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Copying Win XP Installations

Moving Windows XP Installations - Even to Entirely Different Hardware Identical Hardware Sysprep NTBackup In-Place Upgrade What an In-Place Upgrade Does and Doesn't Do Identical Hardware With identical hardware you don't really need any of these methods, just ghost it. It's best to keep the original machine out of the ADS domain and in a Workgroup to avoid ADS naming problems. SYSPREP and GHOST Sysprep docs state specifically that it requires identical HALs and identical hard disk controllers; if there is much of a difference it won't even start the process but will fail with one of several drive or Hal errors. Its good points are that when moving an image to identical hardware, when Sysprep is run before ghosting, a mini install screen will run and reset the SIDS and computer name which is pretty useful. Sysprep is a good choice for identical hardware (next to using nothing at all) because it is the fastest. The problem with it may be if your "identical hardware" isn't identical, and a motherboard resource or some other subtle change to a computer model line isn't properly detected, which may result in system instability.   A Few Notes on Sysprep Sysprep is on the XP CD in \Support\Tools\Deploy.CAB, docs are in deploy.chm. The Sysprep folder should be installed in the root directory of the computer to be ghosted in order for an answer file to work (use "Setupmgr.exe" to create an answer file to automate some of the installation menus such as time zones, license number, etc.).   NTBackup and NTRestore Microsoft had an article entitled "How to Move a Windows XP Installation to Different Hardware (Q314070)" so I tried it. It states that different HALs are not a requirement but will probably cause problems, and FYI a Dell GX1 is, by default, set to "standard PC" HAL while a Dell GX240 is an "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" HAL. However this method doesn't allow for hardly any machine differences at all without failing with either a HAL error or a Disk Configuration Error or just no message at all; in other words this article doesn't work except maybe on identical hardware with identical hard disk configurations. Even if it worked this method requires XP to be installed on the Target computer before restoring the image, which is a pretty big time investment.   THE IN-PLACE UPGRADE This method allows a complete XP installation to be moved to very different hardware, even different hard drive locations. It basically starts an installation routine in the existing installation, which is then ghosted to the new machine; XP will then start from the CD and install itself over the top of the Ghost image, re-detecting hardware as on a new installation. This technique came from MS tech support, but was not documented on the MS KB when I started working on XP in the Fall of 2001, though there is an article now. I've added some details to avoid the annoyances that I've encountered so far.   So far a detailed image from a Dell GX240 1.5 GHz has been moved to:

an almost identical GX240 a GX240 with different amount of RAM, a different hard disk, and a different CD-RW drive. a GX1 450MHz with almost no similarities to the imaged machine, including different HAL type. a GX50 900MHz The GX1 and GX50 would not take this image with other methods, and, though I didn't test it the GX240 with different hardware might have failed also due to the different hard disk configuration.   HOW TO DO AN IN-PLACE UPGRADE

Leave the computer to be imaged out of the ADS domain to reduce ADS name conflicts later, or don't connect it to the network yet. With your final XP installation running and before Ghosting do the following: Use the "Start, Run" command, enter "WINNT32 /UNATTEND /s:D:\i386 The "unattend" command runs in quiet mode without menus. the "/s:"  is not a drive letter, but is a parameter followed by the drive letter and location of the Win XP installation Source files, usually on a CD in the D: drive in the i386 folder. Press Enter to Run Winnt32 - don't get distracted at this point, it won't take long. Winnt32 will shut down the computer and will want to restart; give it time to shut down, but DO NOT LET IT RESTART!!! When the computer shuts down, TURN IT OFF before it restarts! Ghost the partition (or the disk if that is what you prefer-I usually do partition copies to avoid disk size conflicts). Install the Ghost image on the Target computer. Be sure the BIOS is set to boot to the CD before the Hard Disk. Put the Win XP CD in the CD drive. Restart the computer and let it boot from the XP CD the first time through.. You should get a menu offering to start in "Win XP Professional"  OR  "Win XP Professional SETUP". The "Setup" choice is the default and only gives you a few seconds to decide. (Note: If you needed to make some change to your original image you could restart the image on the original machine by picking the "Win XP Professional" choice to start XP as usual, make your changes, shut it down and re-Ghost it. The "Setup" option will apparently remain until it is used. I haven't tested the extent of the changes that might be made under these circumstances without interfering but I have made some including application of the MS Office XP service pack.) Win XP Setup will install XP over the top of the current installation, it's called an In-Place Upgrade. The XP CD is in the drive to supply new drivers for the new hardware being discovered. A fairly lengthy, but completely un-demanding installation will take place. When it is done, hopefully it will work. Some specialty drivers, such as recent LCD monitors (different than the original), will not be installed; the display settings may change because of the absence of the proper monitor driver, see below for more notes on what it does and doesn't change.. You should probably start Word or Excel when the installation is complete because Microsoft Office XP may notice the different hardware and require that the Office Activation routine is run from the Office XP CD; there is a patch for Office XP on the MS web site that may reduce this annoyance. So far the in-place upgrade has thoroughly re-detected everything; I appreciate the thoroughness so I can be less  concerned with system instability due to improper detection of a motherboard resource or some other subtle hardware difference.

Changing the computer name If the computer name you want to use already exists, reset it and allow a max of 15 minutes If the newly cloned computer is already in the ADS domain, change it to workgroup mode and restart Now change the computer name and restart, leaving it in workgroup mode Now join ADS   Alternatively deleting the existing ADS computer name from your OU may provide a faster response.

WHAT DOES THE IN-PLACE UPGRADE DO?

Rolls back any hotfixes, service packs, and Microsoft Internet Explorer upgrades to their base versions: too bad about this one, but it probably only affects XP and IE; fortunately XP is good at checking for patches and installing them and my ghost image is usually old enough to require patching anyway. Refreshes the registry and restores default registry values: the only thing I've changed is turning off the master browser as explained in Windows XP Setup For Cloning (REGISTRY SETTINGS to turn off Master Browser List) Reapplies default permissions. Re-registers Component Object Model (COM) components and Windows File Protection (WFP) files. Re-enumerates Plug and Play devices, including the hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Re-enumerates and changes drive letters, based on the current drives and partitions that are seen during the in-place upgrade and on the rules that are documented in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Appears to replace the Default User settings with the original default. For me that means I have to delete the Default User folder after installation re-copy my desired user settings to the Default Users folder name. Not a big deal if you're prepared for it.

WHAT THE IN-PLACE UPGRADE DOES NOT DO

Does not change the installed components and programs. Does not change any passwords. Does not change third-party registry entries. Does not change the role of the computer, for example, changing a domain controller server into a member server. See MS Pub "What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change (Q306952)", apparently also applies to XP.

ALSO SEE: Win XP Setup for Cloning

 

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