Wednesday, May 16, 2012

How to Capture a Windows 7 Image using PXE and WDS


Setup Windows Deployment Services

  • On your server open “Server Manager”, right click Roles and select Add Role
  • Select WDS (You will need Active Directory, DNS and DHCP setup on your network), follow the install instructions and reboot.
  • Right click your new server instance and select Configure Server
  • Select where to save your images, this shouldn’t the same volume as Windows but can be.
  • If DHCP is on the same server check Don’t listen on port 67 If you want to use PXE enable this as well.
  • Select respond to all clients and check notify administrator. This will allow any PC to connect, but you will need to allow it on the server to install.
  • WDS will finish setting up.

Add Boot Images

When you boot a PC with PXE it will load a set of boot images from the server. These can boot WinPE, Capture an image and Install an Image from the server.
  • First copy BOOT.WIM from the media you are using, this can be WinPE, Windows 7, Vista or Server 2008 Install Media. (This is found in the SOURCES folder)
  • Right click and Add a boot image and search for your image.
  • Name it something relevent, the OS and CPU type are important. (This image is used for installing)
  • Right click this image and select Create Capture Boot Image
  • Input an Image name and select where you want to save the image.
  • Add this image the same way as the last.

PXE Boot

  • Boot your PC using PXE or LAN booting. You many need to authorize your machine.
  • Your PC will load the boot window and display your images.



Capure Image

You will need a WDS server with a Windows 7 capture boot image.

  • Boot your PC using PXE or LAN booting. You many need to authorize your machine.
  • Your PC will load the boot window; select the Capture image.
  • Select your volume ONLY sysprepped volumes will be shown.
  • Chose a local location to save the image, connect to your WDS server and select an image group to upload to
  • The process will now capture the image and upload it.

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