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How to image Windows XP with Ghost and Sysprep

blog.hishamrana.com — Clear instructions on how to use Ghost and Sysprep to create a universal disk image of Windows XP that will restore onto any computer. No more reinstalling necessary after making this.

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  • Furg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pretty cool-- this is what some OEM's do with their restore disks.
  • CrazyZ, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0If you do not know how to do this, you have absolutely no right claiming any sort of administration experience.....
  • echosierratwo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0good stuff. I've been doing this for about two years now. i use it to deploy Win2k machines and XPPro laptops. Makes my like a WHOLE HELL of a lot easier.
  • aspangenberg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Works great on the college campus. The computers in the labs get messed up so quickly. I pop in the boot disk and grab the image over the network, eat lunch, return and pretty much done.
  • master_of_fm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4one good tip they didnt mention, once you have finished the image hookup the drive up as a secondary drive and to delete the pagefile.sys and hibernat.sys, can easily reduce the size of the image by a few hundred megabytes before compression
  • x2wenty4x, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I can do this in my sleep. But ZENworks Imaging is much better.
  • fh3011, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0yawn
  • nmcglennon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2We do this all the time at work on our college campus. We reghost twice a semester with software updates. In the meantime, we use Faronics DeepFreeze to prevent users from making changes... after they log-out (or time-out using a script) the workstation restarts and Deep Freeze kicks in, restoring to its original "frozen" state.

    Deep Freeze + Ghost + Win XP + Automated SysPrep + PXE booting = best deployment possible.
    • Xalorous, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0mandantory profile + strong security =
      why pay more for a 3rd party software to do what Windows can do for you?

      + SUS updates and you only have to re-ghost when someone cracks the system, or when it just breaks.
  • AtomicTheory, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ummmmm, I've been using Ghost alone to do this for over 3 years. While this isn't really digg-worthy, I guess its useful for n00bs to learn that they can download some malware, get irrevocably fubar'ed, then have the whole system back healthy in under 2 minutes.
  • ThankTheCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ CrazyZ

    lol yeah, that's true. But you gotta start somewhere. I wish I had this resource when I was young and learning all this stuff for the first time.
  • ArmandoM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"If you do not know how to do this, you have absolutely no right claiming any sort of administration experience....."

    Bull... I've been a network administrator for just under 10 years, and haven't ever touched ghost for anything except single standalone systems. Novell ZENworks works just fine for us and our couple thousand machines.
  • AnusBreaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1uh, just use partimage. its easy as ***** to use and its FREE.
  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ ArmandoM

    I agree. As a network engineer myself (and and some admin) we run an ArcServe tape backup routine but don't have a need for image backups. The experience with Ghost I did have awhile back was an extremely buggy experience.

    I'd take Acronis True Image over a bloated and buggy Norton product any day of the week. Plus for what the op described, I think a slipstreamed XP disc is truly fitting. nLite!
  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Also, is it just me? I don't see anything in that how-to about Ghost... just how to configure a deployment MS disc with sysprep.
    • Xalorous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ghost is pretty straight forward.

      What I want to see is a HOWTO on creating a PXE image.
  • tuxnician, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Since moving to W2003 server we use RIS and pxe to load the images to the desktops. (We've previously used Ghost). After booting through pxe it will only give a choice of the images that best match the current computer. I'd like to see a system that sends a new image down automatically. Group policies are used for lock down (previously used Deep Freeze). "As directed by my supervisor"
  • gurijala, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Internet Explorer is not supported on this website. Please download Firefox by clicking here..." clicking redirects to Mozilla.com website

    I love the tip he gives on the top of website. You will see if you use Internet Explorer.

  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yikes! I see it on the very bottom.. nevermind that last comment.


    @tuxnician

    RIS with PXE is super isn't it! Do most NICs you run into support PXE?
    I'd say your supervisor is making sense with regard to RIS and PXE (as opposed to Ghost) and group policy (as opposed to Deep Freeze).

    I think it's much more efficient to use the built ins rather than relying on other propriatery progs.
  • d0ogie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Knew a lot of this stuff already.....but a big digg++ for the link to vernalex.com's sysprep guide
  • optimusfx, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0I wont mention that Mac OS X can do this with the included Disk Utility and only a couple of mouse-clicks...
  • DownloadThis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This looks nice and all, but I think it's much easier to run ghost.exe v.8 (2003) from a bootable disc and do everything in dos. You only need about 5MB worth of files to create a snapshot of your entire drive, or just a partition and save the file somewhere. This process only takes about 10 minutes. You use the same disc to restore from your image (the image can be on another parition, drive, or even dvdr). Again, restoring only takes about 10 minutes.

