Windows 7 Imaging WDS Woes

[witch]

Trying to image some Win 7 machines - FINALLY managed to get the netbooks sorted but cannot get the desktops to work. After sysprep I try to image but no volumes appear in the list. I have had this before and re-sysprepping sorted it out, but not this time. I can't Ghost either

Any help gratefully received, these machines need sorting by friday and I am at the end of my tether

[eddyc]

What happens if you change the SATA mode in the BIOS to IDE? If not, have you tried injecting the drive controllers drivers into WDS - been playing with driver injection this week - in 2008 R2 it's easy!

[sukh]

Hi

 

When you sysprep'ed did you use the generalise key?

 

When you go into WinPE, hold the shift and F10 key, seee if you can see the volumes from here?

 

Sukh

[sted]

id say your boot.wim dosent have the storage controller drivers built in and needs the drivers injecting

[witch]

Oh god, not driver injecting - I can't DO IT. Where is the boot.wim? on the machine? Where would I find the drivers? On the motherboard website? Anyone got step by step instructions?

shift and F10 shows nothing

Yes I did tick the generalise box

Changing SATA mode makes no difference

[Gatt]

@witch - what version of WDS are you using?

The current version of WDS allows injection via the console through the use of Driver Groups...

[sted]

only step by step i have is the same one i gave you last time. Boot.wim is on your win7 cd copy/edit on server and inserted as a boot image into wds. drivers from wherever you can find win7 drivers for that hardware

[ChrisH]

If you use MDT to prepare your images, it makes injecting drivers very easy. It turns it into a point and click exercise. There is an initial learning curve, but once you get the hang of the basics your life will be much easier.

[sukh]

@witch - If you cant see the volume then your issue is drivers are required.

 

Inject drivers.

 

To create your derivative capture image from an existing Windows PE image that already has all the drivers injected:

 

•Add a Windows PE image to your server.

 

•Mark the image as offline (disabled).

 

•Mount the image using the Windows AIK toolset (ImageX and Mountrw).

 

•Inject all the drivers offline using PEIMG.exe. (Now your Windows PE image has all the drivers it needs.)

 

•Mark the image as online (enabled).

 

•Create the capture image based off of this Windows PE image.

 

 

Sukh

[witch]

@witch - If you cant see the volume then your issue is drivers are required.

 

Inject drivers.

 

To create your derivative capture image from an existing Windows PE image that already has all the drivers injected:

 

•Add a Windows PE image to your server.

 

•Mark the image as offline (disabled).

 

•Mount the image using the Windows AIK toolset (ImageX and Mountrw).

 

•Inject all the drivers offline using PEIMG.exe. (Now your Windows PE image has all the drivers it needs.)

 

•Mark the image as online (enabled).

 

•Create the capture image based off of this Windows PE image.

 

 

Sukh

 

this is where I quietly leave and return to my CV's. I really dont understand much of what you, or Sted, are saying. Might seem obvious to you but sentences like: Boot.wim is on your win7 cd copy/edit on server and inserted as a boot image into wds. drivers from wherever you can find win7 drivers for that hardware don't make any sense to me - Where is wds.drivers?

or: capture image from an existing Windows PE image that already has all the drivers injected:

Surely if I had an image with the drivers then I wouldnt have a problem, would I?

I have no idea what I am doing. I don't know if you can read music, but if you can't or can only read basic notation, imagine being given a piece of complicated music and told to play it - that's how I feel

 

I only have Server 2003 anyway

Edited April 7, 2011 by witch

[sted]

if you tell me what hardware it is i should be able to create you a new boot file you just then need to add it to wds but my internet upload at home is a bit pants so may take a while

[Brpilot99]

Could you not use the w7 backup/image my machine utility to make an image of your master PC number 1 down to an external USB hard drive ... Then use the W7 disc to boot the next machine and use the reimage utility to image PC number 2 / 3 etc. Then sysprep each of the new machines offline and before plugging them into your network ....

[witch]

Thanks Sted - at the wrong school now - will be back there tomorrow.

I didnt even know there was a backup/image utility on a W7 machine - where's that then?

Might take a while with 33 of them though! thanks for the info

[sted]

not exactly convenient to back up to a hdd then restore 1 by one and if wds wont find the hdd booting off a win7 cd is just the same thing but using a cd rather than network its booting from the same file

[Brpilot99]

I didnt even know there was a backup/image utility on a W7 machine - where's that then..

