NetRestore reaches EOL, I weep inside a little
This entry is a little late, but I think it’s something to mention.
If you’re any sort of tech with multiple computer that need to be imaged every so often you know how much of a hassle it can be. If you have a NetBoot system running it’s a breeze; however, this ease usually comes at a cost (money cost that is). Mike Bombich, founder of Bombich software has created some useful Mac applications over the years. One is Carbon Copy Cloner, a program which I use all the time and find to be one of the fastest, easiest, and safest methods of cloning any drive (to either another drive or a disk image).
The other program which I use very often is NetRestore and NetRetore Helper. NetRestore and it’s helper are VERY easy-to-use GUI interfaces to create a MacOS netBoot image and netRestore image for deployment over multiple machines. My lab has 10 Macs in it which don’t get updated all at once sometimes, and at the end of each semester the computers all have a lot of left over student files and different versions of some software running. NetRestore makes it very simple for me to make a clean, updated image of a lab machine, then just boot from the network from the other machines and it takes care of the rest. It’s usually 100% automated, and completes all computers in about 2-3 hours.
What makes these pieces of software better than say, Norton Ghost or SuperDuper! or whatever? They’re 100% free to use. Yep, no charge at all. No catch, no signing up for anything, no logging into the site to download, NOTHING. The only thing you’d have to deal with is an advertisement on CCC’s progress screen. Very small price to pay for this software.
So, why am I writing about NetRestore now? Well, because I like it and I would definitely reccommend it to anyone who needs to deploy multiple Macs. But I am writing now because NetRestore has reached it’s end of life. On November 17, 2008 Mike Bombich posted a letter on his site explaining the reasons for ending NetRestore. It’s very funny when I am sad to see a program go away, but it’s sad to see such a good program go away. I also find it ironic that of all the software I have never paid for, I have actually donated money to Mike Bombich for all of his hard work for his free programs. That’s how much I like this software.
Even though NetRestore has reached EOL, I will still be using it on all of my lab machines until it stops working on them. Thanks Mike for all of your hard work, and I’ll continue using CCC for all of my cloning needs:-)
Visit Bombich.com for more info on CCC or NetRestore
Just a short note: In his letter, Mike Bombich reccommends a site called DeployStudio, I have yet to use this to deploy the lab, but the program does seem promising and nice. I’ll use it someday and maybe give a review. Until then, Bombich’s NetRestore will be king.
