WIM image deployment

[fizban2]

did this machine previously have vista on it? how did you capture your image? through a bartpe? was the machine sysprepped before you created your wim? i have not been able to recreate the issue with the NTLDR error you are getting, here are my steps.

i build my XP image, installing all fixes and programs that i need, sysprep the machine to clear out the SID and then reboot into bartPE, capture the installation to a WIM file, (i connect to a network share and run ImageX from there) after that i can deploy XP to any number of machine and have not had an issue

[gangsterhenk]

To give more information, I'm following the instructions in the "Vista Step By Step Deployment Guide" on Microsoft's Vista TechNet site. I've done everything to the letter and everything has worked, except for when I apply the .WIM image file to the C: using imagex and then reboot the computer, I get NTLDR is missing error.

Any more information needed, please let me know.

Same problem here, I booted from Win PE, connect to my network share

holding the install.wim file (build 5456 internal), then i used

the command: imagex /apply install.wim 4 c: (4 = ultimate version)

image succesfully copied to c:

after reboot: ntldr is missing

what am i doing wrong ???

[JuMz]

lol ok,

one more time... yes XP and 2003 both can be built into a WIM image, what i did for XP (bare with me as i wasn't the only one who worked on this in our org) we built our standard machine image, loaded all needed drivers and software packages that would be needed by defualt (office, adobe, pactches, java etc) sysprep of the machine and then a capture of the image via a PE environment means that you had a prepped image that can be deployed via a network source or a DVD/CD depending on the size of your image,

Thanks for your post but I have a question for you...using this new technique of WIM images...is it still only machine specific, i.e. can only be used on that particular hardware set? I thought I read that with WIM images, you can deploy that on any machine (hardware independent)...otherwise why would we use this method over say Ghosting?

[fizban2]

@gangsterhenk,

make sure you format the HD before you drop you Windows image on it, also NTLDR errors should not happen with vista as it no longers uses NTLDR,

@Jumz

as of right now you can dump a NON-hardware specific vista image with WIM, i am build a WIM that will work with XP now, but you will have work on a few things, getting all the drivers you need into the image, getting all the files you needed for single and multicore systems (different HAL layers), also getting any applicaitons that you need/want in the image install on your reference system, with this you can build a single image that can boot from a WIM that will work on any machine in your ogranization

[JuMz]

@Jumz

as of right now you can dump a NON-hardware specific vista image with WIM, i am build a WIM that will work with XP now, but you will have work on a few things, getting all the drivers you need into the image, getting all the files you needed for single and multicore systems (different HAL layers), also getting any applicaitons that you need/want in the image install on your reference system, with this you can build a single image that can boot from a WIM that will work on any machine in your ogranization

Well as long as it is possible to make a hardware independent WIM image of XP, then I am all for it! Thanks!!

[gangsterhenk]

fizban2 ... the question that keeps me going is if its possible to just use the factory .WIM file

that ships with the Vista build (install.wim located in the sources) or do i always need to install

Vista with setup and make an image afterwards ?

I installed Vista with the DVD and i noticed that for example bootmgr was now created in the root

of c:\ ... when only restoring the install.wim from the DVD that file isnt created for example.

I know that it's maybe simple minded to think that a factory .wim file would start my system, because

of lack of drivers etc. The Vista setup process isnt just restoring the .wim file i guess because

setup does a lot more .. maybe you can explain me a bit more about the difference between

the factory .wim file and self created .wim (captured) files.

[fizban2]

fizban2 ... the question that keeps me going is if its possible to just use the factory .WIM file

that ships with the Vista build (install.wim located in the sources) or do i always need to install

Vista with setup and make an image afterwards ?

I installed Vista with the DVD and i noticed that for example bootmgr was now created in the root

of c:\ ... when only restoring the install.wim from the DVD that file isnt created for example.

I know that it's maybe simple minded to think that a factory .wim file would start my system, because

of lack of drivers etc. The Vista setup process isnt just restoring the .wim file i guess because

setup does a lot more .. maybe you can explain me a bit more about the difference between

the factory .wim file and self created .wim (captured) files.

Technically MS says that you should be able to use the factory install.wim comes on the DVD to install vista, i have tried with several earlier builds and that did not work, i just finished dloading 5456 and am going to try it with that one, in earlier builds of vista there were alot of error checking done on the isntall and you couldn't just use the install.wim,

[mdolan]

Hi all,

If you are getting NTLDR errors after WIM deployment, it's usually because the disk had previously been used with NT4/W2K/XP. Vista uses a different bootloader, so you need to update the boot sector.

Grab a copy of bootsect.exe from Vista and use the command:

bootsect /nt60 c: (assuming that c: is the boot drive).

If you need to revert to the XP bootloader, bootsect /nt52 c:

I usually do the bootsect command before I do the ImageX /apply.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Mike

[Sco]

Hi all,

If you are getting NTLDR errors after WIM deployment, it's usually because the disk had previously been used with NT4/W2K/XP. Vista uses a different bootloader, so you need to update the boot sector.

Grab a copy of bootsect.exe from Vista and use the command:

bootsect /nt60 c: (assuming that c: is the boot drive).

If you need to revert to the XP bootloader, bootsect /nt52 c:

I usually do the bootsect command before I do the ImageX /apply.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Mike

This is the solution and it works.