CloneZilla and Windows 7 - deploy images question

[carnageX]

Ok, so, I haven't really done much with deploying images or anything, so I have a few questions here.

What we have where I work (a John Deere dealer/implement), is 12 laptops of identical hardware, each assigned to a service technician. All of them have Win7 Pro on them. They're setup on a domain environment (but we don't have direct control over the domain environment, e.g. Active Directory, etc.), where each of the 12 laptops has its own user.

Now, my question is, is there a way I can setup a generic image for the Windows 7 install? And when it boots up, all that has to be done is change the computer name and then log-in with a domain username?

Would Sysprep and WAIK be the easiest here? If so, can anybody offer me some tips on this?

I already have the computers all setup how I want them; each user has been logged into the computer already and computers have their own name and everything. This would basically be for when I leave (going back to school at the end of August), if anything happens to one of the laptops (software-wise) they can just restore the image, and the technician can be on his way again.

Thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

 

[office politics]

a while ago, i listened to this podcast. it has a lot of useful information. WDS and WAIK seems like the way to go. MS also has a Microsoft Deployment Tookit to simply the setup.

RunAs Radio - Rhonda Layfield on the Next Generation of Deployment!

 

[carnageX]

Will check that out.

I'm open to other suggestions still as well.

My main goal will be to make re-imaging as easy as possible, because I will be at school and the people that take over will have to do my job (not tech people - one is a secretary, and the other has been learning as he goes). This was just a summer job for me lol.

Also going to add, that the images won't be deployed over a network. They would be deployed from an external HDD where the global image would be backed up onto.