[SoCoSA/discuss] Replicating a Win XP install to other computers

[Andrew]

I'm part of a volunteer group helping to upgrade a Novato
elementary school's computer lab to new Win XP Pro machines. (I
tried to get them to consider Linux, but no dice.) We have 31
brand new Dell machines sitting in boxes and we're now trying to
decide on the best way to install the software. Each machine will
need to have a number of programs (KidPix, Oregon Trail, Math
Arena, anti-virus, etc.) installed. As none of us in the
volunteer group relish the idea of doing a dozen or more installs
on 31 machines, some kind of imaging solution looks to be the
best way to go. We'd do a full install on one of the Dells, then
clone that machine's hard drive to all the other machines (they
all have identical hardware).

What does the SoCoSA crowd suggest? Norton's Ghost used to be the
only game in town, but I hear it sucks now. Acronis' True Image
seems to be far better these days. Partimage
( http://www.partimage.org/ ) is another possibility, but it's
unclear how well it will work with NTFS. Some time ago I had
heard about SystemImager ( http://www.systemimager.org/ ) and it
came to mind for this project, but that appears to be Linux-only.
And last, but not least, there's always good old "dd", possibly
in conjunction with gzip.

The computers will be networked. Would it be better/faster to put
the "golden" image on a server and clone it to the other machines
over the network, or should we get our hands on some USB drives,
put the"golden" image on them and take them from machine to
machine?

What other factors need to be considered? As for licensing, I
think we'll be OK. Each machine does come with its own license.

Another installation option might be an automated install (for
example http://unattended.sourceforge.net/ ), and I can see where
that might be the way to go for a very large number of machines,
but it might be overkill for our 31 machines.

I also understand Microsoft has some tools to help with cloning
drives, but I know nothing about them. Do any of you?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

A.