Manage Disk Images???

T

TechieSooner

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Basically, I get tired of having to crack out all my disks each time I need to install a machine.

How can I rip these to a network share or something so all I have to do is run the EXE or something?


Was thinking of using ImgBurn to create an ISO, but Windows can't open those so that won't work (My whole point is not to have to go out and download something).
 
Not quite sure what you're trying to do. Could be the day I'm having or the lack of information in your post.

What kind of disk images are these? Images you created like ghost? Or CD/DVD images of your installation software?

Windows can open ISO images if you have the proper utilities installed.
 
i know Acronis true image and drive image XML( with UBCD) can do this, you make the image file and it sends it to any network share you have on your network, then when you want to re-image a drive with that image you just browse the network share until you find the image you want and it will copy the image onto the drive.
 
I probably wasn't clear enough...

Basically I want to stick all my CDs/DVD installation disks onto a network share somewhere- so that I don't have to have the disk anymore to install stuff.

The only way I can think to do this is to make an image of the disk with ImgBurn or something. However, the problem with that is Windows can't open ISOs (and the whole point is to simplify installations- I don't want to have to install a tool just to install my apps, if that makes sense).

I could copy the entire contents of the disk from Windows Explorer out to a share somewhere, but my issue with that is I have found some disks just don't copy everything over like it needs to... Corruption when you try to run it.
 
So a network share with CD/DVD images, huh?

Well you can use imgburn for making images of non-copy protected media and then send it over to that share. Then download and install Daemon Tools Lite for mounting these images to a virtual drive it creates. Depending on your network connection and reliability, it should work fine. Otherwise if you don't have a fast network connection (I'm guessing anything <100Mbit) expect some slow access times.
 
You could just take the actual installation files off a lot of different CDs (and maybe even DVDs) and put them on a single piece of media. I have one DVD that has over 120 of my most commonly used applications on it, ready to be installed at a moment's notice if required. The thought of having actual CD or DVD media laying around and instead putting all of those in ISO format on some network share someplace seems a bit counterproductive and wasteful of space, but as hard drives just keep getting larger and cheaper, it seems more people want to just leave stuff "on a drive someplace" instead of optical media.
 
The simplest way to do it is to just copy the contents of the each CD/DVD to a separate folder on the shared drive. Then you just run go to that folder and run the executable to start the install. I have all my drivers copied to a thumbdrive so I don't have to swap disks on a clean install. Common programs I always install are on another thumbdrive, etc. If there is a serial number required i just put it in a text file in the programs folder so its easy to find. The only time I run into problems is if a CD/DVD is copy protected. For me that is only games and I use Farstone Vitualdrive for those.
 
OK Thanks for the input...

Guess it looks like I'll just copy them out to a share...

Joe- That would work... I'd probably do that as well (for external users), but for inside the network just easier to have it all right there.
 
I keep a single ghost image on a network share with my common apps already installed, and sysprepped. I load this from any system using BartPE and Ghost, and I only have to configure it for a particular user, and then I'm done. I also keep the same image, but captured before sysprep was run, so I can add or update applications.

To simplify even more, I keep a folder on the root of C with all drivers for my machine types. Once the drivers are loaded, I delete the entire Drivers folder.
 
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