sysprep and mass storage devices

[trimbandit]

We just got some new hardware(Dell GX520) and I added the drivers to our XP image.

Anyway, the image does rolling reboots on the Dell 520. First I thought it was HAL related, but when I ran sysprep with -bmsd option, the image worked fine on the 520.

My question is, how do I find the pnp ID that the 520 needs. I don't want to leave a gazillion devices in the sysprep.ini, as it has increased my image size substantialy. How do I find the needle in the haystack?

Thanks,

CMG

[Scrapple]

"sysprep -bsdm" does NOT increase your image size substantially.

It only finds mass storage drivers that are already in windows driver database and adds some references in the criticaldevices en services section of the registry so that the deployed computer is able boot.

Since it will load many drivers at startup (for which most hardware is unavailable) it will make the boot-process slower than it has to be. That's why it's recommended to use "sysprep -clean" as a command in cmdlines.txt, so next boots will be faster. (this will clean the registry from all unused driver references)

To find out your pnpid use devcon.exe or pnpids.exe.

BUT, when you remove all drivers except the "520" you will need to create yet another image when some other type of pc (which may needs other driver) comes in.

I would advice to make an image as generic as possible and NOT remove all those lines from sysprep.inf!!!

The 2 major things that need to be correct for the deployed machine to boot after sysprep are:

-compatible HAL

-correctly loaded mass-storage driver for drive that contains the system partition.

So, for a pretty generic/universal/hardware independent image you would use:

- "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface HAL" (all acpi enabled machines are compatible with this HAL) switch later to UP or MP if detected by a script

- mass-storage sections in sysprep.inf for as many mss-drivers as possible (-bmsd)

- add BTS drvpacks and use SetupCopyOEMinf on the master-pc before sysprepping/cloning it. (this is for most other devices)

This process is the "simple" version, it can be highly finetuned to make it even better.

Edited October 6, 2005 by Scrapple