Re: Cloning system drives

[Tom Edwards <tdcone(at)bellsouth.net>]

We have the opposite problem...
We have an Enterprise version of WindowsXP. Unfortunately, that product key doesn't work with the Avid|DS restore disk. I was forced into building up the Windows install from scratch. We also have 23 user accounts on each of the 9 DS systems - way too much work doing that more than one time. Cloning the good install is the only way to go. After installing the licenses, I make another Ghost image of each system. It resides on the audio drive and on our server. To restore the system drive is about 9 minutes from the local audio drive. Works great. With this many users, I made a decision not to waste more than 15 min trying to figure how something or usually somebody has screwed up the system disk - I just re-image from the Ghost file and move on.

Tom Edwards
MTV Networks

Sylvain Labrosse wrote:

The Avid DS Recovery image image is actually made with Norton Ghost, so this part works.  What we do additionally as a manufacturer is run a Microsoft preparation file to reset some component, including the Product Key field.  This way, customers must type in their own specific Product Key to legitimate Windows XP to Microsoft.

 

If you clone your drive, you'll apply the same Product Key on both systems and that could cause you some problems when you update the operating system from the Microsoft servers or contact their support line.

Sylvain Labrosse
Avid DS Support
Escalation team
http://www.softimage.com/avidds
Check The Learning Collection

---

From: owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-ds(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of Rob Rohlman
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 10:14 AM
To: DS Group
Subject: Cloning system drives

We have 2 identical DS boxes and are upgrading to 7.6 from 6.1. I have upgraded one box and am wondering if I can clone the system drive, perhaps with Norton Ghosting software, and use that cloned drive in the second box, to make the upgrade process faster, and insure that the machines remain identical. I know that I will have to change license files, but I am unsure about AVID drive issues, or who knows what. Anyone try this?

 

 

Robert Rohlman
Senior AVID DS/HD Editor
The Film Foundry
1930 Camden St. Suite 2070
Charlotte, North Carolina  28203
704-331-9292