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using imagex over existing OS


iwannabfishn

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I know that imagex is a file based image and one advantage is that you do not have to wipe out existing files to install the OS. My question is, what is the proper way to apply an imagex image over an existing OS. I played with this when Vista came out and the only way I could get a bootable OS was to delete the windows directory prior to applying the image. This, basically, worked but I want to find out if there is a better or more proper way to apply an image over an existing OS. Thanks for any information!

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do you want to keep other operating system settings and programs? will it be a repair kind of apply or install kind of apply? when you apply image registry hives will stay. thats why you need to delete windows directory. you can try to keep software hive and delete other hives and apply. it will start from new setup. to apply an image to over other means only add missing files it will not change current files. should be like that. It is hardly you to get a working system after apply. only you have a missing file maybe.

Edited by Kullenen_Ask
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do you want to keep other operating system settings and programs? will it be a repair kind of apply or install kind of apply? when you apply image registry hives will stay. thats why you need to delete windows directory. you can try to keep software hive and delete other hives and apply. it will start from new setup. to apply an image to over other means only add missing files it will not change current files. should be like that. It is hardly you to get a working system after apply. only you have a missing file maybe.

I am not interested in the operating system settings, only the users data. I want to be able to apply an image over an existing installation without overwriting the user data. Deleting the windows directory is not a big deal to me. I just want to make sure there is not a more proper way. Thanks for the info.

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i maybe wrong too. i am not sure now. for user data if user have flower.jpg in its documents folder there is no flower.jpg in setup so it will not delete it. but if user installed one sofware it will reset all hives and also softwares settings and registration data and sofware will not be installed but its files will stay you will need to reinstall. i didnt test only my ideas.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm pretty sure that an /apply will overwrite existing files if they are there. I may be wrong there, but you can easily test this as WIM is just like a big complicated ZIP file.

Yup you are right Tripredacus. I've used /apply many times to reinstall a computer and retain the user data. It wipes out the registry tho so any programs require reinstallation that are not part of the image.

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I'm pretty sure that an /apply will overwrite existing files if they are there. I may be wrong there, but you can easily test this as WIM is just like a big complicated ZIP file.

Yup you are right Tripredacus. I've used /apply many times to reinstall a computer and retain the user data. It wipes out the registry tho so any programs require reinstallation that are not part of the image.

Right, because the registry is actually a physical file, so it will just replace those. However it IS possible to not capture the registry into your image. This may not be something you'd want to do, but you could add the config folder into the capture exception list.

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