Dells - Snap Deploy - Universal Deploy

fac052 · May 29, 2008

Hi there, just a quick question. Has anyone managed to get either an XP or a Vista image onto an Optiplex 620, 745, 755 using SD3 and UD3? Having huge problems getting a master image created on Viglen to come down to any of the above. Pc just goes into a reboot loop. Any help to what specific drivers to use, BIOS setting to select - infact any help greatly appreciated. Acronis have supplied me with a True Image ISO for debugging purposes but not a lot of joy coming from that. Universal Deploy is just not working for us. I can get round the problem doing a manual sysprep but that's not the point! Thanks.....

Derek

fcs044 · Jun 28, 2008

I have 18 Dell Optiplex 330's to roll out with Vista Business and thought that SnapDeploy 3 would handle the job. I don't have reboot issues, but my profiles don't work correctly especially those with administrative rights. With one deploy I couldn't login at all using an administrative account; I just kept being returned to the login screen. However, the regular user account worked fine.

After getting a few tips from Acronis, run a disk check and reimage, I tried another deployment. This time several of the programs including Window Update would not start because of a rights/path problem. Acronis wants me to send them the images via ftp but I haven't been successful, probably because of the size of the files.

Getting the problem resolved through Acronis tech support is taking too much time. I'm searching for another solution that will allow mass rollouts.

dafut · Jun 30, 2008

I'm having the same problem on a Dell Precision T3400. BSOD on reboot w/ 0x07B stop error.

Know that image transferred because I have to use the Administrator password to get into Recovery Console.

Currently running chkdsk /r in Recovery Console. We'll see. Acronis tech support says: we need more info.

frithjof · Jul 2, 2008

Hi,

we are rolling out about 60 Dell Machines. SD3 worked with Opti 330 and with Latitude D430 too. Problems are here with perpetual reboot loops on Opti 755 and Latitude D530!

No way to do it. And we tried really a löt over the past days. And as always Acronis support is absolutely not helpful. Response time roundabout a week or so with the normal mail phrases.

Any help appreciated.

frithjof

Haqshot · Jul 10, 2008

That reboot issue with Vista is not caused by acronis. It is actually only rebooting because bsods are turned off. Its actually a BCD winload issue.

Enjoy this read...

Winload.exe........Is Missing
After successful cloning you will still be unable to boot the clone unless the Vista BCD file is pointing to the correct new location of the Vista bootloader. It's very similar to how the boot.ini file has to be edited to point to the new partition or drive, but unlike the boot.ini you can't just edit the BCD in Notepad. Correcting the BCD in clones is possible and not particularly difficult, but it is more of a hassle than opening Notepad and changing a digit or two. What would be ideal is if the BCD could be made to just point to the winload.exe that was on the same partition as itself. This would allow a new clone to boot without having to make any corrections to the BCD.

Fortunately there is a way to do this and it makes cloning Vista almost easier than any previous NT operating system. Thanks for this edit to the BCD goes to the man who first reported it. It's still not exactly clear what happens in the Vista bootmgr when this edit has been applied, but it has been used by a lot of people for more than a year with no reports of any problems or issues. It is not a published Microsoft fix, but it appears to be exactly the same edit as applied by Microsoft's own sysprep utility. The sysprep tool is designed to allow computer suppliers and IT pros to easily deploy Vista to numerous computers, by letting them install Vista once and then copy it to the other machines. That single install has to be 'generalized' so that when it is rebooted for the first time on another machine it is able to adapt to its new surroundings. My examinations of the 'generalized' BCD of a syspreped Vista install has shown that it employs the same edit as described here. If it's how Microsoft do it, then I think we can be fairly confident that it is a valid approach. If you don't want to generalize a BCD but just reset one to its new surroundings, then see the section below Re-Specialize a BCD.

To make this change to the BCD you have to use the command line bcdedit.exe tool and you have to be very careful you are working on the correct BCD and the correct boot entry in your BCD. If you are using a third-party bootmanager and have more than one Vista based OS then you will have more than one BCD on the computer and so bcdedit.exe may well change the wrong BCD. If you are using the MS bootmanager to dual or multiboot with any other OS then you will have more than one boot entry (Object) in the BCD and so the Object 'identifier' you need to use (the word between the squiggly brackets) may need to be specific for your set up. If you only have one Vista and you are not using the MS bootmanager then you can skip the rest of this paragraph. If you do have the MS bootmanager configured to boot other OSes then be aware that using the {default} identifier means you will alter the boot Object set as the default item in the MS bootmanager, that's the one that will start automatically if you don't make a booting choice before the bootmenu timeout. When running bcdedit.exe from inside Windows the {current} identifier will normally alter the boot Object of the OS that is currently booted, but this is not always true for those of us using third-party bootmanagers and running clones. If bcdedit.exe is working on the wrong BCD then the {current} identifier might still change a boot Object in a BCD other than the one inside the OS we are booted into. It will depend on whether the bootmanager being used is fully compatible for Vista on second or higher hard drives and logical partitions. If you don't know for sure that yours is, then you should always check that bcdedit.exe is indeed targeting the BCD you intended. See BCD is Always Open (If you do have trouble targeting the correct BCD then you can point bcdedit.exe to the desired BCD with the commands shown in the section below Generalize a BCD While Working From a Different OS).

If you do not have the MS bootmanager configured and the Vista you want to generalize is on a primary partition on the boot hard drive, then the easiest way to apply this change to its BCD is to boot into that OS and open a command prompt window, (how to do it from another OS or the Vista DVD is covered below). You might have to open the command prompt with elevated privileges by right clicking and choosing 'Run as administrator' then just type these separate commands, pressing Enter after each one. You should get a message after each. “The operation completed successfully”. If you get any other message from either of the first two commands then something is wrong with your set up and you may not be in a boot drive primary, or you might have the MS bootmanager configured, so you should go back and read the whole of the previous paragraph.

Using the {default} identifier in the first two commands here can work equally as well, except you would have less of a chance of receiving an error message if you were changing the wrong BCD or the wrong boot Object.

bcdedit /set {current} osdevice boot
bcdedit /set {current} device boot
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot

The memdiag line shown here is optional and only required if you ever want to use Vista's boot time memory tester. There should be one space between each block of characters. Once you have applied the first command you can use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the previous commands you have entered, then back-arrow and edit, instead of re-typing much of the same again. Or you can copy and past from this page.

Now no matter which partition or drive on that computer you clone this Vista install to it will boot without any further modifications (assuming you are using a Vista compatible bootmanager). The parent Vista will continue to function normally and I have yet to find a reason to return its BCD to the original condition. If you do restore the BCD then you will have to generalize it again before future cloning operations. You will also be more prone to boot problems if anything changes the hard drive disk signature or the partition offset. It's only when using the MS bootmanager that the BCD might have to point to a winload.exe that is not on the same partition as itself. When you are using a third-party bootmanager the BCD always needs to point to its own partition, so there is no need for specific drive and partition information. In fact this is also true if you only have one Windows, so why didn't MS make this the default behavior until such time as the bootmanager was configured? Perhaps there is a reason yet to be discovered. Microsoft's sysprep tool does re-specialize the BCD during first boot of a generalized Vista.
Click to expand...

Read the whole page here...

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/cloning.html

Having dealt with this issue personally on 2000 Dell Lat. 620/630 Optiplex 745/755's the article is spot on.

you have to use the /generalize flag from sysprep or boot from the vista dvd and fix the startup. I just added the /generalize flag to our sysprep routine.

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