[DGA]

Has anybody managed to modify, capture then apply (deploy) a vista .wim image to a clean machine?

[fizban2]

Yes,
Both XP SP2 and Vista 5342, works well on both, Ximage capture will work on XP or vista machines, to edit a WIM files you will have to mount it in a Vista machine and the mounting feature of the latest WAIK does not work with XP. you can mount a image but not acess it

[McStarfighter]

Is there absolutly no chance to use WIM with XP? I hope it can run in BartPE....

[fizban2]

Xp works perfectly fine with the WIM image, our standard image with be in WIM format soon enough. the ability to just mount and adjust the image without having to recapture the entire image is a godsend.

[DGA]

I mounted and edited a Vista image and it applys fine (via WinPE) but the machine does not boot...

[McStarfighter]

Thanks for the answer. So I can kick this option for reduce my needed memory on BartPE away...

[fizban2]

DGA,
did you get any errors when you tried applying the WIM to you client machine?

McStarfigther,
Yes you could, but when vista RTMs in November they will be releaseing the WAIK and Pe 2.0 to the public instead of making it a purchasable item. might take over for bart at that point

[Daemonforce]

*subscribed*

I've been interested in repackaging operating systems like XP and 2003 in WIM form. I want to know if anyone has found a method of doing this with no problems.

[fizban2]

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,

[DGA]

I applied a WIM image from WinPE and the image applies successfully, but the machines does not boot because the NTLDR is missing..

[fizban2]

what kind of image are you using? how was the image built? was the image sysprep'd? give a little more info on what was done with the image.

[DGA]

fizban2,

I installed Vista 5342 added the apps I needed, syspreped, booted to WINPE, captured the image with ximage, formatted the drive then applied the image. The machine does not boot and cannot find NTLDR..

[fizban2]

let me rebuild my image tonight and see if i can create the error that you are getting, i'll leave a note here tommorow on it

[barnld]

I'm experiencing this same issue with Build 5384 - it says that NTLDR is missing after I apply the .WIM image. I'm curious if anyone has come up with a solution for this problem?

[barnld]

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.

[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]

barnld, on Jun 15 2006, 09:16 AM, said:

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]

fizban2, on Apr 13 2006, 03:42 PM, said:

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]

fizban2, on Jun 29 2006, 10:16 PM, said:

@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!!