Building a Common Image - Developing a common software image for the HP dc7900, Elite 8000 and 6000 Pro desktop models

compiled HTML help files on IMAGEX command-line options. The following

example shows how to

 Boot to the reference PC

 Capture the image with IMAGEX

 Save the image on a server

1. Obtain a USB flash drive, or CD with Windows 7 WinPE version (WinPE 3.0)

on it, and boot your reference PC.

2. Map a drive to the server you will be saving the image to.

3. Now use Imagex to capture an image of the PC and save it to the server.

Imagex.exe /capture /check c: z:\CommonImage.wim “commonImage”

 /capture – tells IMAGEX it will be capturing an image

 /check – tells IMAGEX to check the integrity of the image file

 C: - is the drive being imaged

 Z:\CommonImage.wim – is the mapped drive on the server and

image file name you are creating on the server

 “commonImage” – is a descriptive name for the image within the WIM

Now that you have captured and created a common image file and saved it

on a server, it can be used to image other PCs within a designated family.

Applying an IMAGEX image file is very similar to capturing one.

4. Use the WinPE based USB flash drive or CD and boot up the target PC

5. Map a drive to the server where the common image file is stored:

6. Since IMAGEX does not partition or format a drive when applying an image,

you need to prepare the hard-drive by partitioning and formatting it. If this had

not been done, you can use the Microsoft DISKPART utility to create the

partition and run FORMAT from the command prompt to format it.

7. Now use IMAGEX to apply an image to the PC

Imagex.exe /apply z:\CommonImage.wim “commonImage” C:\

 Z:\CommonImage.wim – is the mapped server location and image

file name being applied

 “commonImage” – is the descriptive name of the image you want to

apply

 C:\ - is the destination root directory of the applied image

Once the image is successfully applied, you can type, at the WINPE command

prompt, WPEUTIL Reboot or WPEUTIL shutdown to reboot or shut down the PC.

Example SYSPREP.xml (

unattend.xml

) Answer file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core"

processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral"

versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">