I wanted to share with all of you the experiences I've had so far with one
of the new MBAs from an imaging standpoint. As most of you know I am a huge
user of InstaDMG for my initial OS image and then layer everything on using
Casper.
So, the first thing I tried to do with this shiny new speed demon (yes, they
are fast) was to create an image of the USB stick that the OS comes on.
Unfortunately I was unable to do so using Disk Utility and just selecting
"New Image".
The next thing I tried was to use the "New Image from Folder" method in Disk
Utility. This worked to create a DMG file, however when I dropped that into
InstaDMG, InstaDMG reported that it could not find an OS image.
Okay, next step was to try dropping that DMG into Casper Admin and telling
CA that it was an OS disk. Nope, that didn't work either.
So, I was eventually left with the option of using Composer to do a snapshot
of the machine and then load that into Casper Admin.
After getting the OS into CA, I created a new configuration, added all of my
images/scripts/printers, and then set out to do a compile. The compile took
over 7 hrs to complete, and the configuration was small (no Adobe in it).
I finally laid the image down on the MBA and it appears to be fine. I
mainly wanted to share the following key points:
- right now, there doesn't seem to be a way to capture an image of the USB
stick
- Apple has changed the file structure on the USB stick away from their norm
which affects InstaDMG and Casper Admin
- Composer snapshot appears to be the only way to capture an OS image at
this time, until 10.6.5 is released (hopefully it will have the drivers)
If anyone else has any other experience with these, please do share.
Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com
The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475
