exceeded, if that can ever happen. I've also phoned the activation phone number, typed in the numbers, but it gives an error and asks me to reinput the VLK (a cyclic process starts!). Any thoughts? Baffles me that this is the only problem pc, same as the others, but has this problem. Only solution I can see is to reimage every 29 days! Thanks in advance.

This is what I found happening- my solution was to remove the computer from AD before imaging. Thanks

Hi, I have installed a FOG server on Ubuntu. WOrks really well on unicast, takes about 15mins to image a machine. However, when I try unicast, it does work, but the send speed drops to about 5mbps, and reckons it will take 36hours! I thought multicast was supposed to be just as fast as unicast? Multicast is working, just extremely slowly. It looks like queueing the imaging with 1 or 2 at a time will be faster! Machine specs aren't great, 2.8Ghz with 512mb ram. 100mbps network. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Ok, this is what I am doing now! :: - prepare imaged computer to perfection... - remove from domain - configure sysprep to add to domain when sysprep'd - configure sysprep to prompt for a computer name from me (in sysprep.inf, make line look like COMPUTERNAME= with nothing after the equals sign). - Using Fog to manage imaging. We'll get there, let's hope it works... Thanks everyone for your help. Will update.

Thanks again. I've found that automatic update was on. Proxy is the LEA one, so offsite. Will try and flush WU as suggested, thanks.

Thanks everyone for providing clarity. I think I will: -leave computers in AD, as they will have the same name after being imaged -leave blank in sysprep the computer name, and supply it at run time during minisetup Seems so simple when you know how Thanks again

Hi, I am in the process of imaging several (24) computers at our school. I've got a FOG server running, and it's all works fine. Environment is Win2k server, xp clients. My question is about using AD. The computers are all currently registered in AD (on the domain). What's the process that I need to do to reimage them, but have them joined to the domain and in an OU when they get imaged? Do I need to remove it from the domain before doing any imaging? I'm using sysprep, and have got it to join the domain automatically, although it gives it a rubish name (eg domain-234k234). Not sure if I need Fog to do any AD stuff. I.E. is this right? 1- remove from domain 2- have sysprep add to domain, including special naming convention 3- deploy image Also, how do I use sysprep, but join different machines to different OUs? Sorry for the confused post, got to go to a funeral soon and trying to get it completed! Thanks in advance.

Hi, I am looking to do a windows update on a single XP SP3 machine. I've used the latest Logistix pack, as well as downloading updates for offline installation using a program from the web. There have been quite a few updates installed, but not via the windows update site. The machine is already SP3, just doing recent updates. When I go to use windows update via IE8 browser (tools->WU), it does a check for what updates are needed, and the dialog box shows saying 'downloading and installing updates' with the progress bar with about 10 items to download and install, but nothing is ever downloaded, and the downloads eventually all fail. There is definite internet and network access. Anything I can do to make it download? I'm trying to build an image, and don't want the perfect image never to be able to do an update. BTW, we're not using WSUS yet, still on Win2k server that needs upgrading (but have to wait until next year...). Only thing I've tried is adding windows update url to secure trusted sites in IE, but this shouldn't make a difference, as I've never had to do it on other pcs. Other strange thing is the windows update thinks that IE8 needs installing, but I'm using IE8 to check for the updates!! Something fishy going on... Perhaps need to reset windows update? Thanks in advance.

Sorry about that- had to go to a meeting! I've edited the file /etc/apt/bashrc, saved, restarted network, rebooted and it worked! I can now google! Thanks very much for everyone's time. It's a really helpful community, and makes me think linux and varieties can be tamed with support from others. Now to install fog... Thank you!