Re-image a laptop in the field

Hi-
We are currently looking for a solution to re-image a Dell laptop, with a custom Windows 7 image, to an employee in the field. Most of our employees work from home or are out of state in small, temporary offices. Currently, if a user gets a virus or has a BSOD (or any other issue), and I can't remote to the laptop over the Internet, I have to setup a new laptop at headquarters and ship it to their location.

I need a solution that will allow me to re-install our custom image to the laptop, with no CDs or thumb drives. Possible a hidden partition on the laptop that contains a WIM file. Then I can walk the user through a couple simple .bat command that would initiate the re-install of the OS (we have the user's data backed up so that is not an issue).

Has anyone tried anything like this or know of a product that can accomplish this? Most of the solutions I have run across into require a CD or thumb drive and my users can't be trusted to have that available when needed. Any ideas would be great.

Thanks.

The modern way to do this with built-in Win7 imaging is to have the user save an image externally which can be used to reimage the HD or replacement in 20 minutes.

Be sure they also make a System Repair Disk which is used to boot for reimaging or repairs.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery
Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot

Anyway that can be saved to hidden partition and then executed? I hate to have to get external drives for all my users.

And thanks!

You can save a Win7 backup image to a Primary partition on the HD shrunk in Disk Mgmt: Partition or Volume - Shrink
Partition or Volume - Create New

However this defeats the purpose of having the image available in the event of a HD failure.

OK. I think a found a solution that will work for us. We are going to use the MS Desktop Optimization Pack. More the specifically the DaRT piece of the MDOP. If anyone else is interested: MDOP | Desktop Optimization | Windows 7 Enterprise | Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack | Software Assurance | SA

Might want to check out what the "backup capsule" in Paragon's imaging app can do. Looks like it might do what you're looking for.

Why not use a recovery partition like Dell uses and also use their Dell DataSafe Local Backup. Easy to setup and works with custom wim file.

TJG :)