Need Help or Tips on Creating Multiple Copies of the Identical Windows 7 "Client" Systems

Question

I need to create multiple copies of the same computer system, based on identical PCs with identical components, except network interface MAC IDs and serial numbers, which in the end will differ only by computer name.

I'm hoping there is a way to create a single "master" system, and then copy to a DVD, say, and then insert the DVD into the "non-master" systems and have it boot off the DVD and create the identical system. After completion, I would then change the computer name to the final name.

Is there commercially available software (or even freeware) to do this? How is the Microsoft Windows licensing affected, if at all? I'd prefer if the process did not install any new software on the target computers.

Any insight or sharing of experiences is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This is a common procedure in many institutions, and software exists to make it easier. You might find copying an image from a hard disk to each drive, temporarily removed from its PC, is much faster than from a DVD. See the following, in no particular order, for procedures, tools and information on licensing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_cloning

http://www.techsoup.org/support/articles-and-how-tos/configure-and-setup-multiple-computers

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm (free tool, if for private use)

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx (free and paid versions)

http://www.smartdeploy.com/