Comments on: How to Capture and Deploy Image (.wim) Without Sysprep

By: Felipe M

Felipe M — Sat, 01 May 2010 02:03:27 +0000

Brian Thank you so much for your blog it is awesome! I have a question, I created a custom nonsysprep image using Gimagex and it was saved as a .wim file. I converted it to a .iso but was wondering if I could fix my image so that it boots. Currently, I am unable to use the iso to load windows. Any suggestions?

By: MSV

MSV — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:47:52 +0000

Hi Brian,

I have a fully sysprepped image of Windows 7 and it works absolutely fine with Symantec Ghost v11.5.

However, I would like to implement WDS using Server 2008. What i want to do is to capture the image of the Hard Disk into a .wim file (As WDS usese only .wim file) and then deploy it through network.

I am lost as i am unable to go any further with creating a .wim image file from my customized image of Windows 7.

Please help and let me know the detailed process of how to create the image of my Hard drive as a .wim file and implement it with WDS.

if possible, Please post a complete procedure regarding the same..

Thanks

By: Keejy

Keejy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:56:09 +0000

I’d be hung up on to ascertain that too!

By: Brian Jackson

Brian Jackson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Yes I always run these commands right after deploying the image; while still in the WinPE 3.0 boot environment.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:42:25 +0000

Brian,

Your site has been a tremendous help. Thanks alot.
You said to do this:
After you have deployed your non-sysprepped image you need to run the following commands: (I have a batch file I use to do this).

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

Do I run it while the machine is still in WinPE after applying? I do see it says “after you have deployed…” but want to make sure I’m right about when to run it.
I have spent days trying to get around the bootmgr missing issue. Looked at every article and rebuilt bcd manually, etc.

By: Brian Jackson

Brian Jackson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:32:16 +0000

@John M : As far as I know I think the -rearm command now only allows for 3 resets. I have yet to test this though. I guess it’s time to install a new virtual machine

By: John M

John M — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:51:06 +0000

Brian,

We are working with Windows 7 Enterprise and I’m wondering what, if any, syspreping legacy from Vista will carry over to Windows 7.

With Vista, I ran the slmgr.vbs -rearm command to reset the activation information and just prior to sysprep, I would go into the registry and change the value for SkipRearm to 1. This gave me an unlimited amount of syspreps before the system would basically shut down. Is there a similar method with Windows 7 Enterprise or are we limited to a set number of “Syspreps” with Win7 Enterprise?

Thanks very much.

John

By: Brian Jackson

Brian Jackson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:32:47 +0000

@ Ted McCarty: Haha, yes I totally agree with you. SID is pretty much useless now unless you are joining your computers to a domain. I am pretty sure that for a computer to join correctly it needs a new SID. (Might work with same SID after re-imaging) http://www.windowsvistaplace.com/sysprep-generalize-sid/windows-vista

I do agree that sysprep is sometimes simply a waste of time. Some of my images I have found it much easier to use the default profile copy trick and then simply capturing the image and re-deploying while skipping sysprep altogether. Never had any issues. Yes Microsoft team never seems to commit fully to sysprep process. Just when XP’s sysprep process was just about 100% perfect, they unleash a new, very buggy sysprep.

By: Ted McCarty

Ted McCarty — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:35:07 +0000

Hi Brian, I have been using NewSID for several years on XP. It does not work on Vista or Win7 and since Mark now is part of Microsoft it looks like there will be no updated version. My question is does the SID really do anything now. All the network looks at is the MAC address of the computer and a users SID is the same on any computer that you log on to so where does the computer SID come into play? I can Ghost a computer that I have set up to use as an image to my server and then Ghost it to another computer and it starts up just like I want it to and will authenticate to our KMS server the same as if I had used sysprep and spent the two or three hours fixing all the things that sysprep loused up on my image. Why would anyone want to waste all that time using sysprep? Does Bill Gates get a spiff everytime one of use poor IT folks uses sysprep?

By: Brian Jackson

Brian Jackson — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:23:12 +0000

@ Jory : So you did try running

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:

?? Cause basically those lines above is what the Windows 7 repair is doing from install disc. What did it say when you tried running the above lines?

Also sorry, I have not had any experience with Rdeploy; although I might look into this now as I am curious.