Another Lost Soul’s Blog

How to deploy a large MDT Custom image WIM using a USB Key February 28, 2009

I am currently in the midst of a Vista Deployment project.

I am using MDT 2008 to build and capture a ‘Thick’ core image which will be used to deploy to a variety of PCs both Dell and HP.

Because the size of the custom WIM file extends past the single layer DVD Limit of 4.7GB, I was challenged to come up with an alternative method to deploy to these PCs.

I am using the PXE deployment method to deploy the image over the network to local PCs which removes the size limitation. The problem is how to deploy to remote clients. The solution is to use a large 8GB or larger USB key. But how? Read on……

Tools used:

* HP USB Disk Storage Format tool

* A Vista with SP1 DVD or ISO

* A Vista PC to make it all happen

* Winrar to extract ISO

The first most important point is when adding the Custom WIM into the deployment workbench, when asked whether to copy setup files, choose the copy Vista and Server 2008 files from a specified path and point it to your Vista DVD. This will mean when the Media deployment point is updated, the necessary files will be there. Otherwise the image deployment will fail. This adds about 300mb to the final size of the generated LiteTouchx86.iso.

Another important point to keep size down is only to include the single Task sequence which is going to be used to deploy the custom image.

When you update your Media deployment point in the MDT Deployment Workbench, after a while you will be left with a nice big ISO file called LiteTouchx86.iso. This is the file containing the contents we need to extract and use. Normally we would burn this straight to DVD.

So first of all, run the HP format tool and with your USB key already plugged in, choose it from the list, and format it using NTFS. Again this is important or else you won’t be able to copy the WIM file over because it is bigger than 4GB and FAT32 only supports a 4GB file limit. Also make sure you format the Correct Drive! Choose quick format to make things happen faster also.

Next you need to mark the partition active using DISKPART.

Open a command prompt run diskpart and type the following:

list volume

select volume number – use the number which corresponds to your usb key

active

exit

Then using Winrar extract the ISO contents to the formatted USB Key. Alternatively mount the ISO in Daemon Tools and copy the contents to the USB key.

When this is complete, put your Vista DVD in the drive or mount the ISO in Daemon Tools.

Run a command prompt with Administrator privileges.

Type the following (in this case the DVD is D: and the USB Key is E:)

D:

cd boot

bootsect /nt60 E:

You should get a message saying ‘Bootcode was successfully updated on all the targeted volumes’.

The USB key is good to go.

Next on the PC you are going to deploy, check in the BIOS that the Hard Disk is set higher in the boot order than the USB Device. This is needed so that when the reboot happens midway, the USB key will not boot again as there is no ‘press any key to boot’ timeout with a USB key.

To get things up and running, plug in your USB Key and boot the PC. Press the key needed to bring up the Boot Menu and select USB Device. You should get a loading files message which means WINPE is loading. You should then get the usual Task Sequence windows and your custom image should deploy from the USB key.