Sysprep on a windows server 2008

[Anders]

i was trying to clone my harddrive with easeus todo backup, but i read on the internet that before i clone it , i should running sysprep on the computer that i whis to clone.

i did running the sysprep with System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) and Generalize and when the server reboots i did clone the disk, but when i finally starts the server again, my fileserver and printerserver and the maps that the server shares was gone, what did happend ? and why can i get all my stuff back ? i did not make a backup off the system before i syspred it. so what to do ?

i also had installed som programs on the server but is that gone also ?

 

[ICTCity]

Why are you cloning your server? Backup purpose? If yes you don't need to use sysprep.

Anyway this is a normal behavior of sysprep.

 

[Anders]

it is for backup purpose. i had used a software to take a clone of the hdd, but i cant start up on it. when i try it makes a BSOD

 

[ICTCity]

when you deploy a clone, it must be done on the same hardware. If not use acronis with universal restore.

 

[Anders]

are u sure that acronis with universal restore will work ? so with that software i can clone my 2008 server and boot it up on another computer ?

 

[ICTCity]

yes I'm sure, google for "acronis universal restore".

 

[kseeker]

When you sysprep any machine, that will reset the SID and changes the hostname. It looks like you have done that on prod machine hence, you lost all your shares and configured printers etc.

However, don't worry, your data has not gone. you just have to re assign a previous hostname to the server and join that to domain. Your previous config.s will be retained.