Question for MVPe about recovery cd's

[Jason]

Is there a way to get a WINPE cd into a WINPE DVD that will still boot into
the WINPe environment?

The reason I ask, is to create a recovery CD you need your sdi file, but my
sdi file is bigger then a cd so I'll need a boot DVD.

The instructions on MSDN for "Creating a embedded recovery CD using Windows
PE and SDI" suggest that I create a folder called working, and copy the
following files to it.... Recovery.sdi, sdiaut.dll, sdimgr.wsf,
win51,win51ip win51ip.sp2,winbom.ini and the i386.

Then I'm to use oscdimg.exe and etfsboot.com to create an iso. Can I burn
that to a DVD and will it boot? Do I even need oscdimg.exe and
etfsboot.com? Can I just create a ISO of the files listed above using Nero
and burn that to a DVD.

I think it would be best to create a recovery DVD, that also included the
contents of the winpe disk

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Jason,

There is a switch for oscdimg that you can use to ignore media size
limitations. The switch is -m. So considering that oscdimg and etfsboot.com
are in your C:\ drive and the target folder containing the WinPE files and
your SDI is C:\Test you could do:

oscdimg -n -h -m -bc:\etfsboot.com c:\test c:\dvd.iso

That should get you c:\dvd.iso with all your stuff in it and el-torito
bootable. Then use Nero (or whatever) to burn that ISO to a DVD and try it
out. I haven't done this personally but it should be fine so try it out.

HTH,
Brad

 

[Jason]

Brad

Thanks for that tip, it works like a champ. Just one more question though.
Once it boots into the WinPE enviroment, I'm supposed to use the cmd
sdimgr.wsf to write the sdi file to the hard disk. However when I run a
*.wsf cmd I get the "Windows cannot open this file" dialog box. Is there a
way to have wsf scripts associated with wscript.exe so the end user wont ask
how to do that?

I know there is this cmd buildoptionalcomponents.vbs /S:d:\sourcefiles but
what are the sourcefile it is looking for i386 folder?

Thanks

 

[Jason]

Brad

Thanks for that tip, it works like a champ. Just one more question
though. Once it boots into the WinPE enviroment, I'm supposed to use the
cmd sdimgr.wsf to write the sdi file to the hard disk. However when I
run a *.wsf cmd I get the "Windows cannot open this file" dialog box. Is
there a way to have wsf scripts associated with wscript.exe so the end
user wont ask how to do that?

I know there is this cmd buildoptionalcomponents.vbs /S:d:\sourcefiles but
what are the sourcefile it is looking for i386 folder?

Thanks

 

[Brad Combs]

Glad to hear it Jason, I'll add that to my long list of things to try out.


Brad

 

[Jason]

Now that I've got a bootup DVD of WINPE and SDI manager works, I need to use
diskpart. When I created my image I used a small hd, of about 2.5 gig
(smallest I could find). When I use the Sdimgr.wsf to write the image to
the HD, it writes only 2.5 gig out of a possible 80 gig. How do I use
diskpart to format and take up the whole size of the drive? Can I do that
before I write the image to the HD or do I have to do it after? If so how
and were do I put the diskpart scriptfile so this happens automatically?

Thanks

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Jason,

How was the SDI that you are attempting to write to the disk created? Was it
made using SDI Loader, or using sdimgr /readpart (or sdimgr /readdisk)?

Brad

 

[Jason]

Brad

I went the route of using the SDI Loader Tool in the XP embedded suite and
created 2 gig drive. Anything else you need to know, just let me know.
I've got everything working. I use the sdimgr.wsf to write the blob to the
HD then I use diskpart to extend the partition to the full size of the HD
otherwise the partition size would be at 2.5 gig. If I create a partition on
a empty disk of the full HD size, then write the blob to that disk, I'll
still end up with a 2.5 gig partition and have to use the extend cmd.

