Has anyone successfully used Ghost or Acronis to move Vista?

[Steve Maser]

From one set of hardware to another?

Normally, with XP, we boot from the Ghost/Acronis CDs and make an image
to an external USB hard disk.

We then install this image on other PCs.


We were wondering if anybody has tried this with VISTA yet with any
sort of success/failure.

Anybody?

Thanks!

- Steve

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have successfully used Acronis TI Workstation 9.1 to move Vista to a new
hard drive on the same hardware. I haven't tried it to different hardware. I
did the clone operation by booting from the TI bootable recovery CD.
Initially the computer wouldn't boot. Inserting the Vista DVD and allowing
it to autorepair the bootsector fixed it.

 

[Steve Maser]

I have successfully used Acronis TI Workstation 9.1 to move Vista to a new
hard drive on the same hardware. I haven't tried it to different hardware. I
did the clone operation by booting from the TI bootable recovery CD.
Initially the computer wouldn't boot. Inserting the Vista DVD and allowing
it to autorepair the bootsector fixed it.

That's basically what I've been seeing (needing to "repair" the install
after the fact.)

Did you try to "sysprep" Vista before moving it?

Or just clone it "as is"?

- Steve

 

[Kerry Brown]

That's basically what I've been seeing (needing to "repair" the
install after the fact.)

Did you try to "sysprep" Vista before moving it?

Or just clone it "as is"?

- Steve

I haven't tried sysprep with Vista yet. I have tried cloning to a different
drive (TI 9.1) and imaging (TI 8.0) then restoring to the same drive. The
clone had to be repaired. The image didn't. When cloning I usually overwrite
track 0 of the target first to erase the drive and make sure the boot sector
is clear. I forgot to do this when testing TI with Vista. I don't know if
this affected the results. I have intermittantly seen the same thing when
cloning XP to a new drive so the fault may be with TI or the procedure I
use.

Have you seen this?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx

 

[Richard Urban]

Hi Kerry,

Vista is different enough that some of the old low level tools no longer
function correctly.

I have had the same experience as you with Acronis TrueImage Workststion9.1
(and it is a new program).

In addition, there are problems with using Partition Magic 8.01 (from the
boot floppies) on a drive that has Vista installed. PM shows the drive as
having an error, and wants to effect a repair. You can not allow PM to
perform the repair. If you do, Vista will be unbootable, and unrecoverable.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Steve Maser]

Have you seen this?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa.mspx

Yes, actually.

This part of it:


From the command prompt, type the following command to reseal
(generalize) and shut down the computer:
C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown
The Sysprep tool (Sysprep.exe) in this command prepares the image for
capture by cleaning up various user and machine settings and log files.
The master installation is complete and ready to be imaged.


Would seem to imply that you should just be able to only *sysprep* the
computer for imaging/deployment -- which might then work with Acronis.


But what's not clear if you can *just* do this -- and, if so, does
sysprep use the XP-style "sysprep.ini" file for installing the Product
Key, etc...


Or do you have to make the "Autounattend.xml" file and put *that* in
the sysprep folder and move on, etc...?


The whole WinPE/WIM/Image X stuff seems more complex than it used to be
in XP (though I see the point behind it...)

- Steve

 

[Kerry Brown]

The bootsector is certainly different enough that I've seen a Vista install
break the "Press Fx key to restore" function on some OEM computers. So far
in my limited testing of Acronis with Vista I've been able to work around or
fix any problems that have cropped up.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I haven't had time to try anything with sysprep and Vista yet. I read the
article the same as you.

Or do you have to make the "Autounattend.xml" file and put *that* in
the sysprep folder and move on, etc...?

That is what I would try first.

 

[Steve Maser]

I haven't had time to try anything with sysprep and Vista yet. I read the
article the same as you.


That is what I would try first.

I figured out that "sysprep" works if you use the /unattend:<filename>
flag.

However, "sysprep" will only run *3 times*!


After that, I get a message that "A fatal error occurred while trying
to sysprep the machine".


Sheesh! I hope this behavior isn't in the GM, otherwise how can I test
my "unattend.xml" file without having to continually reformat the
computer?

(And, yes, my "unattend.xml" file seems to have issues -- after running
"sysprep", when I log into the account after all the rebooting is done,
it's -- again -- prompting me to set a network location *and* telling
me that Automatic Updates is turned off...)

- Steve