I work for a compnay that does a lot of reinstalls. Top cut back on time we would like to have a special clone with windows xp that would work accroiss multiplew computers with different models. Is this possable? I thougt ghost could do it but, I think I might have been thinking about sometihine else.

ghost is most appropriate for identical or at least similar hardware since it is basically a backup of installed partition. Unattended install would be better choice for disparate hardware.

How simular does the hardware have to be?

It was easier in the 9X days - a GHOST cloned image would work on very different hardware, after a couple reboots and hardware re-detects.

XP uses a hardware abstraction layer (called HAL) that's configured at install time, and is far less tolerant of widely changing hardware profiles.

But, hey. TRY IT YOURSELF AND SEE.

That's what I'd do.....

Best of luck from The Laboratory just outside Atlanta, GA USA.

im assuming that you will use sysprep to "reseal" the installation before you image it to other hardware. if you set certain settings in sysprep the installation can be imaged to a much wider variety of systems and it will redetect hardware at first boot. but as mentioned by mark, the destination systems must all be of the same HAL. this is most likely the case and you may not have any problems.

What parts of hardware are critical for boot? I would guess hd controller and chipset? Anything else? Would safe mode always work??