Ghosting To Different Systems. - Questions?

[ZMan]

I have several systems that I help keep up to today with updates at the end of the school year. My question is, is there a way to a have one image with all of the drivers from all the system in one image so that I can just ghost out the system image and won't have 20 or so backup images of each system on my computer?

 

[Victor S]

Not sure what you have to do, but going from your topic title, you can look at
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html

 

[ZMan]

I have different system to image to and I was trying to ask how you do you make an all in one system to use as the master images as you have HP/Dell and other system to put drivers into that image to the imaging will work.

 

[cluberti]

You would use something like the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (free, and Ghost is not) to build, manage, and deploy "images". These should be built in a virtual machine as well, so that they are truly hardware-independent.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Two other solutions

Something like Acronis with Universal Restore (Not free though) or look at the W8 Forums on Windows to Go.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[ZMan]

Sorry for the late reply. I was speaking of how to ghost out images WITH different drivers in Windows XP and a different image with Windows 7. I already use Ghost for deploying of the image, so I know how I sent out the him it how to put all the drivers in one image that is the problem I'm having. I have four different dell systems and three different HP systems.

 

[cluberti]

You would do driver injection based on a WMI query for make and model (and have a folder structure or database that copies the "right" files to a folder on the disk that the answer file has set for inclusion in the OEMPnPDriversPath). Or use MDT, which does this easily .

 

[ZMan]

You would do driver injection based on a WMI query for make and model (and have a folder structure or database that copies the "right" files to a folder on the disk that the answer file has set for inclusion in the OEMPnPDriversPath). Or use MDT, which does this easily .

Backup, backup. Now this is new to me and I don't quite understand what your saying. Could say it again in more laymen terms? :huh:

 

[cluberti]

Putting drivers into a system image (especially with Windows 7, but still so with XP) isn't a good idea. If you used the OemPnPDriversPath, you could do "just in time" (aka JIT) injection of drivers into that path, or you could use MDT's %make%\%model% parsing (via WMI) and the DriverGroup variable. I would suggest reading up on MDT first - it's definitely more involved than Ghost is, but it's also FAR more powerful and flexible, and it's free (Ghost is not).

 

[ZMan]

Putting drivers into a system image (especially with Windows 7, but still so with XP) isn't a good idea. If you used the OemPnPDriversPath, you could do "just in time" (aka JIT) injection of drivers into that path, or you could use MDT's %make%\%model% parsing (via WMI) and the DriverGroup variable. I would suggest reading up on MDT first - it's definitely more involved than Ghost is, but it's also FAR more powerful and flexible, and it's free (Ghost is not).

We already use Ghost for backing up systems and sending them out, so imaging is fine in that matter. The problem I'm trying to do is have one image for more then one type of system, (i.e. Dell, HP). So I need to inject hardware/software drivers from one of the system into the other so that the final image can be ghosted to any of them and work. The problem I'm having is that I'm not understanding on how to do that with Win 7 or XP. But I'm mostly looking at Win 7 as this is the forums for that.

 

[ZMan]

I have read in other places that people do the same thing, have one image that fit different systems types/brands. Other then the idea above how can it be done you think?

 

[Victor S]

I have read in other places that people do the same thing, have one image that fit different systems types/brands. Other then the idea above how can it be done you think?

If you're in a corporate environment, you should get advice from those who deploy images.
At home I've taken an image (Ghost 15) from a sysprepped PC and loaded it to a different PC that has entirely diferent hardware.
It doesn't really "fit" but it *does* loads Win 7, which then configures the drivers contained in Win 7 to bring the system up, looking just as it did on the computer that was sysprepped, all progams still there, and ready to execute.
This is all with the native Win 7 drivers.
If you have non-Win 7 drivers you need to load on a machine, that's a different issue.
Cluberti gave you some advice on that, but I can't.

 

[ZMan]

Just me and another tech thus why I was asking here for some help. If you input the drivers in to the image it should be about to find it and boot to it, the issue is I'm trying to find out how.