This allows you to automatically update to the correct HAL during minisetup.  A word of advice, I would build my image on a single proc machine and change the HAL to the generic ACPI.  Then configure MySysprep to only update if it find a multicore chip.  I had problems with laptops if it was set to update the HAL on single core chips to ACPI uniprocessor.

I use sysprep to do this. In the sysprep.inf file you file oempnpdriverspath equal to every directory that has a .inf file (it is a lot!). You run sysprep, and then image the machine once it has shutdown. On restart, it will search the driverspack for all drivers for the current system.

HAL is an issue in XP also. I would just say if all your stuff is new, then it'll all use the ACPI HAL and you'll have no problems. This maybe an excuse to get rid of old hardware infact!

This is a quite note, reply if you want some specific details.

Is it possible to create one windows XP image with driverpacks & sysprep and then use it on all the different hardware brands ?

Yes, but this is beyond the scope of my expertise so take my advice with a grain of salt.
You may have issues on systems using different HAL setups (notebook vs desktop).  If you use OEMBIOS.* files for autoactivation, you may have activation issues unless you incorporate OEMSCAN (search MSFN.org).

Maybe someone else with experience in this field can chime in with better info.

first of all thankyou to all of you for making this wonderful site which has solved tons of our problems ! Hats to all of you.

My question is that i have created windows XP image & slipstreamed the drivers as given in the tutorial on this site. I have captured that image with Sysprep. Now if i want to dump that image on different hardware platforms like Dell, Acer & toshiba do i need to create seperate sysprep for each brand ??

Is it possible to create one windows XP image with driverpacks & sysprep and then use it on all the different hardware brands ?

Otherwise creating seperate sysprep for all the different brands ( will lead to different images for each brand ) as we upload the image with sysprep in our college environment