Ghost Solution Suite

When you run Sysprep on one platform and deploy the image to another platform, you would ordinarily expect Plug-and-Play to handle any hardware differences (assuming that the machines use the same version of Ntoskrnl.exe and Hal.dll). However, mass storage drivers represent a special case. The boot loader needs to load the mass storage devices prior to initializing the operating system, so there's no opportunity to let the Plug-and-Play Manager shuffle around drivers. For this reason, it's fairly common to get a "0x0000007b bugcheck" error following the deployment of a Sysprep image to a machine from a different vendor, or different models from the same vendor, even though you're using what appears to be a generic Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) controller in both cases.

Ghost version 11.0.2.1573
Hardware: any

Solution

1. On the source desktop, create a folder called Sysprep at the root of the C drive (C:\Sysprep).
2. Put a copy of the Windows Server 2003 version of Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe in this folder.
3. Extract them from the Deploy.cab file on the Setup CD. You'll find Deploy.com under \Support\Tools.
4. Put your Sysprep.inf file in the same C:\Sysprep folder.
5. Edit the Sysprep.inf file with Notepad. Add these entries to the bottom of the file:

   [Sysprep]
   BuildMassStorageSection=yes
   [SysprepMassStorage]
   
   

   Note: Sysprep.exe uses these entries to provision the file with the mass storage drivers.
6. Run sysprep -bmsd. You'll see a pop-up window with a large hourglass open for a few seconds, then close.

   There will be no other graphical indication that the process has succeeded.

7. Open the sysprep.inf file and look under the [SysprepMassStorage] section. You'll see dozens and dozens of entries.
8. Now run sysprep -quiet -reseal -reboot. This will take quite a bit longer because Sysprep has to collect the specified mass storage drivers.
9. When you apply this image to the other desktops, the deployment should go smoothly with no bugcheck errors.

This is for those customers with the 11.0.2.1573 version of Ghost as there was no built in functionality for deploying image across various HALs. The one issue this method does not rectify is when the machine boots up for the first time, there will be no third party drivers loaded up. That can be handled by:

1. Create a custom hardware drivers folder for any drivers needed for the target system, for example, C:\Drivers.
2. Open the "C:\sysprep\sysprep.inf" file in Notepad and add the following lines to the relevant sections (if the heading doesn't exist, create it):

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

   Note: OemPNPDriversPath points to the C:\Drivers folder created earlier.
3. For organizational purposes, split up any custom driver files based on category.
   1. For example, all video drivers go under:
      C:\Drivers\video and network drivers under
      C:\Drivers\network.

      In each of those folders, the specific driver bundles are placed with their driver inf files.

   2. The latest nVIDIA drivers would go into:
      C:\Drivers\video\nVidia\.

      The last part would include the name of the .inf file.

4. For example, for the latest nVIDIA driver, the path would be:
   C:\Drivers\video\nVidia\nv4_disp.inf.
5. In "sysprep.inf", the path would be written as "OemPNPDriversPath=drivers\video\nVidia\nv4_disp.inf"
   Note: Do not forget the semi-colon as a separator.
6. For the next driver, repeat the procedure by placing the path after the semi-colon without leaving a space. Once all the drivers are added, save the file.