[Question] Is this possible: raw xp pro with universal ghost-ability?

[chee]

1. on the title: by "ghostability", i mean "the possibility to be dumped by ghost".

2. why this bothers: it's boring to install xp pro to every pc and during the installation process, xp will inspect pc hardware configurations and select corresponding drivers shipped in the installation cd. hence, each xp installation on each different pc configuration results in a uniqure operable xp pro.

consequrently, each successful installation of xp pro contains pc-specific drivers and hard disk geometry.

is there a way to make an xp installation independent of pc config, that is, seperate from a successful installtion of xp those specific drivers (i.e, remove simultatneously installed drivers as many as possible), then ghost this xp, and this xp could be ghosted to any other pc. and the only thing after such a dump is to to installed specific drivers.

3. any workarounds?

thanks!

Title edited -- Please, use [TAGS] in your topic's title.

--Sonic

[Nakatomi2010]

Short answer? No

Long Answer? Nope.

The product key and activation is what shoots this plan in the foot. Closest thing I've been able to do is create an AIO-DVD which allows me to install any XP flavor in about 45 minutes to an hour, 30 minutes to 45 minutes without software installs...

I recommend getting Bashrat's driver pack and making an XP Pro DVD with all the drivers on it using Method 1 (Quickest Method when using 1 OS on a disk) and also regularly updating the CDs driver packs and such using RyanVMs update packs... A little more mainteance than some people want, but the fastest method really, as far as I know

[jaclaz]

Short answer: NO

Better answer: YES, but it is not free:

http://www.binaryresearch.net/UIU/About.htm

jaclaz

[IcemanND]

Actually, as long as you are not trying to cross over the HAL compatibility lines the answer is yes using sysprep. No need to pay Binary Research for their software/servics.

Search for "universal image" should bring up a number of forum posts.

[chee]

thanks.

from the experience i've got these days:

1. separating/remove drivers is easy.

2. the most dangerous and difficult thing is hard disk geometry: since each fresh xp installation will record Hd geo and wrtie its own ito the MBR, so this "universality" would probalby render the totoal loss of partition table on another's pc, and consequently cause data loss.

though there's disk management tools to backup partition table, there's still the problem of fixing/writing MBR.

wiring MBR with only a disk management tool may not make the ghosted xp bootable, since the MBR is the same as was recored by the source xp.

so if someone has no xp installation cd, this ghosted xp is "dead" since no rescue mode is available to fix mbr or fix boot.

3. as for cdkey and activation of xp: there's the key assigned to each MS engineer, which allows as many installation of xp as possible.

the methods posted on ms official site could change the cd-key into this "universal" key

----

hence ,the key is "reserve disk geo and renew mbr"

any more insights?

thanks

Edited May 31, 2006 by chee

[stickzilla]

completely possible.

Create your base image, whether its as simple as XP, SP2 + updates till now.

Determine your preferred drivers technique...using bashrak's packs, or as we do it in my office, a batch file that is set up to install chipset/video/audio/nic drivers during mini setup.

Configure sysprep as need be....and sysprep then ghost !

I know that's a really short and rather vague description, but its a lot of information to go into for details. Just letting you know that it is quite easily possible, in general. Issues will arise if the types of hardware being deployed to vary too greatly (Older non acpi HALs etc etc)

[Mordac85]

Sounds like an unattended install would work for you as well. There is so much tweaking available and methods for app installs that, with enough development work, it can work just as well as an image. And you would not have to worry about the HAL differences.

As for the geomerty in the MBR, I've never run into an issue with this using Ghost. Therefore, I've never looked into it. Am I just lucky or is there something there I should be looking out for?

[IcemanND]

I have only ever run into MBR issues on IBM/Lenovo systems that have the factory recovery partition installed. Otherwise after easily 5000+ machines ghosted I've never had an issue.

