Creating XP Disk Images w/ Company Applications?

-ryan asks: "After a decade as a software engineer, I decided to try my hand at being a System Administrator, to help a friends business. Unfortunately every single computer in this office is on different hardware (all custom built), all running different versions of Windows, and new employees come and go regularly. I'd like to create a single disk image with all of the company software pre-installed and configured to save time setting up new boxes and rebuilding old ones. Problem is, you can't just ghost Windows XP onto different hardware (I remember this working years back). Is there some way that I can (without purchasing hugely expensive 'client-management solutions) slipstream a bunch of company software into a Windows XP install disk?" "I remember trying to set up a system image for XP a while ago, and some machines will boot the ghosted system image with errors about missing drivers (which is easy to fix) but some won't even boot without a BSOD.

If I can pull off a slipstream of my own custom XP install (with applications), I wouldn't mind having to install system specific drivers. The company leadership is very pro Linux and wants to move all of the desktops over, but this year it's not feasible to do such a migration. So until then.... any ideas?"

Comments

Unattended Installation

[TripMaster Monkey]

With your mix of hardware, slamming an image won't cut it for you. You'll have to created an unattended Windows install.

Here's a pretty good guide on the subject.

Re:Unattended Installation

[Anonymous Coward]

No you don't. Copy the i386 folder onto the hdd, along with all of the various drivers. Modify the sysprep file in the \deploy folder to include an empty mass storage drivers section. Run sysprep with the bmsd switch and the pnp switch to force hardware detection on first boot. Ghost it. Voila.

Absolutely Possible

[Bryan_Casto]

Ghost can do this. What you want to do is create a "master" computer with all of your applications on it. Then, use SysPrep (Google is your friend) to create an abbreviated install. Once you've run SysPrep, boot into Ghost and make your image.

Re:Absolutely Possible

[TripMaster Monkey]

Yes, but Sysprep depends on all the target computers having identical ACPI support, which I'm betting isn't the case in the submitter's hodgepodge environment.

Using Sysprep on systems with disparate ACPIs yields a target system that BSODs, much like if you just tried to slam an image of the source to it. You need to reinstall Windows on the afflicted system, using the undocumented F5 option during setup to select the proper ACPI, to revive it, and then, you're stuck with having to reinstall all service packs and hotfixes. Not much of a solution.

Unattended is good

[deque_alpha]

I have used unattended with great success deploying several hundred XP installations. http://unattended.sourceforge.net/. It won't let you slipstream an install disc, but it will let you do complete, brainless unattended installs over network, hence the creative name. It has the added benefit of easy long-term maintenance and updates, which is a win over the install-disc or ghosting method.

Re:Unattended is good

[jmobley]

Unattended is definitely the best system I've used so far.

And actually, you can do that now with the service packs from Microsoft. At least that's what I'm doing with our windows 2000 and 2003 server installations. I have the service packs, as well as all post-SP patches and updates, integrated into the specific versions I386 folder. After that I just commented everything in the updates.bat file and all of my installs end up fully patched out of the box. Coupled with the Perl and VB scripts you can write and fire off during the installation, it saves me loads of time during post-install configuration. At some point I'd like to extend the system to generate customized post-install scripts on the fly, so that I can create fully custom installs on a per client basis.

I've got some bookmarked links to the MS knowledgebase that explains how to integrate the service packs and individual patches, but they're not on me at the moment. Should be pretty easy to find by searching for "integrate service packs" on the MS site.

The key feature for me with Unattended is the ability to integrate drivers into the I386 folder so they are available during install. This is what enables such a wide variety of chipsets to be supported from a single installation point.

A coworker of mine suggested a way of using ghost by performing a windows install on a single machine, then powering down the system right before it boots for the first time and goes through its hardware detection. Then taking the hard drive, mounting it on another machine, copying the I386 folder and all necessary drivers to the hard drive, and making a ghost image of that drive. Supposedly when you ghost another machine, windows should boot for the first time, detect all the hardware and load the appropriate drivers. I've never tried this, however, so I have no clue if it works well or not. Sounds like it could work though.

Universal Imaging Utility

[XCorvis]

UIU was a pleasant suprise for us. We use it all the time and it actually works pretty well. The short version is that it rips out all your hardware information and uses sysprep and preinstalled drivers to automatically detect and install the new system's hardware on the next boot. So basically, you build one computer, run UIU, image it (with Ghost or something) and then dump it on to all the other computers, regardless of their hardware setup (well, not including SCSI or RAID). There usually isn't even any post-install configuration necessary.

