[GUIDE] Creating WIM images of Windows XP for system deployment using

[Ender419]

Thank for the great post. It will help out tremendously.

[thewizard0]

thanks for great post ..

[scottsmythe1]

forgive my ignorance in this matter, as it is, i have created an unattended xpsp3 pro disk with nlite and used driverpacks from driverpacks.net. plus multiple other bits of useful stuff for my company.. now i would like a fresh challenge..

is is possible ... to still use this source to create a usable wim image capable of running on completely different hardware?? or does the process have to bedone on a permachine basis?

if it canbe done, can someone please enlighten me. or possible even provide link....

[cluberti]

forgive my ignorance in this matter, as it is, i have created an unattended xpsp3 pro disk with nlite and used driverpacks from driverpacks.net. plus multiple other bits of useful stuff for my company.. now i would like a fresh challenge..

is is possible ... to still use this source to create a usable wim image capable of running on completely different hardware?? or does the process have to bedone on a permachine basis?

if it canbe done, can someone please enlighten me. or possible even provide link....

Unfortunately, using a WIM file to image an XP machine still doesn't remove the limitations of the HAL. Using a WIM only gives you a file-based structure to store the base image, but it doesn't change the limitations XP has on the HAL. There are some other posts on the unattended XP section on ways to get XP to install on multiple hardware devices, but these are all independent of what imaging software you're using (ultimately, WIM won't help you achieve this).

[Tripredacus]

forgive my ignorance in this matter, as it is, i have created an unattended xpsp3 pro disk with nlite and used driverpacks from driverpacks.net. plus multiple other bits of useful stuff for my company.. now i would like a fresh challenge..

is is possible ... to still use this source to create a usable wim image capable of running on completely different hardware?? or does the process have to bedone on a permachine basis?

if it canbe done, can someone please enlighten me. or possible even provide link....

Unfortunately, using a WIM file to image an XP machine still doesn't remove the limitations of the HAL. Using a WIM only gives you a file-based structure to store the base image, but it doesn't change the limitations XP has on the HAL. There are some other posts on the unattended XP section on ways to get XP to install on multiple hardware devices, but these are all independent of what imaging software you're using (ultimately, WIM won't help you achieve this).

The best implementation of Hal trickery that I have seen so far (concerning WIMs) is TheReasonIFail's:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=115243

[natedogg2277]

Thanks for the guide, excellent!

[LokeshEngineer]

Thanks for link to the Guide abd forgive my ignorance can we create an unattended xpsp3 image with nlite and use driverpacks for different hardwares.

[IcemanND]

You can create your base system any way that you desire and works for you. The guide only deals with capturing an image of your installed system and the how to deploy it back to another system.

[mayurgharat]

Thanks A LOT Dude........

Your guide helpd me a LOT.

[SeriasBlack]

I have downloaded you pdf, and studied it profusely. I can make a bootable winpe and know how to capture my vista installation (vista installed on a computer with updates, adobe reader, 7zip etc) to a wim file. However, I am beating my brains out trying to figure how to take a dvd, copy the files to it and stick it in a duplicate computer (same motherboard, same hard drive) and get it to automatically load the vista wim file. I know how manually type the command and load but not automatically.

Please, if you could, give me some step by step instructions to make a DVD using the vista already configured on a computer and automate the process. I have used ghost2003 in the past, and just added commands to the autoexec bat file to make the loading of the image file automatic but imagex has shown me no love.

SeriasB

Edited September 28, 2009 by SeriasBlack

[IcemanND]

With the image mounted edit c:\winpe_x86\mount\windows\system32\startnet.cmd and add your own commands to the end of the file to automate functions at startup.

[goldenarmi]

cool Guide it helped me a-lot but the only problem is that the business i work has decide not to use the XP role out.

[IcemanND]

cool Guide it helped me a-lot but the only problem is that the business i work has decide not to use the XP role out.

You can use it with Vista also. Actually there are more options to go along with Vista like offline patching.

Win7 uses some different commands for some of it.

[DaveWI]

I'm stumped, I followed everything, and it all worked fine it looked like. My WIM image was set up like I told you Iceman in the PM's.

I attempted to deploy via DVD, I followed the diskpart commands, it was successful, and after imagex was done it said it was successful in applying the image to C:

I can cd to C: and dir shows the root files are all there.

When I remove the DVD and reboot I get the message: "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility."

In the BIOS the drive is recognized as primary, and first boot device. This is on a Dell Dimension 1100 (and it is the system I used to create my WIM image so I know all the drivers are there... this is my test box).

Any ideas???

Thank you.

[Tripredacus]

It sounds like your files are there but it just can't boot. There is a command you can use from the PE, bootsect I think? I've never had to use it myself.