solutionone

wimmaster can be found at this link http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...amp;#entry21075

Hi Geezery, sorry its been so long since I last replied, I have tried out version 0.70 beta 4, I cannot get the Install option working, it starts the diskpart, and then crashes out somewhere after the disk is wiped. also is the option to choose which disk/partition to install to going to make this version?

Hi Geezery, I just finished work for the day so I can't test the new beta right now, but I will download it and test it tomorrow and get back to you. regards

Hi Geezery, sorry it has been so long since I last posted, I've been flat out at work. I have tested beta 0.070 and picked up the following bugs/suggestions. 1. Map network drive. once clicking the button from the main HTA, I receive the following IE Script Error: Line 25, Char 1, Error: Object required: 'ObjFso', Code 0, URL: file://X:/Windows/System32/netmap.hta carrying on from there, I get several other script errors, but I think they're all related to the first message. 2. Logical Disk Information. This is more of a suggestion, I think it would be beneficial to have column titles on the disk information (e.g. Drive Letter, Label, Free Space, Total Space) 3. Default mount path it would be good if the default path to the mount point was set as the image location when the HTA is started. 4. Completed capture. it would be good that after the message telling you that the capture is a success that the next box that currently says "do you wish to reboot" - "ok" or "cancel" be changed to the OK button saying reboot, and the cancel button saying return to the hta to continue imaging or something. 5. Mount Image. This is currently not working, it just flashes past a dos box. I think the wimfltr.inf actually needs to be installed, this could be done as the hta is being loaded, so people don't need to manually inject the drivers. hope this helps, I haven't had a chance to test it further. keep up the excellent work.

You should receive some sort of Microsoft Nobel Prize for all your hard work, I just came back from TechEd 2007 NZ a week ago, and I was telling one of the MS guys about this project and he was really buzzing. I know there is the other imagex gui out there, but after looking into it, while it exposes all the imagex functionality, It doesn't stream it all into the ease of use that this solution provides.

Thanks for the USB advice, The basic issue, is that at the moment when running a capture, unless you sit there and watch the progress to make sure no error messages pop up/imagex crashing. Once the imagex command is complete (regardless of success) the HTA pops up a message saying the image is complete, and to press okay to reboot (or something like that, I can't remember the exact wording) the problem being sometimes the image wasn't successfull and there is no indication anything went wrong. what I would like if possible, is for the HTA to remember the specified wim path/filename and check to make sure the image is actually there after the imagex capture command has been processed, so instead of saying the current "complete, press okay to reboot....(or whatever it says exactly at the moment)" it should say: image PATH\FILENAME.wim successfully captured and verified (just a simple check to see if this file is actually where it should be and exists), press "OK" to reboot or "CONTINUE" to return to Imagex HTA. this last little bit of simple fault checking would be a huge help for me, normally I make a habbit of quiting the HTA or openning a command prompt and checking for the file manually after a capture, but the one time I forgot as I was in a hurry, the capture had failed and I didn't notice until I had formatted the drive, installed Windows and then went to recover some data. (bugger)

ah, I missed the wimscript.ini post.. must be blind. I edited my last post with my other request whiile you were posting the above reply, hopefully you didn't miss my almost begging request for some basic fault checking when capturing. regards

good to hear news on this great project, The new features sound awesome especially the new partitioning system, if you do need an early adopter to test, I have several test machines I can play with. the only other features that would be nice having are the following 1. Fault Detection e.g. Recently I started a capture of a working system as a backup before a rebuild, the chkdsk completed successfully and the imagex started processing directories/files and I went off to lunch, happy and content, when I got back it was up to the "click OK to reboot....). which I did and then rebuilt the PC, what I forgot to do, which I normally make a point of, is checking to make sure the WIM is actually there. Unfortunately it wasn't. now I know this HTA just runs the imagex command so if an error message popups when unattended it is missed. is there a way for you to modify the hta to check that the wim file (that was specified when the capture is started, is actually at the specified location. (e.g. performing a dir/s filename.wim or something). this feature would be invaluable. 2. excludes system, e.g. picking a text file to set the files/folder to be excluded. or failing that, an easier way to set custom excludes. On a side note, Does anyone know if it is faster to boot windows pe from a usb key (USB 2.0) or a CD-ROM?

