UEFI vs LEGACY BIOS - GPT vs MBR - SINGLE PARTITION (RESIZABLE) vs MULTIPLE PARTITION (NOTRESIZABLE)
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thanks everyone in advance.
I had been playing with the new 1.1.2 version and trying to get windows 7 64b image to work in a hardware independent scenario. i had found some problems, well i said problems because i don’t know the answer or quit don’t understand.
UEFI vs LEGACY BIOS ???
windows will not boot after deployment …
i went online to understand this a little [media=youtube]dRMIvY7BiL4[/media]GPT vs MBR ???
Related to UEFI i guess in the deployment if fog finds a GPT it converts it to MBR. Why ?WINDOWS 7
SINGLE PARTITION (RE-SIZABLE) vs MULTIPLE PARTITION (NOT RE-SIZABLE ) ???
I used a 500 GB HD to upload a Windows 7 64 b MULTIPLE PARTITION SINGLE DISK ( NOT RE-SIZABLE) and then i tried to deploy it to a 250 GB HD and it will tell me that the source HD 2nd partition image will exceed the current HD blocks and that i needed to either re-size it or deleted i tried both still would not deploy.thanks again.
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[quote=“AlonsoP, post: 32960, member: 24925”]thanks everyone in advance.
I had been playing with the new 1.1.2 version and trying to get windows 7 64b image to work in a hardware independent scenario. i had found some problems, well i said problems because i don’t know the answer or quit don’t understand.
UEFI vs LEGACY BIOS ???
windows will not boot after deployment …
i went online to understand this a little [media=youtube]dRMIvY7BiL4[/media][/quote] Nice video and somewhat a known issue in the case of UEFI. As we can’t boot the system into UEFI over PXE yet we don’t have access to adjust the boot parameters quite yet.
[quote=“AlonsoP, post: 32960, member: 24925”]
GPT vs MBR ???
Related to UEFI i guess in the deployment if fog finds a GPT it converts it to MBR. Why ?[/quote]FOG does not convert the MBR or GPT structures. In relation to your other post, this could be seen. FOG detects if the disk is using GPT. If so, it backs up the GPT partition regardless of if it’s actually [b]supposed[/b] to be in GPT or MBR. When it “checks” it simply looking for the GPT flag as “not present”. If it’s anything but that it will assume it’s GPT.
[quote=“AlonsoP, post: 32960, member: 24925”]
WINDOWS 7
SINGLE PARTITION (RE-SIZABLE) vs MULTIPLE PARTITION (NOT RE-SIZABLE ) ???
I used a 500 GB HD to upload a Windows 7 64 b MULTIPLE PARTITION SINGLE DISK ( NOT RE-SIZABLE) and then i tried to deploy it to a 250 GB HD and it will tell me that the source HD 2nd partition image will exceed the current HD blocks and that i needed to either re-size it or deleted i tried both still would not deploy.thanks again.[/quote]This is because of the way the partitions are laid out and the data is copied. In Single Disk resizable, it shrinks the partition and table before attempting to clone the data. This gives the smallest size available plus a little and copies the “bit by bit data” parts of that into the sys.img.000 file. In MPS/MPA (Multi part single/all disk) it doesn’t resize the partitions at all. So you’d have to load the OS, shrink the partition, and then upload that partition for this to work. Which is why there’s different “Imaging” types as listed.
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[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 32961, member: 7271”]Nice video and somewhat a known issue in the case of UEFI. As we can’t boot the system into UEFI over PXE yet we don’t have access to adjust the boot parameters quite yet.[/quote]
Is there a time table on when this will be available? I have been looking around on how to get my Surface Pro Tablet to image. I have the Genuine Microsoft Surface Ethernet Adapter, and the latest firmware update to support PXE booting, however as stated above, you can’t boot the system into UEFI over PXE…which is a bummer because I have 5 that I need to image.
Could something like this lead to a solution?
[url]https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/s1-netboot-pxe-config-efi.html[/url] -
Hey Tom, Thanks again for your time.
On the type image part of your response i have a question or if you could clarified for me.
[INDENT]This is because of the way the partitions are laid out and the data is copied. In Single Disk resizable, it shrinks the partition and table before attempting to clone the data. This gives the smallest size available plus a little and copies the “bit by bit data” parts of that into the sys.img.000 file. In MPS/MPA (Multi part single/all disk) it doesn’t resize the partitions at all. So you’d have to load the OS, shrink the partition, and then upload that partition for this to work. Which is why there’s different “Imaging” types as listed.[/INDENT]
[SIZE=11px] [/SIZE]
- LOAD THE OS -----------------> Fresh Windows Install ?
- SHRINK THE PARTITION -----> ?? (manually )
- UPLOAD THE PARTITION -----> ??
Sorry it might be a simple answer or maybe you already answered but i don’t fully understand it.
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when he says “load the OS, shrink the partition” he’s talking about using the built in windows disk management tools to manually shrink the last partition to the smallest size you need to fit on your disks. then upload as a MPS/MPA (Multi part single/all disk) image type.
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Hey guys i have been testing a lot this is what i got.
MOTHERBOARDS
- GIGABYTE GA-H61M-S2PV ( BASE IMAGE COMPUTER SOURCE )
- GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L
- GIGABYTE GA-H81M-HD2
I had a situation where :
i had create the image with a 500 GB HD MULTIPLE PARTITIONS SINGLE DISK NOT RESIZABLE which work using the same GIGABYTE GA-H61M-S2PV on a different computer but with a 500 GB HD as well, when i tried on a 300 GB HD it will NOT work ( NOT RESIZABLE LOL ).
