Deployment Solution

I am trying to copy an image of a computer with windows 7 32 bit and I am getting the following error message:

Windows failed to start.  A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.  t fix the problem:
      1. Insert your windws installation disc and restart your computer.
      2. Choose you languag settings, and then click "next."
      3. Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

Status: 0xc000000e
Info:  The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

I am using Altiris deployment server to upload a created image of a computer then download that created image to multiple computers.  I don't recall having this issue with Windows XP (32 or 64 bit) so I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong when trying to do the same steps with Windows 7.  Please advise

Thank you

Exactly how are you creating the image?  Please bear in mind that a Windows 7 image consists of two partitions, the first being hidden and typically 100Mb in size; the second being the C: drive with the bulk of the system files installed. Both are necessary for a successful boot.

Also, what sort of licensing are you using for Win 7?  Are you using a volume MAK key or a KMS server?

If you are using a retail key for your Win 7 image, you will always find that installing the image on a different machine will throw errors as the anti-piracy security on Win 7 locks the install to things like the MAC address and the bios serial number, amongst many other parameters. Thus a hardware change is quickly recognised and the license disabled.

I create the image on a HP 6300 for example use a USB boot stick to connect to the network and push the image up to a workstation PC that stores all our images. That part is not the issue. The issue is when I put a new computer on the bench and go to restore that same image on another HP 6300 box. I reboot after the restore and it when it goes to load Windows 7 with the logo, it crashes and gives the error:

Status: 0xc000000e
Info:  The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

And the license sticker on the outside of the PC is getting used. I don't think its that. I think it has to do with the parition during the a frest install of Windows 7. If I delete the 100MB partition and all paritions for a fresh install, does Windows 7 recreate that 100MB partition automatically?

The license sticker on the outside of the PC is specific to that one machine... you'd probably be better served deploying them with the KMS key and using SLMGR.VBS to apply the proper key later. Though if you're using the outside sticker, you're probably deploying a non-Enterprise edition and you'll be stuck without being able to use KMS. In which case... you probably want to strip the Product Key from your Unattend file entirely.