Backup or Image

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anders Eriksson
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A

Anders Eriksson

Hello,

I'm a software developer for a small company that makes Customer Specific
Machines, ie. each machine and Computer is unique. The Computer is a normal
PC with Windows XP and usually it's configured by the customer so it's part
of a domain.

This means that I can't connect to the computer by TCP/IP, since I'm not
part of that domain and I can't change this ....

For each computer it would be nice to have a DVD from which we can create a
clone of the Computer.

I have looked at Norton Ghost but it means that I have to install Ghost on
the customers computer to be able to create an image.

An more convenient way would be:
I connect an external hard disk via USB to the customer computer.
On this disk I have a program that can take an image of the disk in the
customer computer.
The image can later be burnt down to a bootable DVD, from which a copy of
the customers hard disk can be made.

Is there some program that I can use to make an image of the hard disk,
without installing some program and saving the image on a external disk or
DVD?

// Anders
--
English is not my first, or second, language
so anything strange, or insulting, is due to
the translation.
Please correct me so I may improve my English!
 
"Anders Eriksson" <andis59@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:dlo21mswxuou.dlg@ostling.com...
> Hello,
>
> I'm a software developer for a small company that makes Customer Specific
> Machines, ie. each machine and Computer is unique. The Computer is a
> normal
> PC with Windows XP and usually it's configured by the customer so it's
> part
> of a domain.
>
> This means that I can't connect to the computer by TCP/IP, since I'm not
> part of that domain and I can't change this ....
>
> For each computer it would be nice to have a DVD from which we can create
> a
> clone of the Computer.
>
> I have looked at Norton Ghost but it means that I have to install Ghost on
> the customers computer to be able to create an image.
>
> An more convenient way would be:
> I connect an external hard disk via USB to the customer computer.
> On this disk I have a program that can take an image of the disk in the
> customer computer.
> The image can later be burnt down to a bootable DVD, from which a copy of
> the customers hard disk can be made.
>
> Is there some program that I can use to make an image of the hard disk,
> without installing some program and saving the image on a external disk or
> DVD?
>

Acronis True Image would do what you require. You don't actually need to
install True Image as it comes with a CD image that provides a bootable CD
that then allows you to image the drive once so booted. The downside is
that you do need to install True Image somewhere in order to produce the
bootable CD.

I understood that Ghost provided a similar scheme?
 
Anders Eriksson wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm a software developer for a small company that
> makes
> Customer Specific Machines, ie. each machine and
> Computer
> is unique. The Computer is a normal PC with Windows
> XP
> and usually it's configured by the customer so it's
> part
> of a domain.
>
> This means that I can't connect to the computer by
> TCP/IP, since I'm not part of that domain and I can't
> change this ....
>
> For each computer it would be nice to have a DVD from
> which we can create a clone of the Computer.
>
> I have looked at Norton Ghost but it means that I
> have to
> install Ghost on the customers computer to be able to
> create an image.
>
> An more convenient way would be:
> I connect an external hard disk via USB to the
> customer
> computer.
> On this disk I have a program that can take an image
> of
> the disk in the customer computer.
> The image can later be burnt down to a bootable DVD,
> from
> which a copy of the customers hard disk can be made.

If it's an external drive, why can't you just put a
permanent install of Ghost or TI on that, and run it
from the external drive? You wouldn't even have to
make that drive bootable; just connect it to each
machine in turn and run it.
Or port it to wherever you want it to go.
You could probably get quite a few installs on a
single ext USB drive of any reasonable size, say 500
Gig. Depends on how many machines per day you put out,
I guess.
>
> Is there some program that I can use to make an image
> of
> the hard disk, without installing some program and
> saving
> the image on a external disk or DVD?
>
> // Anders

Just brainstorming here:
Telnet ? Dunno if that helps or not, but it might be
a way to get at the data without installing anything on
those machines.
Or, hook into the process earlier and do two
parallel installs; one to the target machine and one to
your machine/s; then make an iso from that with Ghost,
True Image, whatever method you prefer.
Or dedicate a parallel machine that will get
everything the new target machine gets, and make the
image from that.
Why can't you use tcp-ip? Too little data to make
many good guesses. With a little effort, you could
even make the Ext USB drive bootable and boot from it
each time. Course, it'd ahve to be in the boot order
of the target machines, but ... who cares? Once you
remove it, it'll "remove" itself via that OS.

For a third language, your English is excellent, BTW;
puts many to shame for whom it is a first/only
language.

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