Capturing and Deploying Multiple Partitions for Windows 7 and Later (4306577)

This article covers how to capture and deploy a Windows 7 (or later) image with the system partition intact. Note - Kace Best Practices recommends using a Single Partition Golden Image with Legacy Based BIOS and minimal partitions for UEFI systems.

Creating a Single Partition Golden Image for Legacy Enabled BIOS (KB187971)

UEFI Image Process (KB186950)

There are a few things you should know about Windows first.

When you install Windows 7 or later from DVD on a clean drive with no format or partition information, Windows automatically installs a system partition and marks the volume as "System Reserved". This partition is not visible to the user in Explorer but is visible in Disk Manager and from within KBE.

Below is a visual example of what you drive letters you might see in Windows and KBE for the same system:

If, on the other hand, the hard drive already has a single partition before installation then this system partition is not created.

The below instructions assume that the Windows image is configured, includes the system partition, is prepared using sysprep if desired, and is ready for capture.