Firstly, hi to all the folks here. This is a great forum, with lots of knowledgable participants, so im sure someone will have an answer to this question....heres hoping Im currently using WDS via W2k3 on an older laptop here, and it does the job well. I also have a newer i5 lappy, that i currently have data on and dont wish to backup at this stage. I made recovery disks when i first purchased the laptop, and was wondering if there was a way i could extract a usable wim, from the 3 disks that it made? Seems that the files are split across the 3 dvds. Yes i could just format the laptop, install the recovery disks, sysprep, and capture the image. But, sysprepping takes away the activation that the recovery disk puts back and would rather not do it that way. I have 2 of these laptops in the house now, and would be great if i could just deploy the image when needed, rather than use the 3 dvds. Much quicker. Anyone have an idea on how i can achieve this ?
Ok, progress so far... Have achieved to extract the base image using the following command :- imagex /ref *.swm /export WOP000400OXXTC01.SWM 1 d:\acer.wim "Acer Home Premium x64" The image is intact, although it is just a base x64 image with no drivers etc as yet. Still working on it ....