Hi, this project looks awesome, I had been using the Imagex HTA but have found several limitations and the project itself unfortunately seems to have ground to a halt on the MSFN board. I have read through all the posts and was wondering if someone could tell me the current status of the gui itself. Does it currently work in Vista PE, what features currently don't work, and is there a completion time frame?

the simple partitioning options has my vote. I would like the options.... 1. Leave disk as is (no changes at all) just just imagex 2. Wipe the drive, create one large partition and format (quick) 3. Wipe the drive, create one large partition and format (regular) 4. Custom (opens diskpart.txt with an example of 2 partitions) also I was wondering if you could add an option to choose the drive letter to apply the image to when clicking install. keep up the excellent work geezery.

the disk id i'm talking about is the id of the physical disk, e.g. run diskpart list disk, it gives you the id of each disk, the first disk is always 0, second disk is always 1. if you have a partition on a single hard drive, the first and second partition will still be id 0, as it is on the same physical disk

while you're adding the disk info, I'm not sure if it is even possible but could you also display the disk id, this would be very handy for identifying multiple physical disks, compared to partitions on the same disk.

just tested the new version geezery, it works great, except there is two \\ in the capture new image prompt. also any chance of displaying the current labels of the disk and the available/free disk space in the logical disk information?

this would be most appreciated. @ Pretender69 that first background is great, could you please post it.

Looks like another excellent revision Geezery, hope you don't mind but I think I will manually add the iframe version of the disk info system I showed you, your version only seems to show the c drive. and doesn't really help with knowing where my usb drive with my wims are. In regards to imagex info, and my diskpart list volume writing to the ram drive. there are no issues with it, as long as there is enough free memory, but that is something that always needs to watched with winpe. Looking forward to see what you are planning for the next versions capture update.

Hi again, Geezery. Well after working with several different plans of actions to get the current disk/volume status, so when running the imagex.hta, we know immediately what drives are where (e.g. if plugging in a removable drive, you will see its label and what lettter is assigned.) I've come up with this working example. Basically we modify the imagex.hta so the default wim location is not hard coded. it should pop up a window asking for the location when the imagex.hta has started. This may mean you need to move the imagex /info within the hta to run after this is entered. Basically what we can do, is set the imagex.hta to run the command I have placed in diskpart.cmd. this will output the volume list to a file called. disklist.txt in the x:\windows\system32 directory. Then in the actual html within the hta. we can add this iframe to display the formatted disklist.txt above the current buttons. (see Concept image) I have built this basic example for you, As the HTA is your baby I will let you integrate it. I integrated it on my copy with a static disklist.txt and not actually re-running the diskpart list volume in the hta and it displays nicely and makes capturing alot easier when faced with multiple partitions/disks. Hope this helps, worked on it for ages trying to get a working model. Also I have asked my mate to look at making the dynamic diskpart hta for the applying side of things. He said it will take a week or two. But he'll send me something as soon as possible. disklist.zip

Can you give me a detailed plan/outline, of what exactly you want the diskpart to do for the applying image system. What prompts do you want the user to get, etc. I know a VBscripter who has a lot of time on his hands at the moment and would be happy to make the coding for you in respect to this.

Geezery, in regards to the dialog in notepad, have a look at this page http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397401.aspx right at the bottom of the page is the "New Shell Functions under Vista", you will note a link to a downloadable help file that will give you the answers you need.

