[dkreifus]

I've discovered my issue with Ghost and Sata.

If I take a image of a drive that was created on an IDE drive, it does not properly copy the boot sector over to the SATA drive.

And the same thing happens vice versa.

Would using DiskPart eliminate that problem?

[IcemanND]

try using the /ib command line swith with ghost it should capture the entire boot record.

[allen2]

You can also try with MBRwizard.

[Albuquerque]

My company has done TONS of ghost images back and forth between PATA (standard IDE/EIDE) and SATA drives without any issue. I'm not sure why you'd have problems with the boot sector...

ghost32.exe /mode=dump,src=1,dst=filename.gho

followed by:

ghost32.exe /mode=load,src=filename.gho,dst=1

No special switches, no messing with diskpart. Using Ghost 8.2 corporate edition from a file server share under a WinPE 2005 (Server 2003 SP1) platform.

[dkreifus]

I don't know why either. But it gives me the Windows Menu where you choose "last good configuration", safe mode, and all that stuff.

Have no idea where it came from. It works fine if I do it SATA to SATA or IDE to IDE

What's the difference between your /mode=load and my command of

-clone,mode=restore, .....

This post has been edited by dkreifus: 03 April 2006 - 03:14 PM

[Albuquerque]

dkreifus, on Apr 3 2006, 03:47 PM, said:

I don't know why either. But it gives me the Windows Menu where you choose "last good configuration", safe mode, and all that stuff.

Your machine booted fine; that's not a bootsector issue. You are missing the mass storage driver for your SATA controller, and thus Windows cannot load. Common mistake among rookies

You need to make sure you've installed your SATA drivers into your Windows image before you move the image from an IDE drive to a SATA drive. Otherwise, as soon as Windows tries to start in protected mode, it will lose access to your local disk and bomb with a BSOD.

[dkreifus]

I have the sata drivers. And it works fine when I go SATA to SATA or IDE to IDE. But going SATA to IDE or IDE to SATA is where the problems are.

And if I go SATA to IDE, why wouldnt it be able to read the IDE drive and give me the same error?

[Albuquerque]

I don't know what else to tell you... Think about it for yourself. If the bootsector was missing or corrupt, it wouldn't EVER get to Windows, period -- you would instead get errors about "No operating system found". You're getting the OS, it's trying to load, but it fails because the boot device goes missing as soon as it enters protected mode.

What options are left? The drive failing? Probably not, since it's multiple drives. The image corrupt? Likely not, as it wouldn't be corrupt every single time. Windows missing or not loading the appropriate driver? "DING DING DING DING"

I'm telling you it's a driver problem, and it is. Your image needs BOTH the SATA driver and the IDE driver, but it might not be possible to install both since your "source" machine may not have both devices simultaneously. Your options are to sysprep the image and build the drivers into the $OEM$ mass storage section or try forcing the drivers to install on the old machine and hoping for the best...

That's your problem; how you solve it is up to you

[dkreifus]

I do believe I have the drivers in the mass storage section. I added them there a week or 2 ago. I'll give this all another read-thru and a go

[dkreifus]

Ok...Here's all my stuff since I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

On the computer to be imaged:
the sysprep.inf

;SetupMgrTag
[Unattended]
	EnableBigLBA=Yes
	ExtendOemPartition=1
	InstallFilesPath=C:\sysprep\i386
	OemSkipEula=Yes
	TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]
	AdminPassword="password"
	AutoLogon=Yes
	AutoLogonCount=1
	EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
	OEMDuplicatorstring="Base XP Build 2.0"
	OEMSkipRegional=1
	OemSkipWelcome=1
	TimeZone=35

[UserData]
	ComputerName=*
	FullName="Org"
	OrgName="Organization"
	ProductKey=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[Display]
	BitsPerPel=32
	Xresolution=1024
	YResolution=768

[TapiLocation]
	AreaCode=215
	CountryCode=1
	Dialing=Tone
	LongDistanceAccess="9"

[Identification]
	JoinWorkgroup=CSI

[Networking]
	InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[Sysprep]
	BuildMassStorageSection=Yes

[Branding]
	BrandIEUsingUnattended=Yes

[Proxy]
	Proxy_Enable=0
	Use_Same_Proxy=0

[Components]
	accessopt=off
	autoupdate=off
	Deskpaper=Off
	freecell=off
	hearts=off
	media_clips=off
	minesweeper=off
	msnexplr=off
	OEAccess=off
	pinball=off
	solitaire=off
	spider=off
	WMAccess=off
	zonegames=off

When I checked the ghost image, there is nothing populating the [SysprepMassStorage] area. In fact, its not there.

I have the drivers loaded properly for WINPE, so I know they work.

For my unattended install (before it syspreps), I have unattend.txt which contains the following section:

[MassStorageDrivers]
"Intel(R) 82801GR SATA RAID Controller" = OEM 

[OEMBootFiles]
iaStor.inf
iaStor.sys
iaStor.cat
Txtsetup.oem

How should I add the drivers in for sysprep?

Sysprep is called with the following line:

Sysprep.exe -reseal -mini -pnp -quiet

[IcemanND]

Add to sysprep.inf

[SysprepMassStorage]
HWID of MSD=INF Location
PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1002&SUBSYS_100213C1=C:\DP\M\3\1\oemsetup1.inf

And use the sysprep.exe command line you already have.

I use the following CMD script to add the HWIDs I use from the MassStorage Driverpack.
Change the directory path in the third line (Call :HWID c:\DP\M) to point to your directory subtree for MSDs
Add [SysprepMassStorage] to the end of your sysprep.inf and rename it to sysprep.hold.

