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01 how to image a windows system using a bootable win pe usb drive and imagex - rm-prepusb
1. 9/7/12 01 - Ho o image a Windo em ing a boo able WinPE USB d i e and ImageX - RMP epUSB
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• What can RMPrepUSB do? 01 - Ho o image a Windo em
• RMPrepUSB Quick Start Guide ing a boo able WinPE USB d i e and
• RMPrepUSB User Guide & FAQs
• RMPrepUSB FAQs ImageX
• Version History
• RMPartUSB FAQs
• RMPartUSB Commands
• Users Forum (reboot.pro) Unique hits
• Reported Bugs
• Licensing
Con ac Me (dona ion )
La e Si e Ne
Hot Tips - good value/performance Note: Imaging systems using ImageX is
USB Flash memory pens not recommended for fully configured
U ef l E e nal Link (and Windo systems which have special ACLs (e.g.
7/8 ISO ) file access rights) or reparse points - you
Do nload are expected to use ImageX on
Download sysprep'ed images only.
Latest Beta version & downloads
for the tutorials The following are the issues when you
T o ial , Ho To' and G ide
use the ImageX.exe tool as a backup
mechanism:
01 - Ho o image a Windo
em ing a boo able WinPE File extended attributes are lost.
USB d i e and ImageX
The ImageX.exe tool only applies
02 - How to create a USB drive that reparse points that are symbolic
will install one of many choices of
links or junctions.
Windows OS's (Vista/Win7/Server
Sparse files on the system are
2008/XP)
captured and applied. However,
03 - How to install Windows XP the sparse files are no longer
from a bootable USB drive
sparse after they have been
04 - How to boot from USB using applied.
free VMware VM under Windows Object IDs on files are lost in the
05 - CHROMIUMOS - a browser OS capture process or in the apply
on a USB Stick process.
06 - YouTube Video Tutorials
(Win7UBCDEeePC XP)
07 - All about 'Fake' USB flash
memory drives
08 - Make a bootable USB drive for
the NORTON SYMANTEC
RECOVERY DISK/TOOL
09 - How to make a bootable
BACKTRACK 4/5 (linux) USB drive
10 - Boot BITDEFENDER Rescue
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CD from USB as an ISO file
11 - Make a free bootable image
recovery USB flash drive using
FINNIX
12 - Reset a Windows User
password
13 - How to find Windows User
passwords using OPHCRACK 3.4
14 - Crack or clear your BIOS
password with PC CMOS
CLEANER (also uses Parted
Magic)
15 - How to emulate USB booting
using Qemu Manager
16 - How to boot to different WinPE
versions using a single boot.wim
that contains multiple images
17 - StartOS - a 'Windows-like'
version of linux on a stick
18 - ISO Files - Burn, Extract or
Mount an ISO file
19 - Create your own RMPrepUSB
package using Nullsoft Scriptable
Installer (NSI)
20 - Add MEMTEST86+ memory
test program to your grub4dos
menu.lst file
21 - GRUB4DOS TUTORIAL - How
to use grub4dos and make pretty
menus!
22 - How to boot PCLINUX (and
most other 'difficult' linux versions)
without using a 'flat-file' structure
23 - How to fix a 'corrupt' USB drive
that causes Windows or
RMPrepUSB to stop responding
24 - How to boot Ultimate Boot CD
for Windows (UBCD4WIN/XP) from
a USB drive (and even from an ISO
file) Con en
25 - Securely ERASE (wipe) your
hard disk of ALL data (before 1 How to image a Microsoft Windows
disposing of it) system using a bootable WinPE USB drive
26 - Send and sniff commands and ImageX
to/from your USB device (and see 1.1 Requirements
what your BIOS would see!)
1.2 Procedure
27 - Diagnose how your BIOS boots
1.2.1 1. Install WAIK and create a
USB drives
Windows PE folder
28 - Recover files and photos from
a corrupt SD card or any drive (free) 1.2.2 2. Make a bootable USB drive
29 - Boot Hirens Boot CD as an ISO 1.2.3 3. Boot the target system and take
file from a USB drive (versions 13 & an image
14 & 15) 1.2.4 4. Restoring an image
30 - How to install XP onto a Hard 1.2.5 5. Connecting to the network
Disk from an XP ISO on a bootable 1.2.6 6. Preparing images for
USB drive
duplication
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31 - Boot and install Windows 7 or 1.3 Editing the contents of a WIM file
Vista or Server 2008 (both 32 and
64 bit) from ISO files from a single
bootable USB install drive
How to image a Microsoft Windows system using a
32 - Create a USB drive with
bootable WinPE USB drive and ImageX
multiple Vista/Win7/Server2008
install ISO files in 3 simple steps!
