When to use the SysPrep tool..?

Acronis Support frequently recommends using the Windows Sysprep tool before cloning a disk that contains the system to a new disk. (Most recently Tatyana Tsyngaeva in a reply to post by Jon_Cosby on June 16).

I have difficulty in understanding why Acronis Support makes this recommendation. It should not be necessary to use Sysprep if the only thing that is changing is the system disk.

I quote from the Microsoft TechNet article on this subject: -

One of the underlying purposes of Sysprep is to deploy Windows across PC's that have different SID's. In the case of a single PC where the old system disk is being cloned to a new system disk, the PC SID will remain the same and there should be no conflicts within Windows in accepting the new system disk as part of the existing system configuration.

However, as Acronis Support are the experts on their product, I believe it would be helpful if they could explain why the Sysprep process is recommended when using the TI9 clone utility.

 

I've used a clone disk in place of a cloned disk a number of times and without problem and without sysprep. Merely changing the physical drive that is the boot and system drive with a clone that is the same type (IDE150, SATA 300) of drive does not make using Sysprep necessary. I believe it only needs to be run if the different drivers will be required to operate the hardware, which, as you recognize, is not the case if you merely change the drive.


sh

 

Agreed.

I have previously raised this issue with Acronis Support and they concurred. However, they still give this advice to users.

I am trying to understand why. As I personally believe the advice to use Sysprep when cloning a system disk on a single PC is simply wrong. But less technical users may not understand this and may follow the advice and use Sysprep.

Acronis Support really need to provide absolute clarity on this issue and it would probably be a good topic for a FAQ.

 

sysprep = System Preparation Tool

This tool should only be used when you clone a PC in a netwerk to another PC. What this tool does is reset your License when you have an OEM product and changes your SID(Security Identifier) this last thing is very important because there cannot be 2 machines with identical SIDS on a Netwerk.

However. When this is just 1 machine and you want to clone it to a new harddrive in that machine and it ISNT oem but a VLK license your are using. You do not need sysprep.

 

Thanks for the feedback jeremyotten

Could you provide some more information on the difference between the OEM and VLK license when using TI9 to clone a system disk to another disk in the same machine.

Are you saying that in practice the process behaves differently depending on the licence of the installed OS ?

 

NO when you have an OEM license of XP you can only change about 5 hardware items.

with VLK it doesn't matter.

Windows XP Home is automatically an OEM

 

That makes sense. Thanks.

 

What if you just want to replace the hard drive, to an identical one or a bigger one, or even to a different HDD manufacture, and the XP Pro license is OEM? Does SysPrep need to be run?

 

The short answer is - No

In a previous post jeremyotten raised the issue of "...5 hardware items..." This is true but it is not a problem. If you have an OEM license and you change more than 5 hardware items you may find that Windows will ask you to reactivate your OEM license. In practice I have never yet found this to be a problem.

 

Hello Tabvla and everyone interested,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

First of all, please be aware that, as jeremyotten has already mentioned above, the general purpose of preparing Windows with Sysprep tool is to prevent possible problems caused by presence of several computers with identical security identifiers (SID) and\or computer names in the same domain\network. Also, it sometimes helps to transfer the operating system to a computer with slightly different hardware configuration.

What concerns Tabvla's question, we sometimes recommend using Sysprep just in case destination hard drive is of the different type or computer is in network\domain, etc. Especially, if the situation is unclear or it is hard to clarify what happens exactly. Also, Sysprep may help if one transfers the operating system to another hard drive and do not want to unplug one of the hard drives upon Windows first boot.

It is not obligatory to use Sysprep tool if you transfer the system to the hard drive of the same type and stay within the "limits" of one computer.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov