CaptainJack

Here is what I had to do to get WinXP to play nicely with WDS/SCCM. Quick checklist: make sure that you're using the proper HAL setup in your sysprep.ini file. If you're trying to dump a MP image onto a UP machine, it can cause problems. Also, make sure that you have the drivers loading in the right order. If it is a SATA drive, have the SATA drivers load last. If they are IDE, load the IDE last. I don't know why exactly, but this seems to make a difference. My blog entry might also help you with the sysprep/partition issue because I did happen to mention something about cleaning out partitions when it came time to install the OS.

I'm modifying the previous post. The link to the specific article on my blog is here. The previous one will take you to the front page. This link will save you time.

We're using 2k8 R2. I keep going back to Microsoft and they have nothing on 2k8 R2....or very little anyway. Most of their stuff on TechNet is related to Server 2k3. I know 2k8 hasn't been out that long, but you'd think there would be SOMETHING out there??? Guess I need to be the one to write it, huh?

Okay, now for the stupid question from across the pond...how? So far, I've tried mounting images -- nothing. Using the WDS console -- nothing. What am I doing wrong? Somewhere else on this site I saw someone ask why MS can't just have a menu option "inject drivers"?

I'm glad to hear that worked for you. I don't know what it is about those Broadcomm NICs.

I have a question for you. Where did you inject the drivers? Did you inject them into the boot image that WDS uses to run the destination machine so it can drop the image down to the machine or did you inject them directly into the image file that comes down to the machine from the server? I have been beating my head against the monitor trying to figure out how to make this work. If I put it in the boot image, the machine doesn't see them, but I can't get them into the actual image that goes down to the server. So far everything I've read about this has such a convoluted explanation that it makes my head hurt.

Just so you know, there is no way to unmarry a Windows XP image from the HAL. We overcame this issue by modifying the sysprep.ini file before running sysprep on the XP box, but it took two tries to do it. I put up a blog posting on how to handle the multiple HAL issue with WinXP. It means running sysprep twice, but it seems to be working for us. Here's the link to my entry: Deck 16 – Engineering | Navigating through IT Let me know if this helps.

Are you mixing up your x86 and x64 versions? That was one of the problems we ran into. Also, we managed to overcome the whole mess by dumping every NIC driver we had into the boot image. It bloated the boot image, but at least we were able to get it to work. The nice thing about this was that it not only solved this problem, but it has (so far) kept our older machines from being picky. I wasn't able to tell from what I read, did you delete ALL of your other boot images after injecting the drivers?

Didn't I read somewhere that with Vista and 7, it is possible to do updates straight to the images without having to load them first? This was never possible with XP because of the HAL getting in the way but with Vista and 7 being hardware non-specific it's a non-issue. Now, I can't speak to application upgrades being handled this way, but I believe updates to the OS as well as drivers can be done without the annoying step of throwing the image on the machine, updating the image then tossing it back up to the image server. If I read correctly, then it would seem your answer is that #2 is the best choice either way.

CyberNerd: The one distinct advantage Novell had over Microsoft is that it is still much more stable. Novell servers (be they older Netware or the newer OSE) rarely, if ever, require being rebooted for no apparent reason. However, as where I work is moving to Windows-based servers, we are seeing occasions where Windows servers need to be bounced "just because". In my mind, this is totally unacceptable. Also, it is harder for miscreants to hack into Novell servers unless they are standing at the console. The fact is that MS just has a better marketing plan...not necessarily the better product and unfortunately, MS is proof that you don't have to have the best product in the market, just be the best marketed product.

I upgraded my Windows Deployment Services server to R2 and at the time, remember reading something about it breaking Sysprep's ability to join XP machines to the domain , and lo and behold, Sysprep can no longer join an XP machine to the domain after being imaged using WDS! Haven't looked into it yet, but I suppose it's my own fault for not doing my research beforehand and leaping into R2. Any word on a fix for this? We are beginning to make the move to 2k8 R2 and we will be using some XP boxes on this network for a while yet (mainly student computers, the bulk of our XP deployment) and I don't like surprises. At the least, thanks for this heads up!

Aye, where do you think I got the name?

I hope that's Earl Gray in that teacup!

Hello all. Feel free to call me CJ. I've been Captain Jack since long before the WWW was cool, so I use the name when I can and curse the impostors who use my name elsewhere. I work for the largest school district in my area. I'm an expatriated Kansan living in exile in California. Looking forward to sharing tips and tricks with you all! cj