Making a windows disc complete with updates

[Harlem]

Hi, I made this topic in the drivers section, but realised this maybe a more appropriate place to put it!

Hi guys, I am going to try and explain this the very best I can.
For work I am going to be reformatting all the laptops before resale. Now downloading all the updates is very frustrating, but I have been advised to use a piece of software called Macrium Reflect, which basically copies the complete hard drive, so you have a perfect back up.

So my plan is to make a fresh install of windows, update Windows fully, and them make an exact image of that hard drive. What I then plan to do, is install this copy onto all the laptops (Using the unique windows key), which basically saves me wasting hours per laptop updating.

My problem is, when you format a laptop, some drivers are already installed, where others are not. I do not know exactly what determines why some drivers are already installed and some are not, but anyway, if I took the complete image of the hard drive, of lets say a Toshiba laptop, then put all that data on to an Acer laptop for example, would I get conflict between already installed drivers?

By this, I would not install any manually downloaded drivers onto the Toshiba until after the image is taken, meaning the only drivers moved between laptops are the pre-installed ones

I hope I have explained this as well as I possibly could
Thank you in advance for any help you can give

Or, if there is a better / easy way to do this, that would also be very helpful

 

[richnrockville]

Harlem, What your trying to do is probably feasable but the main problem is that when you install Windows and then do the updates, it automatically installs the drivers for the devices on that particular machine that are included in the windows install disk.

Different makes of computers require different drivers as you know re the toshiba and Acer. but windows picks the most logical drivers for the make of laptop your installing it on.

You could probably get away with doing this on machines from the same manufacturer but your asking for aggrivation if you try to install on other manufacturers machines.

I have friends who download all the windows updates and put them on a dvd so that all they have to do is to install windows and then select and install the windows updates.

Rich

 

[Harlem]

Hi Rich, thank you for the response.

I was afraid it was not really a possible answer which is a shame. I don't mind doing the updates one by one, it is just very time consuming. So when doing a 5 laptops, and you have to spend a good 4-5 hours updating because you cannot do them all at once, it makes a simple job, a long job.

I just wish you could somehow install every one at once

But anyway, thank you for your answer

 

[gregrocker]

You can do what you want but as a last step before capturing the image you should SysPrep to move HD to another computer so it generalizes it for all hardware and new users.

You can also slipstream the Updates into the Win7 installer w/SP1 ISO. But you still have to install to each PC separately. Better to use your original idea for imaging (the modern method) but generalize first.

 

[Harlem]

Hi, So this morning I went ahead to transfer to my first laptop.

Got to the point to hit restore and it comes up with an error 'The Target disk is too small'

Now, I know there is definitely enough room to transfer the file, as the whole thing was 28GB, and the hard drive has over 250GB of free space, so that definitely is not an issue.

All I can think of, is that the system I used to make the Image had a 500gb Hard drive, so I am wondering if this is conflicting some how, even though the image is on really 28GB.

If so, is there a way for me to get that 500GB hard drive, make it appear lets say, a 30GB hard drive, make the image, then turn it back into a 500GB hard drive again.

Then I guess the same on the new PC, would the hard drive once restored look like a 30GB, and then could I convert that back to a 250GB hard drive?

Thanks

 

[gregrocker]

Any decent imaging app will allow you to adjust the image size to fit the target partition, if it doesn't do that itself. Sometimes it wants a partition and other times it wants Unallocated space. It should tell you that as well.

Macrium - Image your system

I use Acronis True Image with Universal Restore which also would solve your other question. There is a free Acronis imaging/cloning app which comes with any Seagate or WD HD in the mix.

 

[Harlem]

Hi, Sorry if I am not understanding you correctly here.

The Image Size is just over 22GB, so it should fit onto any hard drive without a problem. When I go to install the partition I get the error 'The Target disk is too small'.

Now, All I can think of is, the image I took was off a 500gb hard drive, so I was thinking, maybe because the new hard drive is only 250gb, that is where the error comes from. The image is only about 22gb, and when unpacked, is about 27gb, so should fit easily.

Again, I may have not understood what you wrote fully, so sorry if that is the case

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have the target HD formatted? Delete the formatting using the Win7 installer.

