Reference Material | USB Boot Solution

The information below is intended for administrators who want to create a bootable USB drive to use in their Specops Deploy environment. This is not an offline boot solution. Connectivity to the deployment server via a network connection usually USB NIC/Dock is required as the Images will be downloaded from the server, along with other configuration items.

The following scenarios can be solved by creating a bootable USB drive:

Scenario 1: You are unable to install your corporate image OS on a tablet/computer that:

  • Is missing an internal network card
  • Is not capable of doing a PXE on the internal network card
  • Does not have a WDS server on the subnet to respond to PXE

Scenario 2: You are unable to install your corporate image OS on a new tablet/computer that is:

  • Not able to join a domain (home edition)
  • Missing the internal network card

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you must meet the following prerequisites:

  1. Specops Deploy / OS installed and configured
  2. USB memory stick
  3. Technical knowledge of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)
  4. Administrative rights on the Specops Image Server

Creating a bootable USB drive

Step 1: Update media content

  1. On your Specops Deploy Image Server, create a new folder and name it Specops USB Solution (i.e. “D:\Specops USB solution).
  2. Open the Deployment Workbench.
  3. In the navigation pane, expand Deployment Workbench.
  4. Right-click on Deployment shares and select Open Deployment Share.
  5. Browse to your deployment share (i.e “D:\Specops\Deploy\deploymentrepository”), and click Next.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Click Finish.
  8. In the navigation pane, expand Deployment shares, Specops Deployment Share, Advanced Configuration.
  9. Right-click on Selection Profiles and select New Selection Profile.
  10. Enter Specops USB in the Selection profile name text field, and click Next.
  11. Select the following folders: Out-of-Box Drivers, Packages, and Task Sequences, and click Next.
  12. Click Next.
  13. Click Finish.
  14. In the navigation pane, right click on Media, and select New Media.
  15. Browse to the path you created in step 1.
  16. From the Selection profile drop-box, select Specops USB, and click Next.
  17. Click Next.
  18. Click Finish.
  19. Right-click on the newly created media and select Properties.
  20. From the General tab, disable the Generate a Lite Touch bootable ISO image.
  21. Right-click on the Specops Deployment Share, select Properties, and go to the Rules tab and copy the contents to notepad.
    Specops Deployment Share Properties
  22. From the same place, click edit bootstrap.ini and paste that into another notepad. You can now close the deployment share properties window.
    bootstrap.ini
  23. Go back to your boot media, e.g. MEDIA001. Under Advanced Configuration>Media, right-click and select Properties.
  24. Under the Rules tab of your boot media, paste the content that you copied to notepad in step 21.
  25. Click edit bootstrap.ini and paste in the content you copied in step 22.
  26. Make the following modifications to the bootstrap.ini:
    Add USBInstall to Priority between Default and SetDeployRoot. E.g:

    [Settings]

    Priority=Default, USBInstall, SetDeployRoot

    Add a new section:

    [USBInstall]

    WDSServer=server.domain.local

    DeployRoot=\\server.domain.local\SpecopsDeploymentShare$
    bootstrap.ini modifications

    Note: Change WDSServer and DeployRoot to match your environment.

  27. From the Windows PE tab, select x86 from the Platform drop-box.
  28. Change the Scratch space size field to 128.
  29. Copy the Custom background bitmap file path from the Specops Deployment Share Windows PE tab.
  30. Paste the path into the new media Custom background bitmap file text field.
  31. Copy the Extra directory to add path from the Specops Deployment Share Windows PE tab.
  32. Paste the path into the new media Extra directory to add text field.
  33. Click Apply.
  34. Select x64 from the Platform drop-box.
  35. Copy the Custom background bitmap file path from the Specops Deployment Share Windows PE tab.
  36. Paste the path into the new media Custom background bitmap file text field.
  37. Copy the Extra directory to add path from the Specops Deployment Share Windows PE tab.
  38. Paste the path into the new media Extra directory to add text field.
  39. Change the Scratch space size field to 128.
  40. Click Apply.
  41. Select the Drivers and Patches
  42. From the Selection profile drop-box, select Specops USB.
  43. Click OK.
  44. Right-click on the newly created media and select Update media content.

Step 2: Prepare a bootable USB stick

It is recommended that you upgrade the BIOS and/or UEFI to the latest version before completing the below steps.

USB boot image for x86/x64 none-UEFI hardware

  1. Put a USB stick into the computer.
  2. Open a command prompt as administrator.
  3. Run diskpart.
  4. Run list disk.
  5. Run select disk <your USB drive disk number>, (i.e. select disk 1)
  6. Run clean.
  7. Run convert mbr.
  8. Run create partition primary.
  9. Run format FS=ntfs quick.
  10. Run active.
  11. Run exit.
  12. Run bootsect/nt60 <USB Drive Letter> (i.e bootsect/nt60 e:)

USB boot image for x64 native UEFI hardware

  1. Put a USB stick into the computer.
  2. Open a command prompt as administrator.
  3. Run diskpart.
  4. Run list disk.
  5. Run select disk <your USB drive disk number>, (i.e. select disk 1)
  6. Run clean.
  7. Run convert gpt.
  8. Run create partition primary.
  9. Run format FS=fat32 quick.
  10. Run exit.
  11. Run bootsect/nt60 <USB Drive Letter> (i.e bootsect/nt60 e:)

Step 3: Copy the required files to the bootable USB stick

  1. In D:\Specops USB Solution\Content\Deploy\Boot copy the content of the x86 or x64 folder to the root of your USB memory stick.
  2. Create a folder called Sources in the root of the USB memory stick and copy the .wim file you want to use into this folder.
    Tip: Copy D:\specops USB Solution\Content\Deploy\Boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim to E:\Sources\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim.
  1. Rename the .wim file to boot.wim.
  2. Boot an existing machine on the USB memory stick.

Specops Deploy will now reinstall the machine without PXE.

Step 4: Prepare the computer for reinstall

  1. Start an evaluated PowerShell prompt on the tablet/computer.
  2. Enter the following prompt: (get-wmiobject Win32_ComputerSystemProduct).UUID
  3. Open the Specops Deploy / OS admin tools.
  4. Pre-stage the tablet/computer with the UUID.

Step 5: Boot your tablet/computer with the USB stick

Boot your tablet/computer from the USB memory stick. If you are missing an internal network card, the USB network card dongle must be attached. Remember to remove the USB stick when the Specops background is displayed on the tablet/computer.

 

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