Undoing "imaged PC"

Factual Questions
1

Our PCs had something done to them called “imaging”. I’ve never heard of it myself, but it was something that caused them to be used for Citrix.

Now, when you open the computer, it only has an Internet Explorer icon in the corner and when you double-click on that it goes straight to the sign-on screen for Citrix.

Chances are one of these computers may be available for a member of the staff to actually take (not me) as we are getting brand-new replacements. Does anyone know:

  1. How do undo imaging?
  2. If not, will formatting the drive work?
  3. Once formatted, it shouldn’t be a problem to reinstall Windows and Office and stuff, should it?
  4. Anything else?

Thanks.

2

“Imaging” is generally when all the programs are loaded directly on a hard drive: think of it as making an exact copy of a hard drive in one file. It’s used when you need a lot of computers with the same programs on them: You set up one computer, create an image, and copy that image to the rest.

Reformatting the hard drive should remove the image; you will have to install any programs you want to use (including the operating system). There’s shouldn’t be any problems with an installation: it’ll be no different from installing the programs on a new hard drive.

You can undo the imaging, but you’d need to talk to IT and find out what the lockdowns are (the permissions as to who can access what are not, strictly speaking, imaging, but they are part of the image. When you create the image, you can set permissions so that a regular user can’t change things. Once that’s part of the image, it’s on all computers). I doubt they’d tell you, so reformatting is probably your best bet.

3
  1. How do undo imaging?
  2. If not, will formatting the drive work?
  3. Once formatted, it shouldn’t be a problem to reinstall Windows and Office and stuff, should it?
  4. Anything else?

Imaging means that there is a standard definition of what they want the hard drive to look like, and they copy that “image” to every hard drive that has to conform to the standard. It’s a million times faster than installing all the software and configuring the system. They just copy a fully loaded system right onto the drive. IT departments do this so they can control what’s on the computer and be able to support it. Trying to support an inventory of computers where every one looks different is a nightmare.

  1. You can’t undo it, it’s the way the drive was initialized. You can, however, reconfigure the computer and software if you have the privileges to do so.
  2. Formatting the drive will work but how will you restore the system after you do that? You will have to reinstall the OS plus any application software.
  3. See #2. Do you have installation media?
4

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Our PCs had something done to them called “imaging”. I’ve never heard of it myself, but it was something that caused them to be used for Citrix.

Now, when you open the computer, it only has an Internet Explorer icon in the corner and when you double-click on that it goes straight to the sign-on screen for Citrix.

Chances are one of these computers may be available for a member of the staff to actually take (not me) as we are getting brand-new replacements. Does anyone know:

  1. How do undo imaging?
  2. If not, will formatting the drive work?
  3. Once formatted, it shouldn’t be a problem to reinstall Windows and Office and stuff, should it?
  4. Anything else?

Thanks.
[/QUOTE]

As I understand it, ‘imaging’ in this context is simply loading up the hard drive with an “image file” taken from another computer… ‘this is exactly how the hard drive should look. Wipe out whatever was there beforehand and copy all of this stuff to the hard drive, exactly so.’

Undoing imaging, thus, will mean using some tool capable of rewiping the hard drive, and this might be the best course in this context. (Really formatting the drive may not be necessary, unless you want to change the format descriptors or filesystem.) Any OS loading cdrom should be capable of doing this.

There might be a way to defeat the citrix ‘gotcha’ in the image, and revert it to a more normal OS experience, without reloading the rest of the hard drive, but I’m not sure how to go about finding it.

5

Ok, I understand. The way this is going to work is, they’re sort of going to turn a blind eye to this employee taking the computer. They know she is, but there isn’t going to be anything formal and IT certainly won’t help me! So I can reformat it if I have to, looks like, and she has an OS at home that she can reinstall, plus Office.

But - she does have a Win 98 CD. Should we just start by trying to install Win 98? What will that do, if Citrix is already on there?

