Those were the days. Windows XP really was the sweet spot when it came to reliability and hackability. Sure, Windows 7 was more stable, but also much more opaque. Although I never cloned machines, I did automate the hell out of installs. When it finally worked, it felt like a miracle. Boot from PXE and enjoy the show. I was happy to discover that the most important tool I used back then can still be found on the internet: http://unattended.sourceforge.net.