Trouble understanding SysPrep?

[Pierre3400]

Hey guys,

I am close to being ready for a first time dive into the use of SysPrep.

OS is Windows 7 Pro 64Bit

First of all, i have tried to read about this, i have tried to watch videos, but everytime it seems like a different method is used, and i just get more confused about what on earth i need to do. Being scared of data loss or high overtime spent on doing this is also a concern.

So i fugred i would ask the guru's here.

The mission:

No change of HDD, use sysprep to get Win7 ready for hardware change.

From what i read and seen on videos, suddenly i need more and more things to make this happen, which i fail to understand?

From video, i have been given the impression i need a USB stick, a Windows7 ISO file and what not. I dont understand why this needs to happen, as i will be leaving Windows on the hard drive.

Everyone says this is a simple task, but the more i read, the more confused i get. How to reach my goal in the shortest and esiest way possible?

 

[Janus67]

Go to: C:\Windows\System32\sysprep
Open command line from that location (shift-right-click)
type:
sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

if you decide to create an unattend file for customization purposes save it to the location above and reference it as /unattend:unattend.xml

I would create an image/clone of your disk just in case something doesn't work as intended, but that should do the trick to make it ready to swap hardware.

That's the basics to sysprepping your machine. You can do a lot of customization that is used in businesses (I do it (did it) all the time for creating images for work).

You may be able to get away without the /oobe (out of box experience) as it re-runs through windows setup to get new settings. But I would verify that prior.

 

[Pierre3400]

Go to: C:\Windows\System32\sysprep
Open command line from that location (shift-right-click)
type:
sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

So this is all i need to do, and then after that, it will shutdown, and once i fire it up again (with new hardware) it will boot into windows and start asking for drivers, is this correctly understood?

I understand the reason for image, but i dont want to do that, for safty, i will be making a clone of the drive.

 

[Janus67]

That's the gist of it, yep.

Image/clone whatever you want to call it, I would just say do it to be safe

 

[Pierre3400]

Indeed, i am scared of data being lost, all the important stuff is on a server, but getting everything setup once more, all the networked drives and software, and so, is a huge time saver by just doing this method over a full reinstall.

The harddisk is being changed from a 1tb 5400rpm to a 500gb 7200rpm. This is simply common sense, as the 1tb is getting to 5/6 years of age, and during hardware change, why not update. (SSD is was not in the budget)

But in a sense, i could run sysprep, to clean up my system, and then just boot the same old system again and re install all drivers?

 

[Janus67]

So I assume you are cloning your 1TB drive to the 500GB drive, then will boot up into Windows and run the sysprep commands?

If that is the case (and after reading your other thread regarding cloning) I agree with wagex to have clonezilla (or one other application) make an image of the drive and then put that image onto the new drive. I'm unsure if a direct clone will work on smaller sized drive (if it doesn't have the same locations available, etc) even if it doesn't fill the drive.

 

[Pierre3400]

So I assume you are cloning your 1TB drive to the 500GB drive, then will boot up into Windows and run the sysprep commands?

If that is the case (and after reading your other thread regarding cloning) I agree with wagex to have clonezilla (or one other application) make an image of the drive and then put that image onto the new drive. I'm unsure if a direct clone will work on smaller sized drive (if it doesn't have the same locations available, etc) even if it doesn't fill the drive.

Okay.

The plan run the current system in its current state, then clone the 1tb old HDD onto the 500Gb HDD, i understand the space could be an issue, but once the drive is cloned, i want to boot up with new drive, but still using the old hardware (since HDD wont make much change) and then run SysPrep , once the system has run and pc is shut down, make hardware change, and then boot up, install drivers, and send it on its way to do some cad work.

But if i end up having to make an image, do i need usb drives and other hardware ready? Or would it make and image of the c drive and store it on the c drive and then stick that image onto the new HDD?

Last time i did this, it was from HDD to SSD, dont remember an issue, but it was a Command based software, as far as i remember. It was 775 system, so its some time ago.

 

[Janus67]

You would need a place to store said image to put it onto the new drive (on the usb key, etc).

You can still feel free to see if the clone to another drive works, worst case it doesn't then do the image method.

 

[Pierre3400]

So, i got the HDD cloned, and ran sysprep on the new HDD, then i removed it from the old system, and setup the new system with the new HDD, powered on, and now i see that its not how i was hoping.

The user info from the old system is not present, the domain setup is gone, and well basically, i gotta start from scratch, with only having saved time on installing the CAD software... Not really what i wanted.

I still have the old HDD untoched, is there any way of making this so, that when i boot up this new system, well, everything is setup, as far domain and user info? Cos that was kinda the big step i wanted to skip. Right now, i see no point in sysprep really. I might aswell have formatted and reinstalled.

EDIT

I am reading a lot about USMT, but i am having trouble understanding how this works. I am currently downloading Windows AIK.

From what i see, the user folders and stuff has been moved with the new system, but all the user custom setup has not. I want to migrate this over, which from my understanding will get me to where i want to go.

But, when capturing the user info with AIK, do i do this from old pc, or the cloned version? I suspect i need to start with the old pc (which is still running like it should)

Basically i am trying to do this: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dd883247.aspx#BKMK_Step1

Since this guide looks to be migration from XP to newer, i am not sure on all details and the full understanding. Help would be nice.

 

[medo145]

You could try to clone your original drive again and run sysprep without /oobe, that should leave the users and computer name and other settings.

/oobe

Restarts the computer into Windows Welcome mode. Windows Welcome enables end users to customize their Windows operating system, create user accounts, name the computer, and other tasks. Any settings in the oobeSystem configuration pass in an answer file are processed immediately before Windows Welcome starts.

I believe the /generalize option would breaks the domain trust, since it creates a new (SID). Not sure what/if sysprep needs at least one of those parameters, but you could try just running "sysprep.exe /shutdown" and see what happens.

/generalize

Prepares the Windows installation to be imaged. If this option is specified, all unique system information is removed from the Windows installation. The security ID (SID) resets, any system restore points are cleared, and event logs are deleted.

The next time the computer starts, the specialize configuration pass runs. A new security ID (SID) is created, and the clock for Windows activation resets, if the clock has not already been reset three times.

 

[Janus67]

^^ worth a shot in that. I've always used the settings above for their stated purposes (for mass-rollout to users).

 

[Audioaficionado]

Here's what I did and it works great! There are some caveats in this article you need to pay attention to, but it's an easy read and I successfully cloned and syspreped my win7 installation over to a different motherboard/system with all my installed apps intact. Just had to update some hardware drivers specific to the new system.