Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

Hello
I have a scenario as follows, whereby, I want to install a fresh Windows OS on a PC, install some apps like Firefox, MS Office etc. Then, I would like to create a clone of this physical machine, and either keep this image on a shared folder on a network, or save it on an external HD (usb), and deploy this image to other PCs which need formatting, or on which a new HD has been installed, without any OS present, ex. replaced a bad disk with a new one. For the time being, activation will be done individually on the PCs receiving this image.

  1. What is the best tool (paid or free), which can allow me to perform such a deployment?
  2. Will I encounter any disk partitioning problems with such a method, for example if I have created an initial image of drive C of 100GB going up to 50GB after installation, and I have a drive C on another PC with say 75GB partition space?
  3. Will the apps installed in the image continue to work correctly on a new PC or do I need to reinstall again?

Regards.

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Dani AI

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For : two approaches exist — raw, bit-for-bit cloning and a generalized, file-based deployment. As showed, a block clone is simple and fast but brittle if target hardware or disk geometry differ. As pointed out, standardizing hardware (or preparing a hardware-agnostic image) avoids most post-deploy BSODs and driver headaches.

A practical, reliable workflow for mixed hardware:

  • Build a clean “golden” PC: install Windows updates and required apps, remove temp files and vendor bloat, and shrink the OS volume so the used space will fit smaller targets.
  • Disable full-disk encryption and any vendor recovery tools.
  • Generalize Windows with Sysprep before capture so machine-specific IDs and drivers are removed:
C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown
  • Capture the image from WinPE or a deployment server and store it on a network share or external drive. Use a file-based image format (WIM or a modern imaging product) if target partitions may be smaller — these formats understand filesystems and can be restored into resized partitions.

Notes on partitions, firmware and drivers:

  • Block-level clones require equal-or-larger target disks and identical partition layouts. File-based imaging can restore to smaller partitions provided the used space fits.
  • For UEFI/GPT vs BIOS/MBR differences, capture and restore the EFI/system partition as needed or be prepared to repair the boot environment after restore.
  • After first boot, inject model-specific drivers from driver packs (Windows will install many PnP drivers automatically, but keep vendor drivers handy).

Apps and licensing:

  • Most apps survive an image, but hardware-locked licenses and some commercial software will require reactivation. Check OEM vs Retail vs Volume licensing rules before mass deployment and always test the full process on a spare machine or VM before rolling out.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

That's been something of a Holy Grail quest by IT for decades now. The problems are still the same so did you standardize your PC hardware? It matters since that image usually BSODs as you change almost anything on the next PC.

-> Let me share something that really helps. Go find Ninite.com.

And then google about Office Unattended Installs.

Member Avatar for rubberman

When I need to do this for clients, I will boot from a Linux live DVD with an external usb drive attached which Linux will auto-mount. Then I use the dd command piped through gzip to get the entire drive image and store the image to the external drive. Example:

dd if=/dev/sda bs=1M | gzip -c >/media/extdrivename/image1.gz

That will get the entire drive, including the boot loader and partition table, compressing it to save space on the external drive. To restore the image to a new system drive (which needs to be of a similar make/size if possible, you go through the boot process again and run this command:

gunzip -c </media/extdrivename/image1.gz | dd of=/dev/sda bs=1M

I have successfully cloned systems this way. As an aside, you will want to disable protected boot (set bios to legacy mode) if your systems have a new UEFI bios (most systems do today) since if it is enabled the installation of Windows 7 and later will write data on installation to the system bios' flash memory. Also, this may not work if you have full drive encryption enabled, but I haven't tried that so I can't say for sure.

commented: "This looks like a job for ..." +7
Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

rubberman's method looks to work fine and someone outside the forum told me about a tool named clonezilla which i've yet to give a try thou.

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