Cloning a computer, what am I missing?

[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!