Troubleshooting
96
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2005
How can I prepare Windows NT, 2000 or 2003 for cloning or transferring
to a server with different hardware?
Before you clone or transfer Windows to another server, you must prepare it with
Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep). The reasons to do this are described
in the 298491 article of Microsoft Knowledge Base: “One problem from duplicating
an installation of Windows 2000 is that each cloned computer has the same security
identifier (SID) and computer name. This may prevent the cloned computers from
functioning correctly in a workgroup or a domain. To work around this problem,
administrators use the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep.exe) to remove
configuration settings that are unique to the computer such as the computer name
and SID." This problem also relates to Windows NT 4.0 SP6 and Windows XP, so
you should prepare these OS in a similar way.
You can download Microsoft System Preparation Tool from
www.microsoft.com
or
extract from deploy.cab located on Windows XP installation CD.
Below is a brief instruction on how to prepare your hard disk for cloning or
transferring to another server:
1.
Create Acronis True Image Enterprise Server bootable media using the
corresponding wizard in the Acronis True Image Enterprise Server menu.
2.
Run sysprep.exe. You can specify the following as command line parameters:
-nosidgen — if you plan to delete all data from the old disk and/or don’t plan
to use the old and new disks in different servers simultaneously;
-mini — if you plan to transfer your OS to a server with different hardware.
3.
Insert Acronis True Image Enterprise Server bootable disk into the drive and
load the program to create an image of the prepared disk.
4.
Install the new disk into your server or provide image access from the new
server.
5.
Boot from the bootable disk again and restore the image to the new disk or
server.
6.
Reboot.
We recommend you to read Microsoft’s sysprep articles available to the following
OS: Windows NT 4.0 SP6, Windows 2000, Windows 2003.
How can I burn Acronis True Image Enterprise Server images to DVD
discs?
Acronis True Image Enterprise Server can burn images to DVD discs under
Windows, if you have DVD UDF recording software installed. The DVD disc must be
formatted. Currently the program supports at least the following DVD recording
software:
Roxio DirectCD — optional component of Roxio Easy CD Creator;