 

W7 has an option under the backup section to create image .. I use it at home to backup my own PC ...

 

33 machines !!!

 

Probably not the best way of doing that many P'cs

 

Have a fab Easter break

Cheers

Brian

[sted]

right ive had another go at writing a how to its now a word file containing screen grabs see if that makes any more sense

 

inject drivers.doc

[witch]

HELP

I still can't image the damn thing and now of course I have hit the limit and it wont sysprep anyway.

I have had to rebuild this machine twice all ready and if I have to do it again I will cry, scream or hit something - or someone.

I have looked on the web and tried all the work arounds, regedits etc - and nothing works

Can anyone tell me how to sort it out so that I can try and get the imaging sorted without having to rebuild the machine again, It is hard to do as most of our software is too old to have msis and so I have to install everything one by one.

I really cant do this again...can anyone help??

My boss is getting pretty concerned about the lack of his new IT suite and I dont know how much longer he will wait.

All help gratefully received

Edited April 25, 2011 by witch

[ChrisH]

The best way to do these types of things is build the image on a virtual machine and get it so it can be applied to the computer you want. You can then use snapshots and revert to snapshot to save you rebuilding from scratch every time. You would do snapshots at critical stages such as basic install, all apps installed, just before sysprep etc etc. It makes this kind of process a lot quicker.

[Gatt]

Witch, have you tried using MDT?

This way you can install Windows 7 freashly each time along with any drivers, and also get it to install software as needed

 

I didn't use any captured images after switching to MDT

 

If you need any help PM me tomorrow and I'll try and help

[sted]

is it still stuck not showing the hdd when you boot into wds?

 

does the laptop have ide/ahci mode in bios if so try turning it to ide to clone/restore (a pain i agree but should work) or even shove the hdd with your image in another laptop that does wds happily at least that way you haev your image and so just need to worry about deployment. Are these still the hp620's cant rememebr if that was this thread or another as i rebuilt a dozen a fortnight or so ago using a std win7 boot image no mods (they are slow as owt to clone but they have a pants nic iirc seems nobody fits gb (or even 1/2 decent) lan cards to laptops no more).

 

if you have an 08r2 server it is possible to get wds to add its own drivers to the boot files but i cant remember how.

 

Just double checking you are trting to take an image of a syspreped pc as it wont image if its not sysprepped correctly.

[sted]

Witch, have you tried using MDT?

This way you can install Windows 7 freashly each time along with any drivers, and also get it to install software as needed

 

I didn't use any captured images after switching to MDT

 

If you need any help PM me tomorrow and I'll try and help

 

and in theory you could build an image on a vm with all software installed manually and use that as the basis for the deployed image mdt just adding drivers and any other software (not it SHOULD be possible but ive not had reason to try all my images are empty as i can possibly make them i try and have nothing but windows/updates in them and use scripting/msi to deploy)

[witch]

I am still having the issue with imaging even though I have DEFINITELY sypreped OK. (have been through it with a couple of local guys who know what they are doing)

BUT the current issue is that Win 7 does not allow you to sysprep more than three times even though it is a volume licence.

This is server 2003 not 2008.

So...are we saying that I must rebuild my image again? And if so I could use a different method?

As I said, msi would be lovely but not really possible and building msis for all the software would be a lovely idea but just not possible time-wise even though I am sure it would save me time in the long run.

These are desktops BTW, not laptops. No other modes in the BIOS

I have no virtual machines and no time, on 15 hours a week, to even try and sort that out

[Gatt]

Witch, MDT may still be of usefor imaging, It might be a bit quicker than a full WDS Image too

Also with regards to the MSI's - with MDT you could use AutoIT to "record" the installs..

[witch]

Thanks - but I dont really know what that is and it isnt going to help me avoid rebuilding, is it?

It has to be simple and easy or I will be lost

[Gatt]

Sorry,

 

MDT = Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (2010) -> Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

You create a Share, then a Boot Image that can be added to WDS

Then import your OS, Drivers and Applications

You use Task Sequences to script the install of Windows and any drivers and apps

 

It is primarily wizard driven when you boot, but these can be automated with Answer files and tailored for specific makes & models of PCs...

I had it so it only prompted for a PC name and any apps

 

Apps can be grouped (eg Generic apps, teacher apps (eg sims, smartboards) etc)