Question What's the Fastest Way to Backup/Restore data for OS Clean Installation (Mass Deploy) ?

[wong93]

Dear All,

I'm working as IT Support;

Currently in my company when we want to clean install an OS,

1. We copy needed data out into external hard disk
2. Clone the PC using Ghost
3. Copy data back in

However the transfer speed is really slow (around 40~70MB/s on USB 3), but we didn't really mind as it is rare to need to clean install OS on existing laptop.

Just recently, my company announced that all laptops (600+ ) needs to be upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 for security reason.

As such, I would like to inquire, what would be the fastest/most efficient method to transfer data of employee to external drive:

• What brand of external drive do you suggest (currently we are just using external WD My Passport Ultra to store data)
• If not external drive, what device do you suggest so multiple copy can be done at same time and at faster rate, each employee has around 500GB~1TB data
• Any specific cable that can speed up the transfer process
• Any copier software that you suggest that can speed up the transfer process

*CLOUD will not be an option as company is strictly against this.

Thank you!
Best Regards,

Wong

 

[Deleted member 14196]

You can set up a network install location and have them boot from the NIC

Have a look at this website and look at the reimaging section

Homepage - Engineering Information Technology

eoshelp@ncsu.edu919-515-2458 Main Campus Walk-In Help111 Lampe Drive, Room 456 Centennial Campus Walk-In HelpEngineering Building I, Room 1002Fitts-Woolard Hall, Room 3314 Walk-in Help is available when the University is openMonday through Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm

www.itecs.ncsu.edu

 

[hang-the-9]

What you do depends on your budget and the in-house IT expertise and management software setup. Since you will be buying 600 Windows licenses, you will be dealing with MS bulk licensing which should include some support from them. See if they can offer you some ideas on user file migration.

You can also do this simply with a scrip, although this may not work for all users since they may have programs and files that store data in different places.

This is a major project, last thing you want is to take a system from someone and image it when their files are not fully saved.

You have a pretty large amount of backup files, 500gb + will take a while to copy back and forth. You will need to setup some good network storage and also probably run the backup / restore overnight.

What I do is setup a new system for a person, migrate their data, and have them test things. Once it's confirmed as good, wipe the old system.

You may want to work on this in batches, set aside some systems, take say 12 people, set them up on the new systems, migrate files over.
A few days later when they confirm things are good, take their systems and image them with Win 10, swap out next 12. Once they are set, take their systems and do next batch, and so on. That is the safest way to ensure you don't wipe a system and then realize they forgot to copy some PST folder with important emails a day after you wipe it.

This is what I did for a basic profile copy, it copies everything except AppData and Downloads to a network H drive location along with printer settings.

robocopy c:\users\%username% H:\Backup\%username% /e /xa:SH /XJD /XD AppData Downloads /W:5 /R:2
Robocopy "C:\users\%username%\application data\microsoft\signatures" h:\backup\%username%\signatures . /E /R:2
Robocopy "c:\users\%username%\application data\microsoft\templates" H:\Backup\%username%\templates /E /R:2
regedit /e H:\Backup\%username%\CustomDictionaries.reg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing tools\"
regedit /e H:\Backup\%username%\UserPrinterSettings.reg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers"
regedit /e H:\Backup\%username%\PrinterDrivers.reg "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print"
regedit /e H:\Backup\%username%\UserPrinterPreferences.reg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices"
regedit /e H:\Backup\%username%\UserPrinterPreferencesPorts.reg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PrinterPorts"

 

[USAFRet]

When we recently did this, it was made absolutely clear that any user data that was not under "My Documents" would not be transferred into the new Win 10 OS.
If you personally have data saved outside of that folder tree, too bad.

And as mentioned above, do this in small batches of users.

 

[wong93]

You can set up a network install location and have them boot from the NIC

Have a look at this website and look at the reimaging section.....

What you do depends on your budget and the in-house IT expertise and management software setup. Since you will be buying 600 Windows licenses, you will be dealing with MS bulk licensing which should include some support from them. See if they can offer you some ideas on user file migration....

When we recently did this, it was made absolutely clear that any user data that was not under "My Documents" would not be transferred into the new Win 10 OS......

Hi all, thanks for the reply, but I think you might have misunderstood my question.
There are no issue with the cloning process or data copy process.

Only thing I would like to know is how can I speed up the data copy (copy out before cloning, copy back in after cloning):
e.g these 4 questions:

• What brand of external drive do you suggest (currently we are just using external WD My Passport Ultra to store data)
• If not external drive, what device do you suggest so multiple copy can be done at same time and at faster rate, each employee has around 500GB~1TB data
• Any specific cable that can speed up the transfer process
• Any copier software that you suggest that can speed up the transfer process

 

[USAFRet]

Hi all, thanks for the reply, but I think you might have misunderstood my question.
There are no issue with the cloning process or data copy process.

Only thing I would like to know is how can I speed up the data copy (copy out before cloning, copy back in after cloning):
e.g these 4 questions:

• What brand of external drive do you suggest (currently we are just using external WD My Passport Ultra to store data)
• If not external drive, what device do you suggest so multiple copy can be done at same time and at faster rate, each employee has around 500GB~1TB data
• Any specific cable that can speed up the transfer process
• Any copier software that you suggest that can speed up the transfer process

A network file server, over the regular ethernet cable.
Not a bunch of individual external drives.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

A network file server, over the regular ethernet cable.
Not a bunch of individual external drives.

That’s what I suggested a long time ago to have a network install location and they can boot off the NIC