ImageX allows you to take complete backup of a Microsoft Windows
33 - How to create bootable 1.44MB
and 2.88MB floppy disk images volume and save the image to a file. You can then restore any system
with it's original image in just a few minutes.
34 - The ZALMAN ZM VE200 SATA
hard disk caddy with
Requir ements
DVD/HDD/FDD emulation
35 - How to make a bootable
antivirus AVG RESCUE USB drive A Microsoft Windows system with a minimum of 3GB free disk space.
36 - Boot to Hiren's Boot CD from a A USB flash memory drive or USB hard disk drive (a minimum of 1GB is
USB drive (v13/v14/v15.1/15.1DLC) recommended).
37 - Create a DOS Bootable USB RMPrepUSB
drive (using grub4dos) suitable for The Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).
BIOS flashing A utility that can mount an ISO file (such as the freeware utility 'Virtual
38 - Create an iGel Universal CloneDrive').
Desktop Converter (UDC) installer
USB Flash pen
P r ocedur e
39 - How to repair your USB Flash
drive
40 - REDO, a Bare Metal Backup 1. Install WAIK and create a Windows PE folder
and Recovery solution
41 - Microsoft Standalone System
Sweeper (MSSS) ANTIVIRUS Beta
Tool
Using your personal Windows XP/Windows Vista /Windows 7 PC (not the target
42 - Make a mini Windows 7 system that you wish to image):
bootable USB pen (using
MAKE_PE3) 1. Download the Windows 7 WAIK ISO file (e.g. KB3AIK_EN.iso 1.7GB).
43 - Install Windows 8, Server You must agree to the Terms and Conditions.
2012, Win 7, 2K8 & Vista from 2. Download and install your ISO mount utility. (VirtualCloneDrive in this
multiple ISO files on the same example)
Flash drive
44 - USB Boot Kaspersky 2012 3. Double-click the WAIK.iso file. The WAIK Welcome window should
Rescue Disk (AV) from an ISO launch. If not, double-click StartCD.exe on the new drive letter in Explorer.
45 - How to PXE boot grub4dos or 4. Install the .Net Framework Setup from the WAIK menu.
WinPE (from a Windows 7 PC)
46 - Ubuntu 12.04/11.04/11.10 - 5. Install the MSXML 6 SP1 Setup from the WAIK menu.
boot from ISO
6. Install the Windows AIK Setup from the WAIK menu.
47 - How to install Windows
Vista/7/SVR2K8 onto a USB drive 7. Exit from the WAIK menu.
(or any partition)
8. Click on Start Menu, All Programs, Microsoft Windows AIK, Deployment
48 - Is your BIOS lying to you about Tools Command Prompt to open up a command prompt window.
it's RAM memory size?
49 - Control your Notebook/Media 9. Type cop .. 86image .e e c: and press Enter.
Centre PC from your main PC with
Synergy 10. Type COPYPE 86 c:pe86 and press Enter.
50 - Prepare a bootable USB drive 11.
using linux commands Type cop c:pe86 inpe. im c:pe86ISO o ce boo . im and
51 - How to edit or make your own press Enter.
Language.INI file for RMPrepUSB
12. Type cop c:image .e e c:pe86ISO and press Enter.
52 - Boot the Win8 Consumer
Preview edition as a VHD
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4. 9/7/12 01 - Ho o image a Windo em ing a boo able WinPE USB d i e and ImageX - RMP epUSB
53 - Windows 8 To Go (boot
Windows 8 from a USB drive!) 2. Make a bootable USB drive
54 - How to Fix Write-Protected
Read-Only Disks
55 - Boot Slax from a USB drive
56 - Forgotten password - no 1. Connect your USB drive to the USB port.
WARNING: All contents on the USB drive will be destroyed!
problem with Kon-Boot!
