[bookie32]

Hi folks

OK! this is something that has been done to death, but as always, there is always a lack of information.....what I get fedup with is finding what seems like very good "how to's" until one comes to the part where it is assumed that we have done this and we have done that....!!

I have tried to find complete info on how to use MDT to capture XP but there is always something missing...

So, I have been looking at the option of using WDS...

I have installed XP Home Edition in VMware with all updates and removed VMware tools before creating a snapshot "before-sysprep"...

I then created my Sysprep directory on the C:\ Sysprep. I added all the files from the latest Windows XP sp3 cab file and added the original "unattend" file from my Windows XP CD.

My Windows XP Home Edition only comes with sp1 included, but because I have updated it with all updates and sp3 I assume that the sp3 cab file is the right one?

I ran "sysprepmgr" to check the "unattend" file but didn't make any changes to that and then ran "sysprep.exe" I chose the option " to prepare the computer for end user, click reseal" and then turned of the vm.


WDS
To create my images for capture and deploy using WDS I followed this guide. Now the guide states clearly that if don't sysprep the vm the right way then you wont see an image when you use pxe boot...Sure enough there was no image.

I have read a ton of info but nothing really says why the images isn't being found?!!


I had VMware 7, but have upgraded to the latest version now and I can't see any drivers I can add etc to make this work. Being on the same physical machine I don't really understand why WDS isn't seing the syspreped vm?
Can someone help me with this?
XP is still used by a lot of my customers and I need a way of imaging and deploying their computers with either WDS or MDT...don't really care...just want a complete "how to" that actually works...

Sorry, bit grumpy today.....

The one thing I promise...is when I finally get my server doing my capturing and deploying as it should ..then I will do a COMPLETE how to and not assume that the person reading knows anything!!

bookie32

This post has been edited by bookie32: 30 October 2011 - 05:39 AM

[bookie32]

Hi again!
Perhaps I should have asked....who has had success in deploying XP with either WDS or MDT or anything else for that matter and how did they do it..........?

bookie32

[Tripredacus]

Does your VM get an IP from the PXE server, or are you able to boot into your Capture Image?

[bookie32]

Hi Tripredacus
Yes, the vm is getting an ip and the welcome to windows deployment capture wizard, but then nothing in the list for caputre?!
bookie32

[iamtheky]

we do it with our WDS. It serves up the boot image, which in this case is just standard with a starnet.cmd that

A ) maps a drive to a folder on the WDS itself with the net use command. Lets call that i:\images.

B ) Then runs " imagex /capture c: i:\images\XPtest.wim 1 " then subsequently any drives that need appended to that wim.

--running this line manually should verbosely function or fail -- then i would go back to automating it.


**Of course you get HAL with this method and it will only go back onto the same or very similar machines.

This post has been edited by iamtheky: 31 October 2011 - 03:38 PM

[Tripredacus]

I know MDT can go XP images but I haven't got that far into it yet. I might be able to get into the Enterprise side of things soon, but as far as I am concerned (currently) XP is EOL except for Embedded.

[bookie32]

Hi guys!
Well, I had hoped to use MDT and tried to follow the info from this guide
Partly I can understand what he is getting at, but....

Quote

Now, create a new text file, and make sure to include the following text. Then save it as Autologon.reg (or name it differently if you want, but then adjust the filename again in the GuiRunOnce section of the Unattend.txt

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
“DefaultUserName”=”Owner”
“AutoAdminLogon”=”1″
“AutoLogonCount”=”999″
“DefaultPassword”=”"

Couldn't work out where the reg file should go? If one is to have the directory order as he suggests - then what goes where...?

As usual I have wasted time writing to someone who seems to have a blog that is dead!!

Anyone make sense of this?

bookie32

[allen2]

From the guide the reg file should go in the minint folder.

