Hi,

I've been using imagex for a while to capture/deploy XP and Vista images but can't get it to work with Win7. With Win7 the capture process appears to start but then fails seconds later.

My method.

Boot into Barts PE

Map a drive and browse to a network share

Launch a batch file on that share which *should* capture the image

Here's the command the script runs:

IMAGEX.exe /capture c: win7xw6600.wim "win7xw6600"

With XP and Vista systems the image process launches and it begins a to scan files but with Win7 systems it launches and then fails. See attached screen shot.

Thank You!

brian

Note: I'm running the version of Imagex that came with the Vista WAIK. Is there a difference between it and the Win7 version? Perhaps that is the problem?

please use the ImageX version from Win7 WAIK

I would agree - imagex that ships with Win7 is a bit different than the version that ships with Vista's WAIK, and I've never tried capturing a Win7 image with a Vista imagex.exe. It's worked in the reverse, but with the wimgapi changes from Vista to Win7 I'm not sure Vista's imagex is capable of imaging a Win7 drive.

I will give the Win7 ImageX a try. Thanks for the response and any other suggestions from other readers please fire away!

brian

Hi,

So I determined that the problem was not the ImageX version. In fact, the image process

was completing successfully.

Remember I said that the image process started and then immediately finishes. Notice in the

screenshot it says that the image was successful. Turns out that the "c" drive WAS imaging

successfully. However, the "c" drive (when you boot into Barts) is the 100mb system tool

partition that Windows 7 creates by default when you install it. The "d" drive (in Barts)

is the main Windows partition (C:\Windows when you are booted into into Windows).

My default script (in this case: IMAGEX.exe /capture c: win7xw6600.wim "win7xw6600")

captures the C: drive which is usually the main system partition of a windows box.

So what do I do here? Do I need to capture individual images for c: and d:,

repartition/format/activate the drives with diskpart, then apply the images separately?

This sounds way more complicated than it should be. What's the deal with this system

partition? I can't find any Microsoft documentation about how to deal with it in the image capture/apply process with ImageX.

Recommendations????

Thanks!

I hadn't researched it so much, but this makes sense. You need Win7 WAIK to do it. Its not only BartPE that acts this way. Also WinPE for Vista SP1.

i am no expert in this by any means but i was able to use vista imagex and successfully capture an image from my win7 drive.

win7 creates a hidden partition that i believe is the reason for the mess up.

So what do I do here? Do I need to capture individual images for c: and d:,

repartition/format/activate the drives with diskpart, then apply the images separately?

This sounds way more complicated than it should be. What's the deal with this system

partition? I can't find any Microsoft documentation about how to deal with it in the image capture/apply process with ImageX.

I would also appreciate if anyone could offer advice specifically with regards to the above question.

try this site: http://blog.brianleejackson.com/tag/windows-7

That site doesn't really mention how people are handling the 100meg service partition that win7 sets up.

I'm still not very clear on what it even does, I've heard it a built in bootable winpe partition, or that it has something to do with efi booting. Since imagex will only do partitions, it seems like somehow this one needs to be captured and put back down, but i'm not to clear on how the partition should be setup.

Use DiskPart to list the partitions and give the small system partition Windows 7 creates a letter (example S)

DISKPART> list partition

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1 Primary 300 MB 1024 KB

Partition 2 Primary 200 GB 301 MB

DISKPART> select partition=1

DISKPART> assign letter=S

Then, when you do the ImageX do both partitions

imagex /capture c:\ c:\my-windows-partition.wim "My Windows partition"

imagex /capture s:\ c:\my-system-partition.wim "My system partition"