    I don't know where I'd be without Ghost. I haven't had to reinstall Windows in over a year. Before making significant hardware changes, I reload from my ghost image, install the hardware, then save a new Ghost file.

    There is a great guide to doing this here: http://ghost.radified.com/bootable_cd_dvd.htm
    but a friend of mine created a better one, with much more useful screenshots. His site is offline, but I still have the html/gif files. Maybe I can find a good free host for this.
  • Dyscryption, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah Zenworks is much better.. However a lot of companies use Ghost only and there is nothing you can do about it if you havent gotten the pull to knock some sense into the purchasing department.. The funny thing is this guy probably just found out about this after getting a job from his paper credientals.. haha the real world of IT aint it a bitch!
  • Dyscryption, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0If you do not know how to do this, you have absolutely no right claiming any sort of administration experience.....

    Yes but we know that companies like Dell hire Paki's over white people 8 out of 10 times because they can communicate well with their call center people who piss off users who call in wanting just to understand why their ***** isnt working.. The reason they call in is because they paid for it via service contract that was about as much as their pc cost.. haha tech support outsourcing got to love it
  • chubbymidget, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice to see so many pro ZENWorks comments.

    Digg
  • gbrushtwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1+digg

    I did this all the time at my old job when deploying client desktop machines. Truely a tremendous life saver.

    However, one thing that was not mentioned in the article, which is important (I also posted this on the digee's site):
    You can not perform more than 3 syspreps on the same image and expect to regenerate the Windows activation security identifiers on the fourth try. Apparently, this is a hard coded thing by Microsoft (presumably to prevent people from constantly sysprepping?? Not really sure for this reason) and I don't believe there is a hack to get around this.

    Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way when I tried loading up an image on which I had performed > 3 syspreps. I didn't touch the image for over 30 days, and when I went to load it back up, Windows would not load up, as the activation expired.

    So, this is a useful tool, but be careful when doing multiple syspreps on the same Windows installation...
  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hey folks,
    I've been pondering this one if someone can fill me in...

    I guess the point of the whole sysprep configuration is for compatibility across different hardware configurations (although I honestly though XP was robust enough now to make the necessary adjustments).

    But if soemeone were to make a "universal disc" as notated, couldn't that just make a standard .iso after all the steps have been completed, absolving the need for Ghost all together? Or perhaps a slipstream so as not to need Ghost whatsoever? And if it were an environment in which multiple pcs needing install, RIS or (Acronis) snap deploy would seem to save so much more time.

    Thus, it just doesn't seem practical to me. Please let me know if you think I'm missing something.

  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way when I tried loading up an image on which I had performed > 3 syspreps. I didn't touch the image for over 30 days, and when I went to load it back up, Windows would not load up, as the activation expired."

    Interesting... maybe better served on an corp. (activation-less) xp.
  • tavisjohn, on 11/09/2007, -6/+0"Internet Explorer is not supported on this website. Please download Firefox by clicking here..."

    OK I am offended that they are trying to SHOVE FireFox down my throat! I do not tell people what browser to use when they visit MY site. That is the USER'S choice! It is not MY place as a web designer to tell them what they should use! :(

    No Dig for being TOO BOSSY!!!!!!!
  • aztechclan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0don't forget about G4U!!! Admittedly it's a tad slow building the image, but it's free and can image any operating system. This is also the reason it's slow. It doesn't care what filesystem you use, only the bytes matter.
  • billyboobs34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I do this quite a bit also but I only run into trouble when a system has a different motherboard... is there any way to make it totally hardware independant (while still keeping all the applications and settings I have set up)?
  • JFrizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0First of all sysprep is only useful if you are joining a domain or are building a cross-hardware based image. Ghost is usefull if you want to pre-configure your settings and pre-install your applications. Otherwise I personally think RIS is the way to go, along with using an application deployment tool like Altiris or Sybase Manage Anywhere (SMS is doable for those M$ fanboys). Any loose ends you need to tie up should be done with Winbatch (that's a personal preference, VBScript/CMD scripts work, but Winbatch is far more powerful).
  • eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1^^I would also venture that xcopy could do this also, though I have not tried. Digg for the newbs that need this.
  • The5000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0newb here midlife crisis, interesting forum posts.. I have learned a few things and begin my search for the answers to questions and commits I do not grasp yet. thank you
  • elfjuice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I liked the "Internet Explorer not supported by this site, Download Firefox here" Nice touch.

  • bobpaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Deep Freeze + Ghost + Win XP + Automated SysPrep + PXE booting = best deployment possible."

    Oh, I hate Deep Freeze. Don't get me wrong, it's a great program when it's working, but that Maintence Mode is garbage; more than half the time it won't run the damn scripts! We ended up using Zenworks Client on the machines to push whatever scripts we wanted to run durring our maintence mode because deep freeze's internal script calling is really sketchy. Not to mention that we've had a number of bad update processes. New versions of deep freeze have required from scratch images on more than a couple occasions. (Most go ok, but at least twice I was there we had to rebuild all of them from scratch because deep freeze blue screened us out of windows.)

    It's definately easier to use Deep Freeze than to properly secure the computer using file permissions, which can be really tricky, esp with older software.
  • bobpaul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I didn't touch the image for over 30 days, and when I went to load it back up, Windows would not load up, as the activation expired."

    When you run sysprep.exe, tick the box that says "Reset Activation" and you'll get 30 days from the day it boots on a new (or the same) machine. Then you don't have to worry about not having a corp edition.
  • TransmitThis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0lifes too short for me to get into all that... just using Ghost as a sys backup on my own laptop.
    dont like Norton and am using the old version, but it does for me.

    usefull I suppose but no Digg from me

    Ps now watching Diggnation Vidoecast no. 31 - they are very good well done to Alex and Kevin. well impressed!
  • Prog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Totally digging this...this may be awesome at work.
  • benb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0aztechclan said: "don't forget about G4U!!! Admittedly it's a tad slow building the image, but it's free and can image any operating system. This is also the reason it's slow. It doesn't care what filesystem you use, only the bytes matter."

    Ditto...G4U does come in handy.
  • papau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow . Not much to say on this but ...Hey... that's cool thanks :p
  • definiteform, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good writeup. We do it differently at work and have the privilege of a nice VLK. Automation is the best. However, he should have written what to do in Ghost for those who are unaware. Anything before Ghost 9 will work with this method. I have not figured out how to use new Ghost and reimage. I use Ghost 8.0 Corporate at work; it works great.
  • panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+022 steps? Here's the OS X Equivalent:

    1) Install system and tweak to fit your needs.
    2) use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy to external drive, use "Make Bootable" option
    3) boot recipient system from external
    4) use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy external to internal, use "Make Bootable" option
    5) reboot recipient system
  • dipswitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"create a universal disk image of Windows XP that will restore onto any computer"

    Umm. No. The HAL needs to be the same, or you'll get a BSOD.
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577&sd=tech#3

    Also try nLite, which can create customized install CDs, with things left out you don't need, with a lot of registry tweaks if you want, and loaded with the latest drivers. With boot scriptor, you can also add Ranish Partition manager, ntpasswd and ghost to the mix. All easily accessible from the CD boot menu :)

    http://www.nliteos.com/
    http://www.cdshell.org/bootscriptor/
    http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

    PS. The captcha works again :)
  • thund3rstruck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I can do this in my sleep. But ZENworks Imaging is much better."

    HA! ZENworks... (and NDS in general) is pure tedium... HP OpenView Radia's OS Manager is the far superior product for batch image/re-image network deployment....
  • dunbone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887816
    This link willl be helpful for those who have found that their customized user settings didn't transfer over to the default user (SP2 only), when using sysprep. Great post! Pretty close to how I've been doing it for 5 years.
  • rfquinn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Another ZENworks user here. It works great; but it's definitely for the corporate world, not home users. (Which this article seems to focus on)
  • hakujin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@dipswitch

    I'd like to pick you brain for a moment. What examples would you say are enough to trigger a HAL change? The link to the original site from the story's blog seems like he works on nothing but a set of acutely similiar pcs.

    so...
    Different RAM technologies? Different Mobos? CPUs (note: if CPUS, is it as sensitive as a speed change on the same arch or perhaps, a switch from a 478 to a LGA775 or AMD 939)?
  • agilethumbs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0"Internet Explorer not supported by this site, Download Firefox here"

    No Digg for being a complete moron and excluding 95% of internet users. The internet is about choice, not some moron web programer telling us what we need to download to view their stupid page. There's nothing on that site that wouldn't work in IE.

    Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
  • elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"ghost" ? windows users need a commercial product to make disk images? hmmmm....
  • junkyinny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0drive snapshot is great too.. backs up windows xp while your using it even.. can make self bootable images ..blah..
  • desimaniac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I believe windows vista will have some disk imaging built in.
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