How do I prevent Realtek Hi Def Audio Driver request from killing hard drive clone?

When you 'clone' a Windows hard drive, it must go back on an identical computer, probably only the Same computer.  If you are putting it on a different computer, you have to use one of the transfer methods, either from Windows or PC-Mover from Laplink.  Both require that you first have a working system on the 'new' computer in order to transfer your data.  All the hardware checks that Windows does to prevent you from copying the OS will prevent it from running on a different computer.

DaveBaldwin is correct.

ALso - You have a better chance using an older version of Ghost that does it from DOS.
You may also have licensing issues.

Ghost image to different hardware

 Accepted Answer from Fatal_Exception
Date: 01/13/2005 04:25PM EST
       

Hmm...  It is easy to ghost an image of your laptop to other (unidentical) laptops, if you do one of two things.

1)  roll the IDE drivers back to their original state, to make up for the different controllers on the MB's.  If you do this, you will have to manually supply the correct MB drivers after you install the image.

2.)  you can specify the correct Mass Storage Drivers in the Mass Storage section of the answer file (.inf) and do a complete unattended installation of the OS.

Both methods require the use of Sysprep.  I have lots of links to this, so I will post a few of these.  Basically what it does is strip the SID (not CID) from the image, allowing the new system to create a new SID for that computer.  As you probably already know, all workstations that authenticate to a Domain Controller need a unique SID, and Sysprep allows for this.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2000081610075225?Open&src=&docid=2000020908463825&nsf=ghost.nsf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBQ/tip8000/rh8059.htm

http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/38950/38950.html

This shows how to create your answer file too:

http://www.uea.ac.uk/itcs/software/xp/xp-sysprep.html

=

 BTW:  just for your edification, here is a sample answer file that I use to show how to enable additional Storage Drivers (for unlike hardware):


Other options :

redo backup http://redobackup.org/

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_alternatives.htm
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16534

http://www.clonezilla.org/

  here's how to use it to create a free recovery DVD....
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/make-live-recovery.php
 
Free VSS backup and restore via CD - Personal use
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Absolutely free! No strings! The only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options.

    * Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
    * Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
    * Built in scheduler.
    * 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
    * Industry leading compression levels and speed.
    * Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
    * Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista.
    * HTML log files.

http://www.osalt.com/ghost

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image.html  free for 30 days full version

http://www.storagecraft.com/
$79
StorageCraft™ ShadowProtect Desktop Edition provides quick and reliable disaster recovery, system migration and data protection for Windows desktops and laptops. ShadowProtect Desktop Edition provides hardware independent restore for physical to physical system (P2P) recovery. ShadowProtect Desktop also supports conversion from physical systems to virtual environments (P2V), virtual environments to physical systems (V2P) and virtual environments to virtual environments (V2V).
 
ShadowProtect Desktop Edition is very complimentary to VMWare™ Workstation and Microsoft™ Virtual PC for quick and reliable disaster recovery. VMWare Workstation 6.0 includes full support for ShadowProtect backup image files for simple conversion from physical systems to virtual environments.  
 
ShadowProtect Desktop Edition provides the following benefits:

    * Bare metal recovery of Windows desktops and laptops in minutes.
    * Restore or migrate backup images to and from physical systems and virtual environments (P2V, V2P and V2V).
    * Hardware independent restore of backup images to different systems (P2P).
    * Schedule automatic full and incremental backups.
    * Bootable recovery CD provides automatic hardware detection and network support.
    * Simple view to quickly recover files and folders or update backup images.
    * Compress and encrypt backup images for efficiency and security.
    * Save backup images to USB, Firewire, NAS, SAN or any network location.

I hope this helps !

Thanks all.  I've been working here since 1987 and have been the IT Director since we bought our first standalone computers, then eventually moved to networking (Novell, back then".  I keep my cloned hard drive files on the network and FREQUENTLY copy the cloned image to a newer computer.  As long as the HD isn't smaller, you're okay.  You'll need to go to HP.com to get the correct motherboard drivers when you copy to a newer computer, which is the norm of course.  But otherwise, I've done this literally over a hundred times.  This Realtek Hi Def audio driver is doing a number on me, simply because I'm unable to fully remove it from the source computer.  I've tried all the tricks:  MSConfig; Regedit; etc.  The "older version of Ghost" suggestion looks good.  I didn't realize it ran differently.  I have an old disk and will give that a try.

From the picture it looks like the Windows XP installation is attempting to install the drivers for hardware (sound adapter) that is present on the computer.

At this point I believe you can either just use the Cancel option (maybe several times) to skip it or,  provide a path to the needed files.

