Saturday 15 March 2014

Step 4. Build & Capture reference image

Back to ConfigMgr main menu

Back to MDT Menu


Everything is now in place so let's carry out our Windows 7 build and capture.



Create a VM with a blank disk. Add the boot media ISO to the VM.


Start the VM.


Enter your keyboard layout and choose to "Run the Deployment Wizard". 


Enter your credentials. This account must have permissions to write to the share that you select later in this post.


Select your Build and Capture task sequence.


Accept the defaults.


Accept the defaults. 


Accept the defaults. 


Enter your required settings.


Enter your required local administrator password.


Choose to capture an image and enter a location and file name.Use the FQDN here. Remember that your reference computer will be in a workgroup at all times.

Also note that the account you chose earlier must have write access to this share.


Review the summary and click Begin.


The MDT Lite Touch Build commences.


OS is applied.




See progress (if you are installing Windows 8 you must switch to the desktop to see this).


Windows PE is applied.


The Capture phase commences. Sysprep is executed.


The image is being captured.


Image capture has completed. You can now turn off the VM.


Image (WIM) is now available to import into ConfigMgr for your deployments.

Our image has been created. However it is just a vanilla Windows 7 image with no applications or customisations. How do we add these? We will do this in the final Step. We will add a task to pause the task sequence between the build and capture phases. This will allow us to apply any changes we need.  

21 comments:

  1. What are you using to build your VM? Just VMWare Player?

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    Replies
    1. Depending on the customer site I have used the following:

      HyperV
      VMWare ESX
      VMWare Player
      Oracle Virtualbox (this is the one I've used here)

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  2. So how are you creating the VM with the blank disk ?

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  3. Thanks Gerry your guide has been very helpful to me. I am getting an error in this Task Sequence just as it does the PE phase of the TS. All other settings and configurations have been as per the blog. Is this error to do with my VMWare settings?

    Failure (5609): Flase Boot Drive was not found.
    Litetouch deployment failed, Return Code --2147467259 0x80004005
    Failed to save environment to (8007005)

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    Replies
    1. The error is a bit generic and not of much use. It certainly could be something to do with your environment. Try using Oracle Virtualbox instead.

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    2. Hi Gerry, thank you for great guides. I am using this one, and I did follow it letter by letter. While Applying the image it gives me an error:
      Failure ( 5624 ): 1392: Run DISM: /Apply-image /ImageFile:"\\FQDN\DeploymentShare$\Operating Systems\Windows 10 Enterprise x64\Sources\install.wim" /index:1 /ApplyDir:C Litetouch deployment failed, Return Code = -2147467259 0x80004005
      I checked and I have full access to the Deplpyment share where install.wim image is and the file can't be corrupted (I downloaded and imported operating system three times so far dealing with the same error message every time). I am using Oracle VirtualBox (latest version) and I enabled PAE/NX. I tried using both x86 LitetouchPE as well as x64 for my x64 bit Windows 10 image. I can't pass the error message from the beginning of my message. Please help if you have any idea what else I can try to fix it.
      Thank you!

      Daniel

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  4. Hi Gerry
    Great guide. I've been trying to create a reference image using Oracle Virtualbox. I want a Win7 64 bit build. It all seems to go correctly until I reach the Restart computer step in the Capture Image section of the Task Sequence - right after Apply Windows PE (BCD). The machine reboots, it says loading files for a few seconds and then crashes with
    Your PC needs to restart
    Please hold down the power button
    Error code 0x000000C4 - then it shows some parameters.

    I tried injecting the PE drivers into the ISO but that didn't work (it caused partition errors), If deleted and recreated the VM, recreated the ISO etc.

    Any ideas?

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    Replies
    1. There are some configurations to be done depending on the VM platform you choose Declan. For Virtualbox for example, you have to configure the processor for Extended Features - "Enable PAE/NX".

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  5. Hi Gerry,

    I read your guide carefully and it's great but I've got some trouble when it comes to the credentials part.
    When I fill in the domain name I receive the message: "Invalid credentials: The network path was not found."
    I assume it has to be the domain name of the host computer right?

    Can you tell what goes possibly wrong?

    Thanks, John

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    Replies
    1. This is a workgroup computer so the credentials to access the network share must be of the format domain\username

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  6. Hi Gerry,

    I have followed the previous steps and now need to build and capture a reference image. How do I go about the process on a physical computer. My ultimate aim is to replicate the image to other physical PCs.

    Also I had installed MS System Center 2012

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    Replies
    1. You don't. Continue to use a VM to capture your images. Add driver packages to the deployment task sequence to take care of the rest.

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  7. Gerry, your articles and explanations are awesome. So simple and clear descriptions. Thanks a lot.

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  8. Hi Gerry,
    First you created vanilla Windows 7 image without any customization. Then you added a pause task and added the changes you need. I am just wondering why you didn't directly showed us how to create a task sequence that has pause task. Is there a reason to create this vanilla image before we create the task sequence with pause task. Is the vanilla image required or you just wanted to show us how to create reference image without any customization first. Great tutorial by the way.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Selim. No the vanilla is not required. I just wanted to show the various options available.

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  9. Hello Gerry,
    I want to build and capture a reference image which will have all the windows updates and also have some applications installed as well for a classroom environment with applications like Adobe CC and others. What would you recommend as the best way for me to accomplish these tasks?

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    Replies
    1. If you use MDT you can introduce a pause in the task sequence. I've shown how to do that in this series of blogs.

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  10. Hello Gerry,
    I was able to create a reference image from a physical PC which had all the software I need installed. I then applied the image to another PC of the same brand and everything went well. I then realized both PCs have the same Product ID under System properties. It that normal? What did I do wrong?

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  11. I would say that the syspred didnt run properly.

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  12. Hello Gary,
    While I am giving credential in user credential window, I am getting error like Invalid credentials ,the network name cannot be found. I couldn't able to moving forward because of this error, which credential its asking ?

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