As far as data on the machine, yes you need to back it up before restoring a ghost image to it. My preferred method is to created a dual partition system and put the users data on D:, then I can blow the C: partition away as often as I like by doing an image to partition ghost instead of disk to disk.

[LoveLiteXP]

I have the same prob. I made a perfect working Silent install of Win XP but it'sn not realy handy if you have to image 10 pc's.

My thought was; make an image after Windows setup does the first reboot, but if i test this image, setup asks for the installation cd in drive D and is looking for Asms I'm sure you can change this somewere and let setup look for the i386\Asms folder on the harddrive but don't know where to find this. Setup is copying al the files to the harddrive so it makes sense that you dont need the cd anymore...

I know it is possible because i've seen it working somewhere else but, unfortunatly, I cant ask them how they did it.

Any idea someone?

Edited June 1, 2006 by LoveLiteXP

[chee]

yes, and thanks for your replies.

i've tried dumping an xp image ghosted from a hd with different mrb and disk geo to my first primary partition after backing up mbr and paritition table. then the pc frozes at booting and all my logical/ partitions became inaccessible.

obvious it's because the image records a different disk geo and a different mbr, and moreover, partition table is stroed in mbr and each partition has a LBR.

yet, for HDs with the same geometry, esp the geomerty of the first primary partition and the same mbr, dumping is successful.

so, backup the mrb and partition table, then ghost, then restore mbr and partition table to the original

Edited June 2, 2006 by chee

[Mordac85]

i've tried dumping an xp image ghosted from a hd with different mrb and disk geo to my first primary partition after backing up mbr and paritition table. then the pc frozes at booting and all my logical/ partitions became inaccessible.

obvious it's because the image records a different disk geo and a different mbr, and moreover, partition table is stroed in mbr and each partition has a LBR.

Actually, Ghost does not include all of the partition info when imaging a partition, only when imaging a disk. So the geomerty issue you're running into is more or less a "feature" of the Ghost partition imaging process. To include the MBR you have to image the disk with COPY or DUMP rather than the partition with PCOPY or PDUMP.

The best resource I've found for all things related to Ghost is Radified's Guide.

So it seems that if you need to cross to a different HAL, you'll need to stick w/an unattended install. But if the HAL's are the same you can sysprep a master and and make your base image.

[chee]

"To include the MBR you have to image the disk with COPY or DUMP rather than the partition with PCOPY or PDUMP."

this may be right!

yet, what i've tried is really an image to partition ghosting, which caused the problem.

cause boot info and partition table is stored in MBR

so, it seems that:

if ghost records MBR, then there will be disaster; else, it's safe.

and the only thing left is HAL crossing

[Mordac85]

I've never had to work from a disk image restored to a partition so you may be right. Don't you love the little things that get lost in all the docs!

[LoveLiteXP]

I found a way to do it.

- Make an unattended install like in MSFN unattended

- change in the winnt.sif file the OemFilesPath or copy the $OEM$ folder in your i386 folder.

- PLace a second HDD in your computer and make two partitions. The first one is a little bit bigger then the size of the installation files. (4 GB was in my case enough). Format this drive as NTFS.

- Open a command prompt in windows and go to the i386 folder on you unattended cd.

- type in WINNT32.exe /makelocalsource /noreboot /syspart:[driveletter] /tempdrive[driveletter] /unattend:winnt.sif. Driveletter is the letter of the drive you just formatted. (type winnt32.exe /? for help)

- place the HDD in a new computer and boot.

- After the first reboot, shut down the computer and make a ghost image.

It works for me!!

[pmshah]

I also found a simple method of doing it after studying several fora for transferring HDD from one PC to another evenwith different hardware.

Install xp normally. Change the ide driver to generic version. Change the graphic driver to standard xvga. Shutdown. Do not reboot. Make a ghost image of this partition. Dump this image onto a new partition. Boot into SAFE MODE only. Unles you have exotic hardware windows will detect & laod correct drivers for both. Yoy can then reboot normally. It should work OK. It does for me.