Sysprep is a fantastic tool which can be used to create base images for one or many hardware types. Unfortunately it can take a few goes before an image is stable, and below are some of the things which can go wrong.
Devices won’t automatically install
Even though the drives have been included in the sysprep.inf file some devices still won’t install automatically. The fix to the issue is using the -pnp switch when running sysprep.exe (i.e. sysprep.exe -pnp ).
Windows stops loading after AGP440.sys
After placing the sysprep image on a different computer sysprep successfully runs but when Windows loads it stops at AGP440.sys. This issue generally means the wrong HAL has been used in the image.
A work around can be building the image with the ACPI HAL which supports both single-core processors and dual-core processors. The image will be more reliable if you build it on a single core processor with the ‘uniprocessor HAL’. This HAL will automatically detect the dual-core processor and change the HAL after the computer is restarted.
Windows stops loading after mup.sys
After placing the sysprep image on a different computer sysprep successfully runs but when Windows loads it stops at mup.sys. This issue generally means the image doesn’t include the correct mass storage drivers.
There are two solutions for this issue, you can include the following line in your sysprep.inf
[Sysprep]
BuildMassStorageSection=Yes
or you can use the -bmsd switch when running sysprep.exe (i.e. sysprep.exe -bmsd ).