ScottyBee

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You do not mention which OS you are using--but I will assume WinXP--although each computer may be outfitted in an *identical* fashion--each internal component has a unique ID--the HDD, the controller for the HDD, the NIC card, etc.--if you clone a single image of a *baseline* machine, you may find that the cloned image does not work properly because the internal ID's do not match--or you may have to *re-activate* the system each time you re-clone it because the ID's are used by WinXP to determine if it is still on the *same* licensed machine or not!

If that happens--the best work-around would be to have an image of each separate machine that you re-clone to that machine--now there will be no mismatched component ID's.

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Creating Bootable CD/DVD's Without A:\Floppy Drive

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If you boot to DOS and run Ghost from the bootable CD--you do not have to install Ghost on any of the machines:

Adding USB to Ghost Boot CD

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Not if you image each machine separately--if you are restoring the clone of a *base-line* single system--then the license could be a problem--all twelve machines will attempt to use the same license registration--could cause Symantec to wonder what's going on!

I hope they all don't have the same password!!!  oops.  I'd be fired if they did.  I meant to say the same hard drive capacity.

Scott

ScottyBee wrote on Mar 29^th, 2007 at 11:02pm:

Heh.

Actually, anytime you clone a system off a shared base image it will end up with the same passwords and accounts as set up in the base image; that's not necessarily a bad thing of course, since you as admin will set your own administrator-level password in the base image and not share it with anyone. What do you after setting up the machines to set up accounts for the end users (presumably, non-admin accounts) is another matter entirely.

I can't speak as to Deep Freeze, although I know it's popular in universities; I'm more familiar with the freeware Shared Computer Toolkit (originally created by the Gates Foundation, as part of their program to donate computers to public spaces such as libraries) somewhat better. Unfortunately, although I've been campaigning internally to get the SCT's technology fully supported in GSS, thus far management have said no. Still, the more people who ask for it, the better chance we have of providing better support for situations like yours.

For network drivers if you want to image over the network (which is a GSS thing rather than Ghost 2003) in the last two versions we've supported a system called UNDI which is a kind of "universal driver". Most machines that can network boot (using a system called PXE) can supply this standard interface to the network driver code used for the network boot to other code.

By the way, it sounds like what you are doing is the exact kind of thing that is covered by Symantec's corporate giving program. Unfortunately I don't see GSS on the list of Symantec products made available through Tech Soup any more (it used to be on there), but I'd be ecstatic to see it on there again. Even though our software is not on tech soup any more, perhaps you might be able to apply for a grant from the Symantec Foundation to cover the costs of your software.

Thanks guys for all your help.  The information will prove really valuable as I start to manage more and more computers.

Scott