Windows 7 Fatal Error running Sysprep

sysprepwindowswindows 7

I'm trying to Sysprep a Windows 7 Pro workstation. When I run sysprep a receieve the error

"A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine"

I've tried all the work arounds

  • uninstall msdtc
  • stop the windows media network service
  • change HKLM\System\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\GeneralizationState from 4 to 7

The error indicates that sysprep has been run before and it hasn't this would be the first time.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks

John

Best Answer

You can check the remaining rearms to see if you have hit the limit with the command ‘slmgr.vbs –dlv’. Make sure to run this from a command prompt with Administrator rights. If you have zero rearms left, then you have hit the limit and have to re-build the machine. This KB article explains this. The article also shows the location of the log file Setuperr.log, found at \Windows\system32\sysprep\panther that could have additional information on your exact error. If this is an OEM version of Windows 7 Pro, then you may not be able to Sysprep it anyway.

Hope this helps,