Hardware Independent Image with limited resources

[devincco]

Hi all

New member here and hope people can point me in the right direction. I have been tasked with trying to create a hardware independent Windows 7 image for our organization. Having separate laptop and desktop images would be fine, 1 image for laptops, 1 image for desktops. The person I have replaced created an image, but every time I drop down the image I spend 20-30 minutes installing the necessary drivers from a thumb drive on most of the machines. I don't have too much experience with imaging and I don't have too many resources available. I have a PC with Symantec Ghost server and a few different kinds of desktops and laptops. The models of machines that we have are all Dell's. Laptops are D620, D630, E6400, E6410, E6500, & E6510. Desktops are Optiplex 620, 745, 760, 780, and 980's. Is it possible to create 1 image (at least 1 for laptop, 1 for desktop) that will have all the proper drivers installed when the image is brought down to the machine so I'm not spending 20 - 30 minutes installing drivers each time I drop an image down?

I have done a lot of google searching and have found a ton of websites. All of which are making me more confused and a lot of them are referencing technology I don't have access to like WDS and such. So any links or steps that members can provide would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[karlsnooks]

Welcome to SevenForums.

The path you have been assigned to travel is rough and wrought with danger.

Familiarize yourself with WAIK, Windows Automated Installation Kit. Pay particular attention to DISM and WIM files.


Assuming you have a TechNet or a MSDN subscription, then just go to the download site. If I remember correctly, TechNet sticks the WAIK at the end of the OS downloads.

 

[WindowsStar]

Hi all

New member here and hope people can point me in the right direction. I have been tasked with trying to create a hardware independent Windows 7 image for our organization. Having separate laptop and desktop images would be fine, 1 image for laptops, 1 image for desktops. The person I have replaced created an image, but every time I drop down the image I spend 20-30 minutes installing the necessary drivers from a thumb drive on most of the machines. I don't have too much experience with imaging and I don't have too many resources available. I have a PC with Symantec Ghost server and a few different kinds of desktops and laptops. The models of machines that we have are all Dell's. Laptops are D620, D630, E6400, E6410, E6500, & E6510. Desktops are Optiplex 620, 745, 760, 780, and 980's. Is it possible to create 1 image (at least 1 for laptop, 1 for desktop) that will have all the proper drivers installed when the image is brought down to the machine so I'm not spending 20 - 30 minutes installing drivers each time I drop an image down?

I have done a lot of google searching and have found a ton of websites. All of which are making me more confused and a lot of them are referencing technology I don't have access to like WDS and such. So any links or steps that members can provide would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!!!

The short answer is yes this can be done. However with a heavy price to pay.

1) You will have a bloated image with drivers for all these machines so the image will be large. (You will need to remember to disable services for things that are NOT on some machines or you will slow down the machine with stuff that is running and NOT needed)
2) It will require a lot of up front work from you. You will need a good week to make the image, and I would make sure you block that week out so you have all the time to make everything work correctly.
3) You MUST use Windows 7 Enterprise, it will re-activate via MAK or KMS automatically.

Here are the steps if you wish to take this on.

1) Pick your fastest machine, say the 780 or 980 and install Windows 7 Enterprise. Install all the software you need etc.

2) Use Ghost to make an image.
3) Put the image on the next machine say the 780 if you use the 980 to create it.
4) Update all the drivers, etc.

5) Repeat steps 2 - 4 until you have the image on all the machines.

Now that you have had the SAME image on all machines it will work on all machines.

Catch 22, you will need the RAID drivers for 780 and the E6510 and you will need the SATA drivers for the others, and then the ATA drivers for the 620 and such.

Good luck, this is a lot of work. -WS

 

[logicearth]

1) Pick your fastest machine, say the 780 or 980 and install Windows 7 Enterprise. Install all the software you need etc.

2) Use Ghost to make an image.
3) Put the image on the next machine say the 780 if you use the 980 to create it.
4) Update all the drivers, etc.

5) Repeat steps 2 - 4 until you have the image on all the machines....

Or just using the imaging capabilities that are builtin Windows 7. On the DVD Windows 7 is already in a hardware-independent image (install.wim) You install Windows modify it installing all the required drivers/software then capture a new image using WAIK. You actually don't even need to install it to add new drivers, WAIK can do that offline as well.

