To Ghost or not to Ghost?

I have several computers that are the same, and I have to reinstall the OS. I have tried to Ghost the o/s but I can't figure that out too well. Is there a similar title around here that would duplicate the o/s to several pc's? I have the keys for each copy already. Thanks
Tony

 

What problem are you having with Ghost?
It's one of the most widely used drive/partition copying programs (imo).

You can create an image file (*.gho) of the original drive and then write that image onto the other machines.

 

You can also use any cloning program. I've used EaseUs Disk Copy many times to copy hard drives; it works great and is VERY easy to use and understand. The download is a zip file; when unzipped you'll have an .ISO file, and the README file. The README explains exactly how to burn the .ISO image to a CD. Then boot to the CD you just created. The description at the link says you need a floppy, but it's wrong and probably refers to a previous release. Some other free cloning programs are:
Digital Dolly
DriveImage XML
HDClone (free version works only with cloning smaller drives to larger drives)
Karen's Replicator
CloneMaxx (slow, but does an excellent job; good with hard-to-copy drives with errors or file system issues)

 

I haven't tried it yet, but it looks perfect. Thanks!
Tony

 

Thanks so much

 

I am a service manager for a small business. I have six techs all with Dell D610 laptops. We need proprietary software loaded on each laptop to enable them to service our machines. The software takes hours and hours to load via cd/DVDs and I am the only one who knows how to do it correctly.

I want to correctly load software we use.... everything.... to a fresh D610 laptop, create an image of that perfect laptop and store the image to a server.

Then, in the case of hard drive failure, add a new tech... whatever.. I will take a CD that the laptop boots from that loads minimal NIC drivers, goes to the server image and restores the hard drive to a pristine state.

In this way, all techs have the same info. I may update my own laptop and create an image of it on the server and re-image the other techs' laptops periodically to insure we all have the same info.

I am thinking about Symantec Ghost, but I don't want all the crap they want to add to my server.

Does anyone have a cheap, easy solution or reccomendation to do this?

Thanks for your help

contact me via email:

john at xbsdigital dot com

 

The solution that I am happy with for me is a product called "Casper". It's by a company called "Systems solutions" located at www.fssdev.com and they give you a month to try out the product before deciding if this will solve your problems. I recommend this over all of the cloning products I have ever tried. It's that easy to use! Let me know how it turns out for you.
Tony

 

I can highly recommend a free program called PING (Partimage Is not Ghost), that will allow you to boot from PXE (network) or a CD to install a computer image.

PING

I have experimented with PXE form it, and all you have to do is copy three or four small files to windows deployment services to get the server to distribute an image. No installation, no bloatware.

 

no Ghost. I recommend CASPER. It does the same thing that GHOST does but it's lots easier and it's free to try it out. Just hook up the drive to be duplicated as Master and the destination drives as slave. The program will ask if you want to copy the master drive and it will also find the other drives and ask if you want to copy to them. It's simple. You'll love it.www.fssdev.com/products/casper

 

Wow. This thread is almost 2 years old.....

:confused

 

Last post was spam.