stickzilla

Acronis True Image isn't free, but I would definately look into that. I have played with the corporate workstation some and I really like it. You can download a trial version from the acronis site ( http://www.acronis.com ) and see if you like it If you look around you may be able to get the home version for a lower price.

If you look at your systemdrive\windows\system32\$winnt$.inf File on an imaged box, that is the sysprep.ini file that was used upon sysprep'n. You can check that for signs of the HAL assignment as mentioned in the first reply, in both the first section as well as the GuiRunOnce section at the bottom (which may execute a batch file or sorts that you will need to read through) You may also check through any batch files that may be ran silently when the machine is going through the sysprep process. It may require that you look at a base image - the image that is everything before sysprep is ran and then another image is taken. Look through the cmdlines.txt file to see if it links to batch files or something similar that may have lines of code regarding a HAL modification. Those are just a few options you can look into

Not at all. We have an image that I play with that works for 866mhz up to new 3ghz HT machines, with many in betweens. The key is to just take advantage of cmdlines.txt or alternative methods so that you can properly install the necessary chipset drivers during sysprep, as well as using the right commands in your sysprep.ini file to allow the image to load properly on both Uniprocessor and Multiproccesor machines.

You should list the apps you are wanting to install as well as what is currently being used in your runonce. That way people can get a feel for what they are working with, and maybe you can get some help

It's not personal freedom. That is a company PC, and they can restrict the useage as they see fit. If he has it set up in his Group Policy, you don't really have much of a choice it seems

You will probably be best off just building a batch file that installs multiple programs in succession, utilizing switches as greatly as possible. You may wanna check out the Application Installs section of the board, it deals with doing silent installs in batch files and more.

I believe you need to have the SATA drivers on a floppy, and install them when Windows is about to install and asks for RAID controller drivers ? I haven't had this problem, but I think there have been many posts here about it.

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ Its a link at the top of the page, hah. Figured I'd post that for ya before you get semi flamed a bit If that doesn't answer all questions, be sure to use the search feature on the forums as well.

I don't have the same situation, but I think this is somewhat related perhaps - I use a two partition setup, where the C drive holds the boot information and then the D drive is the actual system drive. When setting this up with a clean install, windows tries to make my (soon to be) D drive be E or F. So I've learned that if you simply reboot and let the setup get back to that point where you designate where you want the OS to be installed, it will change the drive letter. What used to be E, becomes D for me. Magic computer gnomes, I tell ya !

You just make a simple path call to it such as : [Commands] ".\cmdlines.bat" And that assumes you have a batch file named cmdlines.bat in the same directory.

I've never seen this one, so its really messin with me. I'm building an image for a tablet pc (to only be used with the same tablet model). Everything is fine until I get to the point where I am sysprepping. I run sysprep, choose my options (run minisetup, reseal) and hit Ok. After a few seconds it pops up with an error that it was "An error occurrred while trying to update your registry unable to continue" and then "reseal failed !" Absolutely nothing shows up in the Event Viewer, and after googling this problem a bit, I could only find solutions catering to some kind of MassStorageDevices error. I've toggled turning the loading of mass storage devices off and on...as well as ran a command line of \sysprep.exe -bmsd to allow the machine to generate the inf information for ALL available mass storage devices. This popped my sysprep.inf file up to 38k....so I tried running sysprep again, and after 30 min of chugging along, the same error popped up causing it to fail. Any ideas ? Here is my sysprep.inf in case anybody cares. And yes, our W drive exists....trust me thats not my call, this is based on somebody else's previous setup here. ;SetupMgrTag [unattended] OemSkipEula=Yes TargetPath=\WINDOWS ExtendOEMPartition=1 ResetSourcePath=W:\INSTALL\WINXP InstallFilesPath = c:\sysprep\i386 OemPreinstall = Yes OemPnPDriversPath="windows\inf" DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore [GuiUnattended] AdminPassword= EncryptedAdminPassword=NO OEMSkipRegional=1 TimeZone=20 OemSkipWelcome=1 OEMDuplicatorstring="blah" [userData] ProductID= FullName="my stuff" OrgName="my org" [setupMgr] DistFolder=c:\sysprep\i386 DistShare=windist [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=1 [Display] BitsPerPel=32 Xresolution=1024 YResolution=768 Vrefresh=70 [identification] JoinDomain=mydomain ; JoinWorkgroup=Workgroup [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents=No [NetAdapters] Adapter01=params.Adapter01 [params.Adapter01] INFID=* [NetClients] MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient [NetServices] MS_SERVER=params.MS_SERVER [NetProtocols] MS_TCPIP=params.MS_TCPIP [params.MS_TCPIP] DNS=Yes UseDomainNameDevolution=No DNSServerSearchOrder="mydomain" EnableLMHosts=No AdapterSections=params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter01 [params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter01] SpecificTo=Adapter01 DHCP=Yes NetBIOSOptions=1 [GuiRunOnce] Command0="c:\\INSTALL\\mes.cmd"

