IcemanND

Wow, I'm surprised by the number of products out there when you start looking. Which I am now going to stop doing, if anyone else knows of a product not listed post it and I will add it to the list up until the end of the day on Monday. Anything after that will not likely be reviewed but I will add to the list so we can have a single repository of imaging solutions.

Hal.dll is a renamed file. see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283 for the original name for each of the HAL types. So you would copy acpipic.dll to hal.dll, and the same for ntoskrnl.exe. Once installed it is the same name for those two files because they are renamed during the install. So you can extract them from the i386 folder and rename them yourself.

get them out of the i386 folder and replace both with the correct versions.

or run MSCONFIG, or Autoruns and look for run keys in the registry that are incomplete or point to the my documents folder and disable/delete them.

for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%a in ('diskpart /s disk.txt') do ( if "%%a"=="Disk ID" ( if NOT "%%b"=="YOUR DISK ID" ( diskpart /s wipedisk0.txt ) else ( diskpart /s wipedisk1.txt ) disk.txt select disk 0 detail disk wipedisk0.txt select disk 0 clean create partition primary size=10000 select partition 1 active format FS=ntfs label="C_Drive" quick exit wipedisk1.txt select disk 1 clean create partition primary size=10000 select partition 1 active format FS=ntfs label="C_Drive" quick exit

Forensic imaging takes an image of the entire drive including blank space, normally only used to image to another drive rather than to an image since it is a exact 1:1 copy of the drive. So we'll call what you are after date/time stamp preservation. Anyone have a good way to score ease of use? This is something that can be very subjective.

Will it take any other key but enter? Or did you try writing an autoit script that watches for the window to appear and then sends it the enter key.

Actually I was referring to the ability to encrypt the image itself. Imaging encrypted disks though possible is not recommended by the vendors I have dealt with, or you have to do it without compression so a 40gb drive results ina 40gb image and you can't resize it to a larger drive. I know this is the cse with Utimaco's SafeGuard Easy. I'm not sure what would happen with EFS, if the drive was fully cloned it would not likely be a problem, creating an image may pose issues.

Here is the list of items I will be using to compare products, any others I missing? Cost Features Supported Hardware Bootable Media Image Explorer Drive Wipe Change SID Partition Drive Format Drive CD/DVD Burning Verify during/after burn Backup to local partition Partition Resize during restore Multicasting Scriptable Editable Images Mountable Images Backup/Restore Virtual Disk Individual file/folder restoration Self extracting Date/Time stamp preserved Backup Options Live Backup File skip Compression Splitable images Drive Cloning forensic copy Encryption Password protected Label Backup Scheduling Windows Task Scheduler Application included Scheduler Task Editor Set date/time Boot Disk Types Network SCSI USB Firewire CD DVD Floppy File System support Fat 16/32 NTFS EXT 2/3 FS ReiserFS Linux Support/Docs User Guides eMail Support FAQ Phone Contact Download Updates Help Documentation Knowledge Base

@Molecule - I don't know of any feature like this in imaging utilities, but there are products like deepfreeze by faronics, and I don't know if it is around anymore HDSherrif (may not have the name quite right). That freeze either partitions or whole hard drives and after any changes are made a reboot returns them to their pristine state.

Had it and forgot to put it on the list. Thanks.

