surfertje

I want to make use of system centre essentials. I believe in system centre essentials is SMS2003 enclosed to deploy windows. When i go to the microsoft website there are documents about scc and sms2003 but this is not what i am looking for. I would like a complete guide from beginning to the end to make use of sms 2003 and deploying windowsxp of even vista. Imaging or unattended deployment. Does anyone know where i can get good guides for sms 2003? When i go to system centre essentials i cannot find sms 2003 but thats also one thing to find out, to install a management package i guess.

I wanna try this program. Have a wuistion though. I have Five different Dell machines. Using Ghost to image them. I have added the drivers for the differentmachines and when i restore the image for a machine sysprep should install the drivers. This is not happening though. When i restore the image to a different machine as where the image was made for example: image was created with a Dell gx745 and i restore the sysprepped image to a Dell gx620 the drivers for the network, video and chipset where not installed. I want to solve this with this program. I would like to do this with least effort, like right after the sysprep has run. Is this possible? Second quistion is: When i put the drivers from Dell for every machine in one folder and subolders does this program see which drivers to install? Because there are drivers for vife different machines in that folder / sufolder?

Thanks! it is working.

I have also edit the boot.ini to use RDISK1. So the line in boot.ini is: Multi 0 disk 0 rdisk 2 partition 1 Is this good or must i edit it otherwise? I don't need the hidden partition, so i format the hidden partition?

The hidden partition was on top (it's by every Dell machine a hidden partition. After the hidden partition there was the main partition (C drive in front of it). This is the partition i selected. Then i saw the USB stick 1 gb. That from the bios setting was told to me thru this forum that i must change the boot order.

I have setup running. Copied the data for ntdetect.com into a new file. Again a new problem: after a few minutes of running setup the message appears: Windows cannot start due to a diskconfiguration problem in the computer. Cannot read the selected starupdisk. Check the path to the startup location. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

It works! i have copied the data and paste it in winhex in a new file and saved it as ntdetect.com as ASCI HEX. Now i can run setup, that is, it starts setup..

I am getting the HAL error and blue screen also. But what am i goiing to do with the ntdetect.com. Must i open ntdetect.com and convert it to binairy with winhex and then copy the data shown in this forum into ntdetect.com and then save it? Or what else must i do?

I have tried another boot stick wich was created with HP but not within multiboot. The pc now boots and comes with a menu. New problems arrive. When i select option 2 then after hitting enter a HAl error appears, so i think try option 1 then getting a bluescreen with 00007 stop error. Reading the FAQ tells me that this is due to the sata drivers and bios setting. But i don't have a sata drive installed. It is a Dell GX270 with ata drive attached. Is it a option to load the driver packs and during start press F6 and load the drivers? What is the difference of option 1 and 2 at the bootscreen? can i choose both? What is the best thing to solve this problem?

In the bios i can choose: hard rive sequense: USB and system bios boot devices (i tried both). Boot sequense: floppy-harddisk-cdrom and integrated nic there are no other options. There is no boot from usb option although i can select it when pressing F12. This doesn't work also.

My mistake, i am sorry. I am using option H HP disk formatting and in the screen that appears i choose NTFS. When it finishes with formatting i choose the xp source. After that choose the usb drive and then option 3 copy the files. A question appears: if i want to change te bootsector of the usb to NTFS - vista i choose yes. Maybe this is wrong because i am using windows vista, maybe i must create the usb stick with the multiboot_usb programm in windowsxp?

Followed the procedure with multiboot_usb 9 to make a bootable usb stick with windows xp pro sp2 stripped with nlite. Everyting seems fine, exept when i put the stick in the machine and during boot press F12 to selekt the usb key for booting device, nothing seems to happen. It's like the pc hangs. It is a lexar 1 gb stick. When i put for example ghost on it as bootable device the system boots fine from usb. What can be the reason (so manu of course). I have not delete the option in nlite: manual install of setup.

It is working now, i don't know why?

Thats what i am doiing? I selekt the I386 in c:\temp\winxp (this is the location where i extract the iso file made with nlite).

I have a winxp pro sp2 installation stripped with Nlite make the iso, unpacked the iso to: c:\temp\winxp\ Underneath the folders are: I386 and drivers. When i start multiboot and choose the folder where the windows installation is i select the above winxp\I386 folder, the message appears: error: DOSNET.INF not found in I386 folder. When i search in the I386 folder however he finds the file dosnet.inf. The options in Nlite i let alone so dis not remove: " manual install and upgrade" . What am i doiing wrong?

Thx gonna look into that.

On another group i posted also a thread with the question: how do i put the ISO file created with Nlite to usb? Ponch and Jaclaz answered and so i come on this group. In here i read to make a install from usb key. How difficult it is is not clear yet because i don't no where to begin and what i must edit etc. But i also can't find how to strip windows xp sp2 with nlite and then put the output (is iso must be extracted i guess) on the usb key and then on...

I have found a lot of threads on forums about booting xp from usb. That is much work what is to be done. Isn't it possible to make a ISO with Nlite and then extract the iso to usb? THe problem is that i have a pc with usb but no cd drive. I cannot connect a cddrive because it won't fit in my dell machine. I want to make 1 installation with nlite because it must completely be stripped and then when i have one i make a image from it with ghost. When i follow your instuctions then i am making a usb bootable and copy the windowsfiles to it but i don't have a stripped windows version?

