Cloning Windows XP to different machines

[luckydip]

I have read about the possibility of cloning windows XP to different machines instead of using unattended install, which takes a longer deployment time.

According to what I know, becos of HAL and ACPI issues it was documented that cloning XP can only be applied to similar machines but not machines with different hardwares like motherboard chipsets n storage devices. U could get blue screen straight if u were to do that!!!

But if u follow some procedures before u do the clone, u can create a "Ultimate Windows XP installation CD" clone that can install on most desktop machines with unidentical hardware....in abt 15 mins time!!!

According to the writeup,u need the following:

1)Windows XP Corporate (volume licensing edition) - version that do not require activation

2) Partition into C: where u install windows XP to C:, & have a parition D: to store the created image clone

The procedure is something like this:

1) Install a working copy of WinXP Corp VLE on your PC

2) Install all SP, applications and configure whatever software you want

3) Uninstall specific hardware that u have in your machine using device manger

eg: Network card, sound, modem ,game controllers, display card...

When u are prompted to restart, select "NO". This is important as windows XP will redetect these hw when the clone boots up in the new machine.

4) Change ACPI configuration driver to use "Standard PC" by clicking on "driver update" under "ACPI uniprocessor PC" under "Computer" in device manager. when prompted to restart, click "No". This is important, becos different machines have different ACPI architecture, if not done it can cause boot failure n blue screen. For most 2003 and above PCs u will see "ACPI uniprocessor PC" as the setting.

5) Finally change the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers to use "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" by performing the driver update selection. This is crucial as this is the common controller standard used in different motherboad chipsets.U will be prompted to reboot, choose "No".

6)To ensure more stability and uniqueness due to SID issues, we need to use the sysprep tool to prepare the computer b4 the cloning, Use the setup manager to create the sysprep.inf auto answer n place in the C:\sysprep folder. Finally reboot and power off the machine.

7) The disk is ready to be clone now. Boot up using the cloning software of your choice, eg: Ghost 2003 n clone the C: to D: as an image file

This clone can be installed on most motherboard with INTEL, VIA or SIS chipsets, according to the write up, but may not be able to clone onto laptops due the hardware architecture.

I have not tested out this method yet but it seems that the procedures actually works. Would appreciate any comments if anyone has tried doing something like that...

Thanks

[Radimus]

I do disk cloning all the time, and it isn't that hard.

If you are making an unattended XP CD, then you already have done most of the work in setting up driver folders and the $oem$ dir.

basically all you need to do install XP WITHOUT any additional drivers, install your service packs and apps, reg patches and such.

Copy in the Drivers folder to the HD, the $oem$ can still be used for little things, but the apps and such have already been installed, so you may have nothing in this.

make a c:\sysprep folder, copy in the sysprep files from the deploy.cab, and customize the sysprep.inf, which is a stripped down winnt.sif (admin password, join domain, network settings, oemdrivers, etc)

then run:

sysprep -bmsd

sysprep -reseal -quiet -mini -reboot

place a floppy in the a: drive to prevent the PC from restarting

use ghost or drive image to duplicate the drive... If you are only looking to do XP the image will probably fit on a CD... if you add MSOffice, etc, then you will need a dvd or network share to save the image to

If you have done the sysprep.inf right, when you deploy the image to a new machine, you will have cut down install time down TREMENDOUSLY... I deploy a 2gb image in about 15-20 minutes from a network share.

And the same image works on 5 desktop models and about 10 laptop models... all drivers preinstalled and ready to go.

[Dryden]

here's a few problems.

A) Switching the HAL to Standard PC makes it so none of the computers you ghost it on shutdown properly.

- Is there a fix for this, for the hal to be auto-detected again? I doubt it but maybe?

B) Using the "detect plug n play" option in sysprep is good in most cases, but with a little experience it looks like it installs deviced that are not there, or an incorrect driver perhaps. I've tried this on about 7 machines and for some reason I get "Microsoft Audio Kernel" or soemthing installed....yet it's not a piece of hardware for any model I've seen.

Anyone got any more info?

I'd really like to get the Hal portion fixed, but I doubt it's possible.

lemme know

[Vann]

On a reasonably fast computer I can get my unattended CD to install in about 20-30 minutes. This involves partitioning, formatting, and installing several additional applications. What's more, if you use /makelocalsource with winnt32.exe it allows you to remove the CD after about 5 minutes and use it on another computer.

I don't see what the big deal is. If you just absolutely must save that extra ten minutes then perhaps you should start installing Windows ten minutes earlier.

[SiMoNsAyS]

5) Finally change the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers to use "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" by performing the driver update selection. This is crucial as this is the common controller standard used in different motherboad chipsets.U will be prompted to reboot, choose "No".

i guess this step will not work with computers with a SATA drive... i guess

[Whatanut]

I build images for my corporation. It's deployed across some 30,000 computers across the US, France, Germany on dozens of hardware types. I've found that my images will pretty much work on most any computer as long as the HD controller drivers are made available to sysprep and the machine is ACPI compliant.

The big key for me was discovering the HAL that is "MOST" compatible with most PCs. As long as I set the HAL to "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" then it usually works.

This may not be the most optimised configuration for a machine. But it works. And works well.

This will even work on a multiprocessor machine with a modified sysprep.inf. Just need to add the proper line to have it update the HAL to the multiprocessor HAL. Just put the updated sysprep.inf on a floppy during first boot and the image updates...

It can be done...

[amg]

Hi, I complete all the procedure exposed by luckydip (thanks buddy for this) is a very difficult to get...

I has finished successful all the entire procedure and I get the same problem like Dryden... the way you force the machine to ACPI compliant again from Standard PC is most simple that it appears...

Put your Windows XP cd on the drive and run that command from Start > Run type CMD and then type the following: (EXPAND D:\I386\HALACPI.DL_ C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\HAL.DLL) reboot yor system and your ACPI come back again, the next time you start up your system it detect all the components with new HAL ACPI...

I hope you fix this and you understand my little english.

Good Luck...

[mccorm79]

What do I use to update from a ACPI system to a ACPI Multiprocessor system? Also where should I put the sysprep -clean command?