After much thought about getting rid of the diskpart.txt file, when using the apply function. I thought of another way we would possibly do this better. Instead of having the static diskpart.txt file, we could create the diskpart.txt file actually in the HTA dynamically line by line. somebody could even write in some logic paths into the code, e.g. how many partitions do you wish to create, what size do you want to make the partitions. (unfortunately I'm not a scripter/programmer at all, so I found this sample code, but I'm not sure if it will work, so how to implement it) The code could be set to delete the diskpart.txt everytime imagex.hta is refreshed. <% dim filesys, filetxt, getname, path Set filesys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set filetxt = filesys.CreateTextFile("x:\windows\system32\diskpart.txt", True) path = filesys.GetAbsolutePathName("x:\windows\system32\diskpart.txt") getname = filesys.GetFileName(path) filetxt.WriteLine("Your text goes here.") filetxt.Close If filesys.FileExists(path) Then Response.Write ("Your file, '" & getname & "', has been created.") End If %> EDIT Haha, I figured out the "diskpart list volume" formatting issue, I'll post my findings in the morning. Its been a long day.... I think my plan will be a pretty cool addition, and I've figured out most of the coding.

Does anyone know of a project that uses the standard WinPE 2.0 but lets you integrate the MassStorage and Networking driverpacks into it. (found here http://www.driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/ ) This would be handy for this particular project as it would make it easier to support multiple hardware platforms. It would be great to be able to boot a system with RAID and make a image of it without having to search for all the RAID drivers.

@Geezery I was thinking of the diskpart list volume popup coming out all jumbled. Is the jumbled mess a CSV (comma separated) or does it just completely lose its formatting entirely. If it is comma separated, I know of a way we might be able to sort it out so it is usable again quite easily. I think I have a working plan for a dynamic diskpart.txt, but I'm still looking into it. @powaking Forgive my ignorance, but when you talk about Vista PE, are you just talking about WinPE 2.0 (the version created with the latest WAIK that is a cut down/basic version of Windows Vista), or is this some new custom system, like Bart PE?

Hi again Geezery, I've been doing some research into p4ntb0y's idea of using the open dialog box for picking the wim location and etc. I found this brilliant hta reference from the scripting guy @ MS. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcen...s/fileopen.mspx hope this helps, by the way thanks for the quick reply regarding the imagex config file. I've made the changes which work great. I'll post my exclusions list for compression when I get the chance at work tomorrow. I think installing XP/Vista from this would be an excellent addition to this project, but we should probably get all the base functions down pat first. Good foundations and all that, not that it doesn't work well at the moment, but we can all work together with ideas, etc to make a good project a great one

Hi Geezery, finally had a chance to test your new version, looking good, I really like the new icons. Something to watch is that if you save the imagex.hta onto a network drive. and then move it to your tech pc to add to the windows pe, right click the HTA and click unblock before creating the winpe. For some reason having it on a network drive makes it a blocked file and then when you boot into winpe and run imagex.hta you will get "access denied". I was pulling my hair out for awhile. I noticed in your hta you have a space between diskpart and its extension (diskpart .txt) no problem for me as I changed the location, but it may cause others a hassel, other than that everything looks sweet. The chkdsk seems to work great, haven't had a single image fail today, the actual process of running chkdsk also happens so quickly even with a lot of files that it doesn't seem necessary to have an option not to run chkdsk, but that just my opinion. I like the current apply functionality. with the wim drop down list and everything. I still think their should be a prompt asking for the wim location as the program starts instead of manually adding the location of the wim file in the hta. Looking forward to the disk status functionality, at the moment I just make use of the cmd button and then run diskpart list volume, but if the info actually automatically pops up the info within the hta that would be excellent. I have tested the append functionality and it works great. Is there any chance of hard coding imagex to use wimscript.ini when capturing/appending so pernament exclusions can be set. I believe the syntax is imagex /capture /config=x:\windows\system32\wimscript.ini .... etc. In the wimscript.ini file you can just have the default exclusions, but it gives us a chance to add new exclusions. eg. exclude zip files from compression, etc.

sounds good, unfortunately its Queen's Birthday Weekend here in New Zealand, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to play with it. Looking forward to the next release, the things you've mentioned next sound awesome. I agree with p4ntb0y about having a separate capture icon though.

looking forward to tomorrows release, keep up the excellent work geezery.