Remotely re-image with XPe that has Win 2000 professional installed

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg
  • Start date Start date
G

Greg

Hi,

I want to remotely push a new image to a machine that has Windows 2000
Professional on it and change it to XPe, also need to repartition the drive
itself.

Any one has done that or even it is possible to do that without some one
phyically be there?

Any idea would be greately appreiciated.

Thanks!
 
Hi Greg,

You can make you remote boot XPe that will do the repartitioning, formatting
and remote deployment process.
But someone will have to enable remote boot in BIOS of your target machine
if it is not enabled.

You should read more about remote boot.

Regards,
Slobodan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have an opinion on the effectiveness of Microsoft Embedded newsgroups? Tell
Microsoft!
https://www.windowsembeddedeval.com/community/newsgroups
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Greg,

Beside the remote boot option you have, you can consider replacing the entire image by xcopy new XPe image on to the remote machine
drive and changing boot.ini to switch to the new image.
Assumptions:
- you have a remote access to the 2K box with enough rights to copy files on to and reboot the device
- your XPe image windows directories (windows/Doc&Settings, Program Files) are set different from the ones you've got on 2K
- you have got enough free disk space on 2K machine to fit both image (ruing 2K and new XPe)

I've tested scenario a while ago and it worked perfect. There are some points for optimization (less disk space, fast copying over
network, less RAM usage while switching, etc.) but you may try the steps above to prove the concept.
 
I need to partition the hard drive and replace the 2k with Xpe.
So when I boot with remote boot, then how do I execute partition of the
existing hard drive, then xcopy over?
Thanks!
KM said:
Greg,

Beside the remote boot option you have, you can consider replacing the
Click to expand...
entire image by xcopy new XPe image on to the remote machine
drive and changing boot.ini to switch to the new image.
Assumptions:
- you have a remote access to the 2K box with enough rights to copy
Click to expand...
files on to and reboot the device
- your XPe image windows directories (windows/Doc&Settings, Program
Click to expand...
Files) are set different from the ones you've got on 2K
- you have got enough free disk space on 2K machine to fit both image (ruing 2K and new XPe)

I've tested scenario a while ago and it worked perfect. There are some
Click to expand...
points for optimization (less disk space, fast copying over
 
Greg,

Any reason why do you need to re-partition the drive?
Talking about the remote boot solution Slobodan mentioned, you may want to
look at diskpart.exe MS tool that will help you to partition the drive in a
batch mode.
Keep in mind that with such command line tools and remote access to a server
share from the target device, you can create any scenerio of re-imaging the
device (e.g., using a small temporary XPe image on a separate created
partition to do all the work).

KM
 
Greg,

I had a similar need but with no server at the client machine
locations, I used a DOS partition on each hard drive to support the
migration. All the files required were writen to the DOS partition --
DOS command files, utilities and a GHOST image of the XP Embeded OS
(no need for Ghost if you prefer to Copy and let FBA run on reboot).
Booting to the DOS partition initiated install by ghosting over the
W2K partition (Format and Copy if you like). Once the XP Embedded
image is in place, boot to the Windows partition and you are back in
business.

Search the Google XP Embedded group for "DOS" for further details.

HTH, Roy
 
Back
Top