-
Title
Creating a Single Partition Golden Image for Legacy Enabled BIOS -
Description
When capturing and deploying images to systems, KACE recommends as best practice to have a Single Partition Golden Image. -
Cause
Capture and Deploy of Multiple Partition Images can be difficult when dealing with various hardware options. Simplifying the process by having a Single Partition Image is considered a best practice and allows for easily deploying the image to most hardware.
This KB article assumes imaging of a Windows 8.1 OS. Adjustments for Windows 7 or 10 OS will be noted at the end of the article. This best practice method also does not include recovery partitions or other partitions often included in the base OEM setup the device may have had when shipped. This procedure removes all partitions supplied by the OEM on a device. If the recovery and other partitions are required, adjustments will need to be made in the partition structure for initial setup as well as Pre-Installation and Mid-Level tasks setting up the partition structure and boot files to accommodate for the extra partitions. Information about these adjustments can be found in KB article 113970.
With any partition structure, always remember that the captured partition sizes and drive letters, must be defined by using pre-installation tasks to set up partitions and drive letters that match. Also, if the system you are capturing has multiple drives, but not all are captured, this can prevent the OS from booting, as boot information is often located on the additional drives. To avoid this, best practice is to create a single partition for the OS as defined in this KB.
-
Resolution
Preparing your System for Image Capture
Pre-Requisites
- KBE created with ADK for Windows 8.1 and KBE Driver Pack 5
- Windows 8.1 Volume License Source Media uploaded to K2000 via K2000 Media Manager
Installing OS and Customizing Base ImageScripted Installation
It is highly recommended to install the base OS via a K2000 Scripted Installation, using Volume License Media. Capturing and deploying OEM Source Media and Images is a violation of Microsoft Licensing (KB Article 135252 for more details).
This Scripted Installation needs to have the built-in Create Single Partition and Format C as NTFS tasks as pre-installation tasks to setup and format the correct partitions for the OS. For more information about a new Scripted Installation, please see the K2000 Administrator Guide or KB article 150549.Manual OS Installation
Alternatively, a manual install the OS on the device can be done. Please use the following DISKPART script to properly format the drive prior to OS installation.
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
assign
exitAfter the base OS is installed, install applications, updates and other desired configuration changes to the system.Sysprep Process
At this point the image is almost ready for capture. If the system is already configured with the desired applications and configuration settings, the Sysprep Creator Wizard can be run to prepare the system for capture.
The link to the latest version of the K2000 Sysprep Creator Wizard can be found under the “Tools” tab of the K2000 Deployment Appliance.
1. Download and install this application, typically on a technician workstation, not the Base OS system. Launch the Sysprep Creator Wizard, choose the desired operating system, and select Create Unattend and Executor then click Next. Fill out the fields in each of the 4 tabs as needed.
2. Complete the Sysprep Creator Wizard and click the Create button. Choose the location where to save the unattend.xml. Copy the unattend.xml and sysprep_executor.exe to the machine for sysprep.
3. Run the sysprep_executor.exe file, select the Shutdown checkbox, and specify the location of the unattend.xml file copied. Select the checkbox to Delete unattend.xml from image. Click Start Sysprep.
Note: Due to Windows permissions, if the unattend.xml file is located at the root of the “System Drive”, sysprep_executor.exe will not be able to cleanup/delete it.
Additionally, the unattend cleanup option will only remove sysprep_executor.exe as well as the unattend.xml file where “Sysprep Executor” was run. Please note that any unattend.xml that is created and manually copied to C:\Windows\Panther will remain.Capturing the Image
The system should be shut down at this point. Configure the system to boot to the KBE, either through USB or PXE. Once the device is booted, the KBE boot sequence will initiate. Upon successful completion the K2000 Boot Environment menu will appear.Note: If the above instructions have been followed, the selections should be identical. If the drive was not cleared of all partitions before manually installing Windows and configuring it for image capture, please re-install the operating system and ensure that all existing partitions are deleted before proceeding with the install.
1. Choose Imaging > Capture Image of This Machine from the KBE menu.
2. Enter a Name for the captured image.
3. Select Drive C.
4. Select the radio button for Windows Imaging Format (fast compression).
5. Optional: Check the box for Force continue on errors.
6. Optional: Check the box for Include debug output in log. (This typically slows down the capture process, so it is only recommended for troubleshooting purposes.)
7. Press the Start Capture button and the image will now capture and upload to the K2000 Deployment Appliance.Preparing the image for deployment
1. Navigate to the image under Deployments > System Images.
2. Click on the name of the image you captured in the previous step.
3. Drag the built-in Create Single Partition task to the left column under Pre-Installation Tasks.
4. Drag the built-in Format C as NTFS task to the left column under Pre-Installation Tasks.
5. Drag the built-in Install Vista/2008/7/8/10/2012 MBR task to the left column under Pre-Installation Tasks.
6. Other needed tasks may be added at this stage so long as they do not conflict with the partitioning done by the Create, Format and MBR tasks.
7. Select "Use Driver Feed(only with Sysprep'd images)".
8. Save the Image.Note - when using the Driver Feed Option, verify that specific model drivers are downloaded into the feed, or for non-Dell systems, manually installed into the driver feed folder structure
Deploying the Image
Follow the instructions below to deploy the image.
1. Boot to a KBE.
2. Choose Imaging > Deploy Image to This Machine from the KBE menu.
3. Choose the image from the drop down menu.
4. Optional: Check the box for Restart Automatically after deployment.
5. Select Deploy Image. The image will now deploy.
Additional Notes -
Both Windows 7 and Windows 10 imaging would follow a similar procedure, but for Windows 10, the KBE should use ADK for Windows 10 and KBE Driver Pack 10. The K2000 should be at version 3.7.120251 and after upgrading to this version, Media Manager should be downloaded and reinstalled to update it for Windows 10 Support.