Disclamer: I am personally a Mac guy, but at work we use Windows machines, hints the case I need help with it.
Okay folks, here is my situation:
At my work, we are going to be receiving a new Dell workstation. It is being shipped with XP Pro on it (I chose for the downgrade). I chose this because of possible compatibility issues with Vista. When it does arrive though, I want to drop Vista on it and test our software to see if there are any issues with it. Now Dell isn’t shipping the XP Pro install disc with it, so in their mind once I go to Vista, I can’t go back to XP. Now what I hope I can do is this:
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1. Create an image of the XP drive.
2. Install Vista
3. Test Vista (If it works stop here // If problems go to step 4)
4. Take XP image and drop on to HDD to revert back to XP pro and wait until December and install Windows 7 (I know it comes out in October but I want to wait for bugs to get worked out.)
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First off, is this even possible? And second of all, I am looking for possible directions on how to do all this. I would love for you guys to contact me in any way! Thank you for your help. I will also be looking for help in networking between Vista (to become 7), XP, and Mac so if you have experience with that I would love to hear from you also!
If you can help me, below are ways to contact me. Thanks again!
ScubaSteve
732.497.2822
srmorris2@gmail.com
AIM/iChat/gTalk:srmorris2@gmail.com
yahoo:nufanno1
Skype:srmorris2
http://blog.hishamrana.com/2006/02/22/how-to-image-windows-xp-with-ghost-and-sysprep/
See if this will help you.
Do you have a server because you could use WDS. Windows Deployment Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766320(WS.10).aspx
Give this a try.
http://blog.hishamrana.com/2006/02/22/how-to-image-windows-xp-with-ghost-and-sysprep/
Do you have a server? Because I would use WDS Windows Deployment Service Here is a link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766320(WS.10).aspx
If you have decent hardware you may just try setting up a VM, installing your Vista on it, installing your apps on it, seeing if it blows up, and then either way, you can throw the VM away and decide what to do with your live machine. We do ridiculous stuff on VMs all the time so that we can roll back and/or install half-baked builds on them without the risk of borking our personal machines. Sort of like what you’re trying without the contingency plan.
If you’re not familiar with virtualization it’s not hard to figure out. Maybe give it a google.
VMWare workstation 30-day trial would work:
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=workstation-w
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@Lance Lance, thanks for the info! I did think about VM and try that to test, but I devised a way to image the drive and replace it because I did some searching and reading and I really do not think I will have any problems now that SP2 is out. I will just look closer to Win7 and drop that on the machines in December.
@Danny Martin Danny, thanks for your idea and help. It should all work out the way it needs to!