[Sysprep AFTER joining domain]

Thanks, I figured, but had never done it. Removing from the domain now, and sealing the image for capture

[Sysprep AFTER joining domain]

From my experience this would be a bad thing to do. Syspreping with ANY applications installed is a bad idea. The problem is that Microsoft's Sysprep utility does not change SIDS and CLSID's that it is not aware of. There are also registry permissions that would get fouled up.

If attempted, it may even "seem to work". However, you are very likely to have a PC that crashes unexpectedly all the time. I am a firm believer that Syspreping in this manner is the main reason Microsoft Windows is seen to be "Unstable" by many people. Windows is exrememly stable if installed properly.

hmm, following guides here making my hardware independent WIM image has worked fine, but so far all I have installed is things like firefox, gimp, and things like that, and it has been working fine. We've deployed numerous times without issue.

[Sysprep AFTER joining domain]

I have a proprietary piece of software I need to install in a base image, I don't think it is possible to do a silent install after imaging...

Anyway this software can only be installed when the PC is a member of the domain because of login credentials to the database server.

What would happen if I join the PC to a domain, install this software, then remove it from the domain, THEN sysprep?

you think anything funny will happen to the OS? I'm not worried about the software, just the OS.

[ODD DVD-ROM problem, won't read some CD-ROM's]

Here's the weird thing...

The PC was / is in our firewalled network, with up to date anti-virus on it. It had never been on the internet except to download .net 3.5 (I had all other Microsoft hotfixes pre-downloaded). I KNOW it didn't have malicious code on it, it was just formatted a few days ago.

Anyway, I borrowed a CD-ROM from an HP and formatted the hard drive, then installed Windows XP fresh...

The "broken" DVD-ROM works perfectly now as far as I can test, and I didn't do anything physically to it.

[ODD DVD-ROM problem, won't read some CD-ROM's]

Yeah I've seen that, but it wont boot either, F12 and choose CD-ROM and the BIOS acts like there is no media in the drive.

sucks, I think the drive is going. It is an old Dell after all.

[ODD DVD-ROM problem, won't read some CD-ROM's]

Check this out, I have a test machine I have been working on imaging with for a few weeks. I set it up as a baseline machine, captured a WIM image from it and deployed that image a bunch of times now. I even applied the image to the base machine in my testing (Via a DVD image).

So anyway now I can't get it to read most CD-ROM's. It will read any DVD I can try just fine. For goofs I tried an old Acer monitor CD-ROM and it read it; I just can't get it to read any other CD's (including the original Dell restore CD).

It is a TSST TS-H429C OEM code DE in a Dell Dimension 1100. I saw a firmware update for a different model number, and different OEM code, but nothing specific for this model.

Anyone have anything like this, or know what may be the issue?

[Norton Ghost 15 versus Acronis Acronis True Image Home 2010]

just an FYI, Norton (Symantec) uses StorageCraft's drivers, and base software to accomplish it's task. The fact they license the rights makes me lean towards StorageCraft, as they update their source code much more often, where Symantec uses the original code they licensed.

[DIsaster Recovery and backups]

No problem, it didn't really seem to fit in any of the forums perfectly

[DIsaster Recovery and backups]

Don't know if this is the best spot, but I figured it would get the most visibility...

There's quite a few talented IT professionals here an I was looking for opinions on corporate server backup and disaster recovery solutions.

We are a smaller company, with a limited budget. We have 12 servers, and are running Exchange 2003. I'm looking at a few professional solutions: Backup Exec (Symantec), Acronis Advanced Server, StorageCraft ShadowProtect, and Paragon Drive Backup.

Does anyone here have experience using any of these? Any recommendations, or thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[[GUIDE] Creating WIM images of Windows XP for system deployment using]

Hey Iceman, Thanks again for all the help.

<EDIT> nevermind the question...

HA!, I just happened to stumble on the above thread, it didn't come up in my searches, I was trying too technical of terms I guess lol.

[Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers]

Thank you for the reply...

I only posted here because this seems to be the only reference to this Intel SATA driver issue I could find. I'm not using BartPE, I'm using Iceman's Windows PE deployment walk through. I'll check with him I guess.

[Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers]

I'm really sorry but I'd get in trouble at work probably if I read all 44 pages of this thread...

Everything I saw so far is for an nlite made installation.

What about deployment of WIM images using windows PE? Everything worked fine, but when I booted to XP finally I got the intro screen for a second, then BSOD. I traced the problem to this particular situation. It is a Dell box with this Intel chipset I am deploying too.

Does anyone know a solution, or way to get XP to recognize the drive properly? If I just load the drivers into the image and edit the registry to point to the directory of the drivers will it work?

Thanks all.

[Installation not reading winnt.sif]

I'm new to this too... so please excuse me if I am giving poor advise.

in the default i386 folder if you copied it from an XP cd I know there's a default winnt.si_ or something like that. is that file still there possiblly overwriting yours or being used in place?

Also I see nothing regarding InstallFilesPath in the [unattended] section

I don't know your source, or what your goal is, corporate, personal, but I can say I followed Ashley's to make my source (except did it on a live box), and Iceman's to make my PE ISO disk, and apart from some things my boss wants I am good to go.

[Need script to modify sysprep.inf]

To help, I'll post what I am planning on doing:

;SetupMgrTag
[Unattended]
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    InstallFilesPath="C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache";C:\Sysprep\i386
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
    UpdateInstalledDrivers=Yes

[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="******"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    OEMDuplicatorstring=******3-24
    TimeZone=20
    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
    ProductKey=*******
    FullName="******"
    OrgName=""
    ComputerName=*

[SetupMgr]
    DistFolder="C:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache"
    DistShare=windist

[Identification]
    JoinDomain=DOMAIN
    DomainAdmin=ADMIN
    DomainAdminPassword=PASSWORD

[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[SysprepMassStorage]


pci\ven_8086&dev_24d0=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
pci\ven_8086&dev_24dc=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
pci\ven_8086&dev_24d3=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
.
.
.

Now if someone could let me know before I burn another DVD to see if this works...

If I understand correct from

You guys are trying to reinvent the wheel here. Do a google search for "wsname". This little utility does everything you guys are wanting and more. I set the "ComputerName=*" in the sysprep.inf and then let this utility run in the cmdlines.txt to rename the computer account to the correct name.

If I put my cmdlines.txt in the c:\Sysprep\i386\$OEM$ folder AND put the getname.vbs file in that folder also and my cmdlines.txt looks like this

[Commands]
"getname.vbs"

AND the database is set up correctly this will name the computer in the convention I want?

I have to ask before I try because working without a VM environment burning these test DVD's is a pain. I have to ask my boss to do it because I don't have a burner... it's getting annoying to him to have to waste a new dvd every day.

(BTW this is the last request he has in the project, so I should be done if it works!)

Thanks again for all your help everyone!!

[Need script to modify sysprep.inf]

This is somewhat related to what my boss wants me to figure out...

We have PC's listed in Active Directory as PC201, PC200, PC199, PC198, PC197 etc...

He wants new PC's imaged on to the domain to look up in AD the current list of PC names, then -1

i.e. At the time of imaging the current lowest number workstation is "PC145", he wants the new imaged PC to automatically be named "PC144"

Does that make sense?

Currently the scripting mentioned earlier in this thread is way over my head, and it still doesn't really do what he asks.

I see that this: http://mystuff.clarke.co.nz/MyStuff/vbsstuff.asp?func=WSNameNamingwithSQL&Title=Using%20SQL%20to%20Generate%20a%20Self%20Incrementing%20Computer%20Naming%20System#WSNameNamingwithSQL

Could work basically, but it is still beyond me and I need my bosses help setting up SQL... but besides that, honestly where and how would I configure this in sysprep? I know nothing about sctipting or scripts.

<EDIT>

BTW I want to give a HUGE thanks to all here. I know I am behind the curve a lot and your help has been invaluable.

[Sysprep error writing to registery]

That had to be it, all works now.

[Sysprep error writing to registery]

During my second test I get the error that sysprep failed, the description was writing to the registry.

Looking up the error I came across many links referring to something wrong in the [sysprepMassStorage] section.

