WAIK!!! It is simply amazing!!! Some questions though

[mikesx4911]

Well I have been studying for my Microsoft 70-680 exam and decided I needed to get familiar with this WAIK I been using it the last couple days. I have made a answer file that is simply love in my eyes. My question is, is it possible to integrate my answer file into a windows image? For example with the WAIK software it seems you can only capture images which isn't going to help me much because the machines are not going to be similar at all. Also my last question I tried making a PE disk a couple of times and always get a error on boot of disc. 0xc000000f, I have tried making a image for x86 and 64 and it made no difference. Any suggestions?

 

[office politics]

try this ?

How To Image and Deploy Windows 7 a Complete Guide - Using sysprep and imagex

 

[WinOutreach4]

I found a thread here that seems to be for your exact same issue and it seems some of the documentation was incorrect. You have to add one more step… Copy your winpe image to the sources directory and rename it to boot.wim at the same time: xcopy c:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim c:\winpe_x86\iso\sources\boot.wim /y

The answer file question is much more complex. Normally, the answer file is put in place before you sysprep the machine in question, then capture the image. The different passes within your answer file will run during different parts of your installation. Here is an article to help understand sysprep: Sysprep Technical Reference. Using WSIM, you can mount and edit a .wim file, so what you ask is possible.

With Windows 7, the hardware does not have to be similar, since sysprep /generalize removes system specific and user specific settings.

I'm not sure if this tool is covered in your exam, but you should look at the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). WAIK is one of the toolsets that MDT uses, and simplifies image creation and deployments using task based operations. MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployments.

Hope this helps,
David
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

 

[mikesx4911]

Thanks guys, those set of instructions worked with no problem a tad different as well than the first set of instructions I used. Now I'm moving onto deploying over a network.

 

[mikesx4911]

I was successfully able to capture a image, is it possible to deploy this image (wim) over the network just by creating a share on another computer? Or do I need an actual server? I tried googling but the only thing I found was you had to have a server.

 

[WinOutreach4]

Yes, you can. This article will show you how. This article and more can be found on the Deliver and Deploy page of the Springboard Series on TechNet, where you can find a lot of information on Microsoft's deployment technologies.

Hope this helps,
David
Windows Outreach Team - IT Pro

 

[mikesx4911]

Am I on crack I'm not able to perform this step

Copy the image to a network location. You can do this because Windows PE provides network support. For example, at the command prompt, type

net use n: \\server\share\
md Images
copy C:\myimage.wim N:\Images

it keeps coming back that the user context is invalid and this is the same account I use to log into that machine so why would it not work?

 

[WinOutreach4]

net use n: \\server\share\

Did you add the user credentials to this command?

net use n: \\server\share\ /user:domain\user password

 

[mikesx4911]

I got it last night, I forgot to do the domain duhhh lol.

 

[mikesx4911]

I have another question everything has been working just gravey, I got to install a image using a ext hd and it worked great and was fast very pleased in myself. One thing that I would like to change in the autounattend though is the activate windows in the oobe, my question is what component goes into the category "oobesystem" in the image manager when creating a answer file? I'm a tad confused on that part.