Windows 8 cloning/ghosting

[themightymrp]

Can anyone tell me how to create a ghost image of a Windows 8 machine that uses the UEFI / EFI boot system?

 

I have a machine which I've setup and sysprepped all lovely. When I capture an image using ghost (Solution suite 2.5) it all looks like its doing its job. However, restoring the image on another machine causes a hard disk error 3F0 error (its a HP laptop)

 

HELP!!!

[gmonks]

When imaging our new laptops using WDS, I had to change to legacy in the BIOS for it to image correctly.

[Jonesminor]

I couldn't get ghost to work reliably so took the plunge with ADK (Windows Assessment & Deployment Kit).

From this, I've used DISM and Diskpart successfully to image Windows 8 with UEFI. When creating the partitions on the target machine, I had to convert the disk to GPT for UEFI to work. Our Diskpart commands below..

 

select disk 0

clean

convert gpt

create partition efi size=100

format quick fs=fat32

assign

create partition msr size=128

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs

assign

list vol

exit

 

 

The list vol before exit is handy for displaying current volumes before imaging.

 

More here.. Sample: Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions by Using Windows PE and DiskPart

 

--

JB

[FN-GM]

Ghost doesn't support UEFI....

 

When imaging our new laptops using WDS, I had to change to legacy in the BIOS for it to image correctly.

 

Upgrade your server to server 2012 and you can use UEFI then.

[gmonks]

Ghost doesn't support UEFI....

 

 

 

Upgrade your server to server 2012 and you can use UEFI then.

 

Thanks!

[themightymrp]

OK, I've managed to cobble together a working method. It's not perfect by any means and I will need to address the long method (probably updating the server + WDS etc) but it does work. For the moment I am only using 3 laptops to trial Windows 8 with staff so I can live with it, a full rollout will require the aforementioned updates.

 

To share my method:

 

Change BIOS from UEFI to Legacy, enable network boot

 

Boot to WDS

 

DON’T LOGIN!!! Just press F8 to get a command prompt

 

Run Diskpart then use the following:

 

 

select disk 0

clean

convert gpt

 

 

create partition efi size=100

format quick fs=fat32 label="System"

assign letter=S

 

 

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"

assign letter=W

list volume

 

exit

 

REM: Map a network drive to my ghost share

 

net use t: \\ghostcastserver\ghosts

 

enter logon details

 

t:\ghost32.exe or ghost64.exe

 

Set the ghost server to restore mode. Choose the image, select to restore a single partition (the windows one) and select drive 1.

 

From ghost on the client machine, go through the motions of joining a ghost session and choose to restore onto the NTFS Windows partition.

 

When the restore is done, reboot the computer and change the BIOS mode back to UEFI.

 

Boot to the Windows 8 DVD (this is where I need to update stuff on the server!!)

 

Choose to repair your computer. Select advanced mode --> open command prompt

 

Enter the following command:

 

Bcdboot c:\windows

 

It will say that boot files have copied successfully. Just reboot to finish

 

 

Thanks to you all for your suggestions though, it looks like an update to server 2012 is in order

[Fazza]

What we have done is install Windows Backup (in Windows 8 its called something like System Image Backup in Programs/features) and backup to a USB disk.

 

Then all you need to do is boot from a Windows 8 disk, click on Repair during setup and in the Advanced section you can restore from an image from a USB drive.

 

If Windows has detected your NIC then you can even put your image on your network and restore it from there.