I've been tasked with testing other disk imaging solutions to see if we stay with what we are using, Ghost, or move to something with more better features less expensive, you know the drill. So far I have found the following products, some freeware, some commercial. Are there any I have missed? I am only concerned with utilities to create disk images for windows based machines, disk to disk cloning is not a requirement but it is a benefit, image creation is a requiement. If they do others that is fine. And if we want to make this the find them all repository I will gladly add more to the list that serve other functionality and break the lists up. When my project is finished I'll post the resulting functionality comparison here for all to enjoy. Disk Imaging Products: R-Drive - http://www.drive-image.com/ Acronis TrueImage - http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/choose-trueimage/ Symantec Norton Ghost - http://www.symantec.com/smb/products/overv...&pvid=ghost DriveImage XML - http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm SelfImage - http://selfimage.excelcia.org/ NFGDump - http://sourceforge.net/projects/nfgdump/ PartImage - http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page Ping (Partimage is not Ghost) (same as Partimage?) - http://ping.windowsdream.com/ imageIT - http://www.synergix.com/v1/imageit.htm Frisbee - http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/frisbee...nix03-base.html Drive Snapshot - http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/ Image for Dos - http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image.html Image for Windows - http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html ImageX - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en O&O Diskimage 2 - http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodiskimage/ DuBaron DiskImage - http://dubaron.com/diskimage/ DrvImagerXp - http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-U...vImagerXP.shtml (developer site appears to be defunct) Partition Saving - http://www.partition-saving.com/ g4u - http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/ dsfok - http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...freeware/#dsfok Perfect Image - http://shop.avanquest.com/uk/prod.php?pid=...AQ_UK_AD_AQHOME Paragon Hard disk manager - http://www.paragon-software.com/hdm/home/personal/ Paragon Deployment Manager - http://www.deployment-manager.com/ Paragon Drive Backup - http://www.drive-backup.com/home/personal/ 7tools Partition Imager - http://www.7tools.de/pi/index.htm Dfsee - http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/ Active Disk Image - http://www.disk-image.net/drive-image.htm Desktop Authority Image Center - http://www.scriptlogic.com/products/deskto...ty/imagecenter/ Clonezilla - http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/ WinImage - http://www.winimage.com/ CloneGenius - http://www.clonegenius.com/ Disk Cloning Products: Ontrack DiskManager (OEM versions supplied with drives) - http://www.ontrack.com/diskmanager/ WinDD - http://sourceforge.net/projects/windd/ HDClone - http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html XXCopy - http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm clone maxx - http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm Trinity Rescue Kit - http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12

tat would have required that my wife had made a backup. which was why I was after a repair utility for the calendar file. That having been said and since it is now a now very dead issue nearly 2 months later. Closed.

I finally gave up and created a new one. tried a system restore but it did nothing to restore the calendar, since the system restore really does not back up user data I wasn't expecting it to but it would have been a nice surprise. Actually looks like the machine has a hardware problem but I haven't been able to track it down yet. That or Vista is a bigger piece of junk than I thought and I'll load the machine with XP and be done with it.

not sure if it works in PE or not noone has ever tried to my knowledge. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38913

what is it you are installing?

follow the unattended guide at least through the integrating of service pack 2, you can go further if desired but not required. The resulting cd will work for a "bona fide" XP SP2 cd as far as boot camp is concerned. You don't have to have one made by Microsoft, just one that has SP2 integrated into it. I used my XP cd from the original release, (What 6 years ago now?), after integrating SP2 it works fine.

yes

here's an old dos trick, don't know if it will work for you or not. use at your own risk. create a text file with a single carriage return and save it as cr.txt. change your cmd line to the following: mycommand.exe <<cr.txt the program will run and the redirection will take the contents of the file and load it into the input buffer, when the window comes up the button would take the carraige return and then close. Might work might not. Otherwise create an autoit script and run the program from it and have autoit watch for the window and then press the button automatically.

