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| Thread ID: 126347 | 2012-08-21 19:53:00 | Thinkpad - no CD boot option | Myth (110) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1296114 | 2012-08-22 08:25:00 | Thanks, wainutech . That's exactly what I wanted to know . :thumbs: What did you use to create the bootable image, from Windows built-in utility -back up & resrtore? I use Active@disk Image . Once Sysprep has been run and its shutdown, I then booted the PC from the CD, then you can either save the image to a External USB drive or to a folder on a Server/another PC on the LAN . When installing it back onto a blank drive its boot from the Active@CD, navigate to the Server folder, and lay it back onto the blank Drive . Once its done, simply boot as per normal and the syspreped image fires up and away it goes . You can make an image also with a WINPE CD and a few commands, depending on how you want to deploy it depends on how you make the image . Generally I only do one at a time so its no big deal doing it the way I do, I set it going, go inside make a cuppa, come back out and its usually done . The way I described before should work for Myth - cant see any reason why it wont . |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1296115 | 2012-08-22 22:45:00 | link ??? If you mean instructions heres How I do it, usually works fine. This is for W7. Install Windows on a Machine, including the product key for the version you will be making, Make up a user name (this will be removed in a moment) - DO NOT activate it. ( if you want to add programs or updates Now is when you do it) TIP: One trick that I have found, sometimes you get a error message after running sysprep/reinstalling, but as a precaution, once W7 is installed go into msconfig/ service and untick Windows Media Player network Sharing Service and reboot. Now run sysprep: Once W7 is installed, any updates done etc - go to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep Folder, right click sysprep.exe / Run as administrator. Select the settings as shown below: 4134 The computer will run through and auto reboot, let it do its thing. Once it reboots it will boot into Audit Mode. Go to Control Panel/ user accounts / Remove the account you made previously. Go back to Sysprep , - this time select the options as Shown: 4135 Sysprep will do its thing and shut down. If you wanted to use this for any other PC, make a image of the drive Via a bootable CD. then load it back onto ANY PC. If you wanted to use the drive as myth asked, simply put it into the other PC. As long as everything has gone as it should, when booting up, it will detect the new hardware, drivers, change the Reg, - you will be shown the setting up your computer for first use, you add in your name you want to use, your product key, and carry on as normal. I do this as well, takes less that 5 minutes to install windows on a new PC, as the image is on one of my servers. Then of course you have to install the MB drivers as normal. and lastly check the WMP network sharing is put back to active. Thanks for your instructions. Have a play with sysprep and seems to be easy enough for me. LOL Borrowed a copy of Active@ Boot disk and wanted to create and save the Image to another computer's HDD in my home network, but I couldn't 'see' the backup location which I created on my other computer. How do I configure Active@ to connect to my home network? |
bk T (215) | ||
| 1296116 | 2012-08-23 06:06:00 | Active@ver a LAN. You need to know the of the PC/Server name and folder along with a User Name and Password for the Server/Location. The one you would sign into the machine with. boot from the Active@ CD, click start ( big@) Network / Network Configurator Middle Tab, as long as it not grayed out you are fine, if it is, then the CD doesn't have built in Network drivers - and you can use the CD as is. Change ( if needed) the default network name of WORKGROUP to what ever yours is called. Click Set, OK, Apply as they appear you'll see when done the last step is renew DHCP Set. Back to Start - network / Map Network Drive - in the folder location, type in the actual location Address Eg; \\Server\images Under that is the words, Connect using Different user name - click that - In the user name put in a user on the machine along with the password, click OK/Finish, you should see it connecting. To send the image to the network drive - Click Disk to image - work through the options, when you get to the last window, from the top drop down box select the mapped network drive. To image one back, go through the above steps, but this time select Image to Disk. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is,I had some videos on youtube but the b****tards closed my account cause I didn't use it for a while.I'll See if I can find them again. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1296117 | 2012-08-23 07:49:00 | Thanks, wainu. "boot from the Active@ CD, click start ( big@) Network / Network Configurator Middle Tab, as long as it not grayed out " It is grayed out! Does it mean that this CD doesn't support network operations? There is a red X on the network icon at the bottom-right corner. |
bk T (215) | ||
| 1296118 | 2012-08-23 08:35:00 | If the Network Configurator Tab is greyed out, then the CD doesn't have the drivers for the Ethernet on the PC being used. You can add them, but that's done when you have the Original Program installed on a PC, and you can add other drivers as required when making the CD. See bottom picture here - third Tab www.disk-image.net In cases like this, I would attach a USB drive that's big enough to take the image, and either store it there, as the CD will detect a USB drive, or transfer the image to the storage location over the LAN and then put it back onto the USB drive if required to install/image back. Its a bit of a pain doing it that way, but unless you have the program and can add the required drivers there's not a lot you can do regarding the LAN option. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1296119 | 2012-08-23 10:03:00 | Thanks for sharing your expertise.:thumbs: | bk T (215) | ||
| 1296120 | 2012-08-23 23:57:00 | Just tested to restore the saved image I created last night and noted that there isn't any option (in Active@) for me to select the destination partition I wish to restore to. The whole HDD was selected to restored it. Or, I have done something NOT right? It's quite fast both in backing up and restoring. |
bk T (215) | ||
| 1296121 | 2012-08-24 02:11:00 | When doing a restore of an image it takes the whole Drive, if the original was partitioned then it will repartition as per the original or resize if the drive is of a different size. See the Following picture: it shows the option ( ticked - bottom left ) to keep original partition sizes. If you untick that, it will readjust the partition sizes to suit. 4142 |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1296122 | 2012-08-24 02:29:00 | OK. if I backup my C: (after the sysprep) say, 200 GB and later wish to restore it to another PC with a HDD with 300GB (C: ) and 100GB (D: ) and 100GB (E: ). Is it possible to restore the image to the 300GB partition (.ie. C: ) only and keep all my other partitions D: and E: untouched? I couldn't see any options to select the destination partition to restore to. | bk T (215) | ||
| 1296123 | 2012-08-24 05:50:00 | Ok now I see what you are trying to do. Yes you Can - BUT theres a couple of things you need to untick. This is Imaging back a Full image from the server to a a HDD with two partitions. See pic1 untick the first two options, leaving only the partition with the actual OS. 4145 Then when those options are deselected, its then you are presented with where to put it - in this case the OS drive is Drive E (if you leave the first two boxes ticked its assuming its the whole drive.) Dont worry about drive letters, when the OS boots up they will be back to how you had them. The Imaging software on the CD gives them different letters. Example: 4146 |
wainuitech (129) | ||
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