Quickest way to rebuild a Win2000 workstation?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.setup_deployment (More info?)

I support a couple of Windows 2000 workstations used by tax accountants.
They say they need administrator rights on their machines so they can
install new tax applications. And, they say they need to be able to open
attachments e-mailed to them by clients. The problem is that every few
months their machines get messed up so bad, the only way I can fix their
machines is to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows 2000. With
service packs, etc., this takes about four hours per machine.

Can anyone think of a quicker way to do this? Will a restore from a disk
image solve my problem? What products do people use to image known good
installations of Windows 2000?

Thank you!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.setup_deployment (More info?)

While I generally advocate scripting workstation builds, for only two
machines that will take too much effort for the benefits you'll gain.

Imaging the workstations to a hidden partition can help. Use a disk imaging
product like Ghost. If you were to take a copy of the image to potentially
deploy to other machines, you should use SysPrep (part of Microsoft's
deployment tools; search for it on the Microsoft web site) before cloning
the disk. You could also copy the image to a CD or DVD.

Bear in mind that if you go with this strategy, all the hotfixes and service
packs that have (heopfully) been installed will be lost and the machine
shouldn't be placed on the network until the relevant security patches have
been installed.

Hope this helps

Oli



"Ken Woodard" <Ken.WoodardNOSPAM@NOSPAMhunterservices.com> wrote in message
news:OmmOy6KjEHA.704@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I support a couple of Windows 2000 workstations used by tax accountants.
>They say they need administrator rights on their machines so they can
>install new tax applications. And, they say they need to be able to open
>attachments e-mailed to them by clients. The problem is that every few
>months their machines get messed up so bad, the only way I can fix their
>machines is to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows 2000. With
>service packs, etc., this takes about four hours per machine.
>
> Can anyone think of a quicker way to do this? Will a restore from a disk
> image solve my problem? What products do people use to image known good
> installations of Windows 2000?
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.setup_deployment (More info?)

If you are also supporting other machines, it may still pay to script the
build. Take a look at the docs I have on this at
www.willowhayes.co.uk/windows2000 .

At the very least, it's worth slipstreaming the current service pack onto a
customised CD. Also, take a look at SUS (Software Update Services) which
can help in getting machines properly patched.

Personally, I use an unattended CD installation and use group policy to
configure the automatic updates client that was included in SP3 and above to
point to a SUS server. This ensures machines get patched within a
reasonable timeframe.

I also include the most critical patches on the CD itself and script their
installation.

Hope this helps

Oli


"Ken Woodard" <Ken.WoodardNOSPAM@NOSPAMhunterservices.com> wrote in message
news:OmmOy6KjEHA.704@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I support a couple of Windows 2000 workstations used by tax accountants.
>They say they need administrator rights on their machines so they can
>install new tax applications. And, they say they need to be able to open
>attachments e-mailed to them by clients. The problem is that every few
>months their machines get messed up so bad, the only way I can fix their
>machines is to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows 2000. With
>service packs, etc., this takes about four hours per machine.
>
> Can anyone think of a quicker way to do this? Will a restore from a disk
> image solve my problem? What products do people use to image known good
> installations of Windows 2000?
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.setup_deployment (More info?)

Oli,

Thank you very much. I'll try it.

Ken Woodard


"Oli Restorick [MVP]" <oli@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:eLBZwoOjEHA.3612@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> If you are also supporting other machines, it may still pay to script the
> build. Take a look at the docs I have on this at
> www.willowhayes.co.uk/windows2000 .
>
> At the very least, it's worth slipstreaming the current service pack onto
> a customised CD. Also, take a look at SUS (Software Update Services)
> which can help in getting machines properly patched.
>
> Personally, I use an unattended CD installation and use group policy to
> configure the automatic updates client that was included in SP3 and above
> to point to a SUS server. This ensures machines get patched within a
> reasonable timeframe.
>
> I also include the most critical patches on the CD itself and script their
> installation.
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Oli
>
>
> "Ken Woodard" <Ken.WoodardNOSPAM@NOSPAMhunterservices.com> wrote in
> message news:OmmOy6KjEHA.704@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>>I support a couple of Windows 2000 workstations used by tax accountants.
>>They say they need administrator rights on their machines so they can
>>install new tax applications. And, they say they need to be able to open
>>attachments e-mailed to them by clients. The problem is that every few
>>months their machines get messed up so bad, the only way I can fix their
>>machines is to format the hard disk and reinstall Windows 2000. With
>>service packs, etc., this takes about four hours per machine.
>>
>> Can anyone think of a quicker way to do this? Will a restore from a disk
>> image solve my problem? What products do people use to image known good
>> installations of Windows 2000?
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>>
>>
>
>