Re-Sysprepping a few times

[gaurideva]

How bad is it if you sysprep a machine, make a ghost image, put it on another machine with different drivers, add the drivers and sysprep it again, make a new ghost and do this like 5 times for 5 different machines??

Thanks.

[IcemanND]

why not just add all of the driver files to the first image so that they are there for all of the systems you are going to deploy to?

Similar to having all of the drivers available for a unattended cd.

[gaurideva]

thx, I will read about making a unattended cd and let you now if it is possible for me to use

[IcemanND]

Actually I wasn't referring to making an unattended cd but that would work also. What you can do is collect all of the drivers you need for all 5+ systems you want to create an image for, place them in a folder and then use the OemPnPDriversPath in the [unnatended] section of sysprep.inf to tell mini-setup where to find the drivers. If you create a folder structure containing subfolders then you must give the full path to each folder separated by a semicolon.

from deploy.chm:

OemPnPDriversPath

Specifies the path to one or more folders that contain Plug and Play drivers not distributed with Drivers.cab on the Windows product CD.

Syntax OemPnPDriversPath = folder_1_on_system_drive

Value folder_1_on_system_drive[;folder_2_on_system_drive]...

Example OemPnPDriversPath = drivers\audio;drivers\net

Registry subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\

Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

Comments The folders must contain all the files necessary to install the particular devices: catalog files, .inf files, and drivers.

For example, if you have a folder called \Drivers with subfolders called \Audio and \Net, specify OemPnPDriversPath = drivers\audio;drivers\net in Sysprep.inf. Sysprep adds:

%SYSTEMDRIVE% to each of the folder names

The path for each subfolder to the Plug and Play device search path

If there is already a path in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\DevicePath, Sysprep does not append the path to the registry key a second time.

Important

The length of OemPnPDriversPath in Sysprep.inf must not exceed 4,096 characters.

You cannot use environment variables to specify the location of a folder.

Always use signed drivers. Signed drivers make the operating system more stable and significantly reduce requests for product support.

In Sysprep.inf, the value of OemPnPDriversPath can be any location on the computer's hard disk.

If the drivers are not in the Drivers.cab file on the computer's hard disk or in the location specified by OemPnPDriversPath, Setup prompts the end user for the location of the drivers the first time the computer starts, before Windows Welcome or Mini-Setup runs.

As in Windows 2000, you can use OemPnPDriversPath in Sysprep.inf to specify the location of additional drivers. However, you can also use the [PnPDrivers] section in Winbom.ini to update drivers on a previously-created image of the installed operating system.