Sysprep issues in MDT2008

Jason Barthman

I am new to building images and using a tool like MDT 2008. I have buit a
..WIM image for my company out of an old Ghost file that I used in our old
imaging process. I would like to run this .wim through a task sequence, have
it sysprep, and then capture a .wim. Every time I run through the sequence it
won't sysprep and therefore won't capture the .wim. I tried the same thing by
building the task sequence with a XP SP2 CD. It runs through installing XP,
it sysprep'd fine, and then it captured the .wim to a network share fine. Is
there an issue with using a .wim file and asking it to be sysprep'd? Do I
have to do this from an XP CD, then build all the customization into that
base .wim, and then run it through a task sequence to sysprep it and capture
the final .wim?
One thing to add that may possibly be an issue is that this .wim file that
came from the Ghost image was at one time placed into a Domain to add network
admin account access to it. It was then taken off and placed in a Workgroup.
Could that be the issue?
Can anyone please tell where I should look next. I have looked through log
files but nothing talks about the sysprep portion of it. As stated, I'm new
to this, so I'm not sure I would even know what to look for in the log files.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Richard R

Hey jason

I had exactly the same problem as you. it seems that you really need to
copy the OS files from the cd and build the image using these. have a look
at the following site. It gives you a very good run down of the whole
procedure.



Bit of a lack of documentation with MDT isn't there. Anyhow. Hope the link
helos.

Thanks

Richard

"Jason Barthman" wrote:

> I am new to building images and using a tool like MDT 2008. I have buit a
> .WIM image for my company out of an old Ghost file that I used in our old
> imaging process. I would like to run this .wim through a task sequence, have
> it sysprep, and then capture a .wim. Every time I run through the sequence it
> won't sysprep and therefore won't capture the .wim. I tried the same thing by
> building the task sequence with a XP SP2 CD. It runs through installing XP,
> it sysprep'd fine, and then it captured the .wim to a network share fine. Is
> there an issue with using a .wim file and asking it to be sysprep'd? Do I
> have to do this from an XP CD, then build all the customization into that
> base .wim, and then run it through a task sequence to sysprep it and capture
> the final .wim?
> One thing to add that may possibly be an issue is that this .wim file that
> came from the Ghost image was at one time placed into a Domain to add network
> admin account access to it. It was then taken off and placed in a Workgroup.
> Could that be the issue?
> Can anyone please tell where I should look next. I have looked through log
> files but nothing talks about the sysprep portion of it. As stated, I'm new
> to this, so I'm not sure I would even know what to look for in the log files.
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Preben Justesen

Hi!

If you install the Ghost image and sysprep it manually with the parameters
"-reseal -quiet -mini -noreboot" you should be able to capture an image of it
that MDT can use.

Just generate a Generic boot image in MDT and run IMAGEX manually:

imagex /flags “Enterprise” /capture c: Z:\Captures\Image.wim "Custom Image"

Them /flags "Enterprise" parameter is important as MDT won't use it without
it.

/Preben

"Richard R" wrote:

> Hey jason
>
> I had exactly the same problem as you. it seems that you really need to
> copy the OS files from the cd and build the image using these. have a look
> at the following site. It gives you a very good run down of the whole
> procedure.
>
>
>
> Bit of a lack of documentation with MDT isn't there. Anyhow. Hope the link
> helos.
>
> Thanks
>
> Richard
>
> "Jason Barthman" wrote:
>
> > I am new to building images and using a tool like MDT 2008. I have buit a
> > .WIM image for my company out of an old Ghost file that I used in our old
> > imaging process. I would like to run this .wim through a task sequence, have
> > it sysprep, and then capture a .wim. Every time I run through the sequence it
> > won't sysprep and therefore won't capture the .wim. I tried the same thing by
> > building the task sequence with a XP SP2 CD. It runs through installing XP,
> > it sysprep'd fine, and then it captured the .wim to a network share fine. Is
> > there an issue with using a .wim file and asking it to be sysprep'd? Do I
> > have to do this from an XP CD, then build all the customization into that
> > base .wim, and then run it through a task sequence to sysprep it and capture
> > the final .wim?
> > One thing to add that may possibly be an issue is that this .wim file that
> > came from the Ghost image was at one time placed into a Domain to add network
> > admin account access to it. It was then taken off and placed in a Workgroup.
> > Could that be the issue?
> > Can anyone please tell where I should look next. I have looked through log
> > files but nothing talks about the sysprep portion of it. As stated, I'm new
> > to this, so I'm not sure I would even know what to look for in the log files.
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jason Barthman

Richard, thanks for the link. It's very informative. I am attempting to do
this with XP. Do you have any articles that deal with XP and not Vista or
2008? I work for a company of over 5000 employees, so we're not ready yet for
Vista. It would be great if I could get a step by step like the one you just
gave me, except for XP rather than Vista.

