asked on

Problems with SYSREP tool

I have just started to study for the MCSA exam and am experimenting with the sysprep tool but have hit a brick wall. Every time I run this utility I get one pop up box that tells me the computer will restart when the utility has finished but after I click OK to start the process the computer just sits there with a blank screen and a mouse. This goes on for ever, so when I restart the computer to try again I get the mini setup wizard.
I can find no documentation to get past this and I am at a total loss to understand how to create the image.
I have tried this on a test machine at home and a different one at work.
Does anyone please know a way to get past this.

MSGeek

You are doing it correctly. Generally you are performing Sysprep on an image fro deployment. The machine you run it on is not the one your going to deploy to. Thus Sysprep is allowing you to shutdown instead of restarting. That may be a typo on MS's part, I never noticed as I always wanted to shutdown so I could Ghost/Image the PC at that time.

If your seeing the minisetup wizard than you've done everrything correct thus far. Hope this helps, I believe it's a typo (but I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.) MSGeek

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

oBdA

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

MSGeek

oBdA.. Thanks for the clarification. I never paid that attention to that, it's been a long time since I deployed images.

NEOsporin

This happened to me too. My images were fine, but sysprep did hang just as you described. Sysprep is the last thing you do, before you shutdown, and then are ready to make you image, another thing I did before I ran sysprep, was to schedule a "chkdsk /f" on the run line, for the next reboot. Sysprep takes all of 10 seconds to reset what it needs in order for it to "prep"- then on reboot walk you back through the mini setup wizard, if you PC doesn't shutdown after 2-3 minutes... just power it off. I had this problem only on Laptops, perhaps the bios, and or ACPI drivers. mine was a dell latitude 400. So basically- you set up your PC, install/configure all the programs, all the scheduled tasks, yada yada yada- double check your settings, make sure all the programs work, delete you cache, temp files etc, set file, folder permissions... then go to run, type "chkdsk /f" press Y to do the chkdsk on next start up, then run sysprep- turn off the pc if sysprep doesn't do so, then put in your boot floppy or cd, and copy your image to a server. use a floppy or cd to get your image onto a new like piece of hardware, and the chkdsk will run once the image is copied over and rebooted, then the mini-setup, enter the info in the mini-setup, and your all set, you have a PC with all the same apps and settings as the one you took the image from, and it's ready to go:)
I am long winded today...dunno y...
I found this also:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=259144
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=288977
GL!
-NEO

kenny1

ASKER

Thanks for the replies I am off to work now and will try it there first. I will post reply or award the points tonight.

kenny1

ASKER

Possibly for NEOsporin:
I have just downloaded the 1.1 version of SYSREP and everything seemed to go OK but my problem now is how do I extract the image from the source machine and where is it located.

MSGeek

kenny1..You need an imaging application like Ghost, DriveImage, ZenWorks Imaging etc. once yu have run Sysprep and are ready to distribute the image.

NEO.. as usual I'm with you, I always did a chkdsk c: /f as well.

kenny1

ASKER

OK............ I finally got it.
I totally missed the point of sysprep. I downloaded version 1.1 and everything went fine. I had wrongly assumed that sysprep would create the actual image. I am on the right track now thanks to you guys. My thanks go to everyone for their help especially NEO for his comprehensive answer . I would like to award the points to oBda for his short to the point answer which actually answered the original question.

kenny1

ASKER

Just for your information, the text below is the reply I got to this problem from my "support mentor".
--
I have never come across this problem before if it is hanging it sounds like it could be due to hardware issues not meeting specification. Although when you reboot it is going into the Mini Set-up Wizard which is normal. I have included some useful links that might be able to help you with this matter.

http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/atips/atips116.shtml

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/windows2000pro/deploy/depopt/sysprep.asp

If you still cannot get this to work please get back to me with the specification of your machine and the procedure you are following in order to achieve your goal. I will then set this environment up in a lab to see if I can simulate the same scenario.

NEOsporin

I own- muahahahahah :p Don't worry about the points, I'm cool.
-NEO

MSGeek

NEO ur not getting any better are you? :)