Windows 11 deployment issues (after sysprep)

I am having an issue with windows 11 going into repair mode and am soon going to give up as I havent found a soltuion yet and have been trying a lot of different ideas however all ended up the same, either after encrypting the hard disk I reboot the pc and then issue occurs or now I am noticing that issue is happening also when I run windows updates after a reboot this happens.

I never had these kind of issues when I did the implementation of win 7 to 10 few years back with FOG and have been imaging win10 machines since then with FOG and found it great.

I removed the hard disk and connected it to another computer to read the log however the folder was missing so there is no log to check whats the issue



I install win11 on hyperv (tried also installing on an old esxi 7.0)then go into audit mode do all windows updates, just the windows updates and then run sysprep with the below command to use the unattend file (I tested the unattend file using usb to do the installation and it worked so that eliminates the unattend.xml of causing the issue.

@echo offcd
c:\windows\system32\sysprep
sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C:\Sysprep\unattend.xml




Then I would backup the image to fog by disabling the secure boot on the virtual machine






Then I would deploy it on the computer (with secure boot switched off as to be able to boot from the network,
Issue happens both if computer is joined to domain or not
Till now I tried it on Dell optiplex 3060 and Dell vostro 3510 both are getting same issue.

Any ideas as I am soon giving up and will end up doing them with usb and unattend

In this guide, we’ll cover how to create a custom Windows 10/11 installation image with pre-installed apps, necessary files, and other environment and application settings.

FreeBooter said:

In this guide, we’ll cover how to create a custom Windows 10/11 installation image with pre-installed apps, necessary files, and other environment and application settings.

Click to expand...

I tried the script before using sysprep however am still encountering same issues.

The batch script is to clean up temporary files, why do you think script will help with error.

The log file created by Startup Repair can help to find out the cause of the boot problem. In this video, i will explain how to use the Startup Repair tool to troubleshoot boot problems in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Thanks for your reply. It seems that it is not booting since the partition is not visible.

When the computer is first imaged it works and the partitions are available as you can see in the first screenshot.

Also the system32\logfiles\ folders are there however SRV isnt there :S

Without a error message that shows the cause of the boot problem, It's hard to know what is the problem is or fix it.

The OS partition is there but for some reason its unknown

The Volume 0 file system unknown, it could be RAW file system you can try to repair it using TestDisk tool.

Learn how to repair a RAW disk using TestDisk in this easy-to-follow tutorial. TestDisk is a powerful tool for recovering lost partitions and fixing disk errors.

thanks for your replies.

adding the below to the unattended file sorted the issue

EDIT: Please see post #11 - I was able to answer my own question below there.

@dijsil,

I too have had difficulties with Sysprep images in 24H2. Everything was fine before 24H2. I have not dealt with it much simply because I rarely used Sysprep images but I keep meaning to revisit this topic.

So, the changes that you are showing for the answer file, I would just like to clarify: That is for the autounattend.xml and not the unattend.xml, correct?

I will answer my own question in post #10:

I tested this and changes are indeed for the autounattend.xml. I changed not one thing in my answer file except to add the entries from post #9 and that solved my issues. Fantastic! I would have never found this on my own.

@dijsil, would you be able to tell me where you found this solution? I'm always looking for additional resources related to unattended installation.

This appears to be a 24H2 generalize bug (dating back to last summer), related to BitLocker.

Windows 11 24H2 26100.1150 SysPrep /generalize breaks BitLocker functionality - Microsoft Q&A

garlin said:

This appears to be a 24H2 generalize bug (dating back to last summer), related to BitLocker.

Windows 11 24H2 26100.1150 SysPrep /generalize breaks BitLocker functionality - Microsoft Q&A

Click to expand...

Actually, for me it was preventing Windows installation from even completing. But that is still good info for me to keep in ind.