gotenks98

All machines are dells that came with xp pro, we are just reinstalling windows without all that junk they pre-load on them.

This is the first I have ever heard of on breaking the eula by creating images from oem media. You need to be more specific on what you mean because if what you are saying is true then alot more people are breaking it just by using stuff like symantec ghost. Second I am pretty sure mdt gives instructions on using oem media. I will check the unattend.txt file for mass storage and boot files.

Here is the situation I am trying to deploy windows xp sp3 to some of our dell machines. We do not have enough volumn licenses so we are using the media the machines came with (dell oem sp3). When I install windows from the cd it goes just fine like normal but if I try to install windows by using MDT 2010 it always errors out at the first part of the blue setup screeen saying that nvrd32.sys is missing. I can confirm that the file is there on disc and copied to deployment share. At first I thought it might just be bad media but I have gone through about 5 cds and deleting and re-adding xp to the deployment share each time and all files copy just fine. Its something that gets broken in the txtsetup I think thats causing this. Right now I am clueless as to how to fix this and I am running out of time on getting these images ready. I did a test install in a vm and I still get the same results. If I use retail or volumn license media to test this with I do not get this problem ever. It seems to be a delll media specific thing. Any clues as to how to work past this?

I am having similar issues with this now. Before today this just wasnt a problem with it pointing to a server but now its asking. I have no idea what I changed. As for as the task sequence issue just make sure your selection profile you choose at before creating the media has the task sequence folder selected otherwise you wont see anything.

The thing is I can not setup a server to do all this from. Here is my situation. We do a ton of support for students at my university. I have been trying to come up with a way to reinstall retail/oem versions of vista/7 quickly with them being patched and to cut down the crazy driver hunt we have to do with each reinstall. Since I cant use a server doing an install from usb with MDT seemed like a good option on doing this. I tried integrating updates and drivers into the install media but that ends up with 20+gb worth of drivers eating up space. So driver injection via mdt for only the specific hardware seems to be the easiest non-bloated approach.

Not sure what you mean, but here is what I am doing. I am creating a base install and updating it, writing down all th kb's and manually downloadinging all of them. I put all the x64 updates into a packages folder in mdt. When installing I have the apply patches part of my task sequence to run so I can patch in those updates on my other images. The problem is it usually fails on some update by saying it cant do some kind of offline servicing. Usually its when I find out a certain update cant be installed this way or even integrated into a wim file. I just need a way of knowing this ahead of time so I dont waste hours reading thru tons of setup logs to find where the problem is. I am currently testing this in a virtual machine to make it easier to check the logs by mounting the vhd file. The other images that are being used are untouched wim file from windows 7 sp1 retail disc.

Anyone here use the apply patches as part of their task sequence? I wanted to know just how do you know which updates can and can not be used for this. I am having all kinds of hell keeping this straight because the installs always error out due to some update not working. So rather than testing every single update, is there a way to know ahead of time if this update will or will not work?

I am looking to build a nice utility disc for work and I am looking for some good suggestions. Basically it needs to be able to run scan disc, some sort of password reset app, a file explorer, possibly integrate malwarebytes and/or spybot to be run from the media. A way to capture/restore/edit wim files. The reason I am looking at a version thats built from windows 7 is because its so much easier to add drivers when needed as the newer model laptops come out. Any ideas for this?

Thats just a service pack. The only way you can get the xp iso legally is to have an msdn account or a technet subscription.

I just wanted to ask are you guys testing to see if any of these can be injected via mdt during the install process. I know I had issues in the past with some of the updates because they did something to the language files but this was pre-sp1. I just wanted to ensure the updates all work from a mdt deployment.

What I am trying to do is create a universal windows 7 and windows vista install that has all possible drivers I can install. In the past I have done this but it adds a huge amount of unneeded files to the system once the install is done. Basically what I want to do is integrate drivers but have it only copy the ones it needs to the windows/inf directory instead of everything. Is this possible?

I was just wondering if its possible to use it to install or inject service packs in vista or windows 7 when it gets service packs.

It ended up being the updates themselves. The issue was one of the updates was a hotfix for a language bug if you run a differnt language of windows. Thats something I never do so I never would have thought to check for this. Once I disabled those language updates in the mdt folder the install now runs perfect. Now if I could only get USMT to only capture specific folders to cut down on the file size.

Anyone got a fix for the error that happens during the windows install at the part when its installing updates for windows 7. I always get this error where it says windows could not apply setting found in offlineservicing. I have check the unatttend.xml file and there is no entry there for offlineservicing. Also I noticed during the MDT part of the install it goes slow for the inject drivers part but goes fast for the apply patches part. When I check where MDT is supposed to be copying the patches to, there is nothing in that directory. This makes me think its not copying the needed windows updates at all. Any guesses on this?

