registry copying

[ghetek]

i need to set up a lot of computers (all same software and hardware makeup) with daemon tools. I would script an installer but they are always getting formatted anywayt. i need a total of 4 image drives. where in teh registry can i copy the settings? i wanna make a reg file to just execute on the systems. any takers? Could you make image drive creating a command line thing? that would help too. if you could add this sort of info to the help file that would be awesome. btw i love the program and what you guys are doing. i do a lot of programming, c c# vb and if you need any help at all dont hesitate to throw a task my way.

[ghetek]

i hope this is ok

I hope i am allowed to *bump* i just really need those registry locations guys

[Kallewirsch]

who needs so many installations? did you setup it for a company?

[ghetek]

number of computers

Its for an adult school, we constantly are lending computers out (we remove dameon tools to lessen confusion) and then when we get them back we just reinstall it. I have almost everything scripted for the install, i even have a proggie that scans teh network to see if there are any of teh same sid's the process is very fluid but i really need to automate those drive installations.

[DevX]

Why do you not check 3rd party scripting tools on our download page?

[Jaime]

It is totally unnecessary to touch the registry as Venom suggested; as an option, you can download and install BTEWin, then create a batch file with commands like these:

daemondrives 4
daemonletter 0,R
daemonletter 1,S
...

add anything that you want to the list; then right click over the file's icon and select the "Make executable" menu option, choose the desired options and save it; now you have a completely independent executable that doesn't need anything extra to be installed.

Of course, DT needs to be fully operative before you run it (after rebooting), so it could be could put it in the "RunOnce" registry entry or wherever you may feel adequate.

[ghetek]

thanks

thanks for the advice i will look into it, though i will probably use it once on a vmware system and just catch registry changes. you see we like to be completely sure of what goes into our computers so its important that we monitor everything and home-brew what we can. We cant make something like daemon tools but are very happy with it.

[Jaime]

Things are not so simple as you seem to think; if you are using, for example, Win2K/XP/W2K3, you should be aware that there are two things that are called "volume names" and "mount points". To put it clear, one or more mount points can be linked to a "volume name". Volume names are actually GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) that will differ from one system to another. A "mount point" is a path, for example c:\ , while a GUID is a 128 bit numeric value.

So, what can be done to change a drive letter programmatically in Win2K or later?; the answer is simple, a mount point must be linked to the correct GUID that represents the desired device, so you need to know the exact GUID. This can be accomplished by using the "mountvol" utility that is supplied with Windows (that's the simplest way, but note that only one drive letter can be used as a mount point for each volume name), or by dealing with the Windows' API directly.

Using the volume mount point API functions, a tool could be written that wouldn't require GUIDs to be supplied by the user, instead it could be made to use "mount point" parameters only (if there's a previous known mount point, of course), but other alternatives could also be explored, just study the related Windows' API functions to find out.

As you can see, if you want to change letters for DT's virtual drives, the easiest and wisest choice is to use the functionality that DT already provides through daemon.dll, or a tool that abstracts you from all possible complexities. Anyway, if you want to go the hard way, you're free to do so, of course .