My ghosting-prepping rig mod

[crossedup]

Putting a picture of this here just so you can all get a kick out of it. Been using this thing for about a year now. Just recently tidied it up and added a handle on the top.

This one goes with me wherever I take my toolboxes. Its not super fast but it does all I need and if I happen to short something out and kill it, oh well, it was basically free.

Its a PIII 933 with 256MB pc133 running W98SE. Old EM case, who knows where the outside piece is.

WOW you say, I know. LOL

Ive got a DVD burner drive in there for burning ghost files at clients houses if I have to and a 60GB 7200 133 HD. If thats not big enough ive got a few spare 120's. I find that most general users just dont have that much on thier drives and Ghost compresses the file anyway.

I usually just lay the clients machine on its side and take the cover off then set mine on top, hook on thier mouse, KB and SVGA then plug my 3' ide cable and my self made 2-1/2' power extension cable onto thier HD. Power up my rig with the ghost floppy ( or CD in my case ) and ghost thier HD before beginning work if the job requires it. Sure a whole lot easier than removing the HD.

Ive had a few jobs where I have ghosted the clients HD, come home, ghosted it back onto one of my spare rigs, then repair installed or what have you and diagnosed the problem so I knew what to fix when I went back. Generally boggles thier minds.

Got all my years collected drivers and windows updates and useful utilities on there as well. Sort of similar to a bootable CD. Instead of booting a CD in thier machine to fix things outside the O/S, I just run thier HD in my rig to achieve the same effect. If that doest work ( ie XP and NTFS ) ive got BartPE and UBCD and WUBCD in the CD case on the bottom. Great for prepping drives or backup as well. Getting a drive ready for WinME in the picture.

Just happened to be using the machine as it finally got its own shelf and the camera was nearby so I thought, what the hey.

Who needs and external HD, ive got and external PC.

Be gentle everybody, its saved my hide and a few important files a few times at least

[bonz_dragon]

Seems to work for you so what more could you ask?

I have an old Compaq Deskpro that I use for testing drives in. Also using a removable drive bay for the HDDs.

[crossedup]

Ive got the removable HD caddies in all my other rigs for transferring whatevers to large to go over the network quicker than swapping a drive. Generally anything over 500MB gets swapped the HD way.

The ghosting rig is just handy for me because I go an hour away from home once a week to work on computers and where I go I have dial-up only access when i can get to a phone line, even that can be tricky. Besides the phone line at the house coming in is screwed up and when I can dial in the fastest I have even connected has been 31,200 i believe.

For downloading drivers or whatever thats not going to cut it. I have to try to carry with me everything I think ill need, drivers, applications, ETC.

That rig has proved invaluable. If it ever dies, it will get replaced very quickly.

[Happy Joe]

Excellant idea. think I'll set one up.
Do I detect a pair of old E-machine speakers in the case?
Enjoy!

[crossedup]

Originally posted by Happy Joe

Do I detect a pair of old E-machine speakers in the case?

LOL, sure are. The mobo is old enough that it does put out a little bit of volume, seemed fitting. Got the handle at lowes, had to cut the screws in half with the dremel.

Closer look at it fron front side. I know it aint much but ive tried to replace it and cant, its to functional.

[crossedup]

Closer inside, poor thing ran for 9 months with no speakers, had to add some. Its never known a stable monitor, changes with every trip, its on a KVM with my main now. Got VNC on it so I can control it from anywhere in house.

[crossedup]

One more of the front.

The old EM green power switch is non fuctional, there used to be a front access port with USB and game port. I found a module somewhere with a reset switch, a HD led and a PWR led. Dremeled out the front a little bit under the moveable window and got that module mounted in there. Looks pretty neat through the see through tinted plastic window. Just the casual user would be hard pressed to figure out how to start the thing. Open up the window and press the reset swith, bingo.

One of the few recent changes, figured id post it