Capture an Image

3/21/2011

This guide walks you through the process of capturing an image using ImageX (Imagex.exe). Capturing an image is the process of taking a device offline, creating a Windows Imaging (.wim) File, and copying that image to your development computer. This process is required whenever:

• You want to prepare a reference image for deployment to other devices
• You want to update a device on your development computer rather than on the device
• Your device does not support online updates, does not have access to a configuration set, or for any reason cannot be serviced on the device

Important

If you are capturing an image for the purposes of deploying to a new device, you must run Sysprep /generalize, even if the device has the same hardware configuration. The Sysprep /generalize command removes unique information from your Standard 7 installation, which enables you to reuse that image on different devices. The next time you restart the Standard 7 image, the specialized configuration pass runs. During this configuration pass, many components have actions that must be processed when you restart a Standard 7 image on a new development computer. Moving or copying a Windows image to a different development computer without running Sysprep /generalize is not supported.

Hardware and Software Assumptions

• You have a running Windows Embedded Standard 7 deployment on a device that meets the Requirements for an Embedded Device.

Note

The Standard 7 setup process performs several verifications, which rely on the target device's date and time settings. For optimal performance, confirm that the target device is set to the correct date and time.

• To copy an image to your development computer, your device and your development computer must also have access to a network share or writable media.

Key Concepts and Technologies

This guide assumes that you have a basic familiarity with technologies such as ImageX, Sysprep and Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 3.0.

Capturing an Image

1. Start your device into Windows PE. This can be done by creating a Windows PE bootable media, or by starting a PXE-capable device into a Windows PE environment using a network. For more information see Create a Bootable Utility Image.

   Note

   Remember, to capture an image you may have to copy ImageX from your Standard 7 media to your Windows PE media. By default, ImageX is located at \Windows Embedded Studio\Program Files\Windows Embedded Studio\Tools<EM><device architecture> on your Standard 7 installation media.

2. If necessary connect to your network share or the media share where you want to copy your captured image. For example, the following command will connect you to a network share located at \\mycomputer\images with the user mydomain\user and a password of password.

   net use * \\mycomputer\images /USER:mydomain\user password
   

3. Capture the image using ImageX. You can do this by entering the following command, where C is the drive you wish to capture and Z:\Mydevice.wim is the location where you wish to save your Windows Imaging File:

   imagex /capture C: Z:\mydevice.wim "Drive C" /verify
   

   You can also compress the captured image to reduce the size of the image. For example:

   imagex /capture /compress maximum C: Z:\mydevice.wim "Drive C" /verify
   

4. For more information about running ImageX see ImageX Technical Reference.

Next Steps

After you have captured an image, the next step is to mount the image to your file system and make any necessary updates.