Guys, I am hoping some one can answer a question,  But first a bit of background.
I have tried reading the WIN pe help files, Barts pe, sysprep setup - from technet and ms as well as barts web site and spent a number of hours trying to get this problem taken care of.
I am a VERY small oem builder.  I have multiple computer platforms that i build and repair for customers.  Productivity has started to take a drop due to installs and reinstalls by manual disk. 
I have tried to run sysprep with the factory switch then when the cpu is restarted boot it with acronis 8 to create an image for future use. Also tried the winpe and used sysprep within.   
The problem i seem to get is when the image is restored and the new system is
started for the first time.  The windows start up screen is in a continous loop. 
I am assuming its driver missing files incompatability and or registry issues. 
I would like a bit of direction to an actual working simulation on a web site or a bit of help in correcly setting up 1 image for xp pro and 1 image for
xp home that will install across multiple hardware platforms ( amd, intell, gigabyte, asus, etc. )and actually boot and run. 
Any help would be appreciated.  I have read the white papers but as we all know white papers from ms are usually brown with crud before you finish reading it all.

thanks guys,
rick

Hi Rick,

I believe your plan of attack should be in 3 stages:

Stage 1

Build an master image and on a source machine

Take a image now to avoid having to install aagain during testing

Setup sysprep and run sysprep on the source machine

Take an image now and consider this your master image

wipe the harddisk on the sourcemachien adn then re-load the syspreped master image

Did it work ???

If not then you have an sysprep setup problem, maybe sysprep.inf does not have the right settings in it, you will have to figure out which setting is causing you a problem

If yes then you can be pretty sure it is a driver issue move onto stage 2.

Stage 2

Boot the workstation using winpe, mount the harddrive and load setupapi.log into notepad.

This will list all the hardware that has been detected and drivers loaded. You can pretty much bet that the last entry in the file will be the incomplete one for teh problem hardware.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/install/setupapilog.mspx

Once you have identified the problem hardware then it's a  case of finding the correct drivers, or not including the drivers for that piece of hardware (not very tidy but may allow you to move forward with your testing).

Stage 3

Do this for each piece of hardware you with to load the master image onto.

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I know this sounds like a lot of work, at first it will take you some time but the more you do it the easier it will become.

My master image loads onto over 20 different models, desktop & laptops so I know it can be done.

 

Hope this helps,

Steve

Hi Rick,

I had the same problem but found that it can be one of two causes. The first is the mass storage device and second the HAL.  I had a copy of Acronis 9 with universal restore and restored the image and only provided the windows XP disk, Acronis did the rest.

Patrick