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Universal Images / nLite / etc

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Leozack

Leozack

MIS
Oct 25, 2002
867
GB
I've spent a lot of time reading up lately on this issue, because as far as I was aware everytime you changed hardware (mobo) you had to reinstall XP, and for every type of PC/laptop in a domain you needed a seperate image for the same reason.

Now after spending weeks reading up on this stuff it seems people are managing to do away with both those things and yet I never even heard about it! My reading has included :


Sorry to post all that but maybe it will be of use to others to read too :) Or maybe there is other helpful material I should read?

My issue howeer is despite reading all of that, I'm still not sure exactly how to go about it. From what I can see it may be as simple as this :

1 - set the HAL on the master PC (physical or virtual) to one any Pc you want can use (this seems to mean set it to APCI PC because they'll all run that, then turn it from wihtout windows device manager to ACPI MultiCPU on newer dualcore PCs after they've taken the image)

2 - add [SysprepMassStorage] section to the sysprep.inf, and add a line for each mass storage driver you'll need eg PCI\VEN_10B9&DEV_5215=%systemroot%\inf\mshdc.inf

However - I'm not sure if that's all it takes, nor am I sure if I have to remoev things from the device manager on the master PC before imaging, nor am I sure what mass storage drivers I'll need for the various PCs and laptops on any given site :( So all help welcome!

_________________________________
Leozack
Code: 
MakeUniverse($infinity,1,42);
 
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When it comes to new Motherboards, which doesn't happen very often to me, my rule of thumb is try it with the new board and if it works fine, if it doesn't then to a repair install.
 
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When I change mobo's I usually do this first: faq602-6735

usually everything works out fine, but I have not tested this on a single to multicore cpu senario... if it did not work I would just have to do a REPAIR INSTALL (like Linney mentioned) and that would fix the rest...


PS: the nice thing about nLite is that you can incorporate any driver when ever you want and then burn a copy that would install on the hardware that you have...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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I've used Acronis True Image with its Universal Restore addition with much success moving images from one motherboard to another. While not 100% success rate, I guesstimate it to be around 90%.
 
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Unfortunately I'm not in a position where I can buy new software like trueimage. I have use of ghost 8.5 corporate for imaging. I have various sites each site has various pc makes/models and so far I have to have a similar image at each site for each of it's types of PCs. It would be nice if I could build one at each site for what they want (maybe a couple of different setups) and just use that image for any hardware. That's ultimately what I'm after.

Repair installs aren't really an option as I'm using VL edition of XPpro and my cd's don't have a repair option.
I also don't want to "install" to any PC, as when I have new ones I have 5-25 at a time usually so I install to just 1 as a master, configure, image in then image out to the rest. The thing I'm after would be to not even have to setup the master due to being able to use an image already prepared from an earlier system.

_________________________________
Leozack
Code: 
MakeUniverse($infinity,1,42);
 
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Strange that your Volume License Edition of XP does not have a REPAIR option...

The ones I worked with all do...




Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
 
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It might be worthwhile investigating Universal Imaging Utility from Binary Research Ltd (they actually invented Ghost in the first place).

It will allow you to sysprep an image and deploy it to various hardware and works a treat.

It costs money but not a lot considering the ease of deploying to various platforms (also the driver updates occur very regularly).

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 
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Maybe the original VLCD does, but I use slipstreamed ones and often tweaked ones with nlite to save hours of time afterwards installing and updating which I don't have the hours for in a visit. It's possible I can restore the repair ability to such cd's somehow, though the fact is many of the pcs I don't even know which to use for a repair - I figure a cd with whatever service pack the pc currently is, slipstreamed. eg you don't repair install an sp2 pc with a sp0 cd.
I'll look into that UIU from BR but if it's possible to sysprep to multi formats with just some driver entries into sysprep and a tweak of the HAL selection possibly then it'd be money never granted.

_________________________________
Leozack
Code: 
MakeUniverse($infinity,1,42);
 
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UIU looks great but damn, that's not cheap. I can't even consider that for my sort of position. Sadly :( I guess I need to press on with finding how to handle sysprep myself to acheive the same result? Surely people who are already doing this can explain it in terms I may understand better than in some of those articles I linked to which I've read and are all good :)

_________________________________
Leozack
Code: 
MakeUniverse($infinity,1,42);
 
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Have you tried asking your "Deployment" questions in the Server Forum?


Or Here?

MSFN Forums > Unattended Windows Discussion & Support > Unattended Windows


Sysprep, Ghost and Gateway computers possible?
thread779-1222491

Items That Can or Cannot Be Added During Unattended Upgrade Using Answer Files

These mention BDD.

Universal Image - Inconsistent
thread779-1418979

Best Installation Methods
thread779-1414017
 
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Some of those links are ones I posted as being my reading again ;)
Thanks, I'll post about it in the server forum

_________________________________
Leozack
Code: 
MakeUniverse($infinity,1,42);
 
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