Setup.exe iscsi sequence break. 10 21h2

[Moriarty]

Short Version:

Is there a way to run setup with a mostly empty wim file against a volume that already contains a sysprep'd image?

Longer Version:

I need to run setup against a volume that already contains a sysprep'd installation.

This is a niche use case where the boot drivers cannot be injected into the sysprep'd image.

The first boot of the system is winpe. The winpe contains the network drivers needed for iscsi install.

Notes/Ideas.

This is for an iscsi project. There is no way to native boot the image as the hal and network boot drivers are written at the last part of the iscsi setup process.

This project is working but the iscsi hosting per client is terribly inefficient. The server hosting the iscsi images ends up with a unique block volume per client.

I would like each client to have it's own difference snapshot from the original sysprep'd volume. I can do that after I figure out how to sequence break the setup process.

[Tripredacus]

DISM supports offline installation. So you can boot a PE and attempt to inject a driver to another vol using the -IMAGE option. IIRC DISM will be able to install any driver you'd normally be able to install that way. For example, you wouldn't be able to add a stock .inf for a video driver. You may also need to use -FORCEUNSIGNED depending on the situation.

I use this method to add some drivers after deployment, mostly storage drivers. Drivers of other types may install but you can't know if Windows will actually use them or not until you boot the target.