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Yesterday at work I tried rather unsuccessfully for two hours to load ImageX onto USB drive with WinPE. I followed all the instructions on TechNet and was entirely unsuccessful. I blame part of that on TechNet as there are multiple walkthroughs on how to do the same thing, and all of them are different, but I was wondering if anyone could point me towards a solution as to how I can load ImageX onto a WinPE image.

All help is appreciated. Thanks!

1. Install the Windows AIK

2. Launch the Windows Deployment Tools Command Prompt with Admin/Privs

3. copype.cmd x86 x:\winpe (where X: is a local drive)

4. copy winpe.wim .\iso\sources\boot.wim

5. copy "c:\program files\windows aik\tools\x86\imagex.exe" .\iso

6. diskpart
a. list disk
b. select disk X - where X is the thumb drive - don't screw this up :P
c. clean
d. create partition primary
e. select partition 1
f. active
g. format fs=fat32 quick
h. assign
i. exit

7. xcopy /e "x:\winpe\iso\*.*" x: | Second X: is thumb drive, first is where WinPE extracted to. Alternatively you can just copy and paste out of explorer at this point if you want.

8. Profit

I ran into a slight issue at #8.
When I boot into WinPE, I try to run "imagex." The result of this is "'imagex' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."
What directory can I find ImageX under?

The version of ImageX you use must match the version of WindowsPE you've selected.

You shouldn't mix 32bit and 64bit versions of WinPE and ImageX. My directions keep you firmly linked to the x86 build (which will work across the most varied range of hardware).

To answer your question and expand the complexity though:

x86:
copype.cmd x86 x:\winpe
copy "c:\program files\windows aik\tools\x86\imagex.exe" .\iso

x64:
copype.cmd x64 x:\winpe
copy "c:\program files\windows aik\tools\x64\imagex.exe" .\iso


Edit: Also ImageX is NOT loaded into the PATH of WinPE. Meaning you will have to find the drive letter (the letter assigned to the actual thumb drive) and run ImageX.exe from there. Failure to do that will result in the error you're seeing.

e.g.

a. g:
b. dir
c. You see imagex in the dir listing.
d. G:\>imagex /capture d: m:\MI-Cli01.wim "MasterImage"

With WinPE, I'm in the root directory. I've used cd.. to get to where the path name in the command prompt is just X:\>. I've made sure to use x86 WinPE and ImageX the entire time and am still getting the not recognized error. My question was more what directory is it under in WinPE, but you did address that in your edit. Either way it's still not really working for me.


In response to your second edit: I'm not actually seeing the file when I dir the root directory.

EDIT again: I cd'd directly into X: instead of using cd.. to get there. ImageX now appears, but will not run.

You have to change drive letters to the thumb drive.

The X: is not the thumb drive. It's a RAM Drive.

Well, that would make a difference.

What if when I do go to the thumb drive it says "The device is not ready?"

Device not ready means you found the letter assigned to the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/BD-ROM.

Go one letter higher.

Sorry to waste your time Ryu.

I realized I should go into diskpart and assign the partition on the thumb drive that I needed to use a mount point, then went there to run ImageX

No such thing as a waste of time when learning something new.

Command line is archaic to many Windows users.

Using DIskpart to assign a letter is certainly one way to tackle the issue, but I promise that the thumb drive is always assigned a letter by default during WinPE boot. The hard question is what was the auto-assign letter. No two systems will have the same answer for that. It's definitely never X: though.

The first letter I tried was F. Then D and got the device not ready message. Then used diskpart and tried F again. It worked at that point. I definitely prefer the Linux command line. I'm just more used to it I guess.

In my experience USB devices in WinPE tend to auto-mount after the fixed disks & ROM drives.

So it may well have been E: Hard to say without knowing more about your drive, partition, and external storage device structure.

Probably was E. The alphabet was never my strong point. There's a reason I'm an engineering student.

If you're capturing Windows 7 with ImageX be mindful of partition structure.

Ordinarily the drive WinPE calls C: is a 100MB bootfile only partition. It will be the D: drive that has your actual files.

At work we have XP, but I'll keep that in mind when I work on my laptop over the weekend.