Sign in
 

none
bootmgr is missing after applying WIM to new machine

 > 

    Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Im trying to put together my companies first Windows 7 image, we are using Windows 7 Pro x64.

    I followed this link here on how to set do a sysprep for Windows 7 and also im using their WinPE boot environment all seems to go well, it syspreps fine, captures the WIM image to a network share and then the reference machine reboots and works fine.

    The problem i have is when i have to then apply that WIM to a new machine. It applies fine but after the WIM is on the new machine I restart and it comes up with the message "bootmgr is missing"

    Ive managed to fix this issue on that one machine by running WinPE again then from command prompt typing "C:\windows\syswow64\bcdboot c:\windows", but my problem is this will happen to every new machine I goto deploy the WIM to a machine.

    Is there a way i can stop this from happening? Is it something in the sysprep? or the way i use gImagex? (FYI yes i make sure i tick the boot check box in gImageX before i capture the image).

    Thanks in advance

    Friday, January 20, 2012 4:34 PM
    |

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    2
    Sign in to vote

    Like Don said applying image doesn't create partitions.

    I would start with:

    diskpart
    select disk 0
    create partition primary
    format quick fs=ntfs
    assign letter c
    Active
    Exit  (diskpart)

     

    then

    ImageX /apply c:\Win7Image.wim 1 c:\

     

    and then as a final step

    bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

    Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:31 PM
    |

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hopefully someone will have a better answer than mine, but when I was also experimenting with different deployment methods (WDS not available in my environment), I ended up using Windows Setup to deploy my wim file rather than imagex /apply. It wipes the drive and creates the partitions required as well as make the system bootable.

    Of course if you have WDS available then that with MDT is the best way to deploy the image. I'm stuck using usb hard drives.

    Friday, January 20, 2012 4:56 PM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Did you deploy all the partitions?  Windows 7 by default uses multiple partitions, but you can make it use one partition.

     

     

    Friday, January 20, 2012 6:26 PM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hi,

    applying a WIM doesn't create partitions, write the BCD store nor does it write the MBR nor set a partition active/bootable etc. This is because WIM is file-based imaging (unlike other "whole-partition" or sector-based imaging solutions)

    So you have to use Windows Setup, or some other method to do those bits.
    (solutions like MDT and/or ConfigMgr, just use a script/utility plus Windows Setup to do that work)

     

    Don
    Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:15 AM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I strongly recommend you to use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to do deployments of Windows. There are a lot of benefits, such as the deployment being 100% customizable, it includes partitioning, patching via WSUS, possibility to deploy applications etc etc. You can find MDT here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=25175
    Blogging about Windows for IT pros at www.theexperienceblog.com

    Saturday, January 21, 2012 9:31 AM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    2
    Sign in to vote

    Like Don said applying image doesn't create partitions.

    I would start with:

    diskpart
    select disk 0
    create partition primary
    format quick fs=ntfs
    assign letter c
    Active
    Exit  (diskpart)

     

    then

    ImageX /apply c:\Win7Image.wim 1 c:\

     

    and then as a final step

    bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

    Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:31 PM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Thanks for the advice guys

    Im not sure if i can use MDT in my environment as we are spread across 7 locations, and apart from 2 of the locations, every office just have a small Mbps line. So would i need to have MDT on each local file server and surely that would get a bit manic when i update the main image then i would have to deploy it to all the file servers? but i will have a look into it.

    I think JS210 could have something, when i go into gImagex i pick the C drive to capture from, but i dont select the recovery partition that was created when Windows 7 was installed as its not displayed.

    I will also look at the Windows setup deployment method as well just in case if the MDT route doesnt fit my enviromnet

    Monday, January 23, 2012 10:52 AM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Thanks for the advice guys

    Im not sure if i can use MDT in my environment as we are spread across 7 locations, and apart from 2 of the locations, every office just have a small Mbps line. So would i need to have MDT on each local file server and surely that would get a bit manic when i update the main image then i would have to deploy it to all the file servers? but i will have a look into it.

    I think JS210 could have something, when i go into gImagex i pick the C drive to capture from, but i dont select the recovery partition that was created when Windows 7 was installed as its not displayed.

    I will also look at the Windows setup deployment method as well just in case if the MDT route doesnt fit my enviromnet


    Yes it sounds like you need to create the partition, best done using diskpart. Brano Lukic's post should do perfectly.
    Monday, January 23, 2012 5:17 PM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Im not sure if i can use MDT in my environment as we are spread across 7 locations, and apart from 2 of the locations, every office just have a small Mbps line. So would i need to have MDT on each local file server and surely that would get a bit manic when i update the main image then i would have to deploy it to all the file servers? but i will have a look into it.


    You can use DFS-Replication to replicate content to the branch offices with the minimal impact on data transfer. Bear in mind that you can do deployments from within Windows just using a shared folder (deployment share) if you start the installation from within Windows. If you want to PXE boot you need the WDS role on the local servers.

    So the bottom line is that you can have one deployment share and then replicate it to the other locations!

    Blogging about Windows for IT pros at www.theexperienceblog.com

    Tuesday, January 24, 2012 4:03 PM
    |
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Boot to your WinPE command line and run this command. Then paste the output into this thread to view. 

    BCDEDIT

    ____________________________________

     

    Most likely, your boot record was altered or removed. Use the following commands to repair your BCD boot record:

    If you have the OS on partition C:\ then run:
    bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=C:
    bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=C: 

    If you have the OS on partition D:\ then run:
    bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {default} device partition=D: 
    bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {default} osdevice partition=D:  

     

    You must run both of these commands from within WinPE. This should help solve your bootmgr missing issue. 

    _JoeG
    Dell - Systems Integration Consultant
    Twitter: @8bits1byte 

    Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.


    • Edited by _JoeG Tuesday, January 24, 2012 6:00 PM missing command
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012 5:58 PM
    |