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#21
Hello park220, and welcome to Windows Seven Forums!
The issue you are facing is placing an "Image" on computers of different make, model, and hardware. Any Operating System needs the hardware drivers specific for the hardware in use, so placing an "Image" made on one computer might just be a borked installation on another machine. A business with 100 identical computers, for example, can create one image and transfer that image to all 100.
You might be able to create a driverless, generic OS Image using "Sysprep -clean"? I haven't experimented with this much, but it is intended to prepare "an installation of Windows for duplication, auditing, and customer delivery."
Sysprep Technical Reference
This link applies to Windows 7, but you can find similar links for XP as well.
Other than storing "Images" of all your friend's and family's computers (perhaps on a 1 or 2 TB hard drive?), at times I have collected all the necessary files to restore a computer to a current condition on a CD so I don't have to go looking for them every time.
Like you (and many others here!) I have done a lot of work for apple pies and chocolate chip cookies. Maybe we need a better paying job?
Cheers!
Robert