Local profile problem on cloned PCs

[Guest]

We have dozens of identical PCs which will have identical setups. So, to save
time I build one PC to get everything right, XP +SP2 +hotfixes, MS Office
+service packs +hotfixes, IE settings, user software, default printer setup
etc etc etc. Once The PC is set the way I want it I then use Norton Ghost to
create an image on a network drive which I can then drop onto the other
identical PCs. All perfectly legal in this case no piracy involved.

Now some of these PCs will have many users each with their own network login
and therefore local profile. The problem I keep coming across and can't get
round is that sometimes I get users that can never log on at a specific PC.
The set of folders gets created in c:\Documents and Settings but the PC hangs
during the logon process and has to be turned off and on again. Try loging in
as that user and the same thing happens again. What I end up with is a number
of folders for that user which I end up having to delete e.g.

fred.mydomain
fred.mydomain.000
fred.mydomain.001 etc etc

I then try a different user and the local folder set is created and login
completes with no problems. I can then go to an identical machine with the
same image as the first machine and login as fred and the profile gets
created fine!

There doesn't seem to be a logical pattern to the problem. In most cases a
PC will only be used by one or two people but there are some which have over
20 local profiles on (a teacher's staff room) so it can be a real pain having
to re-image the machine and trying again.

If anyone has any suggestions as to a way around this I would be very
greatful.

 

[Kerry Brown]

We have dozens of identical PCs which will have identical setups. So,
to save time I build one PC to get everything right, XP +SP2
+hotfixes, MS Office +service packs +hotfixes, IE settings, user
software, default printer setup etc etc etc. Once The PC is set the
way I want it I then use Norton Ghost to create an image on a network
drive which I can then drop onto the other identical PCs. All
perfectly legal in this case no piracy involved.

Now some of these PCs will have many users each with their own
network login and therefore local profile. The problem I keep coming
across and can't get round is that sometimes I get users that can
never log on at a specific PC. The set of folders gets created in
c:\Documents and Settings but the PC hangs during the logon process
and has to be turned off and on again. Try loging in as that user and
the same thing happens again. What I end up with is a number of
folders for that user which I end up having to delete e.g.

fred.mydomain
fred.mydomain.000
fred.mydomain.001 etc etc

I then try a different user and the local folder set is created and
login completes with no problems. I can then go to an identical
machine with the same image as the first machine and login as fred
and the profile gets created fine!

There doesn't seem to be a logical pattern to the problem. In most
cases a PC will only be used by one or two people but there are some
which have over 20 local profiles on (a teacher's staff room) so it
can be a real pain having to re-image the machine and trying again.

If anyone has any suggestions as to a way around this I would be very
greatful.

You need to use sysprep before creating the image. All the pc's have
duplicate SIDs, Computer names, etc. which is causing the problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q302577/

There are other programs that can be run after the image is deployed.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/pfdocs/1999050308324125

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NewSid.html

Kerry

 

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for that I will look at sysprep. Because of the PC's names needing
changing we already run Ghost Walker to change the PC name and SID when
restoring the image to other PCs. Having looked at the Symantec info page
what we currently do should work, and in 99 out of 100 it does. It's just
this occasional strange PC hang when logging in for the first time as I
described above.

How I usually get around it is to drop the image onto the PC again and logon
again and it usually works the 2nd time. Most odd but I can live with it.

cheers

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi, thanks for that I will look at sysprep. Because of the PC's names
needing changing we already run Ghost Walker to change the PC name
and SID when restoring the image to other PCs. Having looked at the
Symantec info page what we currently do should work, and in 99 out of
100 it does. It's just this occasional strange PC hang when logging
in for the first time as I described above.

How I usually get around it is to drop the image onto the PC again
and logon again and it usually works the 2nd time. Most odd but I can
live with it.

cheers

If you are using Ghost Walker then sysprep is not really needed, at least
for the SID issues. I would look for a different cause other than duplicate
SIDs. Are you using Active Directory? It sounds more like a communication
problem with a domain controller or global catalog issue. Do you have more
than one site? Does the problem only happen at certain sites? Is DNS
configured properly? Are the problem users affected by a group policy that
doesn't apply to others? Are there any errors in the event logs on the
workstation or the DC it tried to authenticate with when the problem occurs?

Kerry

 

[Guest]

yes we do use AD (3DCs + 1 memeber server) on a single site. DNS etc all ok
and no policies in place. I will take a lookthroug event logs to see if
anything there.

It just seems odd that when cloning 10 PCs the problem happened on 3 and not
the other 7. When logging in for the first time instead of picking up the
existing local profile it generate a brand new one from the default profile.

cheers