Creating a Win2000 Ghost Image
I'm trying to create a Win2000 Ghost image for multiple types of Dell Optiplex machines. I was wondering what was the best way of going about this? With 98 it was best to remove all Hardware in the Device Manager and you had to do it in a certain order to get it all removed.
I'm trying to create a Win2000 Ghost image for multiple types of Dell Optiplex machines. I was wondering what was the best way of going about this? With 98 it was best to remove all Hardware in the Device Manager and you had to do it in a certain order to get it all removed. What is the best way to do this with Windows 2000? Also any problems doing this with NTFS?
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First, make sure you're using Ghost 6.5. Version 6.03 works, but is kind of flakey.
After building the system you want to clone, run Sysprep -pnp (it is found in the Deploy.cab on the Windows CD.) This will strip out all of the SIDs and force Windows 2000 to look for PNP devices on the systems you ghost to.
One problem with ghosting Windows 2000. All of the computers you ghost to must have the same hard drive controllers. This means if you clone the image of an OptiPlex GXi you can't ghost it to a GX1. So you'll need to make a seperate ghost for each model.
NTFS works fine. I haven't found any problems with ghosting it.
After building the system you want to clone, run Sysprep -pnp (it is found in the Deploy.cab on the Windows CD.) This will strip out all of the SIDs and force Windows 2000 to look for PNP devices on the systems you ghost to.
One problem with ghosting Windows 2000. All of the computers you ghost to must have the same hard drive controllers. This means if you clone the image of an OptiPlex GXi you can't ghost it to a GX1. So you'll need to make a seperate ghost for each model.
NTFS works fine. I haven't found any problems with ghosting it.
Just wondering and by the way thank you. Couldn't I remove the Hard drive controller before I make the ghost then it would have to refind the new controllers for the machine when it starts up? This is what we did with 98, if not what is the difference with 2000 so I have some understanding?
Unfortunately that won't work because, if the proper drivers are not loaded beforehand (unless all the machines have the regular intel controllers) the machines won't boot and you will need to do a repair on each one.
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Shrink
92% of the things we worry about don't happen - but the other 8% DO!
PIII 650@850
BE6-II Mobo with 192 mb ram
20 gig Quantum KX 8 gig Quantum CR
SBlive Value
Voodooo3 3000 AGP
... and a bunch of USB Stuff
Windows 2000 Pro Retail
------------------
Shrink
92% of the things we worry about don't happen - but the other 8% DO!
PIII 650@850
BE6-II Mobo with 192 mb ram
20 gig Quantum KX 8 gig Quantum CR
SBlive Value
Voodooo3 3000 AGP
... and a bunch of USB Stuff
Windows 2000 Pro Retail
Apparently Microsoft decided to fix this problem. SysPrep v1.1 supports multiple mass storage controllers. I'll have to try this out tomorrow to see how well it works.
