Creating a Bootable DVD for Imaging Standalone Machines
Submitted by Scott Hardie on 21 July, 2006 - 14:01.
The main purpose of this tip is to give step-by-step instructions and tools for the creation and burning of an image to a DVD in a bootable format.
This document is specifically designed for image creation and is a great way to image machines that are not connected to the network, that remote on slow links, that have traveling laptop users, that cannot leverage PXE support, or any other reason which a DVD would provide an easy way of imaging. This tip was written with the assumption of using Nero Burning ROM to burn the media but can be adapted easily to accommodate any other similar burning software.
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DVD Burning Instructions
- Copy any .exe created images and any spanned images from \\server name\express\images to the PC where you will be burning the DVD. Ensure you grab the .exe and any additional files that make up the image.
Example: PCImage.exe, PCImage.002, PCImage.003, etc… - Rename the image file from its current name, such as PCIMAGE.EXE, and rename any additional spanned files to IMAGE.002, IMAGE.003, etc, if you want to use the already predefined in the IMAGE.bat file which calls IMAGE.exe.
Note: It is required that the image be in .exe format, opposed to .img. The .exe ensures that the rdeploy.exe engine is built into the image itself and makes it executable. - Now copy the contents of the attached .zip to the same location where you copied the files above.
- Launch Nero Ultra Edition's Burning ROM which by default after an install is at:
Start -> Nero -> Nero 6 Ultra Edition -> Nero Burning ROM - Choose DVD (Boot); NEW
- Click on File -> Compilation Properties or hit F7
- Click on the "Boot" tab and change the "Image file" radio button and change the path by browsing to the boot.ima included in the .zip file.
- (OPTIONAL) Click on the "Label" tab and change the name of the DVD, if desired, to something other then "New".
- (OPTIONAL) Click on the "Dates" tab and change the "File Dates" to use Current data and time. This way you can check dates of files for when the media was created.
- Click on the "Burn" tab and ensure that the "Write" and "Finalize" options are selected. Also ensure that the "Write Speed" is appropriate for the DVD burner and the media being used. Click "Ok".
- Drag the following files over to the DVD compilation screen which you copied earlier:
Altiris.ico
Autorun.inf
IMAGE.BAT
Readme.txt
IMAGE.EXE
IMAGE.002 etc… (if needed) - Now click the burn icon
to create the DVD. - Ensure your settings are correct once more, and click "Burn"
(17 votes)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| DVD_Burning.zip | 719.34 KB |
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How do you deploy it?
I did all of that, booted to the DVD, and I can't run any of the commands.
How do you deploy it after booting from the DVD?
Using the .exe/Nero method
Using the .exe/Nero method here is what I did to get it to work. Add two other files before you burn.
1) Copy over a config.sys like:
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001
[COMMON]
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
devicehigh=ramdrive.sys /E 2048
lastdrive=z
2) Then make an autoexec.bat like:
@echo off
path=a:\;d:\
MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001 /L:d
d:\URIMAGE.exe
cls
echo The new image has been loaded. Please restart the computer
Self kick off
If you used my boot.ima and named the files correctly there are no commands to do. It will simply boot off the media and auto kick off the install.
James "Scott" Hardie
Vice President of Technology Services
shardie@xcendgroup.com
http://www.xcendgroup.com
does not work for me
change the IMAGE names to the ones in the BATCH file burn to DVD all i get after boot is your CD-ROM is drive D: Bad Command or file name something must be wrong with the IMA file
IMA works fine
Just used the .ima file for a bootable DOD Wipe Disc in flattening computers and it worked fine. Which I will be posting on Juice soon.
James "Scott" Hardie
Vice President of Technology Services
shardie@xcendgroup.com
http://www.xcendgroup.com
Batch file error
Scott
kperdersen is correct when he says that it doesn't work. I have just used WinImage to have a look at your ima file, and i can see that you expect to find image.bat on the d drive. I built a bootable floppy disk with your ima file as i didn't want to waste a DVD in case it didn't work. What i found was that the Diagnostic tools drive ended up taking the drive letter of D, and the CD ROM appeared on E. Calling d:\image.bat from autoexec.bat will give you a Bad Command or filename as image.bat is not in your path, which is set to be A and D.
Marshall
standalone imaging
I am also having trouble with this. Getting a bootable DVD is straight forward. Getting the autoexec.bat to kick commands off is straight forward. I have tried the above method, and get "Bad Command or file name" and thought this was the reference in the bat file to the incorrect drive, but after correcting that and even changing to the correct drive letter at the DOS prompt, doing DIR to confirm the correct drive, typed in "image.bat" and got "Bad command or file name" and also tried "image.exe" and got the same message.
I have also tried putting the command into the autoexec.bat file ".\image.exe -nobw" and got a message saying "program will not fit in memory"
Can someone please help in getting this image.exe to run from my bootable DVD.
many thanks
Worked for me
Just a quick not of thanks for this article as I was able to use the files Scott provided (as-is) and burn an Image DVD successfully.
