Technology Notebook

Windows 2000::PC System Imaging::INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Problem:
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE after imaging a machine.
Additional Information:
This error may be from imaging a Windows 2000 disk to a different size drive or different drive location.
Or the drive could be incorrectly configured to use DMA access. Turning off DMA access in PC BIOS may resolve the problem.
Most likely, Windows 2000 cannot access the hard drive due, probably a different device driver on target computer from the model system image.
The target computer may have a hard drive controller that didn't exist on the model imaged system. Windows 2000 loads the old drivers, but cannot find the hardware.
If the original and target computers use the same drivers, but the target system partition is on a different IDE channel than the original model computer - Windows will try to get to the drive, but fails because drivers are not installed for that IDE channel.
To resolve this issue, configure the target machines hardware to match the model machine - this is probably not convenient.
Try editing the SysPrep.inf file and using SysPrep prior to creating the image.
1. Install SysPrep on the source computer.
2. Edit the SysPrep.inf file using notepad or other text editor:
- If the problem is due to which IDE channel is in use, type the following two lines under the [SysprepMassStorage] section:
Primary_IDE_Channel = %windir%\inf\mshdc.inf
Secondary_IDE_Channel = %windir%\inf\mshdc.inf
- If the problem is due to a new hard drive controller, add an entry for that controller to the [SysprepMassStorage] section. Required info will be different for each controller.
3. Save the file
4. Run SysPrep
5. Create and image of the disk