tarquel

@prathapml: That sounds great for a cd - but that isnt what I was refering to hehe I know I was "sort of" staying from the exact topic but i was refering to a method that could be used on the HD, not CD. If it could be used somehow as the HD boot sector then great I'm after a hidden partition with the Ghost boot disk image on it that can connect to the Ghostcast server and then use that to restore the main partition which has the OS on it, virtually eliminating the need for a floppy or CD device to boot ghost. Cheers, Nath

hehe I'm glad i made "some" sense then Unattended is fine for a few machines but i need the ability to restore multiple machines - like at the moment, booting with a floppy disk in each pc and ghostcasting 4 at a time usually works well enough. probably could do more that 4 thinking about it if the network isn't being used at the time. The trouble with the disk or cd method is it relies on the floppy disk/CD drive actually working and there lies the problem here - pupils = vandalism hehe and many of the cd drives here dont work. No point replacing for them to be "destroyed" again really. Guess I'm lucky that all the floppy drives still work for me to ghostcast. ....i'll be back to edit this after.... Cheers, N

hehe Beat me to it - first chance to reply since my other post I wasnt sure what takuma2004 had - glad its sorted now Cheers N.

Your domain name has expired - get a horrible hosting (maybe) links page there now Just to let u know. Regards, N.

Hi Can you be a bit more specific? i.e. - What version of version 7 - is it the Free / std / Pro version 7? - Are you refering to startup as in when the computer boots - windows loading - or are you refering to when u get into Windows, it does a scan then? - with that in mind, what operating system are you using - 95/98/ME/NT/2k/XP or 2003 - it'll certainly make a difference to your question. - also, can you mention how powerful your computer is? what is its specification? AVG may not take much resources but if you havent got much in the first place then you have to expect a fair amount of speed loss. I'm having a guess you are using windows 98 or ME and that it scans the computer on boot - if its set at the default settings i.e. you dont change them, then you shouldnt have a problem really Best Regards, Nath

Yep I'd love to know this answer to query too. --- Regarding restoring a image from the server by Ghostcasting: --- I hope this isnt quite off topic (any admin - please move it to a new topic if you think it should be in a new topic) but isnt there some way of doing the following: (sorry the following sounds complex, but I sometime find it hard to put things into words hehe) Have a boot sector on the hard drive that works like the normal XP CD boot sector (i.e. asks for user input to boot the cd) but instead, have it boot a partition on the hard drive which loads up a image of the boot disk that you could have set to automate a restore of the main partiton i.e. - You press a key when the hard drive asks something like - it loads a seperate partition on the hard drive that is basically, the image (or something similar) of the floppy disk you can create in the Ghost Boot Wizard tool. - This process (automated by params in the autoexec) will restore the primary partition which could be periodically updated i.e. new hotfixes, updated apps,etc. all installed, I know I've sorta explained it twice hehe but its only to help you all understand what the hell i'm going on about....hopefully This would cut down on the need for have cd's and floppies lying about, plus where u have many of the same system's i.e. computer suites, etc. u only really need one machine (after setting this up on each pc) to have one cd-rom drive and a floppy drive i.e. cutting hardware replacement costs Best Regards (and hope someone can suggest a way of doing the above), Nath.

Hi and well done on a great tool (just trying it out myself now) Sorry to hear about the accident and all the best for a safe recovery. Best Regards & Wishes, Nathan H.

Quick note: the new version will indeed handle dvd burning Regards, N.

hehe I know this obviously but I'm trying to say that I dont know my app swtches very well (yet) hehe I am presuming that its due to ohotfix.exe which is obviously different to update.exe found in most windows hotfixes so its the old horrible IExpress packaged type using ohotfix.exe. Just tried: which gave me the error of "An error occured while obtaining the settings. The update cannot be applied. and it was from the Office Hotfix Installer so that was nearer to it but no luck. Have tried it like: which does the same as running the file without any switches. In the packaged file, it unpacks and has a ini file that gives it commands. I just cant see how to get around that short of manually changing each ini file and repackaging it - which just isnt worth my time lol Am going home now but any ideas on what switches to use would be most welcome Many thanks and I've an idea how to update the admin point but its just this script that i want to set up now. Thanks, N.

No good... Tried: neither worked - got a command line option syntax error message Thanks, N.

Hi all Just a quick question or two here: What are the switches (the ones that arent listed with /?) for the hotfixes available for Office 2000 (Pro)? I've tried the usual: and it works fine except at the end I get a prompt to click ok after it installs successfully - which is no good as i want it unattended.I'm trying for a normal batch script here i.e. I cant for the life of me remember the other options instead of /q:u and i presume the /r:n is fine for all the hotfixes too. Any ideas on this? Also, the administrative point i've set up to install Office 2000 Pro has SP3 slipstreamed already so how would I add the hotfixes to that admin point? Is -a <locationofadminpoint> enough? Many thanks for any help given and I have tried to find out this already but with no luck. Best regards, N.

hehe I know....was pointing out the grammar Ta Nath

I aim to please hehe Cheers, N.

