Zlaxfish Network

I have been trying for a long time to find a way to image Macs from our WDS server to no avail…Macs don’t have PXE boot!  WDS has had a feature to allow you to create a “Discover” image and a resulting disc to boot from.  However, typically when just using the GUI to create this disc, it boots up with a command prompt window, runs winpeinit and then that’s it.  After some deep searching, I found a blog with accurate instructions for how to actually create a disc that will not only boot up to winPE but also launch straight into the WDS deploy on a given server.  It does require command line but the latest WAIK has some very verbose and useful tools, making it not too hard even for a WDS novice.

Thanks to David Bolton’s blog: http://www.davidbolton.com/?p=24

I also had to extract the network drivers from the Snow Leopard bootcamp disc but for general purposes, adding all of the drivers from the latest LAN Driver Pack to the disc image will make sure to cover a wide variety of machines.  Check out my previous post for the easiest way to add these via command line!

I have been doing a lot of work lately on deployments of Windows 7 (Yes, companies are jumping on board already since they sat on their hands during the Vista years).  Some of the new features of Windows Deployment Services in Server 2008 R2 are really nice, especially the driver package management.  However, it is somewhat limited in flexibility as the drivers can only be applied to deployed images based on a few very inflexible filters.  If there are some drivers that you want to apply directly to an image, you have to resort to the command line.  In my case, I was actually creating a WDS boot CD (which is not as easy as Microsoft’s directions) using the directions here: http://www.davidbolton.com/?p=24 .

The problem comes in with the Windows 7 Automate Installation Kit because some of the commands I was familiar with have been done away with.  This is not to say is is less feature packed, instead the peimg command has been rolled in with a few others under dism.  Here is how you can use dism even more powerfully than peimg.

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The Aspire One is not a multimedia powerhouse, but my primary use for it is to take it to school and work with me as an alternative to lugging my Macbook Pro around.  However, it isn’t my primary machine, which brings up the issue of how do I keep my data together without having to swap files around on a flash drive or something?  Most of these apps I use the most address this issue.

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I recently have been thinking about the sudden surge of Netbooks we have seen and how nice it would be to have such a portable device with great battery life.  The recent realization that my Macbook Pro’s battery in one year has become barely able to get through a single hour and a half class made this clearer than ever that big, powerful laptops have their place but are not a catch-all.  So, after some eBay hunting, I found a sweet deal on an Acer Aspire One:

2.3 Lbs, 6-cell battery for a rated 6 hour battery life, Intel Atom 1.6Ghz Processor, 1GB RAM, 8.9″ Screen

Clearly, not a speed demon but powerful enough for most non-gaming or video needs…

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