I wanted to know how safe and reliable this is when migrating users from say xp to windows 7 or vista to windows 7? I have alot of domain users and I was wondering how it works with domain profiles. With our current system what we do when we reimage a machine we delete the OU from the domain and create the computer again in AD. We do this so pcs will follow certain domain policies and for script purposes. I was wondering will I have to delete and create a new OU when doing this since the SSID for the newer installation would be different. Or does AD know that USMT with MDT is refreshing the pc? Also concerning domain profiles on the new pc usually for the part where I add users back to the pc I have to let them log in at least once to create the domain profile so I can start back manually copying their files and such. Can USMT create the profile on the new pc or does the person still need to log in once for this to work?

Settings ended up being on another partition that gets hidden for some reason. Once I deleted those folders it allowed me to re-do the image process. Now I just gotta get the capture process down pack.

Thats the crazy thing I can get this from a completely naked hard drive with no partitions on it. I dont see an option for finish. If I hit ok it just reboots the system. If I dont hit anything it auto-reboots after like 15 seconds or so. Edit: I think your right on this. There was some kind of hidden partition thats like only 300 mbs. Once I got access to it I saw the folders you listed. Gonna try again to see if this works. Second Edit: Deleting those folders worked like a charm. Just how do you do it as a batch or cmd file? I suck at programming so I was needing the correct syntax for this.

My problem is that when I boot up MDT to deploy when it gets ready to start the task sequence it says Litetouch encountered an Environment Error. Something in the error message says to make sure you have the hard drive set first for booting. Well my machine is like that but I still get this error. Previously it only happened on one machine now its doing it on all of them I test this on even my virtual machines. Also I noticed that MDT is caching my settings from my previous attempt to run a task sequence. Its like its stuck but no way to start it all the way over.

Ok I finally figured this mdt 2010 thing out. I didnt realize there were options you have to check for the profiles otherwise no OSes, drivers or anything else gets added.

I tried all of this, maybe I am just not getting it. Here is exactly what I am trying to do and what I get. What I am doing is importing all drivers and packages for windows 7 enterprise. Then I want to inject the drivers into the install.wim, not the boot.wim file. For the most part that isnt working for me. It only puts that into boot.wim from what the text is saying. I want to put my install on dvd or usb. But when I go to create media all it does is copy the same folders I have in my distribution share to the same area I specified in a folder. Some one tell me exactly how to do this because this documentation isnt all that great so far. I think I figured out my answerfile issue. It has something to do with the favorite websites had already been added during my initial base install so for some reason it wont let me do this again. I was under the impression that the default profile gets wiped during a sysprep so why is this a problem after the fact? Any ways, now I am just trying to get 2 ISOs made. One is going to have all the drivers for the install.wim for the base install. I plan to sysprep that after all the apps are installed and tweaked. Then take that image and do a second Iso to use for deployment.

You don't need to have a server with MDT 2010. You can make a Media (CD, DVD, USB) for an local install! My example is with a local install for Windows 7! Can you go into more detail as to how to do it for dvd or usb key?

after playing around the mdt 2010, I realize this isnt going to help me for what exactly I want to do. Essentially what I want is to create an answer file that wont be buggy. Create an image, inject the drivers into that syspreped image, burn it on dvd with the windows install files or put it on usb key. The thing is I dont have a dedicated server for this kind of deployment so doing anything over the network is kind of out of the question. I did see an option to inject drivers into the boot.wim file but I dont think those drivers would carry over to the windows install.

I attached the xml file. uploadedautounattend.xml

gotenks98, you can also run Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) against your .xml file and it will do certain checking of it. It has found several problems for me and allowed to test some things without doing a failed install. I also use VMware Player to test my ISOs. It is free and I am sure there are more available. Enjoy, John. Thats the thing, it doesnt show errors there. I get errors only during the install. My latest error says "Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass [specialize]. A component or non-list setting is specified more than once in the answer file." I have no where to begin searching on this. I tried the mdt 2010 thing but seems like over kill on it and the documentation is poor. I been on google for the past few hours search for guides on this thing.

I am looking for a program that can help with the unattend xml file so I can do unattended installs. The problem is there is always one part of the file it always fails on despite being totally correct. It took me forever to find out that you cant put the product key in certain passes or it fails. Essentially what I want to do is take out all the guess work and just create an answer file easier without having to find out mid way thru the install that answer file is going to fail again.