57 - Automatic grub4dos menu 2. Double-click on RMPrepUSB.exe.
scheme and hotkeys
3. Set the following options:
58 - Trinity Rescue Kit - boot from
SIZE = MAX (default)
USB VOLUME LABEL= WINPE (optional)
59 - Save or list all your existing BOOT OPTIONS = WinPEv2 [BOOTMGR]
passwords FILESYSTEM and OVERRIDES = FAT32 + HDD (Note: If you want to store
image files >2GB on the UFD use NTFS instead of FAT32)
60 - Add Plop to your grub4dos COPY FILES = Tick it
menu Copy Folder = Type C:pe86ISO
61 - Run the OCZ SSD Firmware
update ISO from a bootable USB 4. Click on Prepare Drive.
Flash drive
5. The USB drive should now contain:
62 - Chainload syslinux from bootmgr
grub4dos and vice versa imagex.exe
63 - Install XP and Win7 onto a sources (Check whether the folder contains boo . im)
boot
computer from one USB flash drive
EFI
64 - Boot Abstradrome HDD
Regenerator from an image on a 6. Now you can add any other files you wish to the USB drive.
USB drive
7. When finished, click the RMPrepUSB Eject button.
65 - Make a grub4dos bootable CD
or DVD
66 - WifiWay wireless security linux
OS from a grub4dos USB drive
3. Boot the target system and take an image
67 - Boot Fedora 16/17 from a USB
drive using grub4dos
68 - WEE (wee63) and
WEEsetup.exe - an alternative
bootloader The following actions are performed on the target system (the one that you want to
69 - Boot over the internet with iPXE take a backup of):
70 - FbInst and other popular USB 1. Connect the USB drive to the target computer's USB port.
utilities
71 - Grubutils - menuset, wenv, 2. Switch on the target computer and press the appropriate key to enter
the BIOS Setup menu. (eg F1, F2, DEL)
bios and other grub4dos 'helper'
utilities 3. Check whether the Legacy USB support is enabled, and configure the
72 - Easy2Boot - a grub4dos Boot Order so that the USB drive will boot first. Ensure that the BIOS USB-
multiboot drive for beginners that is ZIP mode setting is set to Fixed Disk and not Removable Disk (if available).
easy to maintain!
4. Save and Exit the BIOS menu. The target system should now boot to
73 - Try Porteus with persistence the Windows WinPE environment from the USB drive.
booting from an ISO using
Easy2Boot 5. To find the USB drive and hard disk drive letters - type No ePad,
74 - Boot Winternals ERD then click on File, Open and click on the Computer icon. You can now see
how your hard disk volumes are lettered in WinPE. Assume that your USB
Commander from ISO or flat file Flash drive has the letter F: and you wish to backup your C: drive in the
structure instructions below.
75 - Test your memory
(RAM/DIMMs) 6. Exit from Notepad.
76 - Quickly setup PXE booting to
7. At the command prompt, type F:image /c ap e c:
install any Windows OS!
f:m bac k p. im "m c ommen he e" /no pfi /c hec k
77 - Create a multiple partition, / e if and p e En e .
multi-boot USB Flash drive under
Windows 8. When this is completed, a backup of the C: drive is available in the
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78 - Run live XBMCbuntu from a mybackup.wim file.
multiboot USB drive
9. If, at a later date, you wish to take another backup, you can append
79 - Make an RM Connect CC3 this to the previous backup as follows: image /append c:
Multi-Station Build USB Flash drive f:m back p. im " econd back p" /check / e if /no pfi
80 - How to retrieve files from a No e: ImageX using single-instancing, so adding
computer without booting it to an subsequent similar images does not greatly increase the size of the .wim
file.
OS!
81 - Make your own automatic You can backup other volumes from the hard disk, by following the above procedure.
image restore partition
82 - Install XP to hard disk from 4. Restoring an image
ISOs using WinPE v3
83 - Download ImageX, BCDBoot
and other WAIK tools
U ef l A icle 1. Boot to WinPE from the USB drive
Advanced Format (4K sector) hard
2. Format the target drive volume first (otherwise the existing files will still
disks
remain). Eg Type fo ma C:
Fix USB 3.0 'This device can
perform faster' System Tray 3. Type image /appl f:m back p. im 1 c: /check / e if
message! No e: If you want to restore the second backup that you made, replace
the 1 with 2 in the above command.
