Niki, Have you tried this on Vista?
I am finding Acronis Universal restore chokes on our newer Dell Precision T3400's (only with Vista) I havent tried XP yet. I have an open incident with their tech support. We have tried Echo Workstation, Snap Deploy and what Acronis calls an "AUR" build for troubleshooting - all with and without Univ Restore. Acronis Univ Restore works great on our older models on XP. Devin On Jan 29, 2008 3:44 AM, Niki Blowfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I've never had a lot of joy using the sysprep file to specify driver > locations, but I found another solution that has worked very well for us > > You can avoid the need to use sysprep to specify driver paths by adding > the driver paths directly to the registry key that windows uses to > search for drivers it finds on first boot (the mini-setup stage after a > machine has been sysprepped) > > All devices need to be deleted prior to being sysprepped, i.e. if a > device appears under "other devices" with a yellow question mark, > windows will not try and load a driver for this device. You need to > actually delete the devices you wish to scan for on first boot, for me > these are the video card, the network card, and the sound card, so > whether drivers are loaded or not, i delete these from device manager > before sysprepping > > Then load all your drivers into C:\drivers, and add in each individual > driver path to the following registry key; > > HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath > > I managed to find a utility that will scan your c:\drivers folder, note > down the locations of all INF files, and then add each path to this > registry key > > http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml > > Now when windows first boots, and finds hardware without drivers loaded, > it will scan every folder specified in the above registry key to find a > suitable inf file. I believe the author of the above utility suggests > removing C:\windows\inf from the list of search locations so that > standard windows drivers aren't loaded, but I'm not entirely sure of the > consequences of doing this > > We had a lot of success with this before opting to use BDD2007 and its > method of injecting drivers > > Nik > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 28 January 2008 22:10 > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: sysprep and dell oem > > On Jan 28, 2008 10:27 AM, Ara Avvali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I guess there is a 4096 byte limitation in length ... > > It depends on the version of Windows. I think NT4 had something > stupid like 80 characters. Microsoft keeps making it bigger with each > successive release. You'd think they'd take the hint and use dynamic > allocation, but.... ~shrug~ > > http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/C-Programmers-Disease.html > > > ... isn't it smart enough to automatically scan subfolders? > > No. > > On Jan 28, 2008 11:18 AM, Ara Avvali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Then I copied all files to c:\drivers and point the sysprerp to > > it. Basically no more folder structure, everything runs from root > folder. > > You can do that, and sometimes it even works. However, sometimes > different drivers include a file of the same name but different > contents, so everything-in-one-folder doesn't always work. Also, one > occasionally runs into situations where certain hardware needs certain > drivers/revisions, or is allergic to same. By using different folders > for each driver, one can just specify different "answer files" and use > one driver distribution tree. If you're targeting a single machine > type, these are less of a concern. But for our RIS tree, it's a big > help. > > -- Ben > > ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ > > ------------- > This Email together with any attachments is confidential and intended > solely for the Person to whom it is addressed. The unauthorised use, > distribution, copying or alteration of the Email is forbidden and may be > unlawful. If you have received this in error, please advise the sender > immediately by returning the Email and then delete it from your system. > > As Internet communications are not secure, Martin-Baker Aircraft Company > Limited does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this Email > or attachments. Furthermore, you should carry out such Virus and other > checks as considered appropriate to ensure that the opening and/or use of > this Email and any attachments do not adversely affect other systems or > data, for which Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited can accept no legal > responsibility. > > Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd, Registered No. (England)868042, > Registered Office Lower Road, Higher Denham, near Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB9 > 5AJ. > > ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ > -- Devin ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
