Windows 7 imaging with ImageX - quick question

I took an image of a windows 7 machine for testing and im bringing it down onto another clean box. i use imagex /apply to install the image but when i boot the newly reimaged pc, it says BOOTMGR is missing.

i use the imagex /capture c: "test.wim" command to take the image. i think this is creating an image of the OS partition itself (c drive). to apply the image, im using imagex /apply test.wim 1 c:

im looking through the microsoft imagex syntax help files as i type this. any idea what i could be doing wrong or if im missing anything?

any help is greatly appreciate! happy 2010 to you!
- tsd

 

I think BOOTMGR missing corresponds to an error with the master boot record. In that case, you will probably need to repair windows from the setup CD.

A quick google search yielded the following (with many more similar results):

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...ing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/

http://lifehacker.com/251733/vista-tip--repair-bootmgr-is-missing-error

 

^ thanks so much for the reply! i saw this method but i am trying to resolve the problem as opposed to fixing it. if i am deploying 1,000 images and this problem comes up, i dont want to run repaid 1,000 times to resolve it...

im calling microsoft this morning for their assistance... this is so odd.... i install win 7, make my tweaks (install ie, set home page, create a default user profile, etc), then image it as per directions from microsoft... then when i install this image on other machines, the data comes down fine but when i reboot, i get the "BOOTMGR is missing" error.......

Anyone else have an idea about what could be causing this?

 

It sounds then like ImageX doesn't provide a copy of the MBR in the disk image.

http://www.leinss.com/blog/?p=173

 

ah ha! so i figured it out thanks to the microsoft call this morning.

apparently, using the win 7 install cd, if you create a partition and proceed with the installation, it also creates a boot partition which imagex does NOT copy over! this partition (200 megs) is created in case you want to use bitlocker. additionally, the bootmgr file (that is usually on the c drive) gets moved to this partition.

since i am deploying a ton of machines and dont plan on using bitlocker, i want a single partition (C that is the size of the entire disk. so how can i make it so the windows installation does NOT create this extra boot partition?

the fix is this:

1-using windows pe, boot to a dos prompt, delete all partitions and create a single partition however large you would like.

2-then when installing windows 7, select that partition you created in step 1 and windows will NOT create the additional 200mb partition for bitlocker. windows will use this single partition and will put the bootmgr file on the root of your drive.

this is such a trivial thing but windows never did this before. i think i am one of the few that had this hurdle during win 7 imaging.

i hope this is making some sense. ^_^ thanks again for your help, serrated.