I read in some forums that ppl where using MULTIPLE PARTITIONS SINGLE DISK NOT RESIZABLE instead of SINGLE PARTITION RESIZABLE when trying deploying Windows 7 because it was giving them problems.
In my case SINGLE PARTITION NTFS ONLY RESIZABLE Works like a charm !!! this way i fixed my HD size issue.
Then i tried deploying to GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L and GIGABYTE GA-H81M-HD2 and all went south lol
Windows will not boot !!!
windows failed to start.A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.____
So i am thinking now DRIVERS !!! HARDWARE !!!
I did not have these problem in Windows XP but i Guess 7 does not like it…- Any Idea to make work Hardware independent ?
- Should i create an image for each Motherboard ?
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[quote=“AlonsoP, post: 33677, member: 24925”]Hey guys i have been testing a lot this is what i got.
MOTHERBOARDS
- GIGABYTE GA-H61M-S2PV ( BASE IMAGE COMPUTER SOURCE )
- GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L
- GIGABYTE GA-H81M-HD2
I had a situation where :
i had create the image with a 500 GB HD MULTIPLE PARTITIONS SINGLE DISK NOT RESIZABLE which work using the same GIGABYTE GA-H61M-S2PV on a different computer but with a 500 GB HD as well, when i tried on a 300 GB HD it will NOT work ( NOT RESIZABLE LOL ).
I read in some forums that ppl where using MULTIPLE PARTITIONS SINGLE DISK NOT RESIZABLE instead of SINGLE PARTITION RESIZABLE when trying deploying Windows 7 because it was giving them problems.
In my case SINGLE PARTITION NTFS ONLY RESIZABLE Works like a charm !!! this way i fixed my HD size issue.
Then i tried deploying to GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L and GIGABYTE GA-H81M-HD2 and all went south lol
Windows will not boot !!!
windows failed to start.A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.____
So i am thinking now DRIVERS !!! HARDWARE !!!
I did not have these problem in Windows XP but i Guess 7 does not like it…- Any Idea to make work Hardware independent ?
- Should i create an image for each Motherboard ?[/quote]
Virtualize your image, stop building it on the physical machines.
You shouldn’t create an image for each motherboard, that sounds cumbersome, see my statement above. If the images are close enough in relation (software is the same) and they don’t require too much change, I use the same image and tweak it differently.
I also, have made MANY POSTS about how I manage my drivers, and I include them on the C:/Drivers folder and add it as a variable path to the machine so after generalize and during the first OOBE when windows wants drivers, it can find them. This ins’t perfect but it works.
ALWAYS build you image at your smallest hard drive, if your smallest drive is 200GB build ALL of you images at LESS THAN 200GB, I recommend 150gb because sometimes drives are the same space “200 GB” but do not have the same exact specs and can fail on restore of hard drive due to bad sectors etc. This allows for error correction, and if done correctly with sysprep or another tool, your partition can be extended to the end of the disk and you will not loose any space.
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Thanks much Jaymes…
I forgot to mention that i actually did try creating a master image with Virtual Box but after deploying Windows will not boot same hardware/software error.
Would you have a manual or how do i find you posts where you were able to create a master “Virtual Image”, drivers installations ( variable path ?? not quite familiar ) and syspreping.
And ya i learned the long way that the master image should be always created in the smallest HD size !!!
Again thanks for your time.
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Not really. If you want to use Virtual Box, the only thing you need to remember is to set your Network card up in Bridged mode.
Stick your windows disk in and let it install to the hard drive, when Windows reboots and asks you to set up a user press [B]Shift+Ctrl+F3[/B] and this will enter to audit mode, this is the beginning of sysprep. Each time the machine starts it will act as if it is the first time the installer has been ran and will look like the OOBE process. When it boots to the desktop the sysprep box will be present each time, you can close it or move it out of the way.
Now you want to include your driver inf files in a folder on the C driver under Drivers.
After saving all the driver files, open the Registry editor and In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version click on “DevicePath” and enter “C:\Drivers” (remember the entries must be separated by a semicolon).
Now continue to set up your image. You will need to set up an Unattend.xml file if you want your installation process to be automated. If you have questions about unattend.xml files, I recommend using one of the guides on the internet, or use the included windows AIK tool. (Automated Installation Kit)
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I’ve built two OEM Sysprepped images using VMware ESXi 5.5 and VirtualBox and haven’t had any issues other than my own with AVG 2013.
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Good point there Tom, Lately AVG has been causing some issues with the sysprep process, during an image restore and it renders the image useless, add AVG after the machines have been imaged.
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We just reverted to 2012 and all is working properly for us. Just some informative stuff in case others experience similar problems but are still able to use the 2012 version.
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I just avoid AVG like the plague.
And as to the UEFI issue, I agree it would be a great feature to have. For the time being though, you will have to switch any UEFI BIOS to Legacy mode to get any useful PXE utilities to work other than WDS, but WDS is for deployment only.
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I agree with adding UEFI support. something I’ve really been needing a full dd should work so I’m thinking if it’s possible to check where partition nr 3 starts (win7 / 8.x) then make a dd image from zero to the start of partition nr 3, then treat partition 3 as a “multi partition disk, no resize”
