[Q] Windows 2000 and Sysprep

[averagecdn]

I have read reports that continually resyspreping an image for a new image is bad thing to do and you risk certain problems. I am wondering if anyone has heard this or read it before.

If you have... Please pm me.

Regards,

Mark Donoghue

[cluberti]

You can run sysprep multiple times on the same image, with the following exceptions:

You should not sysprep OEM media, you should only be running sysprep on volume or retail media.

The activation period (for XP/2003) can only be reset three times by sysprep, after that the activation period cannot be reset.

There have been times using Windows XP and Windows 2000 where after sysprep'ing an image 4 or 5 times the hardware detect portion of mini setup would start to fail, but I was never able to pinpoint the issue. After that, when I was still using sysprep, I would use a VM that allowed checkpoints and I'd always go back to the last checkpoint before running sysprep, and the issue never recurred.