Image cloning to multiple identical machines isn't working

[LifelineIT]

Hi everyone. I've been gone awhile--sold my business and fell into the abyss of Big Corporate IT. Doing a small side project for a local Non Profit and running into an issue. I've cloned and migrated drives before and never had this issue.

I have I think 7 identical Toshiba budget laptops. 4gb Ram, 1Ghz AMD APU's. I have one of them running a perfect copy of win7, fully updated, bookmarks in place, etc etc. I want to clone this drive and deploy it to the other 6 both to save time and make redeployment faster. IDEALLY I'll deliver them a flash drive with the image so that later re-image is super fast.

(Side question here, with SteadyState being dead, does anyone have another recommendation to revert-changes-on-reboot without relying on GP?)

In the past I've used Acronis and AOMEI to grab images and redeploy them, as well as clonezilla. This time, clonezilla tells me that there's an MBR/GPT mismatch on the drive and it won't image it. I can't figure out what it's talking about, everything looks/runs fine. I used AOMEI's tool to image/redeploy the image and it ran great, but it won't boot, I'm assuming it didn't flag the drive bootable. I did confirm that bios settings are uefi off, etc. Sooooooo....

Suggestions? I have win7/win10/debian machines available, would LIKE to do this without pulling the drives.

 

[Markverhyden]

Did you try following the M$ method using Sysprep? Is this the original Toshiba OEM load?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee523217

Since it's a non-profit have you called Faronics (Deep Freeze)

 

[mikeroq]

Had to google to find my old post. This is what I did before using MDT.

This is my old method:

Prepare image:
1) Install windows
2) At OOBE hit Ctrl+Shift+F3 to enter sysprep audit mode. You can close sysprep the system will continue to boot into audit mode until you seal it.
2) Install updates, software you wish to be included in the image except for AV, make tweaks, etc.
3) Run sysprep with Enter OOBE, generalize, shutdown.

Capture Image:
1) Boot system using a WinPE disc, usb, PXE boot, or even slave the drive
2) Run imagex

imagex /capture x: y:\filename.wim "Image Name"

x: = drive you want to capture
y:\filename.wim = filename of image
Image Name = What you want to call it, "Win 7 Pro", "Company Image"
3) Place image on flash drive, usb hdd, dvd, network share, wherever you want.

Apply Image:
1) Boot system using a WinPE disc, usb, PXE boot, etc
2) Partition hard drive diskpart /s script_file.txt
For MBR layout:

select disk 0
clean
rem == 1. System partition ======================
create partition primary size=300
format quick fs=ntfs label="System"
assign letter=S
active
rem == 2. Windows partition =====================
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="OS"
assign letter=W
list volume
exit

I also have an EFI version not handy.
3) Run Imagex

imagex /apply y:\filename.wim 1 x:

y:\filename.wim = image file
1 = index, index starts @ 1. If you only have one image in a wim put 1, otherwise use the desired image number. (The wim format can hold multiple images in one file, IE: install.wim has all the versions of the OS in it.
x: = Target partition
4) Run bcdboot x:\windows /s s:
x:\windows = any windows directory
s: = system partition letter

Simple batch script I used to use:

@echo off
cls
:start
echo ********** IMAGING **********
echo ***** PARTITIONING DISK *****
diskpart /s diskpart.txt
echo *****  APPLYING  IMAGE  *****
imagex /apply win7pro.wim 1 w:
echo *****  MAKING BOOTABLE  *****
bcdboot w:\windows /l en-us /s S:
echo ***** IMAGING  COMPLETE *****
pause

Related Reading:
Windows Imaging Format
Imagex Command Line Options
What is Sysprep
Sysprep your OS more then 3 times
Building and Deploying an image

Download Windows AIK
or
Download Windows OPK

Create a Custom Windows PE Image

Download Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
Capture Windows 7 image using MDT 2013
Deploy Windows 7 image using MDT 2013
Deploy Windows 7 on network without a server using MDT

GImageX GUI version of imagex

Here is the diskpart for GPT:

select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
create partition primary size=300
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
assign letter="T"
create partition efi size=100
rem == Note: for Advanced Format Generation One drives, change to size=260.

format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter="S"
create partition msr size=128
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter="W"
exit

 

[NJW]

This time, clonezilla tells me that there's an MBR/GPT mismatch on the drive and it won't image it.

You should be able to simply wipe the GPT data and all will be well.

Boot from the clonezilla disc, open a terminal (e.g., Ctrl-Alt-F2), then

sudo -i
sgdisk -z /dev/sda

Make sure that the disk is really /dev/sda, of course. Reboot and carry on as normal.

YMMV, your data may be destroyed, your investment may go down, look before you leap, close cover before striking, etc.

I've done it this way and lived to tell the tale. Pretty safe with Windows 7.

 

[LifelineIT]

Thanks all. I was trying to avoid sysprepping it, just more of a fast-and-dirty method. This isn't the original (terrible) Toshiba image, it's a generally vanilla copy from work + their key. I'll attempt the gpt info as above and move forward...

 

[LedHed]

(Side question here, with SteadyState being dead, does anyone have another recommendation to revert-changes-on-reboot without relying on GP?)

I haven't used this myself (and I'm curious to see what you think) but here is a SteadyState replacement.
http://horizondatasys.com/reboot-restore-rx-freeware/

Andy Buford

 

[LifelineIT]

Thanks Andy. I did see that---and saw I'd need to remove the startup entry to keep users from disabling it, but it seems like a valid candidate. Thanks!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

We use DeepFreeze.

 

[LifelineIT]

NJW---you're the master of the universe. That did it and everything is going fast and swimmingly. Discovered slightly different hardware revisions in the same model of laptop, but that's easily handled. Thanks!