Image Automatically without using USB or network boot

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  • J

    Is it possible to image automatically without using a USB or PXE?

    For example select a group (for example a lab) and push a new image to them. It can avoid manual work of going to individual devices to boot from a USB to re-image.

    1. Copy the boot file to a folder in C:\ drive
      2. Boot into windows PE using ramdisk

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/563319/setup-bcd-to-boot-pe-from-ram.html

    J 1 Reply 0
  • J

    If somebody is looking at a similar solution, you can use PowerShell to do this. This is not my script, but it works perfectly.

    <#

.Synopsis
    This script will create a ramdisk containing the boot.wim which the computer will boot to on restart. This script will work only on Windows Imaging environment.

.Prerequisites
    - From the Windows PE boot USB, copy boot.wim in the Sources folder to C:\Sources on the target
    - From the Windows PE boot USB, copy the Boot folder to C:\ on the target

.Notes
    Because "bcdedit /bootsequence" is used, the computer should boot back into Windows when restarted if imaging is cancelled.

#>

# Checks that Disk 0 is the boot disk.
$DISKZERO = Get-Disk 0
If ($DISKZERO.IsBoot -ne $true) {
Write-Host "Disk 0 is not the boot disk. Exiting..."
Exit 999
}
else {
Write-Host "Disk 0 is the boot disk. Proceeding..."
}

# Create {ramdiskoptions} and configure
bcdedit -create "{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set "{ramdiskoptions}" ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
bcdedit /set "{ramdiskoptions}" ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi

# Add LiteTouch boot device to OSLOADER
$Output = bcdedit -create /d "LiteTouch MDT" /application OSLOADER

# Obtain LiteTouch boot device GUID
$LTGUID = $Output | %{ $_.split(' ')[2] }

# Configure LiteTouch to ramdisk boot
bcdedit /set $LTGUID device "ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set $LTGUID osdevice "ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}"
bcdedit /set $LTGUID systemroot \windows
bcdedit /set $LTGUID detecthal yes
bcdedit /set $LTGUID winpe yes

# Adjust for UEFI vs Legacy BIOS types
if ($env:firmware_type -eq 'UEFI'){
Write-Host "UEFI boot confirmed."
bcdedit /set $LTGUID path \windows\system32\boot\winload.efi
}
Else {
Write-Host "Legacy boot confirmed."
bcdedit /set $LTGUID path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
}

# Force LiteTouch ramdisk on next boot and restart
bcdedit /bootsequence $LTGUID
shutdown /r /f /t 0
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