Cloning a computer, what am I missing?

[Ric]

I have cloned a hard drive of a computer using Acronis to streamline the installation and configuration process.  At least that's what I was hoping.

The computer that has the original drive was placed in service last week. I started configuring the new computer today.  When the original computer tried to log into the network today it said it could not find the computer name on the network (paraphrase)

The 2nd computer that is using the copy of the drive has a different static IP address and computer name.

What am I missing?  Something in NetBIOS?

Thanx.

Ric

[Jeff Zylstra]

You probably know this, but for those lurkers out there....   When you clone a computer, you have to run a process in Windows ( used to be called sysprep?) to remove the machine specific identifiers before cloning.  That process will cause you to go through the new computer process where you have to set the region, time, date, machine name, etc....  It then configures Windows with machine specific information.  This process can be automated, but it's way too much hassle for me.  Anyways, it sounds like this process did not get completed fully or correctly.   Could that be it?

[Ric]

You probably know this, but for those lurkers out there....   When you clone a computer, you have to run a process in Windows ( used to be called sysprep?) to remove the machine specific identifiers before cloning.  That process will cause you to go through the new computer process where you have to set the region, time, date, machine name, etc....  It then configures Windows with machine specific information.  This process can be automated, but it's way too much hassle for me.  Anyways, it sounds like this process did not get completed fully or correctly.   Could that be it?

Jeff, no, I am not familiar with sysprep!

what's the order that it gets done?   

Format the drive
sysprep
clone the drive from the previously saved image?
change static IP address
change computer name
join domain

Thanx!

[Mark]

Yes, what Jeff says.  You need to Sysprep PRIOR to taking an image.  When you fire up a sysprep'd machine, it will ask for a computer name and prompt to join to domain if desired.

Steps are basically:

• Configure source machine
• Sysprep source machine
• Create image of sysprepp'd machine
• Deploy image

[Jeff Zylstra]

What Mark said.  A couple of more pointers...  I would do a direct, disk to disk clone by inserting the "target" disk into the original or "source" machine.  This is much faster than using a USB drive as an intermediary.  Also, I have had issues with Acronis in the past with dissimilar sized disks, especially when cloning the disk to an image file on a USB drive, then having transferring it to the target disk.

I have had good luck with the Clonezilla Live CD.  You download the .ISO file and burn that to a CD or DVD and boot from it.  It's pretty simple, reliable, and fast.  I cloned two disks the weekend before last, and it took me about 45 minutes a disk.  Not bad at all.  And of course, it is Free!  It's about a 15 Meg download, so not bad at all.  Let us know if you have questions.

P.S.  Don't forget to install all the software, drivers, settings, etc... on the source machine before cloning it.  And remember to update all of the software to latest versions, and update to the latest drivers, as well.  That is the real benefit of cloning.   Also, check your group policy settings if you're on a domain, and remember to make sure that this user is a member of the given group so that the group policy settings take effect at login. 

[Jeff Zylstra]

Jeff, no, I am not familiar with sysprep!

what's the order that it gets done?   

Format the drive
sysprep
clone the drive from the previously saved image?
change static IP address
change computer name
join domain

Thanx!

P.S.  The cloning process is a sector for sector, byte for byte, exact copy of the disk, including the formatting information.  You can even do a "bare metal" clone of a new, unformatted disk and it will be the same as the original disk.  One thing on that however, is that if the original disk is smaller than the cloned disk, the new cloned disk will be the same size as the original and then have empty, unformatted space at the end of the disk.  Windows virtual disk manager can easily and quickly take care of that for you and extend the partition.  Virtual disk manager is in My Computer- Manage - Virtual disk manager.

[Ric]

where do I get sysprep?

these extra steps are making reconsider cloning again.  What a PITA

I have about 150 items on my checklist to deploy a new machine and I'm still thinking cloning is a waste of my time and patience.

Will give it some consideration though.

Thanx.

Ric

[Mark]

You already have it.  It's in

Code Select Expand

C:\Windows\system32\sysprep\

If you have 150 things on your checklist, imaging is definitely the way to go in my opinion.  Once you get passed the hurdle of figuring it all out, you'll be able to hammer through all those machines.  You keep the image around or even update it, someone gets a virus or just some weird problem you cannot figure out, just re-image their machine and forget about troubleshooting or otherwise wasting time.

[Jeff Zylstra]

The more identical machines you are doing at a time, the more cloning makes sense.  If you have a lot of common programs, printers, devices or settings that are not specific to a user, then cloning is even more of a benefit.  If it is a simple installation with 2 computers, then maybe not.  Sysprep takes about a minute or so to remove the machine specific information.  Like Mark said, cloning is an excellent "backup" of sorts for workstations.  The user specific information should be either in roaming profiles, then backed up off the server, or backed up another way, but workstation backups have always been a pain.  Cloning helps that, I think. 

