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2 Posts
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95520
February 23rd, 2016 11:00
Imaging without creating boot drive
For whatever reason, my VM will not let me passthrough a usb drive. I am not terribly concerned, but if possible I would like to skip that step.
Is it possible for me to simply just partition a drive, and dump the wim to it and follow the steps one would on any wim backup?
Also, if the previous question is a "yes", then what method would be desired for injecting drivers? My presumption would be a simple dism /add-driver or something related.
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Gary Babcock
15 Posts
0
February 26th, 2016 12:00
There are a few methods to boot into the ImageAssist Environment if your VM doesn't support USB. You can launch the USB Drive Creator tool with /iso and it will create an ISO file that is the same as a USB Key and you can boot your VM that way.
As for adding Drivers to the ImageAssist Environment please see the following:
en.community.dell.com/.../19637349
I am a little unclear about your issue with the Driver Package injection. The ImageAssist Restore tool will auto inject drivers for any Driver Package that it finds in the "Dell_Driver_CABS_Local" folder . (Soon to be renamed to "Dell_Driver_Packs_Local".) Otherwise you can manually point the tool to look in a network share, or other local location. There shouldn't be a need to manually inject drivers, but if you have further questions on that please let me know.
Lastly, if in your Dell_Tools folder you have a file called "after_restore.cmd" this file will be called as the last thing the Restore Tool does before it does a reboot or shutdown, based on your selection. This would allow you to have additional customization that is automated if you so require it.
Thanks,
Gary Babcock
Software Development Senior Engineer
Dell | Configuration Services
tkoscielniak
52 Posts
0
February 25th, 2016 08:00
Hello, it sounds like you just cannot create a usb restore key while in a VM. If that is the case, I suggest installing the Tool set to a physical system and then run the "usb creator" under the individual tool links. This way you can get the full benefits of the tool. Installing the wim manually will not give you the driver injection process the usb key offers.
m.balmed
2 Posts
0
February 25th, 2016 17:00
I did manage to create the USB drive, as well as resolve the issues with passing through USB to my VM. One of those rare instances a bios revision actually fixes something for me.
The primary reason is because my team manages reimaging through portable boot media. I already have my own PE boot media, with an inventory of images on the ready in the event of needing to reimage. While it seems very lowbrow to an SCCM setup, it is incredibly fast and efficient.
For the dell images, I can restore imagedirect images pretty easily, dump in the driver wim/cab and reboot through scripting. I can also inject any variables into the registry, dump in a runonce with the latest encryption programs and antivirus. Very automated, and very tidy; for all intents and purposes, every restore was like I used the DVD media. I could take it one step further and follow the process until the sysprep ran and interrupted the reboot, captured it and I had an image for that specific model/formfactor. Then I wouldn't have with the messy boot configuration data settings required for the ximage setup.
I know I was operating outside of the realm of intended use, which was why I never really asked for help there. For non-dell devices, I had an image built in a VM and I would just sysprep and capture. Then when I restored, I could copy the drivers back and inject them through dism. Occasionally I had an odd duck and I would have to script a packaged driver install.
Again though, it was all automated... and fast.
Now, I am expected to use a pretty interface that does what I did with scripting but I can't inject all the things that are mine. It looks like it just takes the contents of the cab file and dumps it to a directory (sorry I am not looking at the PC right now) and injects them into the OS. Then the OS picks them up on the startup and it restores everything as expected.
What it looks like I will have to do, is restore through the imageassist method and inject the cab for that family and then re-capture it... on every model/family we could possibly have. Works great for the CFI, but a major stinker for me. It didn't really answer my question, but I know what I need to do now.