• Tank
  • DriverPacks newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-03-10
  • Posts: 2

Topic: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

I just wanted to let you guys know that I have posted 2 howto guides on my blog to share with yas.

The first is "How to create a hardware independent sysprepped WIM image of Windows XP for deployment from Windows Deployment Services" and the second being "Setting up Windows Deployment Services for WIM image based network deployment of Windows XP on Windows Server 2003".

I used the driverpacks from this website for drivers aswell as adding any missing drivers aswell.
I have learnt alot from these forums throughout many years of experimenting and working on optimsing a good way to deploy Windows XP.
I have them availible in word documents also in case you guys want to use/update them yourselves.

Anyway my blog address is http://ashleystechblog.blogspot.com/ so let me know what you think.
I have already posted a topic in another forum and would prefer everyone replied in that forum as to keep all information in one place. The link is http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=130866

Please feel free to ask any questions.

  • From: Springfield, MA, USA
  • Registered: 2007-09-21
  • Posts: 396

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Sounds good I'll check them out. Thanks!

Search your INF's for Hardware ID's with FindHWIDS

stamandster's Website

  • Registered: 2009-05-12
  • Posts: 4

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Thanks... Your blog was a good resource when I was building my VMware-based Universal Image.

Kudos!

  • Tank
  • DriverPacks newbie
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-03-10
  • Posts: 2

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Thanks guys, Please let me know what problems you guys encounter and how things turn out. I'm now working for an Outsourced IT/Systems Intergrator company so I'm not dealing with one company or one brand of hardware. I've realised that it's a real bitch keeping all your drivers up to date through imaging and it can screw up if you have a faulty driver that doesn't install such as the MassStorage ones. I'm thinking about making another tutorial using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 beta which uses an unnatended fashion. I've used it before and it was pretty great considering you could enter in all the details you needed when you first boot up and leave it and everything would be done for you. Another thing I did while I was creating these deployment methods was that I was using Group Policy Software Installation to install all the SOE software on first boot. Anyway if you guys have any more ideas let me know.

  • Registered: 2009-05-12
  • Posts: 4

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Thanks Ashley.

There were only a few things I found when following your instructions that I had modified slightly for my build.


1) For me, I didn't feel that it wasn't really necessary to setup shared folders in VMware Workstation when VMware Tools is installed.  I was simply dragging and dropping files onto the desktop and that was good enough.

2) To my surprise, using the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC HAL would not work on my variety of IBM and Lenovo desktops (would get reboots after imaging).  I simply stuck with the ACPI Uniprocessor PC HAL and used MySysprep and it worked fine.  I suspect this to be a VMware issue as I had previous built a universal image using a IBM desktop using the generic ACPI HAL and it had worked no problem.

3) I removed VMware Tools before capturing my image as there is no need to have it installed on real hardware.



Instead of using WinPE to capture an image, I simply stuck with what my work is already licensed for (and other staff are trained on using)... Ghost.

In case anyone else is interested, these were the sites I gleaned my knowledge from and used tools from:

Vernalex.com - Sysprep Guide
http://www.vernalex.com/guides/sysprep/index.shtml

Ashley’s Tech Blog – Hardware Independent Imaging Using VMware
http://ashleystechblog.blogspot.com/200 … ndent.html

Midteq – Creating a HAL Independent Windows XP Base Image
http://www.midteq.co.uk/index.php?optio … ;Itemid=68

Driverpacks.net Forum – Universal Imaging
http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewforum.php?id=30

Admin Bromo – Universal Imaging Using MySysprep
http://adminbromo.blogspot.com/2006/10/ … guide.html

Tsaysoft – MySysprep Tool
http://tsaysoft.com/mysysprep/

Vernalex.com – Sysprep Driver Scanner Tool
http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml

Driverpacks.net – Driverpacks
http://www.driverpacks.net/

PCIDatabase.com – PCI Device Database
http://www.pcidatabase.com/index.php

  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Stickied!

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  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: How to guides on deploying Hardware Independant Windows XP WIM Images

Here's a guide written by our own IcemanND
MSFN link: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/144914- … -using-pe/
Contains a comprehensive .pdf file for download too!
Make sure to read; "Appendix A: Using Windows 7 Driverpacks from Driverpacks.net" wink

Read BEFORE you post.  HWID tool   DriverPacks Tutorial   DONATE!
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