Systems Deployment

Here is what I have tried, unsuccessfully, to do:

Using MDT 2010, I have added several "Run Command Line" tasks to the Preinstall TS section. These tasks do the following:

1. Use Reg.exe to load the SOFTWARE hive from the machine's OS drive - reg.exe load "HLKLM\LOCALSOFTWARE" "D:\Windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE"
2. Use Reg.exe to export a Key to a file on the WinPE RAMDisk (X:) - reg.exe export "HKLM\LOCALSOFTWARE\..." x:\Regfile.txt
3. Run an AutoIt script (from %SCRIPTROOT%) to edit the Reg Key Path from "HKLM\LOCALSOFTWARE\..." to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\..." so it will import correctly and save it to the WinPE RAMDisk (X:) as Regfile2.txt

After the OS install, in the Postinstall TS section and before the machine boots to Windows 7, I run another "Run Command Line" task that copies the Regfile2.txt to C: as Regfile2.reg.

Finally, just before the Install Applications TS section, I run a "Run Command Line" task - reg.exe import "HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Dell\Kace" "c:\KUID\Regfile2.reg" (example is the x64 TS)

This process seemed to work, initially, on a VM.  So I tried on an actual machine.  At that point, the OS Install portion began to fail during the process of expanding Windows with the error: "Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation."  The error only occurs during a deployment where there was a pre-existing OS (i.e. - if I wipe the disk first so that there is no registry data to capture, the process has no problem).  Also, if I disable all of these related tasks, the deployment has no issue.

The files on X: (ramdisk) are getting created and edited properly and depending on where I put the task, the file copy to c: looks to be happening correctly, but the process still ends with the error above.