Don't understand why Windows 7 booting is so picky

I'm trying to capture an image of windows 7 using Ghost (old DOS based version) for use as a master image for my company.

Once I capture the image, I re-image the same HD used to capture the image and hook it up to the same computer that the image was created on (will be used as master imaging pc)

However, it does not boot (It gives an error however I have not wrote down what it is yet)

I HAVE to run startup repair (boot from win 7) EVERYTIME post-imaging to fix it.

I though this was something to do with the small "system reserved" partition not being made active partition by ghost, but I verified that it IS active with the free partition tool.

There only seems to be something small, stupid and specific that happens during the imaging process that renders the image unbootable.

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN, however, when the image is sysprepped. Apparently sysprep does some magic to it. But I cannot have a sysprepped master image which will not make sense it would be impossible to modify it and do updates to my image because it will run out of activation re-arms and whole other problems related to multiple sysprepping.

Thanks for any help.

Check the UUIDs of the booting disk, which might not match the UUIDs in some file (dunno which one - it's top secret!) from the restored image: I get this problem every time I move a system to another disk, and the win7 repair CD - which can fix it - mentions the UUIDs not matching. I'm not sure how to prevent it from occurring.

Yes exactly I think it has to do with the IDs of some sort. I also thought about trying to use Easybcd to fix it but it's still an extra step.

Sysprep does something to it to fix it but i dunno what.

SysPrep removes the HID, SID, activation and drivers so that the confluence of these at startup on new hardware does not stall it out.

However on same hardware it should not have to be repaired except in rare cases. This may be due to using the older Ghost program.

Have you tried using Win7 backup imaging, free Macrium Reflect, or the premium Acronis imaging app which comes free with any WD or Seagate HD in the mix?

The full Acronis True Image 2010+ program also has Universal Restore which will adjust an image to new hardware automatically without using SysPrep, as does the hard to find Paragon Adaptive Restore CD.

No I haven't tried any other tools since good old ghost worked with our XP images fine and didn't have this problem.

I wonder how ghost can be the problem since it just takes an exact snapshot of the hd along with the two partitions it has. The system reserved was already active as well.

Weird.. but I'll try other image apps.

New generation OS, new generation of apps.

Win7 backup imaging has its limitations if you're not restoring to exact same offset. Many use Macrium, Paragon, or the other free Acronis apps for this reason. Ghost is considered old school.

aha!! whatddya know.. Macrium free is awesome. It works perfectly and boots perfectly. Very nice thanks for the advice. I'll have to stop using legacy ghost for Win 7.