can you sysprep a machine more than once?

[VoodooV]

In a few months, I'm going to be deploying XPSP2 across our network. We're moving from Novell to AD and we want to remove all traces of Novell from the network and go Tabula Rasa on our network. So even people who already have XPSP2 will be getting a fresh copy.

We have at least a dozen different types of Dell computers in our workplace. Ideally, what I want to do is build XPSP2 on a master machine, sysprep it, and deploy it out to everyone via imagex and then script out adding in the drivers to the $OEM$ folders and have the mini-Setup do its PnP thing and detect the drivers and what not..etc etc. I haven't worked out all the details, but that's the general gist of what id like to do.

My boss, doesn't seem to see it that way. He literally wants me to take one computer of each type, manually install windows and all our apps on each one and then image THAT. Try as I might, I can't explain to him the wonders of sysprep and that even computers that are of the same model, still aren't truly identical and that installing windows manually that many times will inevitably introduce various differences that may lead to later problems.

I'm trying to accommodate him as much as I can, but I'm really unwilling to manually install windows that many times. So what I want to do is this:

-Build XPSP2 on a master computer and sysprep it.

-deploy that sysprep image to one of each model Dell we have.

-install drivers and then sysprep again and take an image of each one of those so that there is a WIM file for each model Dell we have

So can you sysprep an image more than once without hurting anything. or would it be better to do a -factory sysprep, deploy that image to each model, load drivers and then sysprep -reseal. Would that still take into account the differing components that exist even in identical models? Or how would you go about it?

Thanks in advance.

[IcemanND]

Gotta love the bosses that don't have a clue.

Yes you can sysprep a machines more than once, but sometimes you will have a problem the second time if you had added and are adding again the massstorage drivers. You'll get a registry error out of sysprep.

Why create separate WIM files? combine them all into one WIM with different identifier names for each. since the majority of the image is going to be the same your image is only going to grow by a few meg for each machine. That's the beautiful thing about single instance imaging, only one copy of identical files is saved in the image.

I certainly would not create a individual image for every machine type. I don't care what my boss would say. He pays me to work intelligently and not waste my time and the companies money. Maybe a little sdemo would open his eyes a little. Sounds like he just has no idea at all.

Add all of the drivers for every machine into your image and clean them up afterwards. The only things you have to worry about are mass storage drivers and the HAL. Mass storage drivers can be easily added. And it all depends upon the machine HAL tyepes what you have to do there.

[VoodooV]

you're preaching to the choir my friend. I'm to the point where I think I need a new job so I don't have to deal with his narrowmindedness anymore. but that's a separate issue.

I forgot that you could combine WIM files (I'm new to WIM) that's using the imagex -append command right? So I would have one WIM, boot WinPE on a second machine, and -append the whole C drive to the existing file and then imagex intelligently determines what files are redundant and which arent? is that the gist of that how it works?

Heh, the only problem I see with that, is that if I only have one image file, my un-enlightened boss may interpret that as me defying him again. and more trouble might ensue. Because If I can't convince him that sysprep is a good thing, I sure as hell can't convince him that ImageX is combining the image and not using redundant files. Believe me, I've tried repeatedly to explain to him what sysprep does over and over, and no matter how calm and diplomatic I am about it.. he sees it simply as me not doing what I'm told. And as much as I know that my way is better and less redundant, I really don't feel like losing my job right now.

I don't care if I have to reload drivers, I just really don't want to have to reinstall windows umpteen million times

[IcemanND]

Ok, create one WIM image, and test it on each machine model. If it works on each one just copy it and rename it to the machine model. Add drivers as needed.