[bookie32]

Hi allen2
I am glad it makes sense to someone....LOL...
OK! the structure he proposes in the guide...does that make sense?

bookie32

[allen2]

The guide seems right but as i didn't ever tried deploying with MDT or WDS, i can't tell for sure if it will work.

[bookie32]

Hi allen2
Thanks mate...will have a look at that a little later and get back to you...customers to take care of...:LOL

bookie32

[bookie32]

Hi again!
Either I am really stupid.....don't need to answer that one or the whole setup the guide shows doesn't make sense...

He talks about the $OEM$ directory that is within deployment share?

The first pic shows the general layout for my MDT deployment share.. in MDT

The second pic shows the actual deployment share info on my hard drive....

The third pic shows the actual "operating systems" directory on my hard drive...no structure here as shown in MDT?

Even if I create the structure he shows in MDT one hasn't a real directory into which I can put the "Autologon.reg"?! This structure is only visible in MDT?

And which of the directories he is creating does one import the os to in MDT?

bookie32

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[bookie32]

Hi folks!

Well, not being funny...I have liturally spent weeks on this idea of using Windows Server 2008r2 with WDS and MDT for imaging and deploying Windows...

No disrespect to you guyss...just don't think Windows can cut it....

Yes, I agree there is a lot to learn, but I have never had any problem following instructions from guides etc to get things working...

I have wasted a lot of money and time on this and will go back to Linux......

Why is it that there is more help and info regarding capture and deployment from the Linux world?

I do thank everyone for their help!

bookie32

[iamtheky]

the user in post #5 does it just fine

while their may be limitations for MDT (idk cause we dont use it), WDS serves XP images just fine.

I dont see why you would want to do anything but the most basic of push and pulls for a .wim you will be unable to service, and is HAL dependent. You could make a boot.wim for each of the hardware with commands hardcoded in the startnet, and let XP clients use the boot menu to select which one they want. Or even a single boot.wim to detect the system programatically and auto deploy without much effort.

This post has been edited by iamtheky: 03 November 2011 - 08:51 AM

[Tripredacus]

I think your $OEM$ folder goes into the OS folder in your third picture. I tried to look on my test server but it seems I don't have any OSes added.
Ugg even the production server doesn't have any either since I never got a reply to that "What OSes do you want to use" email.

[bookie32]

Hi guys!
iamtheky

Quote

the user in post #5 does it just fine

Sorry, am I missing something here? Care to ellaborate?

Tripredacus
Did you send me such an email? Never received it....

Quote

"What OSes do you want to use" email.

bookie32

[iamtheky]

I think I may be missing why you want MDT in the mix...

...But we do absolutely no manipulation of our XP wims once they are captured, I see that your screenshots have one wide open in the toolkit. So a few lines to deploy the image in startnet is all we need in the XP deploy boot.wim that is offered from WDS (net use i:\blah , imagex /apply i:\blah\xp.wim 1 c:)

Unless you have ridiculous amount of XP images to maintain for many different systems.

I would certainly like to know you reasons for wanting MDT to handle them in case I can improve our process.

*making it a bit more legible, instead of the stream of thought it was initially

This post has been edited by iamtheky: 03 November 2011 - 01:25 PM

[Tripredacus]

bookie32, on 03 November 2011 - 10:00 AM, said:

Tripredacus
Did you send me such an email? Never received it....

Quote

"What OSes do you want to use" email.

bookie32

I was referring to the production MDT server at my company...

iamtheky, on 03 November 2011 - 11:02 AM, said:

I think I may be missing why you want MDT in the mix...

...But we do absolutely no manipulation of our XP wims once they are captured, I see that your screenshots have one wide open in the toolkit. So a few lines to deploy the image in startnet is all we need in the XP deploy boot.wim that is offered from WDS (net use i:\blah , imagex /apply i:\blah\xp.wim 1 c:)

Unless you have ridiculous amount of XP images to maintain for many different systems. I would certainly like to know in case I can improve our process.