Looking through is the RED section the problem? (Does there need to be quotes around the path because of the space in the folder name)? I'm guessing that's the problem, but am not sure. Thanks a ton!

pci\ven_1101&dev_9500=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1101&dev_9400=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1101&dev_9401=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1101&dev_134a=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1101&dev_0002=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1000&dev_0030=c:\windows\driver cache\drivers\driverpacks\d\m\l10\lsi_scsi.inf

pci\ven_1000&dev_0032=c:\windows\driver cache\drivers\driverpacks\d\m\l10\lsi_scsi.inf

pci\ven_1011&dev_1065&subsys_00201069=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1069&dev_0050&subsys_00541069=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

pci\ven_1069&dev_0050&subsys_00521069=c:\windows\inf\pnpscsi.inf

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

It dies immediately, that is like a 1/10 of a second after starting the backup.

ricktendo, it does the same thing at the same point in time if I check 1, or any number of drivers, I'll try again Monday, but that was my reaction the first time it happened. I tried checking only the first driver, only the last, one in the middle, a few different ones. Always the same thing, runtime error 13 type mismatch.

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

OK I was able to reproduce the error 3 times on different Dell Optiplex PC's, a 760 and 360 (x2)

since the runtime error box is on top I can't copy and paste the text, and as soon as I close the error message it closes.

but I did take a screen shot

Hope that helps a bit.

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

Yeah, but we are a small company with less than 100 PCs

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

That rings a bell, remember I said I thought yours found more than 12, there may have been an ATI driver (we have a mix of machines here, with different aftermarket video cards for dual monitors).

heck so far I have unique driver sets from:

Dimension 1100 done

Dimension B110 done

Optiplex 330

Optiplex 320 done

Optiplex GX620 done

Optiplex GX520 done

Optiplex 755 done

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

Which version were you using? 2.183 I assume.

What driver was it dying on? would it do some and not others? and what OS?

Windows XP pro, yes 2.183. I tried at first of course check all, but then I tried 3 or 4 of them alone and it died every time at the same point.

If you want detailed info I can get more for you, but right now it is a VP's computer and I can't really interrupt him until the end of the day.

Here's what Siginet's grabbed:

Intel® 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection

Intel® Active Management Technology - SOL (COM3)

Intel® ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A

Intel® ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C

Intel® ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934

Intel® ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935

Intel® ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936

Intel® ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937

Intel® ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938

Intel® ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller

Intel® Q35 Express Chipset Family

SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio

I thought yours found more than 12, but I can be certain right now.

I'll re-create it later and let you know.

[[Utility] Driver Backup]

Hey Iceman, Great tool, I love it!! Thanks.

Quick question to any else, or you... I've been using it on all the Dell PC's we have around here fine... except today on a Dell Optiplex 755, Runtime Error '13'Type Mismatch.

Anyone else get that, and know a fix? I tried re-registering MSCOMCLT.OCX but no go. I ended up using a different tool (Siginet's driver grabber) so this isn't a need now or rush answer, but I prefer to use Iceman's.

Thanks.

[[GUIDE] Creating WIM images of Windows XP for system deployment using]

hmm, had to manually set the partition to active. I don't think I missed a step, but I must have. It's all good now.

Thanks.

<EDIT> had this open, and didn't see your post Ice Thanks though bud!

Also, THANKS again for all the help!!!

It worked perfectly, all applications I tested, and drivers. Now onto making my live disk image, and we will be set to go.

[[GUIDE] Creating WIM images of Windows XP for system deployment using]

I'm stumped, I followed everything, and it all worked fine it looked like. My WIM image was set up like I told you Iceman in the PM's.

I attempted to deploy via DVD, I followed the diskpart commands, it was successful, and after imagex was done it said it was successful in applying the image to C:

I can cd to C: and dir shows the root files are all there.

When I remove the DVD and reboot I get the message: "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility."

In the BIOS the drive is recognized as primary, and first boot device. This is on a Dell Dimension 1100 (and it is the system I used to create my WIM image so I know all the drivers are there... this is my test box).

Any ideas???

Thank you.