Deployment Questions

Hi Guys, Thought I would consult the guru's some deployment related questios that have been racking my brain the last couple of days.

Basically I work in a workshop where we refurbish old donated computer kit on a day to day basis, The thing is currently we are not using any type of imaging or hard disk cloning software so alot of my time is taken up sitting in front of various kit installing Operating Systems. As you can imagine this is really tedious and I have had enough of filling out regional settings and product keys.

The Operating System we mainly deal with is Windows XP, the question I propose to you is what would be the easiest way for me to speed up the install process.

The company has a limited budget, I have some old servers lying around which I can attempt to make use of I noticed one the other day with a windows server 2003 product key or I was thinking about turning it into a deployment server, where I could store images of Windows Complete with drivers for kit which we process in high volume i.e Dell Latitudes. So then when it comes to installing the O/S I would boot the laptop from network connect to server share select required image and let it go about and do it's thing.

That's one solution I have thought of the second is investing in some decent hard drive imaging software, the image creating process was a breeze but the install didn't really speed things up still took about the same amount of time and of course I had to put in all the regional settings.

One of the deployment concepts which is baffling me at the moment is quite simply product keys, they are unique to each piece of hardware right? so when you setup a image and create a answer file and you have 100 laptops with different windows products keys, how does the install go about entering the right product key? I mean how does it know ok this is the right product key I need for the 59th laptop just doesn't make anysense must be some kind of identifier somewhere.

lol that has been baffling me,

Can you suggest some ways in which I can speed up the install process of the I.T kit we receive on a day to day basis, bearing in mind the kit is not all the same so I don't know how this would effect imaging or deployment images.

Once again I appreicate your knowledge you pass on to me, I learn a great deal from these forums many thanks

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Comments

Hyper-Me

If you process a lot of the same models, and those models are major OEM brands, then looking at making a few images would probably help out a lot.

For the other stuff that isnt so mainstream, an unattend install file would work wonders for makign it so you dont have to sit in front of the screen.

Although each major OEM box has a key on it, and that key is unique, there are master OEM keys you can use to install the OS on these boxes and/or keep an image on hand.

Infact, here are some keys you can use.
Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP

I would recommend getting familair with WinPE 3.0 and ImageX, as its free and it sounds like you dont have a budget to work with.

apena7

You can get your feet wet with imaging by giving nLite a go.

SrSysAdmin

apena7 wrote: »

You can get your feet wet with imaging by giving nLite a go.

This is exactly what I was going to recommend.

You can do everything from slipstreaming Windows updates and drivers to automating the complete install.

If you are unable to setup network installs of operating systems, nLite is easily your next best bet.

Hyper-Me

Well you can always use external drives to do the WinPE/ImageX stuff.

I dislike nLite because its very easy to totally screw up an install by removing stuff that seems totally innocent. I can't remember what I removed from an XP install once, but it was something not in any way related to networking (or at least one would have thought) but it removed the abiility to disable any network connections. Weird.

ally_uk

I am looking at using Sysprep and using setup manager to create the anwser file I will automate the majority of the install but will manually enter product keys, once I have setup the machine with the required drivers and applications and the machine has been sysprepped what do I do next? I obiviously need to capture a image and put it on cd or external media but when I install this image onto a new machine do I use windows PE? or does the image automatically install if I tell the computer to boot from CD-ROM.

Paul Boz

NLite is the bomb. I love that software.

Also, try to install slipstreamed windows from USB. I usually get much faster installs via USB than CD Rom.

loxleynew

An easy way to do it is use sysprep with ghost. Get a bootable ghost disk and after you sysprep burn the image. you can do it so you have to put in a key after it boots up too in case you don't have a volume license file. Here is a website that lists how to do it. Very helpful.

Also if you wanted you could slipstream drivers into the windows folder before doing sysprep that way it would work for multiple computers not just one brand.

How-To: Image Windows XP with Ghost and Sysprep : Hisham’s Blog

ally_uk

Awesome stuff Lox very helpful