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

Echo Creating MassStorageSection of Sysprep.inf

Call :HWID c:\DP\M
copy sysprep.hold /a +hwids.txt /a sysprep.inf

GOTO EOF

:HWID
rem %1 is path to MassDriverPacks Folder
IF "%1"=="" GOTO EOF
IF NOT EXIST %1 GOTO EOF

SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET STDOUT=%cd%\HWIDS.TXT
TYPE>%STDOUT% 2>NUL

::traverse drivers path
CALL :TRAVERSAL %1

GOTO EOF

:TRAVERSAL
PUSHD %1
for /f %%f in ('Dir /b *.inf') do (
 for /f "eol=- tokens=2 delims=," %%i in ('find /i "pci\ven" %%f') do (
  for /f "tokens=*" %%j in ("%%i") do (
	for /f "tokens=1* delims=_" %%k in ("%%j") do (
	  if /i "%%k" EQU "PCI\VEN" (
		for /f "usebackq tokens=1* delims=; " %%a in ('%%j') do (
		  echo %%a=%cd%\%%f>>%STDOUT%
		)
	  )
	)
  )
)
)

FOR /F %%I IN ('DIR /AD /OGN /B') DO (
CALL :TRAVERSAL %CD%\%%I
)
POPD
GOTO EOF

[dkreifus]

I have a few questions about your post...

1. What is oemsetup1.inf
2. In your script what is EOF? I dont see the command anywhere
3. What is sysprep.hold, and why am I renaming my script to it. How will sysprep call it?

Can I run sysprep -bmsd somehow to do it?

This post has been edited by dkreifus: 04 April 2006 - 11:48 AM

[IcemanND]

Quote

1. What is oemsetup1.inf

oemsetup1.inf is one of the many Mass storage driver infs, in this case it is the inf for an AMCC 3ware 9000 Series SATA RAID Controller. This will be the full path to the driver INF for whatever MSD you are referencing with the HWID before the equal sign.

Quote

2. In your script what is EOF? I dont see the command anywhere

EOF is End of File. Not required to be declared. Just causes it to exit the loop or call and return to it's called from location.

Quote

3. What is sysprep.hold, and why am I renaming my script to it. How will sysprep call it?

You only need to do this if you are using the script I posted. When the script runs it creates a txt file named hwids.txt, and then appends this to the end of sysprep.hold into sysprep.inf.

[dkreifus]

Ok.. I ran the sysprep -bmsd and got a very long list in the massstorage section...

How do I know what to trim down?

Attached File(s)

•  SYSPREP.txt (34.79K)
  Number of downloads: 126

[IcemanND]

Why trim it down? If you sat through it creating the list you've waited through the longest part and the reboot will do the rest when deployed.

If there are drivers there you don't want don't add the associated INF before you create the list

This post has been edited by IcemanND: 05 April 2006 - 08:05 AM

[dkreifus]

IcemanND, on Apr 5 2006, 10:02 AM, said:

Why trim it down? If you sat through it creating the list you've waited through the longest part and the reboot will do the rest when deployed.

If there are drivers there you don't want don't add the associated INF before you create the list

I actually did some more research. I opened up the txtsetup.oem and got the hardware ids... which I don't think were listed in the list it created. (it was taking way to long. I thought the process crashed. So I'll start it again if this idea doesn't work)

So I added this to my code:

[SysprepMassStorage]
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C1&CC_0106=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C5&CC_0106=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0104=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0106=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2653&CC_0106=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0104=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_25B0&CC_0104=c:\sysprep\ich6\iastor.inf

Does that look accurate?

[IcemanND]

Yes, if all you need are a handful then just do those. Depending upon how many you add it can take as long as an hour for sysprep to install and create the mass storage drivers section.

The image I am creating I need as many as possible since I'm trying to deploy it to any machine that may cross my desk. So far so good as long as it has the ACPI uni/multiprocessor HAL.

[dkreifus]

wait..i thought the bmsd command got the drivers off the current machine for the current setup. Does it pull all the drivers existing on the machine?

So I could essentially blast a IBM or a Dell with the same image?

[IcemanND]

-BMSD creates the MassStorageSection with the drivers that come with windows and any additional you add to the section yourself and adds them in so that they are seen at the first boot after syspreping.

The other issue is which HAL is installed:
From the other thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=71121&hl=#

Quote

It all depends upon the HAL on your build machine and the correct HALs on your target machines. Using sysprep you can change between MPS uniprocessor HAL and MPS multiprocessor HAL, or ACPI uniprocessor HAL and ACPI Multiprocessor HAL.

If your build machine is Uniprocessor (UP) add UpdateUPHAL="APCIAPIC_MP,%windir%\inf\hal.inf" to the [Unattended]section of your sysprep.inf file then run sysprep, capture and deploy. change the MP to UP if it is built on a Multiprocessor and you are deploying to UP.

In theory the same thing holds true for MPS HALs but I don't have any to try it on, just chance ACPIAPIC to MPS.

I have successfully deployed an image built on a Dell Gx300 (UP HAL) to IBM thinkpad t43, x41, z60t, r51, Thinkcenter m51, m52, Dell optiplex gx100, gateway e4000, so far without any issues other than forgetting to have added all of the correct hardware drivers.

[dkreifus]

Maybe I should give that a go.
But how come my sata drivers werent listed in the bsmd list...i had to add them myself.

all of our desktops/laptops have Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC as the chip type..so I'll leave the HAL alone for now.