Windows 10 wont image: Please reinstall windows error

Scott Boucher

I need some help with troubleshooting why my image will not deploy after I sys-prep. So I created a clean install of windows 10 education. Pc is in legacy mode and the win 10 installer is created with a mbr. Once I have windows installed accepting defaults and reboot I enter Audit mode and setup windows and update it and get it exactly how I want it. Basically following this guide to exact. https://www.theitcave.com/post/561

So before I sysprepped wanted to be sure I had a image of everything I just did, so from fog I did a capture of the win 10 machine in the current state in audit mode with sysprep up and enter system audit mode and reboot options. This way if something goes wrong I dont need to rebuild everything over.

So all this is working, I can send this image down to the pc and it works and will load win 10 in audit mode with sysprep up just like I left it.

When I sysprep it with sysprep /generalize /shutdown /unattend:C:\Windows\Customize\customize.xml and then capture another image, it captures correctly but when I push it back down to the or another machine I get a error windows could not start please reinstall to continue. After reading many, many post and possible fixes I still cant figure out what is going on. I have tried disabling the fog service and I still get the error. Then, I thought it was because my unattend file did not have a user being created so I put a user in my unattend file and I still get the same results. I think it has something to do with my unattend file but I just can’t figure out what is happening. Thanks for the Help. here is my unattend file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" 

processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" 

versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" 

processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" 

versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>System Reserved</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>0x27</TypeID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>OS</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <FullName>Tech</FullName>
                <Organization>TEST</Organization>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>GC73X-3TWCJ-PJK48-xxxxx-xxxxx</Key>
                </ProductKey>
            </UserData>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>System Reserved</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>0x27</TypeID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>OS</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <FullName>Tech</FullName>
                <Organization>TEST</Organization>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>GC73X-3TWCJ-PJK48-xxxxx-xxxxx</Key>
                </ProductKey>
            </UserData>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="offlineServicing">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-LUA-Settings" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <EnableLUA>false</EnableLUA>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="offlineServicing">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-LUA-Settings" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <EnableLUA>false</EnableLUA>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-SQMApi" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <CEIPEnabled>0</CEIPEnabled>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-SQMApi" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <CEIPEnabled>0</CEIPEnabled>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ComputerName>TEST-PC</ComputerName>
            <ProductKey>GC73X-3TWCJ-PJK48-xxxxx-xxxxx</ProductKey>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ComputerName>TEST-PC</ComputerName>
            <ProductKey>GC73X-3TWCJ-PJK48-xxxxx-xxxxx</ProductKey>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>xxxxxxxx</Value>
                    <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Enabled>false</Enabled>
                <Username>Tech</Username>
            </AutoLogon>
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
                <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
                <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>xxxxxx</Value>
                            <PlainText>true</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description></Description>
                        <DisplayName>Tech</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>Tech</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <RegisteredOrganization>TEST</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>Tech</RegisteredOwner>
            <DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>false</DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>
            <FirstLogonCommands>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Description>Control Panel View</Description>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                    <CommandLine>reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel" /v StartupPage /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</CommandLine>
                    <RequiresUserInput>true</RequiresUserInput>
                </SynchronousCommand>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>2</Order>
                    <Description>Control Panel Icon Size</Description>
                    <RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
                    <CommandLine>reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel" /v AllItemsIconView /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f</CommandLine>
                </SynchronousCommand>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>3</Order>
                    <RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
                    <CommandLine>cmd /C wmic useraccount where name="Tech" set 

PasswordExpires=false</CommandLine>
                    <Description>Password Never Expires</Description>
                </SynchronousCommand>
            </FirstLogonCommands>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" 

publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" 

xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" 

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>xxxPasswordHash</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Enabled>false</Enabled>
                <Username>Tech</Username>
            </AutoLogon>
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
                <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
                <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>xxxPasswordHash</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description></Description>
                        <DisplayName>Tech</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>Tech</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <RegisteredOrganization>TEST</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>Tech</RegisteredOwner>
            <DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>false</DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet>
            <FirstLogonCommands>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Description>Control Panel View</Description>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                    <CommandLine>reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel" /v StartupPage /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f</CommandLine>
                    <RequiresUserInput>true</RequiresUserInput>
                </SynchronousCommand>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>2</Order>
                    <Description>Control Panel Icon Size</Description>
                    <RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
                    <CommandLine>reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows

\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel" /v AllItemsIconView /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f</CommandLine>
                </SynchronousCommand>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>3</Order>
                    <RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
                    <CommandLine>cmd /C wmic useraccount where name="Tech" set 

PasswordExpires=false</CommandLine>
                    <Description>Password Never Expires</Description>
                </SynchronousCommand>
            </FirstLogonCommands>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:e:/sources/install.wim#Windows 10 Education" 

xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Scott Adams

I’m in agreement with you that this must be a sysprep issue. This is a very detailed sysprep file. It appears to be doing a lot of different things.

Tell me, what all are you trying to do with the sysprep file? Mine is pretty simple and we image without an issue.

Scott Adams

Do you have a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit machines? I’m seeing both references all throughout your unattend file.

Scott Boucher

@Scott-Adams All I am really trying to do is to make a Win 10 image that can be sent to multiple different models of pc’s using legacy bios and MBR, I was going to have fog add to domain and rename the pc.

Scott Boucher

@Scott-Adams I dont I used this site to build the unattend. http://www.windowsafg.com/win10x86_x64.html

Scott Boucher

@Scott-Adams do you think I can have a copy of your unattend.

Scott Adams

0_1540914509994_unattend.txt

Scott Boucher

Ok, I am on the right path, Thanks for unattend file. It worked, Now I would like to change a couple things on it and I will do that one at a time and test it. First is, it current auto logs in as administrator, and it does this until after the 2nd restart. I am guessing all I need to do is to put the auto login from 2 to 0 or does this unattend need at least 1 ?

Scott Adams

@Scott-Boucher 2 logins is for other processes that we run. You should be able to change that number without issue.

Windows 10 wont image: Please reinstall windows error

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