Maybe my input might help here because i have had the same issues as some listed here
This is my process start to finish (Single partition NTFS only, Resizable)
I install Windows 7 from a CD, when i get to the point where i see the partitions listed i delete all partitions and click next ( At this point you do have a option to create a partition first but i dont because i have had issues before)
Once windows is installed i make sure all drivers are installed and the machine has ran Windows updates, i then install my software till i feel the machine is ready for Upload
Now at this point i have my XML file already configured and copied to the Sysprep folder
So all i do is run the FogPrep
Run the command prompt with Elevated rights and type in the following command and also assuming you are in the c:/
cd windows/system32/sysprep/
sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /reboot /unattend:%windir%\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml “press enter”
at this point the sysprep is now running and upon reboot ( at this point you should have set the server to upload this machine) it will connect to the fog server and upload
If a machine is not sysprep’d correctly it will 90% of the time break before it even started up
[COLOR=#ff0000]“Whether I run fogprep or sysprep or neither, FOG is breaking my master boot record somewhere along the way. I created a bare bones image from a clean install, uploaded it and tried deploying it and it fails”[/COLOR]
Now Fogprep and Sysprep is totally different, so make sure when you run the Sysprep you do it with elevated rights ( it does make a difference)
Hope this helps…