cloning hard drive ?

John Player

Hi All,

I have 6 computers that are identical & I want to have the exact same setup (software, drivers & OS) stored on each one.

Is it possible to set up one as I like it and clone the entire hard disk onto another including the operating system?

i was looking at a program on the net and it seems like it will do the job, however in order to do it I must have the OS installed on the computers and then create a new partition put the image on that - I would like to know if its possible to just put the image on a formatted drive with no partitions so I can avoid having a dual boot system.

If anyone can advise me on this & maybe on some freeware programs, it would be very much appreciated.


Thanks,
Luke

subway

the most basic way to do it would be with a usb case for your hard drive.
install the os and drviers onto one pc along with a copy of norton ghost.
then plug in the usb drive with a hard drive and use ghost to copy the contents across.
repeat for all drives.

also,
im fairly sure norton come with a bootable cd that you can use to wipe your drive and restore a backup from disc too.

and some free alternatoves to norton can be found at

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=free+drive+imaging+utility&meta=

SouperComputer

Acronis True Image is the way to go.

Although you may run into problems, espcially if using XP if you dont use sysprep before making the image. Its needed to reset the SID (Security IDenifier). Failing to do this can often lead to boot\logon failure. This applies to identical hardware too!

ambro25

Can't remember the proggie name, I'll post it later for ya, but I used a cloning software a couple of months back because I thought my HDD was going to die pretty soon, in order to clone it to a brand new HDD (didn't fancy re-loading XP, Office, a zillion photos, games, drivers, setups etc, etc.).

Worked perfectly, the only downside being that the target (new) HDD has to be bigger than the one being cloned. The proggie uses the IDE path, you must have your old HDD as master and the target HDD as slave - and it takes hours, but it's a bit-by-bit cloning so about as accurate as you can get it.

I didn't even have to re-register XP, but note that this is probably because the PC & features were entirely identical. Assuming your PCs are different internally and if the OS you're contemplating is XP, you will have issues with cloning as the registration (authentication) is in part based on your hardware setup (e.g. mobo, cpu, hdd, grafx card, ram, etc.).

EDIT: SuperComputer obviously types faster

SECOND EDIT: The app I used is HDClone (Free edition), get it here

SwampThing

Setup one machine the way you want it.

Using either Norton Ghost or, if you can get it, Acronis, clone the partition to an external drive.

Then, on each of the other machines, boot from the bootable Ghost or Acronis CD and restore the image.

---edit ---

**** lads, you were in fast

mr_disc

Ya , as above ... Norton Ghost works well here

Teamhair

Take any computer casing: stick Ghost.exe on a floppy disk, put your Master HDD on IDE 1 and disk to be clones on IDE 2. Boot with the floppy, A:\ghost and away you go. Once you get to the Ghost GUI its pretty straightforward. Should take only a few minutes depending on the size of the disks.

mr_disc

Teamhair wrote:

Take any computer casing: stick Ghost.exe on a floppy disk, put your Master HDD on IDE 1 and disk to be clones on IDE 2. Boot with the floppy, A:\ghost and away you go. Once you get to the Ghost GUI its pretty straightforward. Should take only a few minutes depending on the size of the disks.

MAKE SURE u select the right source and destination here... i got caught badly before by just selecting defaults.. wiped a whole hard drive !

Teamhair

Yeah, I've done that too but sticking them on separate cables rules that out as long as the Master is on the primary IDE, its fine. Its when using both connectors on the same IDE that I get confused. Think its the Master in the end and the destination disk on the middle connector... Then if you're using high speed ATA cables, you need to jumper the drives to cable select. Its easier in the long run to just use both primary and secondary IDE to do the job.

_CreeD_

SouperComputer wrote:

Although you may run into problems, espcially if using XP if you dont use sysprep before making the image. Its needed to reset the SID (Security IDenifier). Failing to do this can often lead to boot\logon failure. This applies to identical hardware too!

Do not ignore this advice in along with choosing what to use for the actual imaging. If these are 6 standalone pcs you would be fine but if they are part of a larger network duplicated SIDs will cause you major problems.

John Player

hi all,

thanks a million for all the advice, im gonna have a go at it this weekend, ill let you know how it goes.


Cheers,
luke

jayneemac

SouperComputer wrote:

Acronis True Image is the way to go.

I'd second that, superb app

Capt'n Midnight

SouperComputer wrote:

Acronis True Image is the way to go.

Although you may run into problems, espcially if using XP if you dont use sysprep before making the image. Its needed to reset the SID (Security IDenifier). Failing to do this can often lead to boot\logon failure. This applies to identical hardware too!

Not sure of the license for this but for Ghost you would need 6 licenses for the 6 machines that would benefit

for a free solution you could use partimage on most linux bootable distro's

and reminder again about SYSPREP... for XP