Wraith Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 (edited) Has anybody attempted to use the WIM file management stuff from the WAIK (SMS has it too, I've been told), and used it in order to "bundle" up the OS's?I know the drivers and apps for mounting WIM files work under XP, so I'm guessing that the drivers will work under WinPE.Perhaps someone could write a tool, generating a different WIM file for each version of windows, with a frontend that handles disk formatting and whatnot...I'm guessing that someone is going to be me... I'll be working on my thesis for the next month, but I'll tackle it if nobody else has done so.Anybody have any other ideas? Edited October 10, 2005 by Wraith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getwired Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Has anybody attempted to use the WIM file management stuff from the WAIK (SMS has it too, I've been told), and used it in order to "bundle" up the OS's?I know the drivers and apps for mounting WIM files work under XP, so I'm guessing that the drivers will work under WinPE.Perhaps someone could write a tool, generating a different WIM file for each version of windows, with a frontend that handles disk formatting and whatnot...I'm guessing that someone is going to be me... I'll be working on my thesis for the next month, but I'll tackle it if nobody else has done so.Anybody have any other ideas?What do you mean by "bundle"? Create multi-image WIM file with more than one OS in it? Sure, it's been done before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 Quite obviously it's been done before, I was asking more to the point of whether someone had tried using it off a CD under WinPE to install an OS.Nothing more, nothing less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 27, 2005 Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 (edited) Okay, well I've been doing a bit of research on this matter... completely bypassing textmode setup does indeed seem possible, if you create the WIM directly after finishing textmode.If the WIM is created before GUI setup starts, the whole thing is compressed to less than 400MB, and the WIM can be applied in just under 4 minutes. Which in my case is quite a bit faster than textmode.I'm thinking that one could format and whatnot from WinPE, apply the WIM, reboot directly into GUI setup.I'll be writing a full frontend for the whole installation once I can get the whole process tested and downpat.At the moment I think there's a problem with boot records and whatnot.I've posted some initial findings here:http://www.voidfx.com/FX/Random:WIM_Installationand I'll be updating them during the process.If you want to test it out for yourself, let me know if you find out anything new. Edited October 27, 2005 by Wraith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getwired Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 Why not just use a Sysprep image? WIM was designed to deploy actual Sysprep images - and that way you don't even have to wait for GUIMode to complete... Yes, I've done that - it works fine for 2000, XP, 2003... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 27, 2005 Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 Because I was under the impression that by using a sysprep'ed image you are unable to install it on a machine with a different HAL.Although, having said that, I suppose it's not terribly difficult to put two different images in, one for uniproc, one for multiproc.I guess I'll have a fiddle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getwired Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 That is true, until LH, you cannot cross HAL's. But more often than not, if you have much control over your hardware, you can constrain it for limited HALs. Note also that if you have true uniproc (not singleproc), the HAL is interchangeable with a multiproc HAL if both are ACPI or both are APIC.But yes - since WIM has file single instancing, you can add in a second XP image (or a third, fourth, etc) and it will only grow by any new files you add, and the registry hives (which will differ). Be sure you delete the hiberfil and pagefile too, if you go the full sysprep route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 27, 2005 Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 (edited) Okay, well sysprep works fine... just need to figure out how to insert the boot record / MBR, and it should be fine. fixboot/fixmbr on the recovery console fix them up, and it actually boots, but I can't seem to find anything that does them from within WinPE...Anybody know of any?EDIT:Never mind. Found a possible one. Testing it now. Edited October 27, 2005 by Wraith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getwired Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 If you partition using Diskpart and format using the command-line format tool, your disk will have a proper NT compatible boot sector and MBR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 27, 2005 Author Share Posted October 27, 2005 Unless there's something i've missed, they don't do MBR.Feel free to correct me though, I'd prefer to be using apps that are already existing on the windows distribution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getwired Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 If you use diskpart and do a clean, followed by creating a partition, an MBR will be created. A boot sector will be placed automatically by format - also set the disk as active. There is another post on the board with a script for creating and formatting a partition. If you do those steps, it will work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilemke Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 (edited) Very interesting VoidFX.. This is somewhat what I have been looking to do for some while.. For a while I was going to consider ghosting a partition right after the text mode portion of setup to accomplish this. But bootsector/mbr would still have been a problem for me on a brand new HD.. EDIT:Never mind. Found a possible one. Testing it now.Currious... Was mbrfix the magic bullet that finished the job off?For some time I tried cheating by using ranish partition manger or some other program to alter the MBR after applying a ghost image...Anyway, I am reallllllly excited about this since I have wanted to skip the text mode porion of setup for sooooooo long now.. And, still be able to use different hal types with one image, it would be so cool.The possibilites if this could be made to work.. Edited October 29, 2005 by bilemke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 mbrfix did fix it - the only "problem" now is the lack of a boot.ini.Windows still boots, just there's an error for 2 seconds at the start.As long as the partition is marked as active, and the MBR is correct, it should work fine.I never tested the diskpart + clean scenario, as getwired said, but this way seems to work.I've posted my "findings" on my site:http://www.voidfx.com/FX/Random:WIM_Installation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilemke Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 (edited) mbrfix did fix it - the only "problem" now is the lack of a boot.ini.Windows still boots, just there's an error for 2 seconds at the start.As long as the partition is marked as active, and the MBR is correct, it should work fine.I never tested the diskpart + clean scenario, as getwired said, but this way seems to work.I've posted my "findings" on my site:http://www.voidfx.com/FX/Random:WIM_InstallationYeah... noticed the findings on your site.. Just checking to be sure as your findings kind of through me for a loop.. What sort of error are you getting regarding boot.ini? Non existant... Or just invalid? Doesnt it get copied to the drive along with the rest of the wim image?BTW, Wraith, sorry for referring to you as VoidFX.. You avatar stands out quite a bit when I look at your posts. Edited October 29, 2005 by bilemke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wraith Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 (edited) What sort of error are you getting regarding boot.ini? Non existant... Or just invalid? Doesnt it get copied to the drive along with the rest of the wim image?BTW, Wraith, sorry for referring to you as VoidFX.. You avatar stands out quite a bit when I look at your posts.I've got the boot.ini as an excluded file for WIM generation. So it, along with hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, "System Volume Information" are not included when building the WIM. I copy/pasted from the WAIK docs, so if you've got them lying around, you'll find the wimscript.ini listed there.In a bit over a week I'll start writing an app that handles all of this. I've got an idea in my mind of how it's going to look, hopefully it turns out that way. Think integrated diskpart gui + multiple WIM image selection etc. etc.Kinda like XPlode, but installing the OS instead of programs. And don't worry about the name. It's my company. Doesn't worry me... Edited October 29, 2005 by Wraith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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