Your frustration is talking right now.  Just use Sysprep without any additional command line options.  You will be prompted when the machine boots up after being cloned, just like an "out of the box" machine.  So what.  You're still ahead, even if you clone 1 machine, you will have learned a LOT and found another wonderful tool to make life easier.  Hang in there, because it WILL be worth it in the end.

[Mark]

Well said Jeff!

[Jeff Zylstra]

Well said Jeff!

Thanks, Mark.  I think you're the one who helped me originally with cloning, and someone else here turned me on to Clonezilla, so I'm just passing the help along in the AU tradition.

[Jeff Golas]

I started to find that in some cases, cloning (while awesome in itself) is a pain for some stuff. Look at your checklist, then decide how much of that can be automated rather than cloned? Installing office? Automate it (gpo using startup script that looks for existing folder). Installing flash/java? Automate them (gpo install).

[Ric]

definitely frustrated   

can I sysprep the machine I am working on and leave the original cloned machine alone? 
And then make an image of this machine to use in the future?

    Better explanation if the above is not clear....

Set up #1 Machine and configured it as far as I could generically
Made image of #1 machine with Acronis
Cloned new machine (call it #2) from the Acronis image of #1
can I Sysprep #2 and then make an image of it to use in the future?

[Mark]

Most likely, yes.

[Jeff Zylstra]

definitely frustrated   

can I sysprep the machine I am working on and leave the original cloned machine alone?  NO.  You will need to sysprep the original, fully setup machine to remove machine specific information before cloning it to the new computer.
And then make an image of this machine to use in the future?  Yes, after Syspreping, you can store the image on a server or USB drive and then just refer to that image in the cloning process.

    Better explanation if the above is not clear....

Set up #1 Machine and configured it as far as I could generically
Made image of #1 machine with Acronis - AFTER your Syspreped it to remove the machine specific information, I hope.  Remember, Syspreping only takes a couple minutes to remove the information, and about 5 minutes to go through the "out of the box" configuration of Windows.
Cloned new machine (call it #2) from the Acronis image of #1
can I Sysprep #2 and then make an image of it to use in the future?  Yes, you can, or if it has the same hardware and printers as the first computer, just use the image that you stored to a USB drive or Server.

See the interlinear above....   I hope that is clear.

[Ric]

definitely frustrated   

can I sysprep the machine I am working on and leave the original cloned machine alone?  NO.  You will need to sysprep the original, fully setup machine to remove machine specific information before cloning it to the new computer.
And then make an image of this machine to use in the future?  Yes, after Syspreping, you can store the image on a server or USB drive and then just refer to that image in the cloning process.

    Better explanation if the above is not clear....

Set up #1 Machine and configured it as far as I could generically
Made image of #1 machine with Acronis - AFTER your Syspreped it to remove the machine specific information, I hope.  Remember, Syspreping only takes a couple minutes to remove the information, and about 5 minutes to go through the "out of the box" configuration of Windows.
Cloned new machine (call it #2) from the Acronis image of #1
can I Sysprep #2 and then make an image of it to use in the future?  Yes, you can, or if it has the same hardware and printers as the first computer, just use the image that you stored to a USB drive or Server.

See the interlinear above....   I hope that is clear.

Great.  I will try SysPreping #2.

BTW: I use the SATA connection to clone drives.  if a spare is not in the machine I simply borrow the CD ROM's cables.

Wish me (good) luck

Thanx for your help.

Ric

[Ric]

soooooo... I try to run Sysprep and it gives me a fatal error.

have tried running Sysprep from CMD prompt and using Windows Explorer.  With and without Generalize options, tried a couple reboot, and shut down options.

Also tried all of the above booting into Safe Mode / Command prompt - same fatal error regardless of the options selected.

Seem FUBAR to me.

Got any ID?

Thanx

[Mark]

Probably has something to do with Windows Activation.  See the post marked as answer here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/425bd101-8a87-488c-b2e2-9f2f8113a0d9/sysprep-fatal-error-occurred-while-trying-to-sysprep-the-machine?forum=w7itproinstall

[Jeff Zylstra]

definitely frustrated   

can I sysprep the machine I am working on and leave the original cloned machine alone?  NO.  You will need to sysprep the original, fully setup machine to remove machine specific information before cloning it to the new computer.
And then make an image of this machine to use in the future?  Yes, after Syspreping, you can store the image on a server or USB drive and then just refer to that image in the cloning process.

    Better explanation if the above is not clear....

