How to create a Windows PE disk.

Windows PE is a pre-execution environment for the Windows platform. Anybody who has used the Vista/2008 recovery option has used Windows PE. The instructions below will guide you through creating a windows PE disk. It is command line driven.

In class, we talked about using Windows PE and Imagex.exe to reimage your clients. This will allow you to restore a client to the same state that it was in prior to release to the user. When you create you WinPE image, do not forget to add the Imagex.exe command from the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). Imagex is what allows you to capture and apply images.

The process for rebuilding the client is:

1) Offload the client data using User State Migration Tool (USMT) to an external drive.

2) Boot the client in Windows PE.

3) Format the hard drive.

4) Apply the image (imagex /apply ImageSource ImageNumber Imagedetination)

a. Ex imagex /apply e:\ClientImages\Client013.wim 1 c:

5) Run updates.

6) Restore the user data with USMT

7) Rejoin to the domain if needed.

8) Verify the restoration is successful.

9) (Optional) Boot into Windows PE and create a new image. If update process took a considerable amount of time, consider creating a new image to reduce the wait the next time around.

Your organizations policy needs to support this process. You will be only restore the computer to a state that allows the user to do their job. If the user had any personal software installed, it will not be there after the re-imaging process.

Create a Windows PE disk/drive

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766195(ws.10).aspx (Hard disk)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749311.aspx (CD-ROM)

User State Migration Tool

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=799ab28c-691b-4b36-b7ad-6c604be4c595

Windows Automated Installation Kit (Where you get imageX from)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&DisplayLng=en

Comments

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