Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Capturing an Image Using ImageX

After you've prepared your system with Sysprep, you can capture the system image using ImageX. You should have a bootable disc that includes the ImageX file. We covered the steps to do this in the section "Creating a Bootable WinPE Image" earlier.

ImageX Is Not a Backup Tool:
You may be tempted to use ImageX to capture images of systems and use them as a system backup. However, it's not intended to be used this way and will result in inconsistent results. Microsoft's Knowledge Base article KB 935467 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935467) discusses some of the negative consequences of doing this on Windows Vista and the same issues apply with Windows 7. Additionally, using ImageX to back up systems may violate your software license agreement for Windows 7.

You use the ImageX /capture switch to capture an image. There are several options that are repeated with the /capture switch:

image_path:
This is the path to the volume image to be captured. On a single-drive, singlepartition system, this will be C:. If you have a dual-boot system with Windows XP on the C: drive and Windows 7 on the D: drive, then image_path will be the D: drive to capture the Windows 7 image.

image_file:
This is the path to the new WIM file that will store the captured image. It includes the full path and image filename, and the folder specified in the path must exist or the capture will fail. You can name the file almost anything, but it must end with .wim.

image_name:
This is the unique name for the image being captured that will be stored in the WIM file and needs to be in quotes. Later, you'll be able to use this name or the index number to identify the image within the WIM file.

image_description: This optional text provides additional information on the image. If it's included, it should be in quotes.

flags switch: Use the flags switch to specify which edition you are capturing. While it isn't needed if you're deploying the image with ImageX, it is necessary when you use other tools to deploy the image. The format is /flags "Enterprise", /flags "Professional", or / flags "Ultimate".

The basic syntax with these options looks like this:

Imagex /Capture /flags "Enterprise" image_path image_file

"image_name" ["image_description"]

The drive you'll image is almost always the C: drive. However, in some instances where you have dual-boot systems, you may be imaging another drive. The folder where the image will be stored can be on any available system drive that has adequate space, including the drive that you're imaging.

As an example, the following command can be used to capture an image after booting into the WinPE:

Imagex /Capture /flags "Enterprise" c: D:\images\Win7.wim
"Mastering Windows 7"

This command will capture the C: drive and store the image in the Win7.wim file in the preexisting D:\Images folder with a name of Mastering Windows 7.

After you have prepared a Windows 7 system with Sysprep, you can use the following steps to capture an image of the system:

1. Boot using the WinPE media you created. But be careful: make sure that you boot to the WinPE media and not directly into the Windows 7 system. If the Welcome phase starts, you'll have to rerun Sysprep before you can capture the image.
   
   When the WinPE boots, it will run the wpeinit program and eventually you'll see a command prompt in the X:\Windows\System32 folder after wpeinit completes. In this case, X: is the actual drive and it represents a RAM disk created by the WinPE.
2. Enter the following two commands to create a folder named Images that will be used to store the image:

   C:
   Md Images:
   

3. Identify the drive letter of your bootable media. You can do this by entering the Dir command followed by a letter and a colon like this:

   Dir C:
   Dir D:
   Dir E:

   Continue doing this until you see a directory that includes the Image.exe command, and the Boot, EFI, and Sources folders.
4. Once you identify the drive holding the ImageX program, change to the drive by entering the letter and a colon. For example, on our system, the bootable media was the H: drive so we entered this command:

   H:

5. Enter the following ImageX command to capture the image of the C: drive, store it in the C:\images\win7.wim file, and name it Mastering Windows 7:

   Imagex /Capture c: C:\images\Win7.wim "Mastering Windows 7"

The display will show steady progress in the format of:

[ 50% ] Capturing progress: 7:40 mins remaining

When the process completes, you'll see a message indicating that the drive has been successfully imaged, with a total elapsed time. At this point, you'll have an image file created in the location you specified. You can reboot the system and complete the Welcome phase of Windows startup.

You can view the details of the image with the following command:

Imagex /info C:\images\Win7.wim