Set up #1 Machine and configured it as far as I could generically
Made image of #1 machine with Acronis - AFTER your Syspreped it to remove the machine specific information, I hope.  Remember, Syspreping only takes a couple minutes to remove the information, and about 5 minutes to go through the "out of the box" configuration of Windows.
Cloned new machine (call it #2) from the Acronis image of #1
can I Sysprep #2 and then make an image of it to use in the future?  Yes, you can, or if it has the same hardware and printers as the first computer, just use the image that you stored to a USB drive or Server.

See the interlinear above....   I hope that is clear.

Great.  I will try SysPreping #2.

BTW: I use the SATA connection to clone drives.  if a spare is not in the machine I simply borrow the CD ROM's cables.

Wish me (good) luck

Thanx for your help.

Ric

Whoa Kemosahbee!   I think you want to sysprep number 1, don't you?  You want to remove the machine specific information before you clone the disk where you've installed all the programs, printers, drivers, etc.... 

That may or may not explain your Windows error.  Don't know, but I want to make sure you're syspreping the correct machine.

I also should mention that I believe that there are a limited number of times that you can "activate" a Windows installation.  Three, I believe is the limit.  After that, it may not allow you to activate again, so please be careful how many times you do it.  I noticed that this guy in the blog post did it 4 times.  That could have something to do with it as well.  Also, if you have not activated Windows yet, it also won't allow you to sysprep.  Is it possible that you've already sucessfully syspreped this machine?

[Ric]

definitely frustrated   

can I sysprep the machine I am working on and leave the original cloned machine alone?  NO.  You will need to sysprep the original, fully setup machine to remove machine specific information before cloning it to the new computer.
And then make an image of this machine to use in the future?  Yes, after Syspreping, you can store the image on a server or USB drive and then just refer to that image in the cloning process.

    Better explanation if the above is not clear....

Set up #1 Machine and configured it as far as I could generically
Made image of #1 machine with Acronis - AFTER your Syspreped it to remove the machine specific information, I hope.  Remember, Syspreping only takes a couple minutes to remove the information, and about 5 minutes to go through the "out of the box" configuration of Windows.
Cloned new machine (call it #2) from the Acronis image of #1
can I Sysprep #2 and then make an image of it to use in the future?  Yes, you can, or if it has the same hardware and printers as the first computer, just use the image that you stored to a USB drive or Server.

See the interlinear above....   I hope that is clear.

Great.  I will try SysPreping #2.

BTW: I use the SATA connection to clone drives.  if a spare is not in the machine I simply borrow the CD ROM's cables.

Wish me (good) luck

Thanx for your help.

Ric

Whoa Kemosahbee!   I think you want to sysprep number 1, don't you?  You want to remove the machine specific information before you clone the disk where you've installed all the programs, printers, drivers, etc.... 

That may or may not explain your Windows error.  Don't know, but I want to make sure you're syspreping the correct machine.

Computer #1 is in service.
Computer #2 has an image of computer #1, this is the computer that I would like to Sysprep and then I will make a new image of #2 for future use.

Hopefully that is clear

BTW: not sure where to go at this point if it's going to give me errors.

Thanx.

Ric

[Jeff Zylstra]

What is the exact error message?  I'm sure Googling it would be helpful.

[Jeff Golas]

There's a couple ways you can do it - if you have a straight up image, hopefully while its not joined to the domain, what I would do is just sysprep that.

Keep in mind once a comp is sysprepped you'll need to re-activate windows. You can do this using the product key on the sticker or if its a Win8 comp it should be pulling the product key from the bios.

[Ric]

There's a couple ways you can do it - if you have a straight up image, hopefully while its not joined to the domain, what I would do is just sysprep that.

Keep in mind once a comp is sysprepped you'll need to re-activate windows. You can do this using the product key on the sticker or if its a Win8 comp it should be pulling the product key from the bios.

You guys rock!

Thanx for all the info and advice!

Ric

[Jeff Zylstra]

There's a couple ways you can do it - if you have a straight up image, hopefully while its not joined to the domain, what I would do is just sysprep that.

Keep in mind once a comp is sysprepped you'll need to re-activate windows. You can do this using the product key on the sticker or if its a Win8 comp it should be pulling the product key from the bios.

You guys rock!

Thanx for all the info and advice!

Ric

Does this suddenly sunny disposition mean that we may we assume success in your endeavors? 

[Ric]

There's a couple ways you can do it - if you have a straight up image, hopefully while its not joined to the domain, what I would do is just sysprep that.

Keep in mind once a comp is sysprepped you'll need to re-activate windows. You can do this using the product key on the sticker or if its a Win8 comp it should be pulling the product key from the bios.

You guys rock!

Thanx for all the info and advice!

Ric

Does this suddenly sunny disposition mean that we may we assume success in your endeavors? 

not yet but all of the feedback has been great!

[Billy Welsh]

The warm front cheered him up!