What is Sysprep, and is it used to clone Hdd to Hdd in Win2K?

Chuckiechan · December 13th, 2003, 06:03 PM

I have a second HDD in my case, my original great idea was to copy from one to another for a complete system back up

Won't work. When I boot into the other one as master with original disconnected, I get an error: "No Pagefile.sys" or something telling me the page file is set to zero.

Can't reinstall, can't get to safe mode, ran crash disk, rescue disks, consol asks for password (I have none). Works fine as a slave. Looks like Mr Gates shot my big idea down pretty good.

Plus, wont the registry be looking for "D" if I put in as a replacement for "C"?

Will sysprep work?

BTW: Win2K with SP4

John Prophet · December 13th, 2003, 06:20 PM

no.

Sysprep isnt used for that.

You simply need norton ghost for that....you can buy Norton system works for less than $15 which comes with ghost. Or you can buy a biostar motherboard and get it, lol.

sysprep is used BEFORE you use ghost...sysprep itself doesnt copy anything......what you use sysprep for is to "strip" off the product key and other stuff from a build. In other words lets say you are going to build 5 comps with the same Biostar or asus or whatever motherboard. So you do one build, all the drivers, windows updates, freeware etc etc. Ok you are satisfied that you have the build exactly how you want it. So now you run sysprep...thats the last thing you do before you ghost it. Sysprep strips off the product key that you entered when you did the build etc....you run sysprep and then it shuts the machine down.

You THEN use norton ghost to copy that hard drive that was "sysprepped." lol.

Now what you do is either ghost it to a server or what I do is make restore cd's with that sysprepped ghost image.

So now you go to your other machines and ghost that image onto the hard drives...when you boot up it will be the windows "oobe" screens...hehe...the windows "out of box experience" welcome screens like you get when you first boot up a new dell. It asks you for the product key and your user name and maybe time zone etc etc.

I use it for system builds so that when I use, say, a certain motherboard I only have to do the build ONCE no matter how many system I use with that motherboard. The whole activation issue makes it necessary for building XP systems. (on Win98se for instance you didnt really need sysprep cuz youd just do a ghost and on the new machine you would go to the registry and type in the new product id)

Another thing sysprep does is make a new 'SID' or "security ID"...cuz if you are building 50 moachiens for a large network then obviously they cant all have the same SID. (thats about the limit of my knowledge on the subject, lol)

Sysprep also resets the 30 day activation period in case it took you a week to get around to finishing the build...ahhh, but dont think you can just keep using sysprep to use bootleg windows, cuz sysprep will only run 3 times I think on the same build, I think it wont run the 4th time.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/In...ArticleID=5047

one source for norton system works pro...there are others of course http://www.saveateagle.com/symnorsyspro3.html

Chuckiechan · December 13th, 2003, 11:49 PM

Then sysprep isn't going to do it.

I did a Hdd to Hdd clone using the Maxtor utility for it.

The cloned Hdd won't boot. It has no page file, or it is set to zero.

Does Ghost do something different?

What I want to do is use my second drive like a back up. If the first gets hosed, (like I did earlier this week*), I can just plug in the new one and transfer the latest work.

*I got all of my files and didn't lose anything except time. I had to re format my "C" drive and reload Win2K and all of the programs. The only thing I lost was my Netscape bookmarks.

Edit2: BTW, did the icons recently get animated, or was it something that happened during my re-install?

John Prophet · December 14th, 2003, 12:16 AM

Ghost makes exact copies...the only issue would be if you leave both drives hooked up all the time..it would copy it no problem but then when you re-booted it with both drives still hooked up it seems there would be some interaction between the drives. If you left the drive in there but pulled the IDE cable after you ghosted it you would be fine.

Or you could make a nice ghost copy of the whole drive...nad then just backup whatever data folders you use etc. Then if something happened you would have the ghost image to restore the computer and you would also have to restore your latest backup of the data folders.

Ive never used any of the maxtor or other utilities, Ive always used ghost.

JP

Chuckiechan · December 14th, 2003, 02:01 PM

JP, thanks so much!

I will work on Ghost.

Thanks again! Merry Christmas..

John Prophet · December 14th, 2003, 02:14 PM

Ghost rocks! The only way you can really go wrong is if you get the "source" and "destination" drives backwards..which I have only done once out of several hundred times. When that happens you copy the wrong drive to the wrong drive, lol..usually meaning you copy the blank drive over top of the good drive with windows on it....meaning you end up with 2 blank drives!

So usually you try to have the two drives be of different sizes so you are doubly sure which is which. So if you have a 40g with windows installed and you are copying to a 30g backup drive you just make sure the 40g is the "source". The primary master should always show up as the "source" drive so usually there is no problem.

Good luck, JP