Crappy software

[Robert]

Don't know if anyone has heard of Symantec Ghost 7.5, we use it at work to save an "image" of a computer, and when we buy a new one of the same type, we can simply "re-image" it, and it is ready to go in 10 minutes, with all the corporate software installed and configured exactly the way we like it. It's a huge timesaver, and we can be sure the new computer is exactly the same as the others.

 

It works by having a "ghost" server, it's a server with the ghost software installed, and a huge hard drive to hold all the images. When a new computer arrives, it is a "client", we boot it off a dos floppy drive, and it connects to the "server". The image is transferred, totally wiping out whatever is on the client, including partitions and files. When it's finished, you take the floppy out, the client gets rebooted, you enter the new computer name (serial number of the computer), and you're set. One of the rare truly beautiful pieces of software.

 

However, the march of technology has recently caused a problem: The DOS client doesn't recognise SATA hard drives. Our supplier recommended using Norton Ghost 10, and not knowing any better, we purchased a copy. What a mistake that was!

 

It comes in a yellow box, and contains a book and 2 CDs, one of them being Ghost 10, the other Ghost 2003. It seems Ghost 10 doesn't work on win95 or NT, but Ghost 2003 does. After reading the book it became apparent that it was not exactly what we wanted, anyway I decided to install it on an old pc just to be sure.

 

It installed ok, had to reboot (as expected), then it needed to install .NET, so we let it do that. Then the fun started. It wanted to be activated. We had 15 days to do this otherwise the product would cease to function. It can be done over the internet or by phone. Ok, let's do it over the net.

 

We have a corporate firewall, if you need to access the Internet, you enter a name and password, and if you have the rights, you can see the site you were after. Ghost 10 cannot understand this, and simply tried and failed about 5 times, before giving the phone option. Well of course there is no support in Australia, we need to call England. Our phone system doesn't allow international calls, so that was that.

 

At least we didn't need 15 days to try it out, only took 10 minutes to discover that it is totally useless for our needs. It backs up the computer it is installed on, to a remote network or hard drive, which is nothing like what we wanted. A total waste of time and money.

 

So, the question is, does suitable software exist, or, is there such a thing as a DOS SATA driver?

 

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The next day, a new computer arrived pre-installed with Vista Business. This is the first time I'd ever seen Vista, so a few of us had a look at it. Mindful of the fact that many of our users are country lads or drivers, things need to be kept simple and uncluttered. Being a HP OEM, I'm not sure which bits were Microsoft and which was HP. Ok, enter the time zone, etc, Take a look at the agreements, carefully note that Microsoft is going to obtain information about nearly everything that happens, and that we shouldn't alter anything. Also that according to them, we are only renting the software, we never bought it. Rolls eyes, yar right, come get me biitches.

 

Now it has to reboot, to determine the optimum way to run the computer. So it says. 5 minutes later the screen goes black. Another 5 minutes later it reboots. I need to enter the name of the administrator. John will do for this exercise. OK we are finally in.

 

On the right side is a clock and 2 other things which I've already forgotten. Close them off. Hmm, still a line down the screen. Oh, there is some software for that in the tray. Turns it off. Screen looks ok now. First thing is to turn everything back to classic mode. Took a little longer than on XP, but it gets done. Now let's look at the start menu and see what they've given us. Well, don't need windows update, delete the icon. What? It needs my permission to proceed. But I just told it to go. Oh well, click continue. WTF?? A different dialog, asking again if I want to do this. Sighs, click Continue again. Hooray it's gone. Go through it again for a few other useless menu items.

 

Alright, now time to get rid of the Security Center, and Windows Defender. Manage Computer, oh-oh, it needs my permission again. Go to Services, carefully note all the extra ones that are called Windows this and Windows that. Stops the Security Center. Immediately, a tray icon starts screaming, YOU'VE TURNED OFF SOMETHING IMPORTANT!! Disable the Security Center. Right-click on the screaming icon, and choose Exit. Peace at last. Turn off Defender. Computer doesn't raise any objection to that.

 

Let's look at Internet Explorer. Looks like IE7, which I detest. Find the options, at last, and set the home page to our Intranet. What's this? It comes pre-installed with the Google Toolbar! More bloat. Anyway, IE7 connected to our Intranet no problem. There's no way I'm going to connect to the Internet and let M$ drain the pc, no way.

 

On to Windows Explorer. Hmm, an extra pane at top left. Change it to Classic everything so that I can see the files (all of them), and the extensions. We found it to be rather low contrast and the writing is hard to read. Not really impressed.

 

OK, close that, right-click on desktop. Everything's been rearranged but it is easy enough to follow. Properties has become "Personalize". Yuck. And the spelling is wrong. You'd think that after telling it we are in Australia, it would change the spelling to suit. I guess M$ hasn't thought of that yet.

 

Alright, enough of that, it looks pretty and all, but doesn't really do anything for us. Decide to get the HP Restore disk, and replace Vista with XP. I left that job to someone else, but I believe it happened no problem.

 

Eventually we will have no choice of course, once a different model of PC arrives, which we don't have a XP Restore Disk for. But for now, Vista is not allowed in our company.

[Ghosty]

Yeah, I never liked Ghost, it always messed up the boot records for me.

But if you have an extra working PC laying around use Acronis True Image

Makes perfect 1:1 copies of hard drives. I've never heard of SATA dos drivers.

 

Hahah I see you enjoyed your experience with vista! I'm not gonna start with vista...