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I saw a similar but not duplicate question. Is it possible to use Clonezilla to clone a computer over the network? Now I have to boot into the CD like always, but wondered if it could be done. If it can't what could I use do to it? These are all separate machines. If anything these will work I have access to:

Anything Open Source VMWare Norton Ghost Not sure what else I could use.

edit: The computers I am cloning are Windows 7.

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    I am pretty sure Clonezilla requires exclusive access to the drive ( in other words you have to boot to Clonezilla ) for it to work. What operating system are we talking about. You likely need to look at the closed paid software space to get the ability to clone a live system.
    – Ramhound
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:51
  • It's theoretically possible, since many tools can take a complete snapshot of a running system for backup purposes.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:32
  • Are you asking how to push an existing image to a blank HD over the network?
    – horatio
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:37

2 Answers 2

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Windows Sysinternals Disk2vhd can clone live Windows systems to a VHD file.

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows' Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

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  • But how do I get it on a blank machine?
    – johnny
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:12
  • you can use Sysprep
    – Keltari
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:24
  • I'm saying, I make the VHD. I have a machine with nothing on it. How can I do like VMWare and move that VHD onto the blank machine? What do I need to have on there first? The Hyper-V bare metal?
    – johnny
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:26
  • @johnny That is the topic for a separate question. Although I suggest you try and do some research on it on your own first and then asking a question on the part you did not understand in your research.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Sep 24, 2013 at 21:38
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I've used VMware Converter to clone a live machine in the past. Free download, give it a shot.

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  • I was looking at that. Thanks. I don't understand it yet though.
    – johnny
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:17
  • It's slow over the network but works pretty well. I installed the standalone converter on my system as basically the server. Pop in the remote machine like the pic below and VMware auto installs the needed files to convert the machine. Here is a pic. i.imgur.com/GaRoG29.jpg
    – mark brak
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:43
  • So what is installed on the client's bare metal?
    – johnny
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:23
  • You use VMware Player to actually use the image that you capture. That is also a free download. Here is a link my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/…
    – mark brak
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:35

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