BAM
Thanks BAM
Thanks BAM for the feedback. I have recieved a lot of thank you e-mails but with a few people having problems on here I was wondering how to rewrite the article to make it even easier. Since I have used it at a couple dozen clients thus far and had no issues I was wondering what some people were doing incorrectly. Only valid problem I have seen is where some of the DOS drivers in the .ima here won't work with some DVD drives out there and they have to be added.
Thanks,
James "Scott" Hardie
Vice President of Technology Services
shardie@xcendgroup.com
http://www.xcendgroup.com
Hi Scott, I'm exploring
Hi Scott,
I'm exploring this idea, and am interested as to whether this is a supported usage, and that the licencing implications are.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Ben
As long as you are licensed for Deployment Server
I'm exploring this idea, and am interested as to whether this is a supported usage, and that the licencing implications are.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Ben
Ben if you own Deployment Server you are licensed for the Rdeploy and yes lots of customers are using this as an option. Especially for customers who have to build a server in a location where their is no IT staff. It's also useful for rebuilding laptops or machines not connected to the network.
Thanks,
James "Scott" Hardie
Vice President of Technology Services
shardie@xcendgroup.com
http://www.xcendgroup.com
A different problem
Scott,
When I boot the dvd the rdeploy screen comes up and then immediately goes away and leaves me at the D: prompt. If I run image.exe from the command prompt the rdeploy screen appears and then a box asking me to insert the last disk or provide a path to it. There is only one disk and it is in the D drive.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mike
It did not work for me!!!
hey, thank you for your great method but it did not work for me!
after computer boot from Bootable-DVD, RDeployT apears then immediately close and then leaves me a message:
The Partition is not relocatable.
Restore failed.
What do I do now?!
It works!!
thanks again for your great method. Finally it worked for me.
DVD stand alone Image.
I have been tasked with setting up a DVD image for our remote sites, so thanks for the info.
2 problems I have are...
1. How can I add the sysprep.inf file?
2. I am trying to make the image Hardware independant and so need to load the drivers.
It all works when I do it from the DS, not sure if its possible in a stand alone DVD.
Thanks,
Steve.
Bootable DVD
I have solved my problem.
I added the sysprep folder with the sysprep.inf file onto the image.
I then added all the drivers, for the PC's I have drivers for, onto the image in the folders where the sysprep.inf file points to. drv\audio\1 and so on.
One other point to make is that the .002 file is very important. I noticed that without it you get the problem listed above where Altiris starts and then goes off again.
Plus if you make any changes to your image.exe file in image explorer you need to add both the changed image.exe and the image.002 files into your burning compilation. Not just the image.exe.
Hope that makes sense....
Steve.
Worked fine for me as is.
Worked fine for me as is. Thanks!
Speed?
How fast are your images transfering from the DVD? I was thinking that it was going to fly becasue it was local. My screen says the transfer rate was 15mb/min. It took about 30 to 40 min to get the image to install from the DVD. Is this a limitation of RDeploy?
Why not use usb instead of DVD
Although we use network imaging at 1000mb/min
I went with usb sticks for either network win pe boot disk to the ds or imaging from it.
The techs can carry it with them and no worries about scratching them. Same process create your iso and then you can even use rdeploy to deploy it to your stick
I agree
USB imaging is really handy. You can install WinPE 2.0 on a USB key, the image you are working with, and all of the deployment utilities. It works really well. You can pull images off of a server and off of the key.
USB vs CD / DVD
USB is definately a faster way to go. The challenge is that some computers do not support USB booting and if an organization is taking the message of "Securing the Endpoint" seriously may not even be enabled or enabled for only certain devices. Devices that have the ability copy data are usually restricted and so CD's or DVD media make a perfect option. Additionally when you have a CD or DVD its a send and forget to a remote site for instance and normally people want to get a USB stick back. USB Hard Drives, USB keys, DVD's and CD's all have their uses in particular cases. It's knowing when to best use what.
Thanks,
James "Scott" Hardie
Vice President of Technology Services
shardie@xcendgroup.com
http://www.xcendgroup.com
new to altiris... I have
new to altiris... I have my image created, split it into 3 pieces to fit on a CD, I converted the .img to .exe, burned to disk. when i boot up I get an error this version cannot be run in dos. I then tried using the rdeploy from teh dos folder on the express server and now I get an dos error: DOS/32A runtime (6000)unknown error code(#ffh). Any suggestions?
DVD Boot
I used the method that was described in this article. DVD did boot fine but it did not kick off the job automatically. My image is called (image.exe), have 4 image files.
Instead of kicking off the image process, it stopped at the d:\ dos prompt. So i tried executing the image.exe file and got an error that the file is to big to fit into memory....
Any ideas what i did wrong or what i can do to rectify this problem?
RE: DVD Boot
check http://juice.altiris.com/tip/4834/winpe-21-bootabl... :) see if the approach works?
Nelo