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Thread: XP Image Creation - Different Hardware

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    XP Image Creation - Different Hardware

    Hello,

    As some of you may know I offer IT support services to home and business users.

    I figured it's about time I started saving myself some time but creating an image of an XP install, with commonly used app's and all of the latest updates which I can quickly deploy onto a customers freshly formatted PC.

    However, one thing I cannot get my head around is drivers. How can I possibly make an image that has no drivers/unique drivers? As you can imagine all of my customers hardware differs massively.

    I have been reading up on sysprep but a nice guide on the above, if possible, would be nice.

    If what I want to do is not possible is it possible to slipstream 3rd party applications into an XP install?

    Thanks,

    Chris

    Skype: cjackway

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    radix lecti dave87's Avatar
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    How about creating an N-Lite ISO with all the drivers for the different machines, then having a CD with all the software that you would generally install on a machine?

    That way, you can use one install disc, plus one for the software, to install everything you need. You could probably even automate it if you had the time/inclination.

    The one thing I would say, is unless you've got a multitude of machines with similar hardware configurations, a unified install is more trouble than its worth.

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    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    It is nice to be able to use an Image on our production PC's as it saves time but more importantly effort as all you need do is set it off and then come back and its done so I can keep working on projects.

    That said if they are different PC's I wouldn't even bother trying to use an Image. It's best to set them up from scratch imo.

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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    //edit: it would probably be best to do a dummy run using out steps 1, 2, 4-10 before you do the full image with all the customisations.

    OK, I'll be brief (this could have been REALLY long, but there's guides out there if you need more info).

    1) use nLite to streamline all the drivers you will use into a new XP CD. Don't use the .exe or .zips, extract them so you get the .infs and the rest of the files. Only use x86 drivers, and if you add any mass storage drivers (RAID, SATA, SCSI) make sure you only select the x86 (32-bit) drivers if you get the choice. Keep any directory structures too. I should warn you that nV chipset drivers don't like this (due to the different packs for each chipset, ATi graphics drivers don't work for me and Creative sound card drivers also don't like this). I don't mind uploading my drivers folder if you want a good base to add to. Let me know if you want it.

    2) use virtual machine software (I've only ever used VMWare Workstation for this - the free VMWare Server may work too. No idea about VirtualPC or VirtualBox) to install the operating system. Make sure the hard drive is smaller than the smallest hard drive of the systems you will be deploying to. Don't install VMWare Tools or any addons that come with the virtual machine software. It can cause headaches when deploying (like a lack of keyboard and a mouse!)

    3) install all the software common to the PCs onto this virtual machine (from here I'll refer to it as 'VM') and make any customisations. Any software which requires activation (this includes Windows*) install, but don't activate it - this will have to be done after the deploying.

    4) Head into device manager on the VM and in the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section change the hard drive controller from whatever it is (probably an older Intel model will be named), to Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE controller. In the Computer section, if the option is anything other than ACPI Uniprocessor change it to this. This is the profile for a single-core CPU, but during the deployment, we give it the option to make it multiprocessor if necessary**. Restart the PC if asked.

    5) Use Sysprep. You can download it from the Microsoft site or find it in the Support.cab on the XP CD (make sure you use SP2s version). Extract the contents of the .cab file to C:\sysprep (right-click, save as). Copy this sysprep.inf to this directory. This is the one I use at work. You can get add or change commands as you wish. There's a list in the deploy.chm that comes from the same .cab file as sysprep. For reference, the line UpdateUPHAL = "ACPIAPIC_UP,%WINDIR%\Inf\Hal.inf" which I've remmed out, updates the HAL if you use dual/quad-core or HyperThreading, but only updates it if necessary. If you wish to use it, take the ; off the start of the line. I've also remmed out the domain section. If you join a domain, enter the details there if you want it done automatically. The username and password will need to be an admin on the domain. All the details are specific to us at work (obviously I've removed some) - the CountryCode and AreaCode are for the UK and our telephone prefix respectively.

    6) Copy the entire I386 from the CD you created with nLite into the C:\sysprep folder so it has the structure C:\sysprep\I386

    7) Use an Acronis True Image boot CD or something to make a backup of the entire drive onto another PC over the network, and make sure you use the verification setting. This is crucial so that if your image doesn't work, you can recover back to this point without having to do everything from step 2 onwards all over again.

    8) once that's done, boot up the VM again and run sysprep.exe from C:\sysprep - tick the Use Mini-Setup option, select Shutdown from the drop-down menu and select Reseal. It'll take a few minutes, perhaps longer, and when it's done, it should shut the VM down. You want it to shut down just incase you miss the reboot, and it'll start the sysprep process, meaning you'll have to reload that backup image you made and run sysprep once more.

    9) Start the VM up again, booting to the Acronis (or equivalent) CD, and make another image over the network. This is the image that will be deployed to the client PCs.

    10) Boot up a client machine. Probably best to use one that's not important if possible, or to take an image of it before we deploy to it, just in case it doesn't work. If in doubt, boot the VM first and do a dummy run. We can recover the base file from earlier to make any changes if necessary. Either way, recover the 2nd image we made (the one after sysprep had done its work) and reboot the machine when it's done. If everything goes well, it should go through the details automatically, it should only reboot the machine the once, and then land you at the login screen if you use a domain. If it goes into a rebooting loop, then I'm stumped. I've only got the 1 machine that does this at work, but can't for the life of me work out why it does it. I had to reinstall XP the long way on that one. If some SATA drives are causing issues, setting them as IDE devices or to compatibility mode in the BIOS if possible is normally enough.

    11) install any additional software, activate windows and any software that needs it, and remove the IE and WMP icons that sysprep annoyingly creates

    * This is only going to work if all the XP licenses are the same. For instance you can't build the virtual machine using a Retail license and then deploy it to machines which use OEM licenses or VLKs. They all need to be the same license type or the key will be rejected.

    ** If you use older PCs (I'm think of PIIs and some early PIIIs), then they not be ACPI compliant. If so, once you've made you first image, copy that and make another one using the Standard PC HAL instead of ACPI Uniprocessor
    Last edited by this_is_gav; 23-04-2007 at 01:18 PM.

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