Download a whole website and
view it offline using wget! If needed, you can use DISKPART to partition and format a blank hard disk first as
Getting started with the Raspberry follows.
Pi (RPi)
DISKPART / dpa .
Boot from CD/USB/Floppy to
access an NTFS partition where the file dpart.txt contains the lines:
Reboo .p o T o ial
LIS DISK
Si emap SEL DISK 0
CLEAN
CRE PAR PRI SIZE=100000 ALIGN=16065
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="MYDRIVE" quick
ASSIGN LETTER=J
ACTIVE
CRE PAR PRI ALIGN=16065
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="BACKUP" quick
ASSIGN LETTER=K
LIST VOL
SEL DISK 0
SEL PAR 1
LIST DISK
LIST PAR
DETAIL PAR
EXIT
In case of an XP image, type Boo ec /n 52 J: or you may see a 'bootmgr is missing'
error when you attempt to boot the XP target system. The drive letters assigned in the
diskpart script above are used to prevent conflicts with existing volume letters. When
the system reboots, the active partition (J: in this example) will become drive C: and
the other partition (K:) will be given the D: drive letter.
No e: The ALIGN=16065 text portion is needed only to boot a 'pre-setup stage' XP
image (i.e. an image that will run Setup.exe or Setup32.exe when it boots). You can
usually omit this portion of text for most Windows images.
Bootsect.exe can be found in the WAIK, under ToolsPEToolsx86.
Before you reboot the system, you can also make any small adjustments to the files on
the J: drive as you have direct access to these files (for instance, you could copy files
or folders to drive J: or K: or add a link to the Windows Startup folder so that a
program runs on first user log-in).
For instance, a simple prep.cmd script file to automatically install Windows XP image
onto a new hard drive in approx. 5 minutes from a bootable WinPE USB flash memory
pen drive would be as simple as:
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diskpart /s dpart.txt
imagex /apply mybackup.wim 1 J:
bootsect /nt52 J:
echo Finished! - Press a key to reboot
pause>nul
wpeutil reboot
If you have p oblem boo ing o Windo 7 or Vista, you may have problems with
the BCD. Boot to WinPE and use bcdedi /en m / to view the BCD settings. To fix
BCD boot issues, you can use the following procedure:
1. del C:bootbcd
2. bootrec /RebuildBcd
Now test it to see if that work ed - if not repeat step 1 and then sk ip to step 3
onwards...
3. bcdedit.exe /createstore c:bootbcd.temp
4. bcdedit.exe /store c:bootbcd.temp /create {bootmgr} /d "Windows Boot Manager"
5. bcdedit.exe /import c:bootbcd.temp
6. bcdedit.exe /set {bootmgr} dev ice partition=C:
7. bcdedit.exe /timeout 10
8. del c:bootbcd.temp
Now we hav e a clean, work ing bootloader. But we need to add a Vista/Win7 entry
to it:
9. bcdedit.exe /create /d "Windows Vista" /application osloader
use "Windows Vista2 or "Windows 7" as appropriate
bcdedit.exe should return a message with a GUID for the newly -created entry ,
something lik e this:
The entry {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008} was successfully
created.
You'll need to use the v alue that bcdedit.exe returned for y ou below, along with the
driv e letter for the driv e that Windows is installed to:
10. bcdedit.exe /set /set {default} dev ice partition=c:
11. bcdedit.exe /set {default} osdev ice partition=c:
12. bcdedit.exe /set {bootmgr} dev ice partition=c:
13. bcdedit.exe /set {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008} path
Windowssy stem32winload.exe
14. bcdedit.exe /set {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008} sy stemroot Windows
A nd, last of all, tell the Vista/Win7 bootloader to boot the new entry by default:
15. bcdedit.exe /display order {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008}
16. bcdedit.exe /default {c0dfc4fa-cb21-11dc-81bf-005056c00008}
Tip: Right-Click on the top-left command shell window icon and select Mark , then
highlight the GUID in returned in step 8 and press {Enter}. The use the same icon to
paste the GUID into the command line for step 9 and then use {UP-A RROW} to edit
the command line for the next commands.