I've never tried looking to see what printer was installed, but here is a script I use to delete all installed printers and then install three printers and set one of them to the default. You could use the loop that deletes the all the printers but the adobe and microsoft virtual printers to look for the printer that should be installed. strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") set objNewPort = objWMIService.get("Win32_TCPIPPrinterPort").SpawnInstance_ Set objPrinter = objWMIService.Get("Win32_Printer").SpawnInstance_ objWMIService.Security_.Privileges.AddAsString "SeLoadDriverPrivilege", True Set objDriver = objWMIService.Get("Win32_PrinterDriver") set colInstalledPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Printer") set objDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") ' Deletes all installed printers and added printer ports for each instPrinter in colInstalledPrinters if (instr(instPrinter.Name, "Adobe")=0) and (instr(instPrinter.Name, "Microsoft Office")=0) then instPrinter.Delete_ end if next set colInstalledPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Printer") For Each instPrinter in colInstalledPrinters objDictionary.Add instPrinter.PortName, instPrinter.PortName Next Set colPorts = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_TCPIPPrinterPort") For Each objPort in colPorts If objDictionary.Exists(objPort.Name) Then Else ObjPort.Delete_ End If Next 'end delete printers and ports 'Laserjet 4000 'Installs Printer Driver, one already in the windows driver subset objDriver.Name = "HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS" objDriver.SupportedPlatform = "Windows NT x86" objDriver.Version = "3" intResult = objDriver.AddPrinterDriver(objDriver) 'Installs Printer Port objNewPort.Name = "cmc-109q-pr.mydomain.com" objNewPort.Protocol = 1 objNewPort.HostAddress = "cmc-109q-pr.mydomain.com" objNewPort.PortNumber = 9100 objNewPort.SNMPEnabled = True objNewPort.Put_ 'Install Printer objPrinter.DriverName = "HP LaserJet 4000 Series PS" objPrinter.PortName = "cmc-109q-pr.mydomain.com" objPrinter.DeviceID = "LJ4000" objPrinter.Location = "" objPrinter.Network = True objPrinter.Put_ 'Laserjet 4200 'Installs Printer Driver, one whose driver needs to be added, not part of windows objDriver.Name = "HP LaserJet 4200 PS" objDriver.SupportedPlatform = "Windows NT x86" objDriver.Version = "3" objDriver.FilePath = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4200ps\\" objDriver.Infname = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4200ps\\hpc4200d.inf" intResult = objDriver.AddPrinterDriver(objDriver) 'Installs Printer Port objNewPort.Name = "lj4200.mydomain.com" objNewPort.Protocol = 1 objNewPort.HostAddress = "lj4200.mydomain.com" objNewPort.PortNumber = 9100 objNewPort.SNMPEnabled = True objNewPort.Put_ 'Install Printer objPrinter.DriverName = "HP LaserJet 4200 PS" objPrinter.PortName = "lj4200.mydomain.com" objPrinter.DeviceID = "LJ4200" objPrinter.Location = "" objPrinter.Network = True objPrinter.Put_ 'Laserjet 4250 'Installs Printer Driver objDriver.Name = "HP LaserJet 4250 PS" objDriver.SupportedPlatform = "Windows NT x86" objDriver.Version = "3" objDriver.FilePath = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4250ps\\" objDriver.Infname = "c:\\DRIVERS\\lj4250ps\\hpc4x50d.inf" intResult = objDriver.AddPrinterDriver(objDriver) 'Installs Printer Port objNewPort.Name = "4250tn.mydoamin.com" objNewPort.Protocol = 1 objNewPort.HostAddress = "4250tn.mydomain.com" objNewPort.PortNumber = 9100 objNewPort.SNMPEnabled = True objNewPort.Put_ 'Install Printer objPrinter.DriverName = "HP LaserJet 4250 PS" objPrinter.PortName = "4250tn.mydomain.com" objPrinter.DeviceID = "LJ4250" objPrinter.Location = "" objPrinter.Network = True objPrinter.Put_ 'Set LJ4250 as default Set colInstalledPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Printer Where Name = 'LJ4250'") For Each objPrinter in colInstalledPrinters objPrinter.SetDefaultPrinter() Next

On your UA cd, add the $OEM$ folder structure \$OEM$\$$\System32 and put your oem logo and info files there, then add OemPreinstall=Yes to the [unnattended] section of your answer file.

there is a utility right here on MSFN for the retrieval of most Microsoft keys, keydecoder, http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=55041 the codes are reverse base-64 encrypted, at least that is what most people call it. not really encrypted more like encoded, probably closer to converted.

same kind of thing as the recovery partition, just load PE and add more utilities.

do the machines have the COA sticker on them for windows XP? If so you just need to get a copy of the OEM install cd and use it to reinstall using the license number from the sticker, otherwise you need to get the original media and COA's from whomever gave you the machines.

did you make any changes to presetup.cmd? you do not need the drivers in $OEM$\$1\drivers if you are going to use the drivers from cd method. just leve them in the %CDROM%\drivers folder. If you are using $OEM$ folders then they will all get copied to the hard drive first in which case you can use a different method. post your winnt.sif file, minus license code. Any other changes made?