@Fuzzball "...
There's your trouble. You've got a 22 year
old OS, which I would not expect to be adept at phoning
home to Windows Update servers and locating drivers.
Additionally, "server" specific OS's aren't as adept at it
as consumer OS's. In the old days, for a case such as
yours, I'd have gone into Device Manager and deleted
EVERYTHING. Then reboot and hope Windows finds
everything as it's coming back up. But the problem is
that the update servers for that OS are long gone, so
unless the drivers are local on the machine, there's no
hope. Your "by doing what" leaves me wanting to hang
up. My sysprep experience is based on brand new PC's
using brand new OS's ..."
I can't get to any device manager on the clone because
the clone PC and drive won't boot.
However, on the original server, I might get an
opportunity to reboot into the clone drive, and then
delete devices before shutting down, then try that
modified target drive in the new computer, and see if it
plugs-and-plays to install new drivers - that I have
available on the drive - as I replace the original master
drive back into the original server so it runs again.
The goal is to see a second copy of the server WORKING
before totally killing the original computer, or at least to
be prepared to survive if and when the original server
dies altogether.
@AlanD "...
For an OS that old, if you still have access
to the original server, you would need to run sysprep
on there before taking the clone ..."
Run sysprep by doing what?
- - - - -
Regarding an 'old' operating system, in my case, that's
NOT an unusual situation, especially with my computers
out there that have custom programming that does
NOT offer to work in any other environment than the
one it is intricately installed into.
I've got computers with custom parallel cards that run
eight or more dot matrix printers at the same time, each
with a different content from one print job - not a
portable Windows program, and the parallel cards need
PC / XT ISA slots.
This stuff still runs out there, and needs "imaging".
Microsoft still distributes Server 2003 with working serial
numbers, that's what I used to perform a test installation
on a spare drive into the target PC no problem, and I
updated the drivers, to confirm that everything is capable
of working.
So I verified that the target computer is OK for the task.
Now, how to make the cloned drive do the same in that
target computer?
How do I 'teach' the cloned target drive to do the same
when booted in the target PC?
Logically, I imagined editing the registry off-line and
copying the hardware from the working clean install
into the cloned target, but what registry lines would I
export and import?
My challenge with the missing "by doing what" is the
presumption in the instructions that the reader knows
where the writer is - is the writer at a DOS prompt, in
Windows PE, in some maintenance tool kit?
Various clone tools have 'migrate' options, but they are
not obvious, more of 'try this' rabbit hole journeys.
Some tools have 'boot repair', but they often run and
then reboot with the same dysfunctional results.
Hence the "Image" in the opening subject line of this
thread is wanting.
How do we actually USE an 'image' when, by necessity,
we need to use the "image" elsewhere, other than in
the original hardware environment?
- - - - -
In my case, I may be able to boot the clone drive in the
original server and remove devices, then move it to the
target computer.
I suspect that it will not boot in the server because it's
a SATA drive, and the server hardware and the image on
the SATA drive is a copy of a SCSI RAID system.
All I can do it try.
All I can wish for is an "Image" program or programmer
who takes on the challenge of actually
using an image,
a clone, in a different environment, no problem.
I'll let you know what else I try.
