How to Make System Restore CD

[eminem_rh25]

I build computers for people. I get a call a lot from people saying "THE BLASTER VIRUS HIT MY COMPUTER!!!". Im a nice guy so i fix it. I want to make the System Recovery CD for the people who buy my computers. Every computer i build does come with Norton SystemWorks 2004 Professional (that means it has ghost on it!!) I want to make COMPLETE Restore cds meaning i want my customers to pop in the CD hit a couple of keys and have it REFORMAT and RESTORE THE COMPUTER TO THE DEFAULT FACTORY SETUP!! If someone know how to do that email me at


rshserver(at)hotmail(dot)com


THANKS

ps Merry Christmas

[evilphantomx]

yea....same here....if u figure it out pm me and let me in on that one too

I'm not going to e-mail you, but I will ask this.

Are you wanting any human interaction?

Have you thought about setting up a partition with the Ghost image on it, you could "hide" it from the OS?

Have you considered the Product Activation?

Have you looked at How To Use Sysprep?

[RayH]

That's what Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Drive Image are about. Contact Acronis about OEM packages. Same kind of thing.

http://www.acronis.com/partners/oem/pc/

[wju425]

I've used Drive Image to create my own restore disk. First I did a fresh install of windows, drivers, and programs like avg, acrobat, dialup, all that's neccessary. It all fit one one cd. What's nice about it is that in less than five minutes I can have a fresh system. You can save all you want where you span across cds with it.

\o/ Billy

EDIT: I should add that I'm using Win98se. (shrugs)

[dafanman]

wju425
Im with you on that
Dont have to worry about virus's
dont have to worry about windoze blowing up
dont have to worry about buggy apps


Anything happens on my main system, it 12-15 mins to restore o.s and apps.

San antonio, huh me to.......

[John Prophet]

Basically all you do is get the build finished like you want it...all the windows updates (then they wont get blaster, lol), all your drivers...etc etc.

Ok, the build is finished.

Ok, what you need to do is use ghost to make the boot floppy.....boot off of it....then choose "disk to image"...that will copy the hard drive to an "image"....and it will ask for source and destination....usually you just have one drive so source is obviously your c: drive, lol....then for destination you choose your cd burner....if the machine doesnt have one you just have to open it up and temporarily hook one to the ide cable. (no, you dont have to have burning software installed, the norton handles it)

So, you choose cd burner as destination..then it asks what type compression you want...I usually use "fast" but it just depends...sometimes the compression makes it crash out during the imaging so you just have to use "none"...if its a big build it may take 2 cds...if it has games and stuff, maybe 3, lol. (you MAY have to check "spanning" under options and save that option, or it may span automatically, not sure)

Ok, almost there...it will ask you if you want to copy a bootable floppy to the image.....of course you do, that the part that makes it a "restore" cd. You can either copy the ghost floppy which is already in the floppy drive or you can make your own batch file to run ghost if you are real slick. If you just use the ghost floppy you either need to write out instructions or put your phone number on it, lol. And you might want to write in big letters "use of this restore disk WILL ERASE YOUR HARD DRIVE, BACKUP ALL NEEDED FILES FIRST!"

Ok, there is a post somewhere, I think in the applications and operating systems forum where I pasted up the fat batch file that I use for the boot floppy. I didnt write it and frankly dont understand it, lol...but its sweet...it boots up and asks "do you want to restore the image onto your hard drive" and it says "press y for yes".....ok, they click y and then it says something like "this will erase all info on the hard drive, if you agree type "agree" and press enter. So they type agree and press enter and it does its thing.

You just have to make sure when it leaves that the comp bios has the cd as a boot option before the hard drive.

Easy...it does its thing and then stops on an A prompt and just sits there...or gives some error message at the end, lol. Either way once "ghost" dissapears and its back on a dos screen its done. Takes like 3-5 minutes or something.


We had it set up at first where it would just boot off the cd and AUTOMATICALLY starts the restore!! Boom, no warning, no prompt, just wipeout! lol. We called it the "run and gun" version but we got nervous and changed it, lol. Scared kids would boot from it to see what all mp3 were on it and wipe out their folks' comps.

I dont have time this minute to find the post but if you search its here somewhere. (oh, by the way, 3900 of my posts were in the apps forum, but youll find it anyway)



j/k! lol Ask if you have questions, JP



Ps: if you format a smallish hard drive and leave it blank and then ghost IT to an image using this same procedure and make the restore disk out of it, you will have a cool formatting tool for your drives....after it boots and you type "agree" it takes less than a second to format the drive no matter how big cuz ghost automatically fills out the remaining portion of the drive.

[RayH]

It can be done. But there is a licensing fee for the program used. Acronis appears to be the least expensive on a continuing basis. It can become a value added selling point.

Actually, there are probably ways to install IMAGES to the primary installation!

[John Prophet]

Quote--->"Have you considered the Product Activation?"

Hmmm..where is that coming into play? If you have a ghost of an activated system.....the system gets a virus or whatever and you restore it using your ghost...you have no need to reactivate do you?

(I just discovered sysprep and it helps me with xp a lot..you just do one sweet "master build" for each motherboard you use.....then you save hrs of time on builds)

[davidamarkley]

OK, I made a thread like this for the same thing.

Let me go dig it up...

BRB

David

EDIT: OK, Here's the link to my thread.

In it, you'll find out how I did it, and also the .bat file JP posted...