How to create an image of Windows XP with Ghost and Sysprep

I tend to install and reinstall often systems operating on my computer to see how each of them work, but I have little time to be reinstalling Windows , drivers and programs in addition to configure, it would take me about 3 hours to finish it, I can do in just 15 minutes with a few clicks and ready. The trick is using Norton Ghost 2003 and Microsoft Sysprep.

The steps for this are as follows:

1. Install Windows XP on a blank hard disk
2. Do not install any drivers (driver) specific hardware on your computer, except you installed Windows XP . (This is necessary if you want to make the image of your system to be portable to different hardware configurations).
3. Most modern computers now work very well with a standard ACPI HAL, but if this should be truly portable across multiple machines, then you will need to determine which HAL. If you do not know exactly which is the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) looks at Microsoft KB309283
4. Create a test user account with administrative privileges. Use this account to install and configure all software and system configurations.
5. Remember to update your system with Windows Update and other software, probably during this process have to restart your system several times until you are ready.
6. Copy all elements of the user's Start menu to start menu test for all users, for example, all the elements of: C: \ Documents and Settings \ test user \ Start Menu \ Programs \ copied to: C: \ Documents and Settings \ All Users \ Start Menu \ Programs \
   
   
   
7. Being as a system administrator profile folder copy the test user to the default user folder. This is done from the Control Panel >> System >> Advanced >> User Profiles >> Settings then select test user and click Copy To. Copy all to C: \ Documents and Settings \ Default User
8. Removes the test user account.
9. Download for XP SP2 Sysprep .
10. Extract the files to the folder: C: \ sysprep
11. Create a folder on the C drive for the drivers of the hardware, you can create C: \ drivers
12. Create the basic sysprep.inf file by running setupmgr.exe . This tool allows you to create a Microsoft response file for the restoration not redo the questions in a normal installation. The basic steps are:
    • Runs setupmgr.exe
    • Click Create New
    • Then choose the product you're using eg XP Professional.
    • The next question asks: Do you want to fully automate the install? This question determines who will accept the license agreement (EULA), you or the person to restore the image. Also, selecting yes means you must enter the Product Key. You can choose not to if you want to use, and not someone else use your product key, but for a large company which is being installed on many computers things change.
    • The following options are for you to enter information such as your name, organization, Time Zone, Product Key (you can leave it blank), Network Settings, etc..
    • You can leave the choice of team name as Automatically generate computer name .
    • Once completed , a dialog box will ask you where to save the file: C: \ sysprep \ sysprep.inf is the path used in this example.
    • At the completion window, click Cancel to close setupmgr.exe.
    The process to create the basic sysprep.inf over.
13. Open the file C: \ sysprep \ sysprep.inf in Notepad and add the following lines to each section, as appropriate.

    [Unattended]
DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore

    UpdateInstalledDrivers=Yes
OemPNPDriversPath=drivers\hardware_cat\driver_dir\driver_inf;(repeat);
[SysPrep]
BuildMassStorageSection=Yes
[SysprepMassStorage]

14. Still not close file C: \ sysprep \ sysprep.inf , the line where OemPNPDriversPath points to C: \ driverscreated above that line should change to the path where the. inf drivers with a device, for example c: \ drivers \ video \ nVidia \ nv4_disp.inf , and you must repeat the line for each driver at the end saves the file. If in such case no need to install any drivers, you will not need this step.
15. Click the Start menu >> Run and type C: \ sysprep \ sysprep-bmsd . This section will build standard mass storage drivers for Windows XP .
16. While editing sysprep.inf there is an option that says InstallFilesPath which usually points to C: \ sysprep \ i386 .Copy and i386 folder contents CD Windows XP in C: \ sysprep \ i386 . This step is not necessary.
17. Add any custom storage controller to the [SysprepMassStorage] how detailed above.
18. Now run C: \ sysprep \ sysprep.exe
19. Choose Mini Setup option. If you have volume licensing and plan to use this image on your computer only. Then choose the option Do not regenerate security identifiers. But if you have a volume license and plan to install this on multiple computers leave the option unchecked. Make sure Shutdwon Shutdown mode is selected in the list mode selection and click Reseal.
20. If you leave the option for regeneration SID, you will get a confirmation box click on OK to continue.
21. This will take a while, then the system will shut down at the end of the process, then inserted the Ghost boot disk and turn on your computer. Make the whole image of the entire drive C
22. Save the image to a DVD-R, the local network or an external hard drive and restore it when needed.

Here are some helpful tips.

• This is all you need to do to create the image, but if you know how to use the Ghost (in this case Utilia Ghost 2003, but you can use any other software to create images, if you have problems let me know).

• After sysprep shut down the system, if you have the ability to change the hard drive to another computer, mount the hard drive as secondary and then delete the files pagefile.sys and hibernat.sys to save a few megabytes of space on the final image.
• You can not make an image that is totally independent of computer hardware, the problem is in the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer), for example, a PC with a processor or a multiprocessor, would struggle.
• It might not be easy to achieve, but it is part of learning, luck.

You can find more information on these sites:

• blog.hishamrana.com English.
• Corner Windows .
• Wilkinson PC