Can I make a System/Application Recovery CD set like what Dell/HP/Compaq/etc... has??

M

Metallica_Band

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Hey there...OK...I will be building a computer system for my sister someday (they were retarded and bought themselves an HP instead of haviing me build a better one for cheaper)...I was wondering if there was a way to make my own Recovery/Application CD set like what's included with Dell, HP, Compaq, etc...

Now they work by inserting the 1st CD into the cd-rom and then follow instructions and it installs a fresh OS which has preset tweaks and has the company's logo and stuff on the system properties and stuff...

and then you insert the Application CD(s) and it automatically installs programs that are on the cd

I was wondering if there was a way to do that for them so I don't have to always come over to their house and reinstall their OS and all their applications everytime the OS needs to be reinstalled

Is their a way to make my own System/Application Recovery CD's??? I'd have the System one set up the OS with pre tweaked settings and the Application one set up all the apps all at once like the other recovery cd's do

So is there a way to do this??? THANX
C'YA :cool:
 
You should take a trip to your local computer store and check out Norton Ghost. It will do exactly what you want.
 
yes you can do it ghost is easyest.
windows has some options too but you have to do some diging.
look up system preperation tool [sysprep.exe]

research unattended installation.
You basicly set up the machinehow you like it then make the image.
 
Here's another vote for ghost. I used it to image my work machine and it was beautiful. Make a floppy, boot off it, and 30 minutes later have 10GB of info on the new drive already defragged for you.
 
If I hear THANX C'YA and whatever that little face is again, I'm going to kill someone. :(
 
Originally posted by RS3RS
Will do :D
Click to expand...
THANX C'YA...I'll even add in my smiley face which I decided to quit doing: ?:-D ...now go out and kill someone and show us some pix!!! LOL...jk:D :p :rolleyes: :eek:
 
Originally posted by Metallica_Band
THANX C'YA...I'll even add in my smiley face which I decided to quit doing: ?:-D ...now go out and kill someone and show us some pix!!! LOL...jk:D :p :rolleyes: :eek:
Click to expand...

Umm... Nevermind. :)
 
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

LOL...ok...back on topic...I think I'll try out Ghost...what's the latest version anyways??? It's from Norton isn't it??? If I make one from Windows XP then won't the image only work with the exact same hardware that was already installed when the image was made since XP auto detects drivers??? What about Win2k, Win98, and Win95??? I shouldn't have any probs with imaging those OSes sionce they don't auto install drivers should I???
 
If you ghost a drive, you're going to get every driver install on it at the time. If you really want to do this without it being hardware specific, you'll have a good time setting every driver on the machine to be generic.
 
If you want to do it a dirty and messy way, and enjoy tinkering around with stuff. Copy the XP's cd contents to your hard drive, slipstream the drivers and apps you want on it. Set what ever needs to be installed on RunOnceEx. This requires tinkering with the XP Setup though.
 
RS3RS


this is not my forum, however an empowered mod\Admin will be by soon
Id get rid of that link before they showed up
 
Originally posted by Ice Czar
RS3RS


this is not my forum, however an empowered mod\Admin will be by soon
Id get rid of that link before they showed up
Click to expand...

Good advice... Nice sig by the way.
 
Originally posted by The Bryophyte
If you ghost a drive, you're going to get every driver install on it at the time. If you really want to do this without it being hardware specific, you'll have a good time setting every driver on the machine to be generic.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by Finsta
Copy the XP's cd contents to your hard drive, slipstream the drivers and apps you want on it. Set what ever needs to be installed on RunOnceEx. This requires tinkering with the XP Setup though.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I want to be able to do the OS part so that it can be done on any computer....I think the above ways should do it...the apps part will have to be different tho since Windows 95/98 are a little different from 2k/XP
 
nice save! anyway i think ghost is your best bet, it's faster than a reinstall anyday(even a slipstreamed one) i work at a place that does BTO computers and we use ghost to image the drives cause it can be done in like 5mins instead of 30.
 
Hard drive image:

Here's one way you could make a imaging CD: (Still goes through Windows Setup)

1. Clean format the hard drive with FAT32
2. Boot into DOS
3. Run the Windows 2000/XP setup and make it install a local source of files onto the hard drive.

(You'll need to create an unattend.txt and maybe do some hand editing. You're also going to need to run the Windows setup with the right switches. Sorry, don't quite remember them right now :confused: ).

This will setup the hard drive so it boots right into the Windows Setup.

4. Use Norton Ghost (for DOS) or partimage (for linux) to ghost the hard drive.

When you need to clean format, just reimage the hard drive from the image and reboot. It'll take it into Windows Setup and start installing it from the hard drive.

If you play around w/ the file structure after Step 3, you can get it to place other programs on the hard drive (i.e. a batch file or custom program to install all the software you need).

Almost EVERYTHING that uses an installer has a quiet install mode. You may have to hunt it down, but it should be possible.

Note: You can also of course put extra drivers on the hard drive and get it to auto install them during Windows Setup.

Booting CD:
1. Create a stripped Windows boot disk that has Norton Ghost and CD drivers on it.
2. Create an autoexec.bat to image the computer using Norton Ghost from the command line.
3. Make a boot CD from Nero with the boot floppy disk with the hard driveimage in the CD file system.

End Result:
1. Boot from CD
2. Automatically Ghost hard drive with Windows installation
3. Install Windows 2000/XP
4. Once in Windows, run a batch file or custom program to install everything else

Hope this makes sense.

-Dacali
 
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