Thanks, but, "30 seconds before it pops up, the USB keyboard and mouse become unresponsive (the new pc has no PS2 ports to try).  So even if I had the Realtek disk or driver, I would be unable to get the pc to install it."
Hitting ESC (or ANY key, actually) does nothing, no matter how often repeated.

I would try disabling the sound adapter in the BIOS configuration utility.

Thanks.  Good advice.  Unfortunately, this is the first BIOS I've ever seen that does not show the onboard sound card.  Video, LAN, USB, etc., but no sound card.  Honest, I checked three times!

The good news is that I now have a new failed hard drive emergency, so until I get this new case solved, I have time to work on my cloning issue.

It may simply be that the destination hardware is too different from the source this time.

What is the model number of the motherboard?

That's a good question.  Computers with Intel motherboards used to come with driver disks identifying the motherboards by model number.  I just checked the disks and documentation that came with this HP 500B MicroTower pc and don't see anything useful.  The MB itself has a white sticker next to the processors which has PBLLB0D6ZRA6F, then "Product of China".  Near that white sticker is a number that looks MORE like their old model numbers:  "H-IG41-UATX Rev: 1-1".  Am I close to answering your question?

Sorry, I missed an "L" in the first number:  PBLLB0LD6ZRA6F

I would try downloading the Realtek drivers here http://drivertube.net/?p=73

Then extract the files to the location that XP expects to find them.
C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\Drivers

While restoring a cloned image, there are no folders to extract to.  

>> ... that looks MORE like their old model numbers...

fwiw, a quick look found this:

Chipset
*Intel G41 Express Motherboard

* Manufacturer: Foxconn
* Motherboard Name: H-IG41-uATX
* HP/Compaq motherboard name: Eton-GL6
* 800 MHz front side bus
* Socket 775

Sorry, it looked to me like you were doing a Windows XP install.

I have never run into that problem. I just clone the system drive to the drive for the new system. Have you tried plugging the Mouse and Keyboard to the source computer before cloning it so it will have the drivers it needs for them when you restore it?

Can you clone TO the new hard drive with it disconnected from the new computer, either as a slave in another system or in an external enclosure?

Also, it looks more like it is trying to Install the clone, rather than just copying it to the new system.

Sure there isnt an ac97 codec in the bios even? 35 seconds befoee the popup, pull the power plug. Setup should flag that device.....

Sure there isnt an ac97 codec in the bios even? 35 seconds befoee the popup, pull the power plug. Setup should flag that device.....

Thanks, all.  The mouse and KB were connected to the source drive when I cloned it.
Restoring the cloned image to the new pc's drive as a slave on another pc is a creative idea.  But before I try that, I'm going to try one of the old Ghost disks (DOS recommendation, above).  And before THAT, I'm going to try two Ghost restoring options which I learned about last night:  1) Use the "continue even if there is an error" check box under OPTIONS after booting to the Ghost disk; and 2) the -ntc- switch from the command line after booting to the Ghost disk.  I've been told that one of those may be an easy solution.  I'll be back....

But first, I'm going to check the BIOS for an ac97 codec.  Not familiar with that as being related to an audio driver.  If I find it, I'll disable it and try the regular (no special options or switches) Ghost restore.

I received this ultimate solution from a friend and shared it with the people on Experts-Exchange who had come up with other suggestions.

I am objecting to my own last two responses.  My apologies.  It's been crazy here and I got this issue confused with another one which I was able to resolve with a friend's help.  THIS issue on Experts-Exchange is still pending.  I'm still working on it and would like to remove MY comment ID: 37034023 and state that I do NOT as yet have a solution to this issue.  Again, sorry for the confusion.  I will get back to work on this issue today and update this question ASAP.

    Successful conclusion:  I was focusing on REMOVING the Realtek High Definition audio driver from the SOURCE pc:  registry, BIOS, Add/Remove Programs, MSConfig startup options....  Why I was worried about the non-existent audio driver in BIOS is now beyond me!  
     I made two changes -- one or both of them gave me a cloned image on which I could successfully run the Repair Windows option from the WindowsXP disk (on the destination pc, after restoring the new cloned image to the destination pc):
1) Instead of UNinstalling all traces of the Realtek Hi Def driver from the source pc, I installed the drivers, thinking that maybe the cloned image wouldn't then ask for the drivers disk while running Windows Repair on the destination pc;
2) I disabled the BIOS audio drivers on the DESTINATION pc before restoring the new cloned image (this is the image WITH the Realtek drivers now).
SUCCESS!  I've now activated Windows ("Major Hardware Changes!" -- duh), downloaded the drivers for the new MB, and am up and running.  Thanks again to all for your advice!

Glad to hear you are up and running.   : )