Sysprep XPsp2 w/ driverpacks (and hal trickery maybe)

[tron103]

Hi all, first time post to any forum, sorry if I break any rules.

Google, driverpacks.net, and MSFN does not seem to have enough info on this important subject:

The perfect, universal, hardware transcending sysprep image.

jeremyotten looks pretty close to what I want:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=43733&hl=

But I couldn't find most of the tools he mentioned, and that thread migrated to a nonexistent forum a good while ago.

I want to be able to use driverpacks in my sysprep image since I have so many (40+) boxes with disparate hardware.

Please, does anyone have a nice guide on how to do this?

Also, I want to make the image detect the correct hal, but this is not too important.

I'm not gonna pay money for something so don't even post that. (UIU, acronis, etc)

[jerster]

Just to let you know...

I used this procedure about a year ago and it works great. The only problem i had was with the drivers for the various hard drives. This wasn't a problem for me as I don't have any SATA drives or raid setups for my desktops at work. The scripts jeremyotten wrote worked fine, it was just that sysprep would take days and give me countless errors before eventually crapping out (if I can remember correctly; it's been a while). What I did was follow his directions except for this step:

"4. open de generated hwid.txt and copy paste all the entries under the [sysprepMassStorage] section in C:\sysprep\sysprep.inf"

I just left that section blank. By adding:

[sysprep]

BuildMassStorageSection=yes

to sysprep.inf, it'll prevent windows from crashing when restoring an image, provided that xp recognizes your hard drive. But, if you're trying to install to SATA, chances are you'll run into trouble.

One last thing, you said you couldn't find most of jeremyotten's tools. All you need (besides the scripts he provided in the post you referenced) are the driverpacks, cmd line version of 7-zip, and the SP2 deployment tools. And of course imaging software. I prefer Snap Deploy, but have used Ghost as well for that.

DriverPacks

7-Zip cmd line version

Deployment Tools

So give it a shot...it may take a while to get it working, but once it does you'll find it to be invaluable for deploying xp.

[IcemanND]

there is not pretty way to cover multiple HALs except the ones Microsoft already lets you change between. If you are targetting just ACPI Uni and Multiprocessor HALs then it is no problem.

[ob1kenob]

Yes, Iceman is right. I've been looking around for the same thing for a while, and all the tricks involve booting up in another OS (BartPE, Linux, etc) and changing the HAL before the imaged PC boots the first time. I have successfully used the UpdateUPHal option in sysprep.inf -- the trick is building on a Multiproc PC, and using the UpdateUPHal line in sysprep.inf. Then the image will load on both Uni/Multiproc ACPI+APIC machines. That'll at least reduce you to two images: one for Uni/Multi APIC+ACPI machines, and one for (really OLD) non-APIC machines.

If you are using sysprep, I suggest Vernalex.com's Sysprep Driver Scanner @ http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/

(I have no association with him/her). It can be added into a script to simplify step 4 in jeremyotten's instructions.

Another issue is the "Inaccessable boot device" BSOD. This is what jerster mentions. I imagine if you create the image with a CD that has the problem SATA drivers slipstreamed, then it'll be a non-issue.

A totally different approach that is kind of left over from the NT4 days (before sysprep)....

Build an XP install source with all the drivers you'll need, and possibly slipstreaming/integrate some software into it as well. Make this unattended as well. Copy the installation source to the local drive, launch setup from there, and on the first reboot (after text mode), image it. Setup will proceed to finish from there, detecting your HAL and whatnot.

Downside: It takes 30+ minutes for setup to finish.

Upside: Works on anything (that you slipstream support for, at least). Don't need to know/run sysprep.

YMMV. I haven't tried this technique since (like I said) the NT4 days. I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't work, because the basic setup procedure in XP is still very similar to the NT4 setup.

Edited January 25, 2007 by ob1kenob

[dhdan]

Tron103 helped me with completing my idea/version of this particular project. The process I followed was just to use everybody elses ideas. Maybe this will be of some use to others.

1. I built windows pe 2005 with wmi and all scripting support and all mass storage drivers I need

2. I built an xp box ran sysprep on this image with the buildmassstorage set to yes

3. I extracted the sysprep.inf out of the image created in step 2 and added my own pci\ven codes to sysprep.inf by pulling them from files by using icemanND's script http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=71539 (you can use bashrats mass storage but some error out and I never let it complete because I got tired of clicking on popups) I would recommend only putting in what you'll need in addition to the ones populated from bmsd to save time and effort in running sysprep.

4. Before I ran sysprep on a new machine with my final sysprep.inf, I changed the image to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC HAL and a standard ide controller according to the instructions here (at least the hal) http://www.myitforum.com/articles/15/view.asp?id=8997

5. I sysprepped my machine and imaged the result

6. Booting using windows pe I can throw my image on any current box and run the script from step 4 and it will update sysprep.inf with the hal update section it needs, if needed

So there it is in theory, a universally ghostable xp sysprepped setup...at least as universal as the drivers that you add to xp and winpe.

[IcemanND]

Nice job.

3. I extracted the sysprep.inf out of the image created in step 2 and added my own pci\ven codes to sysprep.inf by pulling them from files by using icemanND's script http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=71539 (you can use bashrats mass storage but some error out and I never let it complete because I got tired of clicking on popups) I would recommend only putting in what you'll need in addition to the ones populated from bmsd to save time and effort in running sysprep.

I wrote a autoit script that does the clicking for you: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...;p=555535

6. Booting using windows pe I can throw my image on any current box and run the script from step 4 and it will update sysprep.inf with the hal update section it needs, if needed

Though this can work, most are looking for full unattended image deployments.

[dhdan]

Thanks iceman for the autoit script. I'm going to retry bashrats driver packs again or the ones for ubcd4win and see if it works. I just got too worn out with the clicking. As far as the deployment goes I have ideas but no way to test.

How about booting pe from RIS and run the scripted install I spoke of or for a little more interesting version with no RIS and no sitting in front of a pc...

Send magic packet to all computers in a lab. Have tftpd tell all these to pxe boot and run windows pe from ram and script ghost to drop down multicasted sysprepped image and then run the hal update script.

Granted I've never tried this full setup. I do use wolcmd to wakeup my pcs and currently use tftpd32 to boot pe into memory but have never tried multicasting ghost although I do know ghost is able to run in pe so I assume you can script that setup. I use imagex but it has no support for multicasting that I know of. I love the single instance storage though.

Edited January 27, 2007 by dhdan

[techtype]

The perfect, universal, hardware transcending sysprep image.

If anyone had ever gotten this to work in the full universal sense, it would be one of the hottest topics on the net (as big or bigger than nLite or RyanVM). Every great (and not so great) mind has been trying to do this since the original Ghost (very first imaging program) came out. No one has succeeded except in a very limited sense (they get it to work for a small subset of the vast variety of machines). Even the commercial attempts are not even close to "universal" (Although UIU has come closest IMHO). Maybe Vista will solve this at last. Time will tell.

Edited January 27, 2007 by techtype