In this article, I decided to describe how to install Windows operating systems on a PC, as well as share some of the experience that I have accumulated and which, I believe, will be of interest to a large number of readers.

Pros:

1. The introduction of a new workplace is 30 minutes.
2. Fast, guaranteed restoration of the working environment - 5 min.
3. Change of working environment at the request of the user - 30 min.
4. Acceleration of troubleshooting in hardware and software.
5. Create a corporate style and fine-tune the workplace, including all time constraints.

Note:
The working environment is the installed OS + program.

First series:

What's wrong with the standard way of installation? Looking at the current situation through the eyes of the software development company, I fully understand them. Firstly, it is not known what hardware the OS they will work on, what programs will be launched and for what tasks it will be used, and besides, it is necessary to make a marketing move with a smooth and interesting installation process that demonstrates that money is not simply given So. This method uses the majority. And this is absolutely normal.

The second series:

Faced once with a park of computer equipment, making 2-3 series of identical machines, I had the idea of ​​cloning data from one computer to the other. The reasons why I decided that this will work and that it is "right":

1. The equipment is the same, this means that the hardware is completely identical. And if you follow the whole sequence of actions during the installation, the data byte in bytes on the disks of two identical computers will be the same. So, having installed the OS and programs on one computer in the usual way and transferring the hard disk to another one - everything will work. That is, it remains only to copy the partition of one disk to the disk of another computer of the same type. The goal is to reduce the time to install the OS. Approximately 4 hours is spent installing WindowsNT + Service Pack, Office2000, drivers, programs, etc. And when copying a disk partition - up to 12 minutes. The benefit is obvious. At this stage, the main point of the technology, I think, is understandable.

2. I think the best way to deal with malfunctions in the Windows operating system and glitches is a full reinstallation. First, Norton Unilites, Crash Guard, Mem busters are utilities that fail to fight the consequences and often do not facilitate, but complicate the work. And if, after a disk failure, there are lost clusters, who will guarantee that any system file has not been damaged, and against a seemingly efficient system it will suddenly appear not in the most pleasant way. Why do we need this? Moreover, our full reinstallation takes from 4 to 10 minutes.

Series Three:

In this case, I ran into reality - that is, a diverse array of computers, which are very desirable to quickly install everything. In the process of working out the technology, I developed the final version, which I will introduce to you.

Programs that I use in work: Norton ghost - for creating images. PQMagic to create partitions on the HDD.

1. Create partitions on the disk.

I recommend creating, if possible, at least 2 sections. 1st system (Disk C), which will store the operating system and installed programs. 2nd (drive D) - to store the user's working files, as well as some program distributions. This separation is necessary to quickly restore the system partition entirely from the image, without first saving user files, which otherwise have to expend working time. In addition, failures in the operation of the OS or power outage can lead to the corruption of files created by the user. So it's easier and more reliable. On modern hard disks from 20 Gb and higher I allocate C 10 Gb for the disk.

2. A computer installed at home.

You configure, as you need, install drivers, necessary programs. Then reboot, boot from floppy in MS-DOS, run the ghost program and backup the system partition to drive D. And the ghost program copies the entire disk with the system data and the boot area, but the image includes only the disk space occupied by the programs, and not all disk. There are options for data compression, which significantly reduces the size of the image. So the size of the fully installed and configured Windows 98Se OS with the full package of MS Office 2000, ACDSee, Antivirus, Windows Commander and so on in the image takes about 450 MB, which is not so much for a modern computer. Windows2000 - 850 MB, WindowsXP - 1200 MB. Now, in case of any failure or occurrence of the situation of the inoperability of your OS, you, having booted from a floppy disk, with the help of ghost, completely restore your working environment in 4-10 minutes. Beauty, is not it? It may take a longer time to find and fix a problem.

You can create several intermediate images - a 'bare' OS with drivers, OS + Office - decide for yourself. In any case, having spent 10-15 minutes to save the newly installed and configured OS once, you will save your time in the future. It is also very 'beautiful' for the maintenance of equipment in organizations.

3. A single image for all occasions.

A) Choose a working computer, with a disk without badblock. Split the disk into partitions.

B) Install the OS in the usual way. Do not install any drivers. Install programs (Office, DIVX, AntiVirus and so on). Make all necessary adjustments.

C) IMPORTANT !!! Install the hard disk controller driver as a Standart IDE Controller, replacing the existing one.

Remove all drivers that have a name related to chipset (intel, via, sis). In this case, your configuration is not tied to the configuration of the computer and can be downloaded and updated on any hardware. For convenience, I also copy frequently used programs and drivers that do not take up much space (for example, in the addon directory).

Now reboot. Boot from the floppy disk and create an image with the maximum compression. You can store this image either on disk D, or write to CD-RW.

Now you come to the user, boot from the bootable CD-RW. And in case the C drive can be easily rewritten, within 5 minutes you deploy the image and in the remaining 25 minutes install the driver for its hardware and, if necessary, additional programs needed by the user, and which are not in the image. In any case, you will save yourself a huge amount of time and nerves.

Comments:

In case you have computers on the network - do not forget to change the computer name.

Windows 98 SE: I personally delete all the drivers that are related to the logic set of this motherboard. In this case, I just stopped at this option and it all works on other computers. To search for what else can be left, I did not have time, and it was not worth it. I also recommend that you copy the Windows 98 SE distribution into the image, because after the first boot on the newly installed OS image, the process of searching for new devices will start and the system will ask for the distribution, and the CD-ROM is not yet available. Also, pay attention to the ACPI manager responsible for managing the computer's power supply, probably it should also be removed to prepare the image, since the system will not automatically configure it. This applies to computers with AT and ATX power. Another thing is to conduct a full search for all devices. START-> Control Panel-> Hardware Installation.

Windows 2000, Windows XP. There are no special problems here. The main thing is to leave the image in the Standart IDE Controler system before the image preparation, otherwise the system can not boot at all !!! And after a successful download will automatically search for devices. Install drivers, and everything will be fine.

Windows ME - did not try.

Windows NT - in principle, everything began with it, but here we must bear in mind that with PnP it is rather weak. Therefore, I have no experience except to prepare an image for the same type of configuration.

For NTFS, do not forget to interrupt SID - for this there is a special utility ghostwalk from the package Norton Ghost.

Corporate style:

You have a single image, tested and configured for all computers in the organization. You can set the logo of your organization on the desktop, defragment, modify the registry, optimize the system before creating the image. If you find inconsistencies in the work of programs, correcting the previous image and following the corporate policy of the IT structure, you can quickly and easily change the working environment for users. In any case, you will avoid inconsistency and waste of time looking for problems in a mixed configuration. It will be easier for you to answer questions from users - since you will have an identical copy of the system on your desktop. There are fewer potential problems. Data can be stored by users on the network resource, which further simplifies the work of the IT service.

Acceleration of troubleshooting in hardware and software:

It happens that programs conflict with each other, and sometimes a complete reinstallation of the system is necessary to troubleshoot - work with the image is very suitable for this. And if you know that the same configuration works fine on 100 computers, then probably it's not in the programs.

I consider this installation technology to be the most optimal and it is hardly possible to think of something better here.

I will help my direct participation to introduce technology. You can read this article under the GPL. Or send interest.
PS Do not offend Alsou.