setting up auto-reimaging machine on a loan pc

[asteroid]

Im hoping to do a little bit of freelance PC maintenance work to make a bit of cash for the holidays,

what Id like to do is to have a loan PC (old PII or PIII as long as it runs XP ok) offered to my customers free of charge whilst I take their machine away for repair or upgrade.

I will issue customers with a form with some strict guidelines they have to sign (just simple stuff, dont install additional software without asking, save personal files to floppy or USB drive not C:, etc)


I would like to set up the machine with XP and usual bunch of applications, and have it the machine re-image itself from simple keypress upon start up, when that particular customer has finished with it. I think several companies have this specific set up on their machines as quick fix from a PC which has Windows getting flakey or corrupt.

Ive used Norton Ghost and Drive Image 2002 it my current work, to make up and restore images.

what is ideal software for this particular job and how would you go about it?

[DoCtOr_oCtOr]

I have a loan pc (1300 Athlon Xp 512mb 20gb dvd writer) only really needed it if I was waiting for parts to fix a customers pc ... I found that it was more work to set it up at someone elses house than was usually involved in fixing theirs ... plus the never ending phone calls because its not quite the same as their own were a pain in the ****...

I have to admit that I never re-imaged it after every use as it was just more work and I couldn't be bothered ... all I did was get rid of all of the previous users history and such forth...

As for a one touch programm ... no idea ... Acronis true image is probably my favourite ... its pretty good ... you can boot into Acronis at startup and it will load a previously stored image from your hard drive or from a cd or dvd ... and its cheap as well...

[asteroid]

yeah see what you are saying, I reckon with right prepartion before hand on the machine before its imaged, and the strict guidelines of basically the machine is really just a fill in for internet and word processing in the mean time, it should be a good idea.

Lots of people are going to be nervous of handing their PC to a stranger whos they have only just phoned off a card put in the local co-op or what ever, so having a loan unit, may build their confidence a bit.

[DoCtOr_oCtOr]

Your probably right ... as a confidence building exercise (and quite a good advert for you) it is a good idea ... I used to lend my laptop out quite a bit ... its an IBM T21 ... fantastic laptop for the money I payed and as it has everything you need (ethernet usb dvd-rom modem) you can just walk in anyones house and have it up and running in no time at all ... its a sturdy little beast as well (I let the kids use it!) and as they don't cost that much to buy (£200 will get you a good one from ebay) they are a great loaner ... worth thinking about?...

Another thing worth considering ... keep your loaner up to speed ... I sold my loaner quite a few times as it was faster than the pc I was repairing ... made some good money from that ... you just tell the punter the price for replacement if its a total loss (as part of the agreement) make them aware that the loan machine is for sale and that if their machine is beyond economical repair it can be part exchanged ... they will be much more likely to buy your machine as it is already set up and running in their house...