Jason

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Jason,

Another way that you can accomplish your goal is to create a partition using
diskpart and write out a partition blob from an sdi created with sdimgr. So
the steps would be:

1. Run your target through FBA. Now take that disk out of the system and put
it in your development machine (or just copy the files to a disk already in
your development machine...or just copy the files to a SDI disk loaded up on
your deveolopment machine )

2. Run sdimgr to create a new SDI (Ex sdimgr /new c:\mysdi.sdi)

3. Read the partition that has the files from step 1 into the newly created
SDI (Ex sdimgr c:\mysdi.sdi /readpart:x: where x is the partition that has
the files from step 1)

4. Use c:\mysdi.sdi to load the new clean partition on the device using
sdimgr (Ex sdimgr x:\mysdi.sdi /writepart:c: where x is the drive letter
containing the SDI (winpe CD, network drive, etc.. ) and c: is the newly
created partition made by diskpart.

You can script diskpart by feeding it a script file with the /s switch (Ex
diskpart /s x:\diskscript.txt). In diskscript.txt you can write out line by
line what you want diskpart to do:
Select Disk 0
Clean
Create Partition Primary
Assign Letter C
Active
Exit
Etc, etc, etc

HTH,
Brad

 

[Jason]

Brad,

Thanks for the info on diskpart.

What would your recommdations be for syspreping, i.e. generating a new sid?
Are you able to use the Winbomini file? If so, how do I do that?
Currently, I've got my image on the dvd and in the startnet.cmd file I've
got
factory -winpe I have not edited the winbom.ini file yet
oc.bat.

After oc.bat runs, I expand the sdi file onto the hd. After the sdi image
is done,I'm ready to reboot into XPe, but I was thinking if I can get the
winbom.ini file to run sysprep, I would put the factory -winpe as the last
cmd in the startnet.cmd.

Is that a process that will work, or is there a better way to generate
newsids?

Thanks for your help

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Jason,

The "XP Embedded Approved"' way to manage SID generation is to use the
"System Cloning Tool" component. You can read more about it here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xeconCloning.asp

So basically you add the "System Cloning Tool" component to your image and
set any of the advanced properties to the desired settings. You can locate
these settings by highlighting the component in Target Designer and clicking
"Advanced" in the right hand pane. You will see the "Advanced Component
Properties" and a slew of editable cmi properties for this component. The
two that you are most interested in are:

cmiResealPhase (set this to 0 for manual)
cmiGenerateComputerName (make sure it's set to 1 (the default))

By setting the reseal phase to 0 or manual you will have to run fbreseal
yourself after you have completed any post FBA steps and are ready to create
the "gold" sdi file that you will deploy. So when your ready run fbreseal
from a command prompt. After the reseal is finished you will see a dialog
telling you to click OK to reboot. This is the point where you want to catch
the system and create your sdi. By doing this every system that you load
will create a new computer name (and SID) on it's first boot.

Let us know if you have more questions on this process.

HTH,
Brad

 

[Jason]

Hi Brad

Ok, here what I did. I added the system cloning tool to my image. After
the FBA ran, I ran fbreseal.exe When I saw the popup message asking me to
restart, I shutdown the pc, and then made my sdi file, created an iso, burnt
it toWINPE DVD. Once I booted I ran diskpart /s clean.txt where clean.txt
has the cmd's s
Select disk 0
clean
create partition primary

Then I had sdimgr write the blob to the disk. After that has finished, and
I restarted I got a DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
error

Do you think this has anything to do with fbreseal? I also copied the run
time image to a different HD, and let FBA run, then I ran fbreseal on it,
let the HD restart and it booted into the blue setup screen that you are
suppose to see, so I know it works fine that way. Am I doing something
wrong?

What about putting the fbreseal cmd in the runonce reg key. Wouldn't that
accomplish the same thing?

Thanks for your help.
Jason

 

[Brad Combs]

Hi Jason,

Sorry I was on vacation......

Change your script to....
Select Disk 0
Clean
Create Partition Primary
Active
Exit

That should mark the partition active and allow it to boot.

HTH,
Brad