TechTips - Vista Error Task Sequence Failed to Run Error 0x80070032

The Vista error Task Sequence Failed to Run, Error 0×80070032, is pretty common when using SCCM to deploy images to many machines on a network or just stand alone machines. The error occurs because the system you are trying to push the image to, has a hard disk that isn't partitioned NTFS. It's a pretty easy thing to fix but a pain when you are imaging 700 machines and you have to do it every single time you try to push an image.

So first what is going on and what are the symptoms? When you go through SCCM you get will get the error just after it tries to partition the hard drive for the image. The exact error is as follows:

An error occurred while starting the task sequence (0x80070032). For more information, please contact you administrator.

The machine then asks to be rebooted and you are stuck in an infinite cycle. There is a simple command line method of partitioning the hard drive so that it will accept the image. First you have to get to the command line, depending on your machine there are several methods to do this, I suggest checking the website of your particular machine for info on how to get to the command prompt to do DISKPART, which is the command we will be using.

So once you are able to get into the command line for your machine, you will want to do the following steps:

1.Boot into the command line (look at vendor site IE Dell, HP etc...for how to do this)

2. Type DISKPART, hit enter

3. Type SELECT DISK 0 (zero), hit enter

4. Type SELECT PARTITION 1, hit enter

5. Type FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK (this is the fastest method to format the drive NTFS), hit enter

6. It should tell you the drive was successfully formatted

7. Type EXIT, hit enter

8. Type EXIT, hit enter

Now all you have to do is reboot your machine and go through the normal steps of the SCCM program or image program you are using and it shouldn't throw the "An error occurred while starting the task sequence (0x80070032)" error again.

There is another method to try if the above didn't work (I would say the above method works 90% of the time, but if it doesn't this other method probably will work) then you will want to try the following steps:

1. Boot into the command line (look at vendor site IE Dell, HP etc...for how to do this)

2. Type DISKPART, hit enter

3. Type SELECT DISK 0 (zero), hit enter

4. Type Clean, hit enter

5. It should tell you the drive was cleaned successfully

6. Type EXIT, hit enter

7. Type EXIT, hit enter

Once you are done with the Clean command, reboot your machine and test your image deployment again. It should work via one of these two methods. Hope this helps you getting your image to actually deploy to your machines without too many more problems.