--That is WayCool. I love hearing about stuff like this... netcat is way more advanced than stuff I would normally attempt. I prolly would have used tar or something.

Quote Originally Posted by Stonent
Because of the simplicity of it and the netboot option, we are able to use Knoppix to clone computers without having to purchase a Norton Ghost license for each system. Here is how I use Knoppix on a daily basis.

We have several computers that are configured identically for the product that we sell. So I start one "set" up. One acts as the knoppix boot server and the others net boot off of it. Then I connect a long ethernet cable to a "fresh" set that has not had the OS or our special software loaded yet and net boot them off of the knoppix server.

Then one by one I execute a command like this to clone them.
On the machine I want to copy from:
1. Open 2 root windows
2. start xload on one of them
3. cat /dev/hda | gzip -9 | nc -l -p 5030

On the machine I copy to:

1. nc 192.168.0.1 5030 | gunzip > /dev/hda (192.168.0.1 is the ip of whatever machine I am cloning)

When the xload drops down to zero, then I know it is done. I can typically start about 2 or 3 clients to copy them.

For Windows 9x systems. I do a format c: /s from dos and then untar a tarred backup that I made using knoppix.

Since Knoppix auto configures the hardware, I don't have to mess with making boot floppies or keeping track of them.