Did you try this

[varmittang]

http://blog.hishamrana.com/2006/02/22/how-to-image -windows-xp-with-ghost-and-sysprep/ I'm not sure if you use these directions when making your disk image before. Plus, I think it takes some time to get it right.

Take a look at nLite...

[tysonedwards]

You may want to take a look at nLite (http://www.nliteos.com./ It is essencially a graphical front-end to Unattended, and allows you to create a fully working installer image with imbedded applications in less than 5 minutes (after you figure your way around). Very useful tool.

Bâshrat the Sneaky's DriverPacks and MSFN

[theCSapprentice]

You can learn how to everything from here:
http://www.msfn.org/board/

Here:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/ 1/

And here:
http://www.driverpacks.net/Projects/DriverPacks/

Applications, Drivers, Updates - all slipstreamed.

Not very realistic!

[clevershark]

Sorry to say, but unless your business apps are 100k you're going to run out of space on the disk.

I recently did a slipstreamed XP disc w/ SP2 and all the critical updates already integrated, and I found myself having to remove the unessential stuff (demos, extras) from the CD image if I wanted to fit it onto one disc.

Sysprep/Ghost still not a solution

[engagebot]

If you use the 'mini-setup' of Sysprep, the first time you boot the machine after that, it'll go through the regular deal of finding all your devices and installing them, so having different hardware may not be a huge problem.

The problem is with Windows XP reg keys. If you build a ghost image using a 'corporate license' disc or whatever, then all of your machines will have to use that multi-license key. You may not care, but when you work for a state hospital (like me) they do. You won't be able to use the reg key on the case badge, cause its probably a key for an OEM install.

The OEM windows keys on the case badges are sometimes vendor-specific. Meaning the key off a Dell's case won't work on a Gateway 'restore' disc, nor will it work on a store-bought copy of XP from the shelf. We have a contract with Dell, so its not a big deal for us, but it may/may not suck in your situation.

After the Holy Grail?

[GundamFan]

Well this is the one thing that XP can't do in my experince... but I have been where you are before.

What I did was take an inventory find out how many of each model I had, then I found out which models would take the image I had (even if not compleatly) and cleaned those up to create a new image for that model. on system that where too diffrent I upgraded to XP (to maintain as many settings and apps as I could) and used that with some cleaning as a base for an image for those model.

At first my boss wanted me to use sysprep and maintain one image (like he had done with 2000 before I came) but after about a week of experimenting it became clear that creating an universal image would take way to long if it was even possible.

I know that this isn't the cleanest or shortest process but last I heard they are still using my images so I must have done something right.

Hope that helps.

Sysprep

[willith]

Use Microsoft's Sysprep tool to make your images hardware-agnostic. If you know all the disparate hardware in your environment, you can pre-cache the drivers on your image template computer, sysprep it, then shut it down and create your image with ghost/trueimage/altiris rdeploy/whatever you've got. You can then deploy the image to any computer.

http://unattended.msfn.org

[DA-MAN]

The subject says it all. A big comprehensive site that explains how to do exactly what you wish.

Ghost works fine

[Curien]

I use a single image that operates on Dell GX110, 150, 260, 270, HP DC 7100c, HP xw8000, Compaq 1830 laptop, Dell C500, C510, C600, C610 and D610 laptops, Dell P650 and P670, and Dell Precision M70 laptop. I think that's it, but it's kinda hard to keep track of them all.

The ACPI isn't the biggest problem. The main problem is, astoundingly, the IDE driver.

Here's what you do.
1. Install Windows on a system and then load all the drivers.
2. Set it for Uniprocessor ACPI.
3. Set the IDE driver to the generic driver.
4. Move the drive image to another system (swap hard drives, clone the drive with Ghost, whatever).
5. Boot up, install drivers for new system.
6. Move image to previous system.
7. Set for system-specific IDE driver.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for each type of system.
9. Move image to last system and switch to system-specific IDE driver.
10. Sysprep and save a Ghost image.

Also, if you're using a lot of different types of systems with GhostCast Server, PXE booting is the only way to fly. Use pxelinux (part of syslinux) with the keeppxe option along with the 3COM universal NDIS driver, and you'll never have to worry about NIC-specific drivers with Ghost again (unless you have a system that can't boot PXE, like my Compaq 1830s -- they're a pain in the ass!) If you absolutely can't boot PXE, use Bart's tools (BFD and BCD) to make a bootable floppy or CD-ROM with all the drivers.

