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Create Spanned Media

This topic describes how to create spanned media by using the createspannedshares.cmd script to support computers that do not have a DVD-ROM drive. The script will split setup files, including Windows Image (.wim) files, into individual parts that you can later burn onto multiple CD-ROMs. The script uses the following convention.

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createspannedshares.cmd <Source> <Destination> [SKU Name]

Where <Source> specifies a full path to the source files (content of product DVD and any additional source files), <Destination> specifies a path where the spanned media will be created; [SKU Name] is an optional parameter that describes the media, and if specified, the script creates a subfolder based on the SKU name in the <Destination> path.

Prerequisites

Before you can run this command, you must install Windows OPK tools or Windows AIK tools on your technician computer. The script is located in the \Samples directory (C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Samples). The script requires ImageX. Media-burning software is not included with either Windows OPK or Windows AIK.

To create spanned media on CD-ROM

  1. Create a source directory on your technician computer. For example,
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    c:\span\source
  2. Copy the content of the Windows product DVD and any additional resource files to the source directory.
  3. Remove the read-only attribute on all files. In Windows Explorer, right-click the \Source folder, select Properties, and clear the Read-only check box.
  4. At a command prompt, run the spanning script with the appropriate values. For example,
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    createspannedshares.cmd c:\span\source c:\span [WindowsVista]
    The script creates a subfolder \WindowsVista based on the SKU Name value. Within the \WindowsVista directory, the script creates individual subfolders (CD1, CD2, etc).
  5. Create an image (.iso) for each subfolder and burn each one to an individual CD-ROM. To make the first CD-ROM bootable, use the Oscdimg tool and the appropriate boot sector file (Etfsboot.com for x86 and AMD 64, and Efisys.bin for IA-64).
    For example, for x86,
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    Oscdimg -n –b"c:\Program Files\<version> \Tools\PETools\x86\boot\etfsboot.com" c:\span\WindowsVista\CD1 c:\span\WindowsVista\CD1.iso
    where <version> can be Windows OPK or Windows AIK. For subsequent non-bootable images, you can omit the boot switch (-b), for example,
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    oscdimg -n c:\span\WindowsVista\CD2 c:\span\WindowsVista\CD2.iso
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