Windows 7 / Getting Started

Preparing Discover Images

For client computers that do not support PXE booting, you can create boot disks using a CD or DVD, a hard disk, or a UFD. You can create these disks by using the Windows Deployment Services administration tools or the Windows PE administration tools from the Windows AIK. The process begins by creating a Windows PE boot image using the Windows Deployment Services console or Wdsutil. After this image is created, a bootable disk is made using the Oscdimg command from the Windows AIK.

To create a discover image using the management console, perform the following steps:

  1. In the Windows Deployment Services management console, click Boot Images. Boot Images is under Servers, server_name, where server_name is the name of the Windows Deployment Services server.
  2. Right-click a boot image that you previously added to Windows Deployment Services to use as a discover image and then click Create Discover Boot Image.
  3. On the Metadata And Location page, type a name and description for the discover image. Then choose the location in which to create the image and the Windows Deployment Services server to respond to it. Click Next.
  4. Click Finish.

To create a discover image using Wdsutil, perform the following steps:

  1. Run the following command using elevated credentials.

    Wdsutil /new-discoverimage /image:boot_image/architecture:architecture
    /destinationimage /filepath:discover_image


    Boot_image is the name of the boot image you want to use to create the discover image (not the file name), and discover_image is the file path and file name of the new Windows PE boot image. Architecture is either x86 or x64.

To create a bootable DVD using the discover image, perform the following steps:

  1. To create a Windows PE build environment, open a command prompt and run the following commands.

    Md c:\Winpe\Boot
    Md c:\Winpe\Sources


  2. Copy the discover image created in the previous procedures to the \Sources folder of the build environment with the following command.

    Copy d:\sources\boot.wim c:\Winpe\Sources

  3. Copy boot files from the Windows AIK with the following command, where architecture is the processor architecture for the computer being used (either x86 or x64).

    Xcopy c:\Program Files\Windows AIK\tools\architecture\boot c:\WinPE\boot

  4. Run the following command in the folder C:\Program files\Windows AIK\tools \architecture, where architecture is x86 or x64.

    Oscdimg -n -bc:\winpe\boot\etfsboot.com c:\winpe c:\winpe.iso

  5. Burn the .iso file Winpe.iso to a DVD by using a third-party DVD mastering program.
[Previous] [Contents] [Next]