Create Bootable Windows PE Media (OPK) (POSReady 7)

  • Article

4/29/2013

In this step, you create a bootable Windows PE RAM disk on a CD-ROM disc by using the Copype.cmd script. Windows PE RAM enables you to start a computer for the purposes of deployment and recovery. Windows PE RAM boots directly into memory, which lets you remove the Windows PE media after the computer boots. Once you boot into Windows PE, you can use the ImageX tool to capture, modify, and apply file-based disk images. For more information about these tools, see the Deployment Tools Technical Reference on Microsoft TechNet.

Create Bootable Windows PE Media

  1. On your technician computer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Windows OPK, right-click Deployment Tools Command Prompt, and then select Run as administrator.
    The menu shortcut opens a Command Prompt window and automatically sets environment variables to point to all the necessary tools. By default, all tools are installed at C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools.

  2. At the command prompt, run the Copype.cmd script:

    copype.cmd <architecture> <destination>

    In this command, <architecture> can be x86 or amd64 and <destination> is a path of a local directory.
    The script creates the following directory structure and copies all the necessary files for that architecture. For example:

    copype.cmd x86 C:\winpe_x86

    This command will create \ISO and \mount folders in the C:\winpe_x86 folder.

  3. Copy the Windows PE start image into the ISO\sources folder.

    copy "C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\<architecture>\Winpe.wim" <destination>\ISO\Sources\Boot.wim

    In this command, <architecture> coincides with the architecture specified in Step 2 earlier and <destination> is a path of the local directory used in Step 2.
    For example:

    copy "C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\x86\Winpe.wim" C:\Winpe_x86\ISO\Sources\Boot.wim

  4. Copy ImageX into \Winpe_x86\ISO.
    For example, type:

    copy "C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\x86\Imagex.exe" C:\Winpe_x86\ISO\

    Note

    You can create an optional configuration file that is named Winscript.ini that will instruct the ImageX tool to exclude certain files during the capture operation. Save Wimscript.ini to the same location as the ImageX tool. For more information, see the Create an ImageX Configuration File topic in Opk.chm.

  5. Create a Windows PE image (.iso) file by using the Oscdimg tool from the Deployment Tools Command Prompt.
    For example, type:

    oscdimg -n -bC:\Cinpe_x86\etfsboot.com C:\Winpe_x86\ISO
C:\Winpe_x86\Winpe_x86.iso

  6. Burn the image (Winpe_x86.iso) to a CD-ROM disc.
    Windows OPK does not include CD-ROM burning software. Use trusted third-party software to burn the image to a CD-ROM disc.

You now have a bootable Windows PE RAM CD that contains the ImageX tool. For more information about Windows PE, see the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) User’s Guide (Winpe.chm).

Next Steps

Capture the Installation on a Network Share (OPK)

See Also

Tasks

POSReady 7 Deployment for OEMs