I've just cloned a PC (Win7 + SysPrep + CloneZilla) and after starting up the new clone, Win7 wants to be reactivated again and the video driver seems to be missing (as in the aero effect has disappeared from the new clone) and the internet connection settings seem to be missing too.
All those were set in the master before running SysPrep.
Why have these settings been lost?
The master PC was had windows 7 activated using a volume license key, and the clone pc is the same make and model as the master computer.
Best Answer
This is normal behavior for Sysprep. Please see the TechNet articles ‘How Sysprep Works and 'Maintain Driver Configurations When Capturing a Windows Image'. However, this makes your image restricted to that specific hardware. You can also 'Add and Remove Drivers Offline'. You should not activate Windows or join it to a domain prior to running sysprep.
The newest imaging and deployment tools from Microsoft can manage device drivers to make your images hardware independent. If you have a Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer, then Windows Deployment Services(WDS) is a built in role that can be enabled and has a driver store that you would put all device drivers into for automatic installation during the deployment.
The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is a free deployment solution that not only manages device drivers, but allows you to install software, packages and updates (even checking your WSUS server or Windows Update) during the deployment process, automatically. This allows you to create a hardware independent image that you can deploy to all your machines. MDT can be installed on your Technician workstation.
Hope this helps,