"Malke" wrote:
>
> Shouting doesn't change my answer to you. Make images of your systems with
> True Image or Ghost, store the images on a hard drive (you don't need a
> server) and you'll be able to restore your computers in a matter of
> minutes. Mr. Honeycutt's article apparently refers to deployment in a large
> organization and in addition is not applicable to Windows Home Basic.
>
> End of story, end of thread for me since I'm not interested in being shouted
> at.
Good advice indeed!
You don't need anything special. Carry the external drive around to each
computer, and make an image (or use a DVD, like you said you would). I've
not used TrueImage before, but I'll assume it is functionally similar to
Ghost. Here's why this is simpler than using Vista's built in capabilities:
When a computer goes down, if you had used Vista to make the image, what do
you have to do?
1) Perform a basic install of Vista, so that you have access to its restore
function,
2) then perform the restore - yuk!
Compare this to...
If you had used another package to create your system images (and I know
this is true with Ghost), all you do is:
1) plug in the external drive,
2) put in the CD and let the PC boot from it,
3) restore the image of that PC from the external drive (you choose "where"
the backup is stored when the software runs from the CD).
Done. How easy is that? You wanted minutes? Go ahead and count how long a
basic install of any version of Windows takes. Now thank the man for good
advice. IMO even if you don't choose to use it, it's good advice, and is
truly quick and easy.
More reasons that this is useful:
Using a hard drive also allows you to renew your images of each station.
Their configurations (and certainly their contents), won't be static, so
instead of writing a new DVD each time, use a hard drive. You can overwrite
each PC's image, or (and this is smart), maintain two or three levels of
images before overwriting them. This way, if the latest image is bad
(unusual) you have the next to last one to fall back on. Also, as I said
before, Norton does give generous discounts for Ghost to academic
institutions. If you're eligible, you can get yours for $10 each. This is
quite a bargain, and makes it easy to be legal! Add to that a 500Gig
external drive for around $140 and you truly have a low-budget-compatible
solution. Even if you need more storage, a 1TB drive is in the $200-&-change
range. And it's more flexible and less wasteful than using DVDs (got to be
green). You don't need an ultra-reliable drive. Most of the time it will be
off, so the failure likelihood is VERY small.
Please let us know what you think.
--
-me.
Let this forum know if this helps or if you figure out the problem, so
others can benefit.
> Andylxi wrote:
>
> > THE POINT I AM TRYING TO MAKE IS THAT I CAME ACROSS A MICROSOFT TECHNET
> > REPORT WITH TITLE "IMAGEX AND WIM IMAGE FORMAT" BY JERRY HONEYCUTT THAT
> > STATES PRIMARILY THAT "File based disk imaging is a core capability of
> > Windows Vista" AND AMONG OTHER THINGS THAT "...Windows Vista ... will come
> > with a built-in disk-imaging tool: ImageX".
> > THE SITUATION OF MY NETWORK IS THAT IS A WIRELESS NETWORK WITHOUT SERVER,
> > SO FOR MY CASE THE IDEAL SOLUTION WOULD BE TO MAKE AN IMAGE ON DVD OF EACH
> > INDIVIDUAL PC WITH THE CONFIGURATION OF THE PC AND OF THE WIRELESS NETWORK
> > POSITION WITH ADDRESS, ETC., AND OF THE FEW PROGRAMS LOADED ON THAT
> > INDIVIDUAL MACHINE, SO THAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THE MACHINE, AFTER
> > FIXING THE PROBLEM I WILL BE IN THE POSITION OF RELOADING THE DVD IMAGE
> > GETTING BOTH THE PC RECONFIGURED, THE PROGRAMS RELOADED AND ITS NETWORK
> > LOCATION RECONFIGURED AS WELL, HOPEFULLY SAVING A LOT OF TIME.
> > IF THE ABOVE IS FEASIBLE (WITH WINDOWS VISTA HOME BASIC) - GIVEN THE FACT
> > THAT I AM NO COMPUTER EXPERT - I WOULD BE LOOKING FOR CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS
> > ON HOW TO DO THE ENTIRE DVD IMAGING WORK.
> > THANKS.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>
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