Hi,

I have 50 laptops which are going to be loaned out, and I need to find a quick way of keeping them all up to date with the same image. I also need to be able to reset any changes users may do when they are returned.

I have been told to look into http://fortres.com/products/cleanslate.htm and http://www.faronics.com/

Any other suggestions?

Cheers
Mark

 

Used to use Norton ghost on desktops but that was a few years ago, don't know if the product is still going but it may be worth a look

 

Are they all going to be identical (clones) or do they need individual host names, SIDs etc.?

Do you want them to have separate O/S and user data areas (e.g. C: and D: partitions)

Do you only want to reset them when the are returned, or do you want to allow the user to be able to restore them to their original state "on demand" (and on the road)?

How often will the images be changing?

How much do you want to spend?

...have a look at net-runna Enterprise

mb

 

Thank you for the replies, apologies for the vague description of what im after. It is early days at the moment.

The machines are going to be clones.
No data will be saved on the machines, so no separate partitions needed.
These will only be short loan, so no need for the user to restore the machine. Would like the machines to be rolled back each time they are loaned out.
Images should not change very often, apart from MS updates and anti virus.
Cost is not really an issue.

 

Microsoft RIS is what we use. You build an image and then connect the PC's to the Ris server via the network and the image is pushed in about 30 minutes (assuming a 2-3GB image).

Darren

 

recently i've used Ghost 8.2 on a BartPE CD, link for Bart here

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

I get all the network card drivers I can from here, which are put on the Bart disk

DriverPacks.net > DriverPacks > DriverPack LAN

this allows me to ghost pretty much any machine with a network card.

this is great for single machines but for multicasting (cloaning several machines at once) I find its a bit slow for this purpose.

Floppy disks are great for muticasting, just finding those damn Ndis2 drivers

 

...is what you need.

Install all necessary apps and then install Go Back with an Admin password. Every time a PC comes back in press SPACE, enter your password and the PC reverts back to original state. Can even set it to do this everytime the PC starts up with having to enter password etc.

I've used it for 18 months in an internet cafe and its fine!

HTH