 

[Harlem]

Yes, I did try that unfortunately I had no joy first time round, so thought formatting would do the trick, but didn't

 

[richnrockville]

Yes, I did try that unfortunately I had no joy first time round, so thought formatting would do the trick, but didn't

The built in windows image program won't install the image on a hard disk that is smaller than the original.
The work around is to shrink your C drive where the image will be take from to a smaller size than the one you wish to place the image on. ie.. if your os only takes up 27gig, then I would shrink your C drie to something like 80gigs. Then take the image. When you then try to restore the image to almost any other size hard disk that is larger than 80gig, it should restore without problems.

I have done this a couple of times and it works.

Rich

 

[Harlem]

Hi Rich. That is exactly what I thought would solve the problem. Sorry to keep bothering you guys, because you have been super great help, but to make a drive smaller, do I need to do this by software, or can I just do it through windows.

Also, when lets say, I put the image on a new laptop, and lets say the hard drive is 250gb, will that hard drive then become 80GB, or stay at 250gb, and if it does become 80GB, how do I find the rest of the memory.

Again, sorry to be a pain, but I have never done this before

 

[gregrocker]

I thought in your first post you said you were using Macrium Reflect?

If you're instead using Win7 backup imaging and you shrink your source Win7 partition to a size smaller than the target space then you can Extend it later in Disk Mgmt.

I see our Macrium expert is in the thread so let's see what Wolfgang says.

 

[Harlem]

Hi, I am using Macrium yes. My last question was on how to make the partition of your main drive smaller

 

[gregrocker]

Clean it up by uninstalling any unwanted programs, using CCleaner to delete temp and other unneeded files, and other steps same as for Cleaning Up Factory Bloatware.

Then shrink it in Disk Mgmt: Partition or Volume - Shrink

If it doesn't shrink enough then use Partition Wizard bootable CD, the most valuable tool we use here:
Partition Wizard Resize Partition Video Help.

 

[Harlem]

Thank you very much for the help. Both of you, I really appreciate it.
I will get this to work correctly at some point! haha

 

[Harlem]

Hey Guys, I just thought it would be nice to end this topic saying that I tested the image on a new system, and it worked fine, so I am realy happy.

The only weird thing that happend was, the new laptop had the wireless driver installed from the previous laptop, but still worked, even though the two laptops where completely different makes of machines, but I am going to guess that was a lucky coinsidence, as the driver worked and the laptop runs on wireless fine.
I will test on another computer later when I get time to see if it happens again

Anyway, thank you for the help, and hopefully other users can use this threat to solve problems too!

 

[gregrocker]

Did you SysPrep the image as suggested to remove all the drivers, activation, hardware and Security ID's that can interfere when reimaging to new hardware?

If not then it will not boot on most new hardware as that is only a rare occurence.

 

[Harlem]

Oh, ya know, I totally forgot about that. I was up late last night preparing this and it totally slipped my mind.

A quick question on that. You said do it before you take an image of the hard drive, but when I read the instructions, it says to fit the new hard drive first (In my case, just a new laptop).

I think I understand what you mean though, follow method 2 on the link, drop all the drivers first, then take an image.

I will do that now as I need to do the same for a new OS.

Thanks

 

[gregrocker]

You need to SysPrep the source OS for the image.

 

[Harlem]

Hi again. So, I started up a computer, fully updated with Vista Premium. I did the Sysprep. It did whatever it had too, restarted etc. I had to make a new user account and all.

I logged onto the original account, and all the screen res etc was changed. I then made a image of the hard drive and transferred it over. The same happened again though. The original laptop had a wireless driver installed straight after the format anyway, I did not need to source one. So even with sysprep, the wireless driver was installed. I transferred the data over and again, this laptop had the wireless installed. Again, the laptop is a completely different make, but the wireless once more worked.

I think I did Sysprep correctly.

I am using SlimDrivers to update the rest of the drivers that are either missing or out of date. The laptop seems fine, so maybe, just maybe this again had the same wireless card inside.

I guess I will know more, when I do the same on a Win 7 image, and see what results happen