Win 7 imaging

1005 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by DT Roberts, Mar 17, 2011

Danburley

Discussion Starter · Mar 17, 2011

Hello Everyone im new to Tech Forum and have a burning question hope its in the correct place.

I am used to running images of operating systems from disk but i have been tasked to role out images of Win 7 Student onto Netbooks.

I know i will will to do this over a network which i have set up a basic network running static IP to cut cost of running a server OS with DHCP installed.

The company have asked me to take the Netbooks to XP Pro from Win 7 Starter and then upgrade to Win 7 student for cost and licencing.

This has completely baffled me and i may be being blind or looking into it more complicated than it really is but any advise would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Dan

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DT Roberts

· #2 · Mar 17, 2011

Hello and welcome, Dan.

I think I understand what they want done. Take a look at the chart here: Windows 7 Upgrade Paths

As far as I know, 7 Student is just like 7 Starter but with a student discount. Because of this, you can't really upgrade from Starter to Student. If you were using a full installation instead of an upgrade, you could simply install the new Windows 7 Student over the current Starter version.

Rolling back to XP means that you can perform an "upgrade" to any version of Windows 7, but it's more like a clean install.

If you still have questions, feel free to ask.

Devin

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Danburley

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 17, 2011

Many Thanks for your reply.

The thing is i am stuck on how i am going to push these images over the network.

im used to doing this all by disks and thats simple just i have never done it over a network connection. Dont know where to start after setting up the network lol

Many thanks

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DT Roberts

· #4 · Mar 17, 2011

Honestly, I've never done it over a network either. TechNet does provide a nice guide for it though: Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals

I'm interested to know if it works for you. Best of luck and keep us posted!

Devin

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cluberti

· #5 · Mar 17, 2011

Note that the Technet link you pointed to walks you through doing it manually with the AIK tools - while this will work, it's hardly easy. Instead, I think the OP should be considering installing MDT 2010 on a Windows 7 machine (or better, a 2008 R2 server so he can PXE boot and deploy over the network) and use the deployment workbench to add the operating system, create a standard client task sequence, and then deploy Windows. All of this from installation of tools (assuming a pre-existing Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 machine) to deployment of a machine can be installed, built, and completed in about a day for a novice, and an hour or two for someone who's done it before.

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DT Roberts

· #6 · Mar 17, 2011

Ah, I didn't know there was a way around using the WAIK tools. Great to know.

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