Wim files not working

[daremo]

......

I had created a wim on a wd black 500GB drive and tried to deploy that to a wd blue 320GB drive and it would not take?

I then installed everything on the 320GB drive created my wim and tried to then deploy it to the 500GB drive and the same error.

Because I had cleaned the 500GB drive I thought...what the hell I will try to reinstate the original wim from the 500BG drive and see what gives... and it worked?

............

A question regarding your situation... Do you have both drives installed on the same computer at the same time, when you are creating and then deploying the wim file (such as HD1 and HD2)? If so, then I doubt the problem is only a matter of fixing BCd store (via repair or manual editing). There is also the issue of HD order in the BIOS, and in the Win registry (mounted drives, etc) that might come into play, besides the hardware related information being used to set up Windows Activation data.

How about the following scenario:

1. HD 1 (500 GB) (first HD in the BIOS)

2. HD2 (320 GB) (second HD in the BIOS)

3. install, configure windows on HD1, take a wim image

4. Apply wim image on HD2

5. Either in the BIOS or physically change HD order (i.e. HD2 becomes 1st HD, and HD1 becomes second HD)

6. try booting from HD2 (now the first HD) and if need be fix bCD store, and see if the problem goes away.

Basically with the above scenario there's no excessive chaneg in your hardware configuration which Windows Actiation will use, except HD order (and the way they are attached), and by swapping the HD order, you may overcome the Windows registry issues, since HD2 which has the wim image applied becomes the first HD (just like the original HD1 where windows was initially installed).

With regards to the Regitry settings there's a neat little trick you can use (from another post in this forum):

MULTIBOOT WINDOWS 7

- Create a text file named i.e. "Unmount.reg", and paste into it the following lines:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
<blank line>
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"SystemBootDevice"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control]
"SystemBootDevice"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control]
"SystemBootDevice"=""
<blank line>

- Doubleclick "Unmount.reg" to allow registry update at boot.

- Shutdown

So, before taking a wim image of your installation on HD1:

execute the above reg hack, shutdown machine, boot into winPE, obtain a wim image of HD1, and apply wim to HD2, [possibly optional but you can still try changing HD boot order either phsycially and/or in the BIOS], and then try booting from HD2 where wim image is applied.

Curious if this will work without sysprepping step!!! and whether it will overcome the Windows Activation issues as well (non-genuine Win message)???