Used Good/Clean Image to Build or Rebuild New PCs

I picked up TI8 to use in my workplace. I'm the IT guy for 150 employees in a non-profit and anytime we get a new PC from Dell or need to rebuild an existing computer hard drive, I'd do it manually (fdisk, reformatt, install WinXP Pro, and all other software, etc.).

I finally got the bright idea of using TI8 to create good/clean images of all the types of workstations configurations I use at work to do this which should make a 5hr job into a 45min job.

I took a good/clean drive installation and ran SysPrep on it. I then created an image of the drive and stored it on our network. I took a brand new out of the box Maxtor 80gb drive (same size as the one the image was created), and hooked it up to my mp as a slave. I formatted and created one ntfs partition without a drive letter specified. I then did a "restore" of the good/clean image to this drive (with no drive letter specified ... couldn't do this as there is already a C drive on my system.) I chose the option so that it would auto-boot up with the OS on the drive.

I installed the HD in it's own PC and turned it on. After a few seconds of the Windows splash screen, I received the following message:

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Choose both path and disk performance.....etc.

Questions:

1. What can I do so that the drive boots up successfully?

2. Is there "ANY" way I can use the network in TI8 to restore the images to hard drives in PCs without having to remove the HD and install it in my workstation as a slave and then re-installing it back in it's original computer?

Thanks for your assistance.

Brian

 

Hi, newhopeinc

Welcome to Wilders and Acronis Forums.

I am not going to be a lot of help.

Not sure what's gone wrong, but for a start you do not need to Format the HDD when restoring a Image..

As for Sysprep a few have tried it, but I can not remember their successes. [or not]

If you do a Search for Sysprep on this Forum you will find 18 threads.

You could always do a repair install. [best bet]

Sorry not to be of more help.



Take Care,
TheQuest

 

Hello newhopeinc,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/).

Please note that every hard disk drive have SID under Windows operating system. And also Windows cannot handle two drives with the same SID - it simply changes the SID of the second drive.

So if you want to make a bootable hard disk drive it is strongly recommended to use "Clone Disk" wizard (if you have the second hard drive connected to the computer where you run Acronis True Image) or use Acronis Rescue CD (on the computer you want to restore image to) and restore the image from network.

Thank you.

--
Best regards,
Andrew Berezovsky

Acronis, Inc.
395 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 213
South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA
http://www.acronis.com/

Acronis support department
e-mail: support@acronis.com

Acronis... compute with confidence

 

Hi Andrew,

I believe I may need a little assistance.

1. When I use the boot discs to startup TI on the destination PC (with a blank HD), when I attempt to login to my network as admin (I'm a domain admin) to gain access to the network drive where the image is stored, the login window keeps appearing and asking for my info again and again. It never allows me to login and continue with the image restore.

2. I have a master slave drive that I want to image so I can use that image to deploy to new computers (after running sysprep to wipe sids, etc.). However, no matter where I attempt choose to store the image (CDs, hard drive, network) the "Committ Pending Operation" window sits there with no change in status ... it does nothing. I tried rebooting, etc. to no avail.

Here is what I want to do ... plain and simple:

1. Make images of master drives for deployment to new HDs on new computers (we are M$ volume license partners)

2. Store that image on the network for easy access.

3. Deploy that image (i.e. restore) to computer hard drives when necessary.

Thus far, I have been unsuccessful in doing this. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Brian Christoff

 

I gave up trying to get it to work with TI8 and instead used the simple solution of ghost32 loaded from a PartPE Boot CD

image was on network server and image loaded just fine from there onto new hd on a new system - have used this now on several laptops and desktops

another great utility is Image for DOS/Windows at terabyteunlimited.com

 

Brian,
I have been using TI8 for the exact same purpose as your.

My hardware config:
The master PC: Dell 360, one HD, three partitions.
All client PCs are of the exact same config as the master PC.

So I've imaged the master PC HD to the server across the network. All I had to do was to enter a masked IP address and DNS server address.

I never did try SYSPREP as it does more than just change SID. And that is all I need to worry about, which is too, isn't much. As having the same SID on the client does not cause any network failure. The only issue I've known is removable drive security.

And if I am really worry, then I use Sysinternal's free SID changer.