Don't forget to look into updating your soundcard drivers as well. It's not uncommon for the sound to cause game crashes.

hah, don't you just love when you spend a long time on something that was so simple all along ? Oh well, at least you come away with a thorough understanding of default browser settings for the future !

You can buy OEM copies on EBAY that come with a screw, since that can be considered computer hardware heh. I've also read that recently the rules of OEM purchasing have changed where you don't even need that screw. Something about if you have built your own machine, then you are entitled to obtain OEM windows. I don't quite recall the specifics.

I'm a firm believer that in the end, the most surefire way to help your career - is to have a friend to help get your foot in the door with some company. After that its a matter of how much you work its who you know

When you run the exe and the options pop up, there is a check box to use "mini setup" your .inf file is different than the one I use - but as far as options that should associate with skipping some of those screens , they are the same. I figure if this is the only different setting, it's worth a shot. From your previous posts I gather you are using the GUI method. If you are doing the command line I believe its -mini

Hah, that's exactly what I was thinking about. I've used long hosts files in the past so this made me curious.

Try using mini setup ?

This doesn't slow your machine down in any way ? Perhaps at start up or when starting up your browser ?

We have a network of up to 16,000 machines across my state, so it takes a while before something that will impact everything gets distributed and put into production. We are in the process of testing WSUS now. I'll check out the .log files also, thanks.

I was curious if there was any short way determine if a 2000 or 2003 server machine has been receiving their windows updates ? We have found a server of ours has not been updated in a while, and during some maintenance this weekend we shall be checking other servers to see if they require updates as well. We use a SUS server, but it seems that maybe something isn't set up properly. As a precautionary measure, we want to verify that the others are getting updates since we are going to be shutting down / rebooting everything anyways. Anyways, does anybody know of a quick way to check on this ? I am going to be checking on over 100 servers, so the faster the better. Currently off the top of my head I am wondering if I should just run systeminfo and look at the last KB listed. If its the last one to be put out by our SUS servers, then that machine is fine.

I've been working only with XP workstations that have SP2, so I can't say for certain on that one. I understand the multiprocessor as such, both of these count as multiprocessor machines : - A pc with a Hyperthreading enabled processor - A pc with two physical processors inside

I don't know exactly what your machines are, but I can tell you that I have an image that works on different HALS. However, all the machines I work with are ACPI and either Uniprocessor or Multiprocessor. I learned that as long as you make your base on a Multiprocessor machine, then add this line to your sysprep.ini top section : UpdateUPHAL="ACPIAPIC_UP,%WINDIR%\Inf\Hal.inf" All is well ! When you shoot down this sysprepped image, upon all the sysprep stages, windows will properly reassign your HAL to halaacpi or halmacpi as it sees fit. Dunno if this helps you any. Also, people discussed drivers in the other thread...the way I was taught to deal with drivers for different machines is to create a batch file where you choose from a list, what kind of machine you are installing on. I understand this does mean somebody has to be at the computer, but with some work its easy to have all the proper drivers loaded up. The batch file I use is triggered by cmdlines.txt. I'm trying to work on a way to have all the drivers automatically installed with a trial and error method, using the OemPnPDriverspath, and then from there have the machine automatically read registry files to determine exactly what type of box it is to finish up the installations (we use old HPs up to modern HPs and now some Dells, so obviously there are different BIOS updates to be done etc). Oh ! after reading over this i just remembered. As you see in the line that I added to the sysprep.ini, it refers to a directory and an inf file. In that directory you need to copy over the following files : hal.dll halacpi.dll halmacpi.dll ntkrnlmp.exe ntkrnlpa.exe ntkrpamp.exe ntoskrnl.exe You can find these on your machine currently, Off the top of my head I don't recall exactly which directory. Im sure the search function can be your friend. Now you won't necessarily use all of those files (unless one of your machines has over 4gb of RAM !?) but it doesn't really hurt to have them all available there.