Ik wil de uiteindelijk ISO van Nlite graag op een USB stick uitpakken en niet een iso maken en op cd branden. Dit omdat ik wel kan booten van usb maar niet van cd. Is dit mogelijk direkt vanuit nlite of moet ik eerst een iso maken en dan ergens mee uitpakken bijv. met isobuster. Maar met isobuster kun je weer extracten met 4 soorten. 2 soorten heb ik reeds geprobeerd maar dat lukt niet. Iemand een goed idee?

Thanks, I think the configuration manager is part of the system centre. SMS is also a module of the system centre but i can't find courses or something like that. I don't think it is of much use to dive in the sms 2003 material. Thanks anyway!

I don't exactly understand how you do it now. When do you generalise it exactly? Must i make two images perhaps: one with all software installed and drivers but not in a domain and no sysprep run and the second one i am gonna rollout. WHen there must be software added i use restore the first one and add the software drivers. Then i make a new image wich become the master image for adding software later and make also a new rollout image. When i make the rollout image for deployment i run sysprep with generalise and shutdown. Restoring the second image will goiing to running sysprep at startup where i can give in my computername and domain etc (after creating a xml file off course. Is this a possibility? or can you clarify how and when you run sysprep and generalise? I have read that there are many problems with the activation also so i must figure that out to.

Is there someone that knows System Centre Essentials from Microsoft and is using it? Sms is the one i am interesting in from Essentials 2007. I want to make use of sms for deploying Vista and Xp in the organisation. I like to know everybody's exprerience and info to configure it to deplpying operating systems.

I have another quistion though. First i wan't to make use of Ghost 8 and Vista and sysprep. Also want to add mass storage drivers and HAL to sysprep, although like i understand from you guys that this isn't nessecary anymore with Vista when i use the generalise in sysprep? But at this moment i have a sysprep.inf. After restoring a image to a machine i am logging in to windowsxp or vista. Then i run syprep who does a reseale etc. The machine reboots and everything is ok. When i want to make changes to the image like adding software, drivers etc. this is not hard because i can restore the image and add everything. Then make a new image (sysprep hasn't resealed it yet. After making a new image that becomes the master image. But when i must restore the image to a machine with new hardware i must first generalise in sysprep. THis means that resealing ust also be done. At that point when i reboot or shutdown the pc, sysprep is gonna do his work. When i make a new image of it and restore that image he is upon boot doiing syprep generalise etc. This is ok but when i want to add drivers, programm's to the image i have a problem? Because like before (like at this moment) i cannot restore the image and adding software because when i restore i is goiing to sysprep at boot. How can i restore the image and adding software, making a new image that becomes the master image, and then prepare the machine?

Aside from the "free" issue with WDS, etc, the other reason why people would use Ghost is if they (like we are here) in a transition period. Also, Microsoft's recommended process is to use WDS with WAIK or OPK because it is more powerful and more efficient. Plus Microsoft doesn't make Ghost so they typically wouldn't recommend that software anyways. And you don't have to deploy and capture an image every time you want to make changes to it. Using the PE Tools Command Prompt, you have access to all the commands you get in the WinPE, and you have the ability (like Ghost) to do offline image editing. But yes, if you use Sysprep with the generalize switch (or button) you can deploy a single Vista image onto multiple hardware schemes. If you don't generalize it, you can only use that image on the same hardware it was captured from. Typically, you should only be using Ghost until you can do everything with WDS, it is the better solution. Thanks for your input all. I think am gonna try Ghost 8 for a while until i have set up WDS. I must edit sysprep though because at this moment i cannot restore images to different hardware for windows XP. I have read that in the sysprep.inf that there must be mass storage devices to be added and the HAL must be ACPI on the prepared image. Maybe then i can restore to different hardware. I don't think Dell is goiing to change the mass storage everytime there comes a new model. Also with Vista i am gonna try Ghost 8 and ghostcast server. But make a new sysprep file with the same options as for windowsxp. What is the generalize option do within sysprep. Must this be chosen when i have made and restore the image to a new pc? Because thats what i am doiing now: restore a ghost 8 image and run sysprep.exe, choosing the above 2 options on the left side and reseal, then winxp restarts and a while later asks for the pcname. Then the logon account appears. This is what i also want for vista but also restoring to different hardware because that is the biggest problem: now a restore is resulting in blue screens or even hang after windows restarts after restoring, i can't even run sysprep.exe because the pc hangs before the logon account appears. But i gonna dive in to WDS and WAIK etc and then leave ghost for what it is, although it is always a problem with new machine's with mass storage or other new hardware i think.

So, you are suggesting that Ghost 8 / Ghostcastserver may work with Ghost 8? ANd restoring is possible to different hardware? If this is possible why are many people on the forum using WDS, PXE, WAIK etc for deploying?, that is what i do not understand, because at this moment i am using ghost 8 with windowsxp and restoring it to the same hardware. As soon there is news hardware i must install windows and softare again. But if when i can restore to different hardware then Ghost is my favorite. When i use WDS etc. it is quit much work to set it up and restoring is installing again, takes more time then restoring ghost i think. What would be the advantage for wds on a server or ghost? I want to dive in to the deploying stuff because it takes to much of my time to, every time there is a pc with different hardware, install, configure again. So i gladly would like some advicce in this matter.