[RESOLVED] Vista system image

Hello all,
My company is slowly migrating to Vista Business from XP Pro. That is, any new computers we buy will have Vista Bussiness (instead of downgrading to XP Pro as we had been doing in the past). Since the PC's for each particular order we place always have the same make/model/specs, and what I've done in the past with XP Pro is to set up and configure 1 PC then create an Acronis image off of it to use on the rest.

My question is, will this approach still work on Vista? I've heard that Vista will refuse to run if it sees that the HDD serial numbers don't match (which is the case when using the image from 1 computer and load it in another HDD). Is it true?

Just need your opinions on this.
Thank you.

Could you test it on a virtual machine first?

I'm not sure how those "3rd party burglar tools" (a joke, a joke, ok?) cope with Vista but I recall there is new imaging support beyond the previous SysPrep process. I used to do some OEM system building in the Win2K era but had to drop my sideline whitebox business because it was just too hard to compete with the mass retailers anymore.

Windows Vista imaging concepts has some links.

TechNet Webcast: Building a Windows Vista Image for Your Corporate Deployment (Level 200) is also informative, and you might look at Windows Vista Imaging screencast as well.

Thank you every one for the info... I'll try out each one and see how it goes.

Have you looked at this? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc721929.aspx

the hard drive serial number is actually stored in the boot sector and will change if you do a complete (and i mean COMPLETE) format. The upside of this is if you have a proper cloning program, it will end up with the same serial number. I don't believe the serial is actually looked at by MS. They read other info such as the size and brand. not 100% on that one though, but ghosting tools couldn't work if it was.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Orwell

the hard drive serial number is actually stored in the boot sector and will change if you do a complete (and i mean COMPLETE) format.

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This is the Hard Drive Volume Serial Number.
There also is a hard drive serial number set by the manufacturer, which cannot be altered.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vbcode1980

This is the Hard Drive Volume Serial Number.
There also is a hard drive serial number set by the manufacturer, which cannot be altered.

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how would you go about reading that? I always thought we were reading the boot serial.

Using WMI:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/har..._serialno.aspx

I tried to do a system restore from a Vista image created by Acronis True Image version 10, and Vista would not run. The system crashed during booting up.

And then I tried with the newest version of Acronis True Image, which is version 2009, and it works perfectly... All problems solved :) So I will mark the thread as resolved now. Again, thanks to all of your helps.

Actually, Acronis True Image version 10 does work for creating a Vista image and restoring it to another HDD, but it requires an additional step after the restore for Vista to run on with the new HDD. Once done restoring the image to the new HHD, boot up the computer. When it crashes, put in the Vista installation DVD and reboot to the DVD as if you're installing Vista. Then choose repair option instead. Once the repair is done, the new HDD should be ready to rock and roll.
Using version 2009 of Acronis True Image will eliminate this additional step.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stanav

Actually, Acronis True Image version 10 does work for creating a Vista image and restoring it to another HDD, but it requires an additional step after the restore for Vista to run on with the new HDD. Once done restoring the image to the new HHD, boot up the computer. When it crashes, put in the Vista installation DVD and reboot to the DVD as if you're installing Vista. Then choose repair option instead. Once the repair is done, the new HDD should be ready to rock and roll.
Using version 2009 of Acronis True Image will eliminate this additional step.

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Acronis 10 backs up the contents of the hard drive.
The boot loader is usually written onto the Master Boot record, though.
(This is what is being fixed by the Vista repair option).

It seems that Acronis True Image 2009 also backs up the MBR.