I agree with this about XP. I had only used WIMs for XP, making an image for each system that was locked down to HAL, BIOS version and Video Card type. There was no "updating" of those images, if anything needed to be changed, I just made a new one. This was not really my decision, but it became way more important once the news broke that HP got caught making universal images and blew up because they had some AMD driver in there. Play it safe, especially if you are doing this in a company rather than for personal reasons. It was a lot of work but you end up documenting it and getting SOPs for the image creation process to follow. Its one reason why I'm glad I don't have to deal with XP (besides XPe) anymore, plus servicing 7 is way easier.

Regarding the process of deployment of XP images... Its in my sig.

And I was incorrect when I said I had no OS loaded in my Test MDT Server... I do, but its not an install source like yours. I just see the Windows 7 Enterprise WIM in mine and you can't expand it out like your picture has for XP.

[bookie32]

Hi again!
Sorry, you have lost me....not hard....

OK! I had no specific reason for using MDT or WDS.....It was suggested to me to have a way to keep things organised...

So, after spending God knows how long getting deployment and capture of Windows 7 working with MDT I naturally assumed that this could be done with MDT or WDS....

No, I don't need to maintain hundreds of images...just up to date ones to save time when reinstalling a customer's computer....

Another reason for wanting somethig that caters for everything...the fact that most recovery software on computers is crap.........!!!

At the end of the day - it is the customer that gets the bill when I try to reset their computer (if hard drive is OK of course) and there is a bug of some kind.....

Cloning isn't always an answer...especially if there are damaged sectors on the drive...or riddled with virus and spyware....!!

Now the legallity of the situation....you tell me?! My customers have paid for a computer with a license that should be enough....not their fault that recovery crap is installed on their computer with a mass of other crap that just weighs and slows them down......

So, I say to my customers (if they didn't burn there recovery cd's, which don't always work anyway) is I can return your computer to factory settings (and not with user info remaining....also causes major problems), but I recommend a clean install and activation of license with their key...

If microsoft doesn't like my approach...they haven't said?!

When I build new computers I always recommend a retail license incase the computer dies they can move it to another computer.....

Am I missing something here?

Just want an easy to maintain way of keeping an up to date image that can be applied to any software and doesn't mean I have to wait for a computer to upgrade from XP sp1 to the present day before giving the computer back to the customer.....

I guess I can expect all kinds of response to this post.......just hope it isn't someone that has been brain washed by microsoft....

bookie32

BTW Just for the record... must customers opt for the return to factory settings if possible....am I wrong in wanting to back up an image that has been reset to factory settings and updated with all available updates in case of another crash...Many customers seem to be repeat offenders on that score.....even after paying me to reinstall their computers and update them...they go and shove a free antivirus software on the computer and **** it up again!!

Most just think it isn't going to cost anything for me to fix their computer?!!

Sorrry, getting on my soap box now....

This post has been edited by bookie32: 03 November 2011 - 11:10 PM

[Tripredacus]

bookie32, on 03 November 2011 - 10:56 PM, said:

Now the legallity of the situation....you tell me?! My customers have paid for a computer with a license that should be enough....not their fault that recovery crap is installed on their computer with a mass of other crap that just weighs and slows them down......

So, I say to my customers (if they didn't burn there recovery cd's, which don't always work anyway) is I can return your computer to factory settings (and not with user info remaining....also causes major problems), but I recommend a clean install and activation of license with their key...

If microsoft doesn't like my approach...they haven't said?!

If you need to reload an OS and the customer does not have the media, you should reinstall it using the same type. If they had OEM, you reinstall using OEM, if Retail then Retail. They should always have a COA on their PC. Even if you can't get it to activate online, you can call it in. You can tell what OS type is installed by looking at the COA. If the COA has an OEM's name on it however, I'm not sure exactly what you'd need to do, although acquiring the recovery media would probably be good.

Some infos:
http://www.microsoft...A_hologram.aspx

There used to be a page with all the different COAs but it looks like that has been replaced, or I can't find it.