Creating System Image Backup's for 1 or 2 PCs
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I read some articles and it appears that using Windows 7 & 8 File history, I can create System Image Backups of the OS, program and data.
Can this be automated?
How easy is it to reinstall the System Image Backup? I tried with W7 3 years ago and it failed, and I don't remember why but it was same hardware except the hard drive.
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I've never done that.
Are you trying to do online backups? If you can accept offline backups - Clonezilla is free and works very well!
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@Dashrender said:
I've never done that.
Are you trying to do online backups? If you can accept offline backups - Clonezilla is free and works very well!
Ok...I finally read up on Clonezilla and I will be attempting this. I will have to setup a test machine and then use Clonezilla to do a system image of my PC and then I will have to have another PC ready to "reimage" with the Clonezilla system image to test.
If this works, I could do monthly images and then have a rollback point for users if they bork their PC
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That's a lot of manual work - do you really care about end user workstations that much?
I have baseline images for my departments - if a machine is borked up, I attempt, briefly, to recover any local files they may have, then blow it away and push the image out.
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@Dashrender said:
That's a lot of manual work - do you really care about end user workstations that much?
I have baseline images for my departments - if a machine is borked up, I attempt, briefly, to recover any local files they may have, then blow it away and push the image out.
I guess that would be more for me than most of my clients. However if a client's base image had changed a lot, it might be worth making an updated baseline image.
Basically none of my small businesses, (1-5 PCs) have ever had baseline images aside from the laughable factory images. And in this last year, I have done new W8 new PC setups plus new software (baseline) where only weeks afterwards the customer or the software vendor's update borks the PC.
My new practice for 2015 is to start suggesting baseline images for clients.
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@Dashrender said:
That's a lot of manual work - do you really care about end user workstations that much?
I have baseline images for my departments - if a machine is borked up, I attempt, briefly, to recover any local files they may have, then blow it away and push the image out.
Ditto, local data is forbidden
Need a nuke/pave? 30 mins and done.
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@MattSpeller said:
Ditto, local data is forbidden
Yeah here too, but you know users, they never listen, and I really don't like redirecting the desktop, it makes for some weird problems.
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@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?
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@Dashrender said:
I guess that would be more for me than most of my clients. However if a client's base image had changed a lot, it might be worth making an updated baseline image.
Basically none of my small businesses, (1-5 PCs) have ever had baseline images aside from the laughable factory images. And in this last year, I have done new W8 new PC setups plus new software (baseline) where only weeks afterwards the customer or the software vendor's update borks the PC.
My new practice for 2015 is to start suggesting baseline images for clients.
Ugh brutal. You're really limited if they're all different models.
Strongly suggest you look at something like Acronis with "universal deploy" which really mitigates all the driver issues. -
@MattSpeller said:
@Dashrender said:
I guess that would be more for me than most of my clients. However if a client's base image had changed a lot, it might be worth making an updated baseline image.
Basically none of my small businesses, (1-5 PCs) have ever had baseline images aside from the laughable factory images. And in this last year, I have done new W8 new PC setups plus new software (baseline) where only weeks afterwards the customer or the software vendor's update borks the PC.
My new practice for 2015 is to start suggesting baseline images for clients.
Ugh brutal. You're really limited if they're all different models.
Strongly suggest you look at something like Acronis with "universal deploy" which really mitigates all the driver issues.Unless Acronis lets me use the software on all my clients, this would be too expensive for most offices.
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@technobabble You buy a "tech license" (or something like that) that lets you install it once on your server, then you can use it to deploy windows images onto your client's computers. Been a while since I looked at their licencing so my info may be out of date. Last time I used it there was no install on the client machine, it's just an imaging utility (amongst other cool stuff)
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Yeah they changed it all again, I'm probably 2-3 years behind them now. Looks like they're still doing some crazy awesome stuff. My experience is their software is expensive but works & worth it.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/business/enterprise-solutions/image-deployment/ -
@technobabble said:
@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?
A NAS would be great for this.
Baseline images are definitely a pain for SMB because the updates change frequently.
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@Dashrender said:
@technobabble said:
@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?
A NAS would be great for this.
Baseline images are definitely a pain for SMB because the updates change frequently.
Thanks. At least with a "current baseline" image those 2 PC shops with borked vendor updates or self inflicted malware infections could be handled faster.
Would I be able to house the images on the NAS and then use the NAS image during the reinstall?
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@technobabble said:
@Dashrender said:
@technobabble said:
@MattSpeller and @Dashrender most of my small business clients don't have a file server, though I am considering suggesting a NAS for those who have no need for a Server...what do you guys think about that?
A NAS would be great for this.
Baseline images are definitely a pain for SMB because the updates change frequently.
Thanks. At least with a "current baseline" image those 2 PC shops with borked vendor updates or self inflicted malware infections could be handled faster.
Would I be able to house the images on the NAS and then use the NAS image during the reinstall?
Yes, clonezilla (or similar) would work a treat for this. It's a bit tedious as you have to image each box separately but it will save you some mega-bucks on licensing for software (like Acronis)
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It will be tedious assuming you keep a different image for each machine.
Let's say you create a base image today. Then 6 months from now you have to re-image a borked machine, I'd put the base image on it, then run all the updates on the base image - update everyone Windows, Office, Flash, Java, etc, then sysprep and then create a new base image. If you do this, every time you have to reimage a borked machine, you'll basically be creating a new base image that is fresh as of that day.
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@Dashrender said:
It will be tedious assuming you keep a different image for each machine.
Let's say you create a base image today. Then 6 months from now you have to re-image a borked machine, I'd put the base image on it, then run all the updates on the base image - update everyone Windows, Office, Flash, Java, etc, then sysprep and then create a new base image. If you do this, every time you have to reimage a borked machine, you'll basically be creating a new base image that is fresh as of that day.
yup, that is best practice right there
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@Dashrender said:
It will be tedious assuming you keep a different image for each machine.
Let's say you create a base image today. Then 6 months from now you have to re-image a borked machine, I'd put the base image on it, then run all the updates on the base image - update everyone Windows, Office, Flash, Java, etc, then sysprep and then create a new base image. If you do this, every time you have to reimage a borked machine, you'll basically be creating a new base image that is fresh as of that day.
@Dashrender that's pretty much how I imagined how I would do it, except I didn't think about the updating the image after a borked incident!
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Set up a NAS, Use CloneZilla, and go...
Multiple hardware types are a pain, but the last 10 years have been the norm for me. I miss the days when I could build a bootable CD and would TnL (Toast and Load) a workstation for me...Ah.. batch scripting with Ghost...
