Windows 7 goes into loop after deploy of image.
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Server
- FOG Version: 1.4.4
- OS: Ubuntu
We have 53 computers that would not update to Windows 10 the normal way on their own way. We recently started using FOG to image a PC with a fresh clean version of Windows 7. Our goal was to start with a fresh version and then perform the update to Windows 10. Which we have done successfully on several PC’s.
The past three PC’s all have deployed the image without errors except when rebooting it starts to launch Windows 7 then immediately restarts the PC and stays in this loop. Additionally any of the Safe modes do the same thing.
Any ideas?
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@m-fitzgerald Which OS ID is the image Set to? Win10 or Win7 or maybe something else?
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I have to ask : Why not just deploy a clean Windows 10 image?
Are you using SysPrep? Was the image built on the same model PC you’re deploying to?
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I agree strongly with @avaryan. Let’s get you successfully deploying windows 10. Please explain the problems with it in as much detail as you can. Include hardware models too please.
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@avaryan Yes we did use sysprep and also tried it buy loading a PC with a new hard drive and loading windows 7 from scratch. The reason we don’t do a fresh windows 10 is because my licenses on these are all windows 7. Since I can still upgrade for free to windows 10 I am trying to take advantage of it.
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@m-fitzgerald If I understand the upgrade process, once your system has been upgraded then activated with win10, you can install win10 directly without going through the upgrade process each time. The MS clearing house should have your system’s activation on file already.
I remember when win10 first came out there were bugs in the upgrade process from win7 so people would go through the upgrade then wipe the system and load win10 on it clean. It should activate no problem. You should be able to test this with just one system. Load it clean from a cd/dvd.
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@george1421 That is close to correct. In our experience (we have done perhaps 150) the normal process on a PC by PC basis worked perfectly. We have 53 PC left that will not upgrade via the normal upgrade to windows 10 process. They all error out on the last part of the upgrade. So since they will not complete the upgrade we can’t install windows 10 because it will not activate.
So on these remaining 53 PC we decided to try and load a fresh activated version of Windows 7 and then perform the upgrade. Which when done on a one at a time process works fine, however we have 53 to do and only my self and my system admin. Plus the down time of the 4-6 hours (if lucky) to complete the upgrade is problematic at best.
Which is why I thought I would use FOG and image the windows 7 and at least cut the loading time down to 4 minutes instead of an hour or two depending on updates.
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@m-fitzgerald Ok so the focus is deploying Win7 OEM to these 53 systems (if we close one eye and squint with the other we can bypass the OEM EULA). But for the sake of argument lets talk totally technical here.
Now on these 53 systems, I assume you took one of them and installed Win7 OEM on it right? It loads correctly and boots fine. Now for the other 52 systems. Are they all the same make and model? If not, did you load all of the possible drivers needed for the 53 systems into your reference image? Is the bios settings configured similarly? And maybe a more proper question would be, are they all configured for uefi or bios mode? The boot loop is not common.
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@m-fitzgerald If you capture from your reference image (swap the hard drive with a blank one) and deploy back to the same hardware does it boot correctly?
Now when you deploy to these 52 other systems, if you are using single disk non-resizable the target computers must have a hard drive the same or larger than the source disk. If you use single disk resizable, the target must have a hard drive larger than the data size on the disk.
In my company I deploy a single image to 15 different models. So I know the process works correctly.
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@george1421 We were successful yesterday when we used the image we created on our Stem machine. We were able to do perhaps 4 PC and all worked perfect. To say we were excited at the possibility to knock these out so fast is a gross understatement.
Today using the same image we have the boot issue. Now to be fair perhaps it is a driver issue. I am not sure if we have all possible drivers loaded.
I am 95% sure we tried a capture from the reference image (swap the hard drive with a blank one) and deploy back to the same hardware and it didn’t work. But I might be wrong since we tried maybe 10 different things today on top of trying to manage our 11 store 600 PC environment. It can get a bit confusing at times.
I will try that for sure next as well as making sure we have the right driver packs.
