How do I prepare my system for cloning, before using CloneZilla?

Part 1 is here if anyone is interested: Clone or Image a PC

I've got 100 PC's to setup. Is it possible to set up 1 of these PC's with software, drivers, settings, configs, licenses etc, then clone/image exactly the same setup onto the other computers where each computer would have a different computer name, different user name for each application etc?

Basically, I found that I cannot use sysprep to prepare the system for cloning with CloneZilla. This is because sysprep pulls the OEM key out of the image from Dell computers. We have Dell computers.

So, as all the 100 computers are identical, how do I prepare the system for cloning, before using CloneZilla?

Solution 1:

If you're using a VLK, it will be fine... If you're using an OEM key, you can't do this, as the OEM key is a pre-activated key (assuming you're talking about the key it comes with, not the one on the computer case itself). You will need to make sure it was set up properly (i.e. doing the Ctrl+Shift+F3 on the first screen of the OOBE when first turning it on) before doing the sysprep yourself. If you already screwed up, I'd recommend restoring from the Dell image, then re-doing this step on the Welcome screen. This will log you in as the Administrator account.

Now, make your changes: Install extra programs/drivers, remove crapware, set policies and join the domain, etc. Once this is done, run sysprep, choose Generalize, and Shutdown. Once you confirm this and Windows is shut down, THEN clone the drive

Another reference: Windows 7 images in Audit mode