5. Connecting to the network
WinPE can connect to a network. You can then save and restore images directly from
a network folder or your own computer. Check the example procedure given below:
In the example, we will connect to a shared folder on Fred's Windows XP office
computer named 'FredsPC'. The read/write shared folder that Fred has made on his
office PC has been named 'sharefld' and Fred is on the 'mydomain' network and has a
username of 'freddy' and a password of 'mypassword'.
1. Connect an Ethernet cable and boot to WinPE from the USB drive
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prepared earlier.
2. Type IPCONFIG /all and check whether you have the valid IP
address (not 192.168.1.1).
3. If valid IP addresses are not listed, your WinPE operating system does
not contain the correct drivers. To rectify this, copy the correct Windows 7
network driver files (INF/CAT/SYS etc) to your WinPE USB drive, e.g. to the
folder F:NETPE. Then on the target system, type d load
F:NETPE .inf (where xxxxxx.inf is the name of your driver inf
file). Note that all driver files should be present (including xxxxx.inf,
xxxxx.cat and xxxxx.sys). Wait for one minute and then type ipconfig
/all again. You can also try typing ne cfg - inpe to re-initialise the
network stack.
4. Type IPCONFIG and check whether you have the correct Default
Gateway and DNS Suffix listed.
5. To connect to a network share folder, type
NET USE N: F ed PC ha efld /U:m domainf edd press Enter,
and when prompted for the password type m pa o d.
6. You can now use the N: drive to keep your WIM image files and even
backup to the network or restore from the network.
6. Preparing images for duplication
If you want to use the Windows image on another computer, you must first prepare
the operating system for duplication before you image it. This is because the
computer name and Domain Security IDs are contained in the image. The normal way
to remove these identifying values is to use the Sysprep tool.
For XP systems, you must acquire the correct version of Sysprep.exe from
the XP installation CD - see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577 for
details and use the Reseal button. C:Sysprepsysprep.inf controls what
happens on first user boot.
For Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems, Sysprep.exe is already in the
operating system. C:WindowsSystem32PantherUnattendUnattend.xml
and C:WindowsSystem32OobeOobe.xml control what happens on first
user boot. Ensure you remove all other instances of unattend.xml
from all drives (including your USB drive if it is attached when you boot the
OS after sysprepping.)
Please research on the Internet for more information about Sysprep.
Tip: When you first boot to a new operating system, the first Windows Welcome
screen will be displayed (called the OOBE or Out-of-Box-Experience). If you
pressCTRL+SHIFT+F3 at this point, you will be asked if you want to go into Audit
Mode. In Audit Mode you can install software and generally prepare the OS for
duplication, without creating any user accounts. When you have finished configuring
the system, click on the reseal/OOBE button on the sysprep window to shutdown the
system (for Vista/Win7 choose OOBE+Generalize). You can then image it using
ImageX as above. After imaging, allow the system to boot to test out the image on
the hard disk. If it is not successful, restore the image and then use the CTRL-SHIFT-
F3 key combination to enter Audit Mode again and fix any issue.
Editing the contents of a WIM file
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Using the WAIK, you can mount the backup that you have made to a folder on your
office hard disk and then edit the files in that folder which directly edits the image. In
this way you can make small adjustments to the image contents (eg moving, deleting,
adding or editing files), without needing to boot the target system, make the changes
and then re-capture the image. This can be done as follows:
1. On the 'office' system, launch the WAIK command shell (right-click -
run as administrator) window using the Start Menu. Close all other cmd and
Explorer windows.
2. Type mkdi c:mo n to create an empty folder
3. Type di m /Mo n -Wim / imfile:C:m back p. im /inde :1
/Mo n di :C:mo n
4. You can now use Windows Explorer to edit the image which you will
find at C:Mount. Note: If using Windows XP, you are advised to hold down
the SHIFT key when deleting files or folders in the image.
5. When finished, commit the changes using the command: di m
/Unmo n -Wim /Mo n Di :C:mo n /commi
No e: If you do not want to keep the changes, use /di ca d instead
of /commi .
Read the WAIK .chm help files for more information.
Tip: I would recommend you always use the /check / e if switches with
ImageX. Some BIOSes have bugs which can cause wim file or restored file
corruption - you have been warned!
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