This will probably help one to get started: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Windows-7-Part1.html

 

[WindowsStar]

1) Pick your fastest machine, say the 780 or 980 and install Windows 7 Enterprise. Install all the software you need etc.

2) Use Ghost to make an image.
3) Put the image on the next machine say the 780 if you use the 980 to create it.
4) Update all the drivers, etc.

5) Repeat steps 2 - 4 until you have the image on all the machines....

Or just using the imaging capabilities that are builtin Windows 7. On the DVD Windows 7 is already in a hardware-independent image (install.wim) You install Windows modify it installing all the required drivers/software then capture a new image using WAIK. You actually don't even need to install it to add new drivers, WAIK can do that offline as well.

This will make a single image that works on all of his machines??

 

[logicearth]

This will make a single image that works on all of his machines??

If done right it most certainly can. It infact already does, for millions of people that have installed Windows 7. The Windows 7 installer is using this very means to install itself.

 

[WindowsStar]

This will make a single image that works on all of his machines??

If done right it most certainly can. It infact already does, for millions of people that have installed Windows 7. The Windows 7 installer is using this very means to install itself.

How long from start to finish to put the FINISHED image on a new machine. Is this like doing a fresh OS install? In other words is it about the same amount of time to install from DVD?

 

[logicearth]

How long from start to finish to put the FINISHED image on a new machine. Is this like doing a fresh OS install? In other words is it about the same amount of time to install from DVD?

Pretty much like a fresh install of Windows. Of course, it does depend on how much extra applications and other peices of data you pack into it.

 

[Tews]

This can be easily done with Acronis, using their universal restore option.. It allows you to restore an image on dissimilar machines ...

Acronis Universal Restore lets you restore an image of Windows operating system to different hardware environment; Acronis Universal Restore allows to change Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer and install HDD controller and NIC drivers]

source

 

[WindowsStar]

How long from start to finish to put the FINISHED image on a new machine. Is this like doing a fresh OS install? In other words is it about the same amount of time to install from DVD?

Pretty much like a fresh install of Windows. Of course, it does depend on how much extra applications and other peices of data you pack into it.

That is the problem with doing images the MS way TIME.

Please note: I am not agreeing with the way the OP wants to make an image. We do it a different way.

If I build a Ghost Image, with all the drivers in it. I can ghost a machine in 4 minutes and 34 seconds. Reboot and add to the domain. I have a machine up and running completely in 5 minutes flat. Working with thousands and thousands of machines we could never deploy with the normal 30 minute OS install and then the 45 minutes of applications. That just takes too long.

I think this way of installing (the Microsoft way) died because RIS works the same way and is why enterprise never adopted it.

Is there a way to make that time much shorter??

 

[logicearth]

Well you have two choices, do you want to compress the images or do you not? The more data you have---the bigger the image---it will take more time it is unavoidable. Even with Ghost, you can only push so many bytes down an I/O pipeline. But compression is what takes most of the time, it goes though that "Expanding" process, that is the uncompression taking place.

And you can control the level of compression used when packing images into WIM.

And you cannot sit there and tell me it will take 5 minutes for you to push a 10 GB image off a DVD onto a computer and be done. It is not going to happen.

 

[WindowsStar]

Well you have two choices, do you want to compress the images or do you not? The more data you have---the bigger the image---it will take more time it is unavoidable. Even with Ghost, you can only push so many bytes down an I/O pipeline. But compression is what takes most of the time, it goes though that "Expanding" process, that is the uncompression taking place.

And you can control the level of compression used when compiling images into WIM.

Thank you for all the information. I am always open to using a better method of installing, whatever is the fastest. We have hundreds of new machines to deploy each month, plus hundreds to re-image, (repair, hardware failure, crash, etc.), as well as OS refresh.

What are the typical sizes of the MS images?

Currently I have an image (Windows 7 Enterprise with Office 2010 Plus {complete install}, Adobe Reader, and some other required software), completely setup with all registry keys set, default profile setup, Local Admin profile setup and ready for the domain (not added to, just ready to be added).

It is about 7GB in size and takes about 4.34 to image a machine.

Am I able to get the same performance out of doing it MS’s way?