Sysprep + Ghost (from AT FAQ) = loss of non-login passwords

[SUOrangeman]

I recently transferred three (out of 6) OSes to a new hard drive following the guidelines found in this AT FAQ. The major side effect that I have noticed thus far is that my passwords in Outlook and IE are gone. THe user accounts and the login passwords are fine, but the "AutoComplete"-ish stuff seems to be gone. Not a total loss, but I figured I'd post.

I recently saw a tool that will go into IE's portion of the registry and pull out the passwords. It would be just my luck that I not find that thing again. :/

For those who care, FreeBSD, WinME, and Win2K survived the Ghost imaging. Mandrake may have survived, but messing with my other partitions may have thrown off LILO. I'm not sure if QNX is properly intact before the imaging. I probably could have images XP, but I consider it a throw-away install anyway.

-SUO

 

[SaigonK]

Sysprep isnt designed to grab the items from Outlook and IE.
Removal of all user specific data is one of the drawbacks to using Sysprep. I normally backup the user profile before I move anything or sysprer.
That way you at least get back their settings.

 

[SaigonK]

On another note: I updated the FAQ to reflect a bunch of requests and questions.
Should be posted soon...

 

[SUOrangeman]

Having not RTFM, I assumed that Sysprep only concentrated on hardware-ish issues when it comes to preparing a drive image. I did not know Sysprep would go that far into the registry to change/remove/ignore passwords, especially since the my user accounts and profiles remain intact. After all, my lost passwords could be a result of using Ghost and not necessarily one of using Sysprep.

-SUO

 

[SUOrangeman]

A more disturbing side-effect is that Outlook and IE won't save passwords now. IE will prompt me on if I want a password saved, but that setting never "sticks" when I revisit a non-cookie, password-protected site.

-SUO

 

[SaigonK]

Ghost wouldnt make your passwords disappear.
Sysprep basically makes your system "Defaulted" when you run it. (For lack of a better phrase).
Many people try to make a canned image with tons of apps installed and tweaks only to find that Sysprep "removes" them.

 

[SUOrangeman]

This solution seems to have brought things back to normal. Probably need to add this to the FAQ and may need to mention the backup of the registry key *before* running Syprep.

-SUO