Upgrading system in situ

[JustinH]

Hi

I want to be able to replace my entire XPe image in the field with
minimal user intervention. If I boot up off a separate partition (into
XPP) can I then simply copy a complete set of files over the original
boot partition using XCOPY, or do i have to create a bootable iso/sdi
image and use sdi2hd in order to transfer it to my hard drive. The
former would be preferable since my image, with all installed apps, is
just over 1Gb and is too big for single sdi drive, which starts to make
things very complicated. Any suggestions are welcome.

Justin

 

[JC-Arrow OCS]

yes, you can transfer from a XPPro to the partition, only drawback there, is
you require a XP Pro License for the device... this can get spendy... DVD
works for SDI as well. Make sure you set your Boot.ini correctly


I would also recommend using Robocopy over XCOPY, as robocopy will try
again, if it can't pick up a file. Robocopy is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en
(Server 2003 Resource kit)

hth,


--
John Coyne
Windows XP Embedded Black Belt
Windows CE Black Belt
Arrow Electronics, OCS division
When replying directly to this message remove the NOSPAM_ from the address

 

[JustinH]

Thanks for that. I have downloaded robocopy and will add it to my
toolkit - along with some of the other tools which look interesting.
By XPP I had meant XP Preinstallation, which has limited capability but
does not need a license and should be adequate to the job of doing the
copy. I don't like the idea of changing the boot.ini, since it does
make the system vulnerable for a while, but at least it will
immediately be replaced by the updated version.
.... (thinking...) perhaps the XPP partition should be the 'active'
partition and it's boot.ini will redirect the boot process to the XPe
partition, then a damaged boot.ini will cause a reload of the operating
system, which can also replace the XPP boot.ini as part of the process
automatically correcting any corruptions.
Justin