Windows RIS

[major.morgan]

If you are running a Windows domain, you may want to look at RIS (Remote Installation Service). Workstations use PXE to boot over the network and a "image" is placed onto the box. The image is a not quite the same as Ghost in that an actual install (with hardware detection) is performed for each machine, applications are then dumped on top of this. Is quite portable across different machines, not to difficult to get running (no more boot floppys!) and is included with Windows Server.

Good starting point: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Lib rary/c62e5951-5eb9-42f1-95ae-490e5d7a55511033.mspx /

Re:Windows RIS

[John the Kiwi]

I haven't seen too many posts here talking about RIS but that's the only solution I have stuck with over the years and it has its merits and is still my preferred method.

For me Ghosting is not a good solution because of all of the driver issues, the old SID problems from the NT4 days (fool me once...) and the amount of additional work required every time you want to update the image - service packs or applications for example. Also be aware that for Microsoft based products you will want volume licenses so you can reuse the same keys, this requires buying through a reseller and creating an account with Microsoft on the https://eopen.microsoft.com/ web site (I hate passport!).

One solution I am fairly happy with is a bootable CD I created which will install Windows 2000, XP, 98, 2003 Server from an answer file. Obviously only one or two OSes per CD but I can install any of those by typing a name for the machine, pressing enter and waiting an hour for the OS to actually install. Unfortunately this requires a few non Microsoft tools, which is probably why the lack of documentation. I use a Windows 98 bootable disk image (proprietary), the DOS version of sed (to parse the computer name from my DOS script), AEFdisk (to script the formatting of the disk) and CD writing software capable of grabbing a floppy disk image.

I still need to install drivers and software and configure the network. The cd has to have a hard coded key. But for PC repair it sure beats entering everything manually and pressing enter to bypass the installation screens.

RIS is similar but made for companies with at least one Microsoft based server. You create your answer files and install the OS from a dedicated partition on your RIS server, this is a pain of a limitation if you don't plan well in advance before you install your server/s.

There are several other limitations with RIS the show stopper has always been support of the PXE boot protocol, but nowadays most motherboards support PXE boot, you may have to enable it in the BIOS of your machines though. Many newer network chipsets are just not supported by Windows XP or 2003 server and RIS specific drivers can be difficult if not impossible to track down - the Marvel Yukon network drivers spring to mind.

Microsoft provides a bootable floppy disk to boot off of that provides generic drivers for many older network cards, several of my customers mandate specific network cards for each of their workstations.

To install a computer you press F12 for the PXE boot, provide the credentials of a user that has permission to install, breeze through a few configuration screens (depending on your RIS setup) and then the workstation is installed for you.

In my opinion this is where the process of imaging finishes and the beginnings of workstation management begins. I say this despite the software not being installed because you should be installing and managing your software through Active Directory and the use of MSI files.

Some applications come with MSI files for installation such as Microsoft Office and Norton AntiVirus. These applications can be managed by user or computer or groups thereof in Active Directory. This is far more flexible than imaging.

Many applications can also be installed silently via script, this can be problematic if your users don't have local administrative access to their workstations but you can bypass this restriction.

Microsoft has really done a piss poor job of creating automated installation tools for third party products for creating MSI files for use with Active Directory, all of these tools are expensive and don't have demo versions so I've never used one. All of the tools I have seen require that you install your workstation, start some monitoring program, install the software, reboot and then the monitoring program compares the machine before and after and creates an MSI file based on the differences. Microsoft should try employing some of those malware writers

Re-install Windows XP over the restored image.

[Futurepower(R)]

One simple way to make one image work with differing computers is to restore a standard image and then re-install Windows over the restored image. During the re-install Windows XP re-enumerates the hardware.

After that, as others have said, you MUST run Sysprep to change the SID. These are the commands:

sysprep.exe -bmsd
pause
sysprep.exe -reseal -activated -mini -pnp

Install Sysprep into a folder sysprep2 and copy to C:\Sysprep. Sysprep deletes its folder after it is finished.

Sysprep -bmsd rebuilds sysprep.ini, which holds the information that Sysprep uses.

Any tips about this experienced users have would be appreciated. Microsoft's documentation is VERY sloppy.