Once the image is on the network, then you can restore to the client PC of the same hardware anyway you like.

Only one time when I had a problem with a client PC could not read the network, so I created a CD of the image, and then restore locally.

And only on one bld of TI 7 when I could not make a network image at all because the NIC card was not supported under the boot CD. But then I install TI inside Windows and did a live image to the server.

Good luck

 

Hi Mecalvnt,

Thanks for the info. I inquired on 2 different often-used discussion forums about which of the big 3 Imaging programs to use to fit my purpose (explained above) and TI was the one that most folks recommended. Kind of ironic given I haven't been successful yet! And, to boot, I paid the extra $34.95 to purchase the upgrade from TI7 to TI8 (I thought I had 8, but I don't).

I sent an email to support@acronis.com directly this morning hoping to hear from Andrew. This is kind of disheartening to say the least. I'm a past user of Ghost at home and switching to TI8 was kind of new to me, so I hope Acronis comes thru and provides some support to get me going.

Once you have your image on the network, how do you restore it to your target Client PC? I have a client PC with a wiped (fdisk'd) Hard drive that I need to restore the image to ... and when I use the TI rescue disks, it doesn't allow me to login to the network to be able to get to the image file for the restore. How do you accomplish this task?

Many thanks!

Brian

 

Update: I looked thru the FAQ section again and did come across some info that I thought might help and gave it a shot, now I'm past the continuous request to login to the network. For other users with this same problem who finds this thread in the future:

I started Acronis True Image 8.0 from the bootable rescue disks to restore an image from an archive located on a network drive, but when I try to login to a network computer, it asks me for the user name and password again and again. What should I do?

In some cases, especially when a domain controller is present on the network, you should specify an authorizing server name or domain name along with a user name. The user name should be specified in the form of SERVER\USER or DOMAIN\USER.

If you are trying to access a server in a domain that is controlled by Windows Server 2003 and still can not login to a server , please try the following:

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers on domain controller (Windows Server 2003).
2. In the console tree, right-click Domain Controllers, click Properties, and then click the Group Policy tab.
3. Click Default Domain Controllers Policy, and then click Edit.
4. Open the Computer Configuration \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Local Policies \ Security Options folder.
5. Locate the Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) policy setting, and then click Disabled or Do Not Configure.

You can also read Microsoft article 823659 regarding this problem.

Currently, I have a "Processing, pleast wait" message now that I've been able to choose my image for restore. I'll post a reply once I know how it turns out.

Many thanks,
Brian

 

I also switched from corporate Ghost to TI and experienced several difficulties in the beginning.

But I've stayed with TI because of its simplicities. And the support, it was hit and miss, but overall, TI came through more than any other companies I've dealt with.

And this forum is your major help.

Anyway: to restore the image.

The easiest way is a CD local restore. Check your image, if it is small enough to fit on a CD, why not do that. I often need a hard-backup of the image anyway, so I have a DVD copy of my image and I restore that if I have network problem.

Or a partition local restore. Quickly make two partitions on the new HD, put the image on the second partition, and then restore it to the primary partition.

But if you really want to use the network, then try the followings:
-On server, share the image folder to the USER
-Boot to TI
-Open the network config page.
-Make sure that TI detects your NIC. It will details info of your NIC.
-Enter the IP, and DNS server address. Nothing else. Note that once you exited this menu and you want to make a change, you have to reboot. So make sure the info is correct.
-Browse your domain. Your neighbourhood should be populated with nodes. If not, forget about continuing. Debug until you see the network.
-Locate the server with the image, browse it. When asked, log in with domainname\USERname and pwd.
-You should see shares that are available to the USER. If not, then you have a permission problem, or a NIC driver problem. One time I used a EVERYONE share, and still cannot see the share, I debugged it to a TI boot NIC driver problem.
-Another thing you may want to try is to keep the share name short and precise with no funny chars.
-Restore the image when you see it. It will take longer on the first few %, and then progress faster subsequently.

And obviously have the latest bld of TI bootdisc.

Let me know how you go.

 

Hi All,

I too am new to TI8. I have used Ghost and Powerquest DI. I must say so far TI looks very user friendly. The disabling of digital signatures fixed my share issue. BTW sysprep with TI should be a viable solution for anyone trying to deploy like images. I'll check back with results.