Sysprep questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter KHemmelman
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K

KHemmelman

I'm hoping I can get some additional info on Sysprep that
I'm not sure about.

- I've been told there's a limit to the number of times
you can run Sysprep on a pc. Is this true? Is so, what
is the maximum times you can run it?

- In regards to max times to run Sysprep, I believe I
read somewhere that if you use the "-reseal" switch, the
max times you can run Sysprep is 3. But is there a limit
if you don't use this switch?

- In our organization, when we get new computers to
replace old ones, we generally use Symantec Ghost and do
a "disk to disk" clone from the old to the new which
saves a lot of time on setup. Our computers are Domain
Members. Sometimes this fails and I suspect it's due to
the old computer not having the drivers installed that
the new pc needs. Is there an appropriate way to run
Sysprep on the old computer before cloning and keep the
existing SID for the Domain and then get it to either add
the additional drivers the new pc will need or can you
run Sysprep in a manner that it will force the new pc to
prompt for drivers or redetect, etc. to allow the new pc
to bootup and not fail after cloning?
 
Hello,

When you run sysprep it resets the activation counter to zero, or 30 days
depending on which way you want to look at it so that you get the full
activation period each time you deploy the sysprepped operating system.
However after the third time of running the activation counter is not reset.
So if you deploy the image more than 30 days after running sysprep you will
have to activate that copy of Windows XP before you can continue. (This is
in the sysprep information in the deploy.chm on the CD.)There were problems
with earlier versions of sysprep that caould make the deployed version of
the OS unstable if it were run multiple times.

You mention you are running sysprep on domain members? This is not best
practice/should not work, I assume you are disjoining the machines from the
domain before you run sysprep?

As for sysprep failing... you do not mention the exact nature of the
failure. Normally this is due to the target system having a different mass
storage driver from the referance machine. You might find this article
useful http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577 and
have a look in the deploy.chm manual regarding adding mass storage drivers
to sysprep images to make them portable.

I hope this was useful.

--
regards,

Richard

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