Ghost Solution Suite

Hi guys,

I am not sure if this is the right place but I am fairly new to cloning and deployment solutions like the GSS 3.0. I've managed to follow steps in the "How-to" section to go about installing it. I was able to create and restore images across to my client computers via automation. However, when I've tried restoring an image of a recently formatted Dell Optiplex 780 to the Dell Optiplex 755 or from the Dell Optiplex 755 to the Dell Optiplex 780 vice-versa, the Windows 7 logo runs a couple of seconds before diverting me to an error page. I was told that the Windows was unable to start up and I have two options to choose: "Start Windows normally" or "Launch Startup Repair". I tried launching the startup repair only to have met with a message telling me that startup repair has failed. There was no error shown on the ghostcast server or the console so I assumed that everything went smoothly. The Dell Optiplex 780 runs on a 150GB SATA HDD whereas the Dell Optiplex 755 runs on a 75GB SATA HDD. Both images should have ample free space upon restoration. Any idea what has went wrong? Or should the image for Optiplex 780 be restored to a similar machine since it does work only when they are restored with their own respective images. (e.g. 780 for 780, 755 for 755)

Warmest
Melvin

Generally you should use Microsoft's System Preparation tool (SysPrep) to use an image from one PC on another unless you are backing up and restoring an image to and from identical PCs and even then just backup and restore, cloning even between PCs with identical hardware should still be done with SysPrep. What is the error message? Use a mobile phone to record the screen if it's too quick - it may be that one PC is set to IDE and the other AHCI in the BIOS.

Hi Andy,

 

Thanks for the prompt reply! I would definitely try out sysprep in future. I was simply presented with a black screen and was told that Windows could not startup. 

Meanwhile, I have set the BIOs configuration from RAID with AHCI to RAID with ATA and it seemed to do the job. The only problem I am encountering right now would be that the system seemed to lack drivers since the image wasn't from an identical PC with similar hardware. (e.g. Unproportional screen resolution even when set to the highest). Everything seemed to be fine after manually installing drivers. The whole idea of restoring images to the workstation with GSS aims to reduce retardancy in deployment. By having to manually update each workstation after deployment is indeed a tedious process. I was looking forward to a "ready-to-go" solution whereby workstations are ready to be used upon image restoration without manually installing drivers. Do you think a sysprep image might actually remedy this situation?

*UPDATES* 

Problems solved. I have followed the "HOW-TO" webcast to prepare a sysprep image. Seemed like a pretty straightforward solution. Also, I have altered the SATA configurations from AHCI to ATA. I guess the SATA configurations must match in between different computers used for imaging. 

Thank you for your time Andy, cheers!