What I can't understand is this....when I create a task sequence using the
XP .wim file, which I created from an old Ghost image, it won't sysprep at
all. It just installs the .wim, reboots, and that's it. I want to use the XP
..wim file I made because it already has all the customizations in it that my
company needs. If I have to build an XP image from CD, how do I get all those
customizations into it that I need on a base image? Things like folder
settings, network admin accounts, visual effect settings.....etc. Do I create
it from the CD, lay that .wim down onto a computer, make all my changes, then
turn that into the .wim I use to build the master image?

I need information on how it's been done with XP. If there is any
information you have I would really appreciate it. If there is somewhere you
know of that I can go to find this information, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again for the help.

Jason


"Richard R" wrote:

> Hey jason
>
> I had exactly the same problem as you. it seems that you really need to
> copy the OS files from the cd and build the image using these. have a look
> at the following site. It gives you a very good run down of the whole
> procedure.
>
>
>
> Bit of a lack of documentation with MDT isn't there. Anyhow. Hope the link
> helos.
>
> Thanks
>
> Richard
>
> "Jason Barthman" wrote:
>
> > I am new to building images and using a tool like MDT 2008. I have buit a
> > .WIM image for my company out of an old Ghost file that I used in our old
> > imaging process. I would like to run this .wim through a task sequence, have
> > it sysprep, and then capture a .wim. Every time I run through the sequence it
> > won't sysprep and therefore won't capture the .wim. I tried the same thing by
> > building the task sequence with a XP SP2 CD. It runs through installing XP,
> > it sysprep'd fine, and then it captured the .wim to a network share fine. Is
> > there an issue with using a .wim file and asking it to be sysprep'd? Do I
> > have to do this from an XP CD, then build all the customization into that
> > base .wim, and then run it through a task sequence to sysprep it and capture
> > the final .wim?
> > One thing to add that may possibly be an issue is that this .wim file that
> > came from the Ghost image was at one time placed into a Domain to add network
> > admin account access to it. It was then taken off and placed in a Workgroup.
> > Could that be the issue?
> > Can anyone please tell where I should look next. I have looked through log
> > files but nothing talks about the sysprep portion of it. As stated, I'm new
> > to this, so I'm not sure I would even know what to look for in the log files.
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jason Barthman

Preben,

Thanks for the information. I did get the .wim created for XP using the
flags that you told me to. I then added it the my distribution point and
created a task sequence. It runs through, does it's sysprep now where it
didn't before, but still doesn't capture an image of it like I'm telling it
to. Do you have any idea why this would be happing, or what log files I could
look at to see what's going on? I'm glad I got it to sysprep because it was
not doing that before, but now I have to be able to capture an image of it to
use as my Master. Any ideas? It just boots to the login screen and that's it.

Thanks again for helping, I really appreciate it.

Jason


"Preben Justesen" wrote:

> Hi!
>
> If you install the Ghost image and sysprep it manually with the parameters
> "-reseal -quiet -mini -noreboot" you should be able to capture an image of it
> that MDT can use.
>
> Just generate a Generic boot image in MDT and run IMAGEX manually:
>
> imagex /flags “Enterprise” /capture c: Z:\Captures\Image.wim "Custom Image"
>
> Them /flags "Enterprise" parameter is important as MDT won't use it without
> it.
>
> /Preben
>
> "Richard R" wrote:
>
> > Hey jason
> >
> > I had exactly the same problem as you. it seems that you really need to
> > copy the OS files from the cd and build the image using these. have a look
> > at the following site. It gives you a very good run down of the whole
> > procedure.
> >
> >
> >
> > Bit of a lack of documentation with MDT isn't there. Anyhow. Hope the link
> > helos.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Richard
> >
> > "Jason Barthman" wrote:
> >
> > > I am new to building images and using a tool like MDT 2008. I have buit a
> > > .WIM image for my company out of an old Ghost file that I used in our old
> > > imaging process. I would like to run this .wim through a task sequence, have
> > > it sysprep, and then capture a .wim. Every time I run through the sequence it
> > > won't sysprep and therefore won't capture the .wim. I tried the same thing by
> > > building the task sequence with a XP SP2 CD. It runs through installing XP,
> > > it sysprep'd fine, and then it captured the .wim to a network share fine. Is
> > > there an issue with using a .wim file and asking it to be sysprep'd? Do I
> > > have to do this from an XP CD, then build all the customization into that
> > > base .wim, and then run it through a task sequence to sysprep it and capture
> > > the final .wim?
> > > One thing to add that may possibly be an issue is that this .wim file that
> > > came from the Ghost image was at one time placed into a Domain to add network
> > > admin account access to it. It was then taken off and placed in a Workgroup.
> > > Could that be the issue?
> > > Can anyone please tell where I should look next. I have looked through log
> > > files but nothing talks about the sysprep portion of it. As stated, I'm new
> > > to this, so I'm not sure I would even know what to look for in the log files.
> > > Any help would be greatly appreciated.