How to make a multi harware ghost image ?

[giz059]

Hello everybody,

I have to make a ghost image of a w2000 installation which must be able to be load to very different machine.

For exemple i put a w2000 on a P4 using chipset i915 and SATA disk. I make a ghost image of this installation.

And i would like this image to work on a laptop with a i830 chipset and ide Disk for example ??

How can i make my ghost image independant from the harware ??

Thank's a lot !!

[Fencer128]

Hi,

I don't have much experience with Ghost - but I'm pretty sure that because it's a binary image format you can't make hardware independant images.

What you need is a flat file image (i.e. using RIS and RISETUP). This will allow you to install Windows over a network in the true sense, rather than just simply drop a binary onto a disk and hope it boots. This will give you greater hardware independance.

Good luck,

Andy

[mmarable]

Yeah, you're really not going to have much success going from desktops to laptops and back. It's hard enough to get one ghost image to work on different desktops let alone jumping to a laptop. The HAL is the big gotcha.

[cluberti]

This can be done via sysprep and some other tricks, but it's not going to be easy. If you can't use a network install method such as RIS (or http://unattended.sourceforge.net/ or similar), let me know. I still have my scripts and basic image structure from when I had to do something similar.

Note that scripting installs via RIS is much more supportable in the long run, but that also takes time to get right. You may not be able to do this, but if you can I'd strongly suggest it.

[GnarlyC]

We do this at my workplace all of the time. We have Dell GX110s - GX280s, Dell Inspirion 500s, Latitude 1100s, IBM Thinkpad R51s, & ThinkCentre A51 towers. At least with the models that we have - you just build the Ghost image on a non-hyperthreading PC. The PCs that are hyperthreading capable will not have the multi-processor HAL after Ghosting, so hyperthreading will not work. We don't really care about that, so that's what we do. It works GREAT! (i.e. multiprocessor HAL will blue screen uniprocessor PCs, but the uniprocessor HAL will not blue screen multiprocessor PCs. This doesn

1) Install Windows, apps, etc.

2) Create a folder called c:\sysprep

3) Copy sysprep.exe, etc. to c:\sysprep

4) Create a c:\sysprep\sysprep.ini file (similar to WINNT.SIF for unattended installs)

5) Create a drivers folder in c:\sysprep (I just used Bashrat the Sneaky's driver packs - so I called the subfolder 'D'.)

6) Edit the sysprep.ini by adding an OEMDRIVERSPATH option pointing to the drivers in the c:\sysprep\D folder.

7) run sysprep. Select 'use mini-setup' & reseal.

This is a summary. Please read the more detailed directions about unattended installs. This is basically the same as far as the OEMDRIVERSPATH option. I also found it useful to make a sysprep folder with all of the drivers & .inf already done, and copy it to a network share.

Alan

[sHaDYvB]

that is really good method Alan ,

thx for sharing the info ..

gonna try it right the moment

[giz059]

yes i'm gonna try it too

Just two questions :

don't you have problem concerning hal.dll and halacpi.dll ?

Do your drivers have to be as audio.exe for example or should they be all uncompressed at the root of the directory ?

Cluberti can you send me your scripts and the doc you still have or can i download them somewhere ??

Thank's a lot

Edited February 6, 2006 by giz059

[giz059]

i have a problem with my sysprep 1.1

When adding the [systemmassstorage] section it works fine with this one :

[sysprepMassStorage]

pci\cc_0101=%systemroot%\inf\mshdc.inf

pci\cc_0604=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0601=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0602=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0600=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0500=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

but when i'm adding my lines (for my machines), :

[sysprepMassStorage]

pci\cc_0101=%systemroot%\inf\mshdc.inf

pci\cc_0604=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0601=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0602=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0600=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\cc_0500=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2448=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_24cc=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_244e=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_24d0=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2570=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_24c0=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2560=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2580=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2640=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2660=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2662=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2641=%systemroot%\inf\machine.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_2651&cc_0101=%systemroot%\inf\mshdc.inf

pci\ven_8086&dev_266f=%systemroot%\inf\mshdc.inf

it doesn't work anymore

Any ideas ?

[secowu]

one question:

if SATA HDD,it's new

how can do it?

tks

[plsm]

Hi. You can always try freeware like MySysprep or commercial software like Universal Imaging Utility... Both will allow you to create truly HAL independant images.

Edited November 27, 2006 by plsm

[yogi_bear_79]

I've been playing with this a lot lately. I downloaded MySysprep and tried it today. I built the image on a MP machine and then tried to ghost it to a UP machine. The UP machine simply fails to boot, the sceen stays black and on a repower it says windows did not start propelry, this process just loops. SHould I build on a UP machine, and try and ghost that to a MP machine instead? And if so how/where do the MP files get to the image.

[yberthol]

I, too, have to build gold images for Optiplexes and Latitudes. (So many people around the world doing the same job over and over again..).

-I run the unattend and the sysprep on a VM(ware). It works great.

-Also, by booting under PE (so easy in VM), I just add additional drivers without the need for a rebuilt.

And, believe it or not, I run the BDD+the (Vista) reference machine in a virtual team. This sandbox concept is really cool (for media-based DP).

Question: we are going dual-vendor Dell+Fujitsu-S. or Dell+HP. What would you choose? From a unified image point of view, which vendor makes it the most difficult ?