Some useful Windows commands
List all volumes and the drive letters
> diskpart
list volumes
exit
Atach a remote folder as a remote drive labeled as
x:
> net use x: \\servername\folder
To detach the remote drive
> net use x: /d
To list all remote driver that are currently attached
> net use
When you run imagex, make sure you specify the drive letter of the disk volume that you want to copy to a
wim file.
Ways to deploy and image ( a WIM file)
Option 1
Manually (see pages 93-94 in textbook). The
reference image is on a shared folder on another
machine and the target machine is booted into
WinPE.
1. format and partition the hard disk using
diskpart command
2. use imagex with /apply option to unpack
the wim file to the hard disk
3. make the disk bootable. Use the bcdboot
command
Option 2
Use MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit) to assist
in setting up the shared folder and the WinPE boot
image, plus answer files and scripts to automate
the install process. Similar to option 1 except MDT
does the command for you.
Option 3
(LTI) Light Touch Install
Use WDS (Windows Deployment Service) that is a
service on Server 2008. This can use multicasting
to install an image on multiple clients with one
network download.
Option 4
(ZTI) zero touch install
Uses SCCM (System Center Configuration
Manager)
Option 5
Other vendor products: GHOST, Tivoli, etc.
Answer Files
Specify the answer file using option on setup
command when you install Windows 7
Filename = autoattend.xml
On root directory of removeable media(USB or
external hard drive or CD/DVD) or in
Win7 install directory
setup /unattend autoattend.xml
setup
Sometimes the answer file must be named
Unattend.xml
The answer file is cached for use by later phases of
install such as sysprep, audit mode, oobe mode.
Copied to %WINDIR%\panther
In case you need to find it and make changes.
Accessing files between the guest machine and host machines
USB or external drive
Attach drive to guest machine
VM Menu -> Devices …
Use it.
Detach it.
Read it from host machine.
Shared files
These reside in the folder on the host machine and
are shared with guest as a pseudo remote drive.
1. Create a folder on host machine.
2. Define shared folder on guest machine.
User permanent option.
3. On guest machine enter cmd
net use x: \\vboxsvr\foldername
Useful Microsoft web sites
Springboard
Technet
Knowledge data base
www.microsoft.com/springboard
technet.microsoft.com
support.microsoft.com
Articles that have the filename
/kb/xxxxxx
Example:
support.microsoft.com/kb/928202