6

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Ok, I understand. The way this is going to work is, they’re sort of going to turn a blind eye to this employee taking the computer. They know she is, but there isn’t going to be anything formal and IT certainly won’t help me! So I can reformat it if I have to, looks like, and she has an OS at home that she can reinstall, plus Office.

But - she does have a Win 98 CD. Should we just start by trying to install Win 98? What will that do, if Citrix is already on there?
[/QUOTE]

What speed/ type of machine are we talking. If she is expecting any recent apps to run shes going ot be alot happier with win2k or XP. As long as its standard PC hardware loading a new OS is no different than any other new machine. Since IT already has their claws in it might as well reformat and clean house to make sure there are no permissions issues or other quirkiness later.

7

[QUOTE=drachillix]
What speed/ type of machine are we talking. If she is expecting any recent apps to run shes going ot be alot happier with win2k or XP. As long as its standard PC hardware loading a new OS is no different than any other new machine. Since IT already has their claws in it might as well reformat and clean house to make sure there are no permissions issues or other quirkiness later.
[/QUOTE]

Well if we can get our hands on a copy of Win XP we sure will. I’d prefer doing that, myself - so much has gotten easier with it (networking alone).

And based on what everybody has said, I think I should reformat and clean house as you say for the exact reasons you say.

Tho the comment about claws made me laugh.

8

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Ok, I understand. The way this is going to work is, they’re sort of going to turn a blind eye to this employee taking the computer. They know she is, but there isn’t going to be anything formal and IT certainly won’t help me! So I can reformat it if I have to, looks like, and she has an OS at home that she can reinstall, plus Office.

But - she does have a Win 98 CD. Should we just start by trying to install Win 98? What will that do, if Citrix is already on there?
[/QUOTE]
A few questions:
[ol][li]When you boot the machine, do you get any kind of login screen? If so, isthere any chance that IT will ne willing to change the Administrator password to 123456 or something (just before taking it off the network)?[/li][li]If not, then on this machine, as it is now, is there still a “Start” button? If so, what (if anything) does it lead to?[/li][li]Also, does the three-finger salute (Alt-Ctrl-Del) give you the Task Manager?[/li][/ol]
Any of these routes may possibly allow you access to such places as the Registry, the Services Manager, Control Panel -> Windows Configuration, etc… (caution: don’t play around with these if you don’t know how!)

I’m not sure, however, that IT will play along with you. They may not mind an employee taking some out-of-date hardware they’d end up donating anyway, but I doubt they’ll be happy giving away a WinXP (or even a Win2000) license. Or letting a computer with any proprietary software (unlikely with Citrix) or data (more likely) out of their clutches without re-formatting it themselves, first. Certainly I would never let an employee take home an old computer that hasn’t been wiped clean. Let the employee re-install everything. That means Windows, Office, device drivers, and anything else.

On the off-chance they will allow it – and assuming you’d like to keep the OS and any apps that may be installed (otherwise just re-install Windows and be done with it. If that doesn’t get over all the permissions issues, reformat and have another go) – we can try and puzzle through this better given answers to the questions above.

Best bet, however? Reformat and reinstall from scratch.

On preview, I see you’ve reached this conclusion already. Still, if you do have a lax IT department, it may be worth trying after all…

9

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Tho the comment about claws made me laugh.
[/QUOTE]

We prefer to call them hooks.

Definitely do a complete “nuke and pave” with a normal Windows XP installation disc. There are so many arcane policies and settings involved that you’ll go bats trying to figure out why you can’t make the PC connect to Yahoo, or why you can’t install a new printer, etc.

If you’re unreasonably lucky, the IT folks just might have the original installation or restore CD that came with the computer - oddly enough, a restore CD is nothing more than an image specific to that computer model.

Otherwise, keep in mind that a legal retail copy of Windows XP Home will set you back $200 or so - how much is this used PC worth compared to a new PC that’s already got Windows on it? Basic PCs can be had new for $400. If the company is willing to let these PCs just disappear, they can’t be worth much and are probably at least three years old.