Create a Discover Image

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

If you have a computer that is not PXE-enabled, you can create a discover image and use it to install an operating system on that computer. When you create a discover image and save it to media (a CD, DVD, USB flash drive, or other type of media), you can then boot a computer to the media. When you boot a computer into the discover image, it locates a Windows Deployment Services server, and the server deploys the install image to the computer. You can configure discover images to target a specific Windows Deployment Services server. This means that if you have multiple servers in your environment, you can create a discover image for each one, and then name them based on the name of the server. After you create the discover image, create media that contains the image. For more information, see Creating Images at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=115311.

To create a discover image

  1. In the Windows Deployment Services MMC snap-in, click the Boot images node.

  2. From the right pane, right-click the image you want to use as a discover image.

  3. Click Create Discover Image.

  4. On the first screen of the wizard, under Location and file name, type C:\boot.wim.

  5. Click Next, and when the operation is complete, click Finish.

Note

You can also perform this procedure at a command prompt by running WDSUTIL /New-DiscoverImage /Image:<name> /Architecture:{x86|x64|ia64} /DestinationImage /FilePath:<path and name to new file>. To specify which server the discover image connects to, append /WDSServer:<server name or IP>.

To create media that contains the discover image

  1. Download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139642).

  2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Windows AIK, and then click Deployment Tools Command Prompt.

  3. To create a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) build environment, type:

    CopyPE <architecture> C:\Winpe

  4. To copy the discover image that you created to the environment, type:

    Copy /y c:\boot.wim c:\Winpe\ISO\Sources

  5. To change back to the PETools folder, type:

    Cd C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools

  6. To create the bootable .iso image, type:

    Oscdimg -n -bc:\winpe\ISO\boot\etfsboot.com c:\winpe\ISO c:\<imagename>.iso

  7. Use a utility that can create a CD or DVD to transfer the .iso image to the media.

Note

Using the Windows copy command to copy the image to media will not create a bootable disk.

  1. Boot the client computer to the media. You may need to change the boot order in the client BIOS to do this. When the client boots to the media, your experience will be the same as if you had booted to the network.

Additional references