Corrupt System files after ghosting?

[Migration User]

Hi Folks,

 

Need some advice as this issue is really stumping me.

 

Some background:

I have 15-20 Compaq D220 MT PCs. These machines all use a Broadcom 440x NIC.

We have 6 different images, all of which are UIU.

 

I have an 'old' ghost network boot cd that was given to me quite awhile ago. All I know about it is that it has the universal packet driver on it. 

 

The D220MT will not work properly with the 'old' CD. It boots up, the network adapter binds correctly, I get an IP, etc. When I start the Ghostcast, however, the session just times out. After some research, I discovered I needed a newer driver for the NIC. so I downloaded the latest Broadcom 440x DOS driver. I created a new NDIS2 driver template and used it. I created a new bootable CD and used this new template. This time, the Ghostcast session started. It completed the ghost cast and prompted me to restart the PC. So far, so good. 

 

However, when I try to boot the PC, I get a message that says:

 

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
C:\windows\system32\config\system 

 

This happens with every PC I try, even a different model of PC (HP DC5700/DC5800, for reference). I tried all 6 of our images. Same thing every time. However, if I use the 'old' CD, on a compatible PC (read, not the D220MT), the ghost cast is successful. 

 

What am I missing here? I need to get these PCs ghosted for use.

 

Edited to Add:

 

I tried using Ghost 8.3 and Ghost 11.0. Same results with both.

Message Edited by Sveach on 01-05-2009 03:21 PM

[Migration User]

Hi,

 

C:\windows\system32\config\system is the Windows registry. It is difficult to think that the same file is getting corrupted with all the images when restoring. It is more likely that the new machine does not like something in the registry. 

 

Could you use the old CD to restore the image to a new machines (using a USB or DVD since network does not work) to check?

 

I believe UIU uses sysprep. Do you get this message before or after sysprep mini setup?

 

Krish

 

 

[Migration User]

Hi Krish,

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

I get this message before sysprep ever loads. 

 

I will try to ghost using USB and the old CD. I'll post back with the results.

[Migration User]

While waiting for my image to ghost (2 hours...ugh) via USB, I was rereading the response posted above. 

 

Since this happens for any model of PC I try, wouldn't that indicate that it's not a problem with the specific model of PC? (Compaq D220MT)

 

Does it make a difference to use PC-DOS or MS-DOS? I don't have access to a floppy drive so I can't install the MS-DOS files.

Message Edited by Sveach on 01-06-2009 07:51 AM

[Migration User]

Hi,

 

I don't think PCDOS/MSDOS is going to make any difference in this case. (However, you can load MSDOS files from a folder too but in later versions. What version of Ghost do you use?)

 

Yes, having the same problem in multiple machines is a one way of looking at it. But on the other hand, it seems to be failing in some of the new machines but works for older one :-)

 

My impression is it is difficult to think Ghost corrupts this file in all of your images. One way to check that is booting the machine to WinPE (or Recovery Console from product CD) after it fails and copy the file. You can extract the file from the image and compare them using fc.exe, which will conclusively say if it is different or not. You can run a chkdsk also to make sure nothing is corrupted.

 

Do you have any other images that are not sysprep'd to give a try?

 

Krish