Please seperate the lines in your post - this post may confuse others otherwise No disrespect intended by the way, but DO try and punctuate your posts a little at least please otherwise people may get frustrated and may not reply to your posts. Regards, Nath.

Explain what you mean by upgrade? Do you mean its not the Full retail/oem/volume cd and it is a update/upgrade cd? If so, and I dont know whether this is confirmed to work, but maybe this is the reason. Am i right in thinking that you cant boot from the XP update cd, only start the process within windows? If so, then the cd wouldnt have a boot img to put into xpcreate. Just a thought... Regards, N.

@ TwoFiver

I'm not sure if your refering to windows 2000 or XP, but if you are refering to xp then you dont need to include it as it is already included (providing you are adding the Service Pack 2 to you installation/CD) If you are refering to 2000 however, make sure that you have downloeded the full redist version and not just the web update version. Regards, N.

@GM: Just installed SP2 with yet another build from xpcreate (thank you *winks*) and in the WU, there is in total: - KB885626 - Windows Messenger 4.7 Update <- ignore this - its my fault i think hehe - Media Connect thing-y and a (unrelated to xpcreate) hardware driver update (never use them hehe). Soooo.....regarding KB885626, think it definately needs to be in the list as it definately relates to SP2 & (some) Pentium/Celeron 4 CPU's... Visit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=en or: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];885626 and all will be revealed Place in HF1 as before and all being well...it should be fine - remember that if you dont include it in the build and dont have a Pentium/Celeron 4 based CPU, I doubt you'll see it appear Regards, Nath. PS And thanks again GM - much success was had *big wink*

Exactly Vel Straty. Who'd use MC2005 without a DVD-ROM (or combo) drive in it *at least*...as the whole point of it is for playing dvd's/watching films/etc. So really, you'd never need to use a cd on it really thus dvd builds would be much prefered. Regards, N.

Oooops...just realised which post it was that I forgot to reply to....this one hehe My reply was gonna be similar to yours GM Cheers, Nath

Just to add my 'two cents' to all this but Interface, you are directly responsible as the unattended CD should never have been given/borrowed/stolen from you by a friend. I'm not a laywer either but I'd suggest you rethink who you're friends are Of course, its got your information on it so they can tie it to you but... ...the fact that its being sold and distributed by someone, Microsoft would most definately be interested in. I think you could help yourself if you know who is selling & distributing the cd you made. For that matter, I'm sure they wont prosecute you (same goes for the other companies software on the cd) as you will be helping the companies know that this is happening. They are likely to thank you in the long run and think about it... if it hadnt been your cd, it would have been someone elses cd. I know of a person in this area that have been distributing illegal copies of MS software (the ppl receiving the software werent charged as far as i know) and MS have visited the person in question - told the person off - and then given the person a proper copy of XP and told the person not to do it again.... - whatever they said has worked because the person doesnt want to know about ppl & computers anymore In short: They'd rather take the person replicating & selling the CD to court/jail, than take you to court/jail for accidentally allowing the cd to be 'taken' against your wishes. Hope that helps (I know everyone else has comented but I just couldnt help add my bit too ) Regards, N.

And just a little point... Providing both/all domains run a DCHP server/service, you may want the network card not to be manually configuring with a IP - I know it sounds obvious but u never know. Also, how does the DNS server work with this situation? Would you have to add the DNS IP address into the laptop's TCP/IP settings (DNS Search Server Order - cant remember exactly what it is. I'm using a 98 client at the moment and cant check) for each domain? If I dont here at work (my DNS server is on the DC) with my clients, they take up to 5 or so minutes to logon. After adding the DNS Server IP setting to the client machines, they logon and are processed straight away (guess they dont have to "search" for the dns server etc) Regards, N.

Exchange 2003 is lovely. The Outlook Web Access (accessing the email using a web browser from *virtually* anywhere, depending on the settings) interface is great! makes most of these "home-grown" ISP/web provider webmail clients look pretty rubbish in comparison. I imagine you can do all sorts with editing the look and such. I'd say training might be required depending on your skills with email servers, clients & protocols tho. I'd recommend Exchange 2003 to all hehe even myself when we have the resources to get it Regards, N.

Sort of touching on what tguy said, you could use the Microsoft Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) to accomplish this. I did I moved about 300 users from my old NT 4 domain to my new 2003 Server. Due to budget restrictions, I had to "juggle" hard disks in the process (needed the HD containing the Users work folders and we couldnt afford another new seperate drive for this) and used a few other processes - reg exports of the share's list to reimport on the new server being one and resetting security on some places - but all in all, it was a huge success. Not bad for a guy who hasnt had any training eh? hehe Any queries about it if thats what you're looking to do, send me a PM or reply to this post and I'll try and help if I can Regards, N.

And if you still have no luck after all that, and still cant figure it out... You might want to try an alternative: RealVNC = http://www.realvnc.com/ with VNcon = http://vncon.chronetal.co.uk/index.php?page=main Regards, N.