Ive spent several days working on this self install of windows, and thought, would it be easier to set up my computer exactly how I want it, then use norton ghost to image it? Has anyone done this? Also, if I do that, would i have to re-register windows and install any programs or drivers?

This is an option, and of course you don't have to reinstall applications nor reregister Windows, provided that you create an exact image of the partition where you installed Windows.

But there are a few disadvantages:

- You can only use this image on one computer, or you should have another computer with the EXACT same hardware!

- With each program-update or configuration change you need to re-create your image! It's not flexible in the least!

Use Acronis TrueImage to backup the hard drive. It can make incremental backups without re-imaging the entire drive, so when you make your first backup, then add more stuff to windows or change settings or whatever, you can just do an incremental backup through trueimage.

Stay away from Norton Ghost, it can't restore a bootable NTFS image correctly. I've tried and tried. Powerquest DriveImage is just as bad.

to create a image default

install s.o and apllz create folder with the comom drvs afert just run sysprep generating news sigs and oeminfo.ini to set the definitions.

if you need more info go to deploy.cab and read the ref.ch* (i dont rebember the extension).

the is everything taht you need to now about sysprep.

i use this with my hard drive copy machine and works good

and rebember to join the string

[sysprepMassStorage]

to get all hard drives

more inf.

How do I use Sysprep to deploy Windows XP?

i hope it helps

@syntaxerror - you haven't tried with norton ghost very hard, I restore ntfs images every day to many different hardware configurations without issue using ghost. IBM thinkpads are the worst if you try to capture and restore the factory image, otherwise it works great.

I switched to Acronis True Image 8 a few months ago... Kick a** product, I recommend (Disk Director 9 Suite also)

I already have norton ghost so i will probably be using that, also how much does True image cost Hulk?

About 50$ U.S

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

I have a discount in my mailbox at work but I don't know if it has expired... it was sent around christmas.

Want me to check tomorrow? it was 25% to 50% discount if I remember...

I made a norton ghost 8.0 image while back and when i restored it to the hard drive, it would not boot. I personally know of several people who have had the same problem with norton ghost. 2 of those people are IT admins at a local ISP.

I use Ghost and Drive image all the time.. no prob. (and have for 6 years)

The product is fine.. Your IT people don't know what they are doing... don't blame the product for their lack of understanding

heheheeh

I have a universal image for every computer in my office using ghost. As long as you set up your computer EXACTLY as you want it, you can copy it with no extra work simply by using the clone function of ghost. If you want multiple hardware configs OR want to deplot this in a domain, you should create a sysprep.inf for each OS you wish to support, and create a collection of drivers to add to the OEMPnPDrivers line of that file. As long as you do that, you can image all day long and have one image per software config. For more info check the DEPLOY.CAB in the SUPPORT\TOOLS\ dir on your windows CD. It takes work upfront, but depending on how many computers you load and the varience in your software baselines, it more than pays off. I started loading every computer by hand, now I update the image once a month and thats it. One image for 1,000 computers + corporate ghost makes it very easy to admin. B)

Don't forget guy's - there is Norton Ghost (IMHO - Crap) and Symantec Ghost (IMHO Great - i use daily and have done for for years).

Symantec brand products for consumer and corporate - Norton = Consumer, Symantec = Corporate.

Personally i have found many problems with the consumer products from Symantec, but the corporate products are very good.

Just my phonecard's worth