PRB: Running Sysdiff with Multiple Partitions (176015)

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Sysdiff utility, all partitions have to be set up on the hard drive prior to taking a snapshot of the system. If one partition is present when the initial snapshot is taken, then the user adds a second partition using Disk Administrator and installs applications to the added partition, the difference file will not contain the new partition or application information.

In the above scenario, the difference file will only contain the changes that were made to the registry as a result of creating a new partition and whatever changes were made by installing the application(s). The application files that were installed on the new partition will not be contained in the difference file.

CAUSE

When the snapshot of the system is taken, it only incorporates the information on existing partitions. So when the difference file is created, the partitions added after the snapshot was taken are ignored. Sysdiff is not designed to capture system changes, that is, partition changes. Sysdiff is designed to snap the system, install applications, then do a diff to capture which applications were installed.

RESOLUTION

To capture the necessary information when you use the Sysdiff utility on a computer with multiple partitions, perform the following steps:

Setup all partitions through Disk Administrator prior to issuing the "sysdiff /snap c:\<image file>" command.
Follow all procedures outlined in the Windows NT Deployment Guide to create the difference package to be used to install applications to other systems. Steps are also outlined above.

If there are problems with drive space limitations when applying the difference package to the installation share, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for further information:

173825 Not Enough Space for Files During an Unattended Setup