Volume to Capture drop-down empty

Question

_{Monday, January 18, 2010 12:00 PM}

Hi, I am currently having some issues with WDS 2003 and capturing a Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) machine.

The server is running Windows 2003 SP2 Standard with WDS installed, I am currently able to deploy Windows XP images without any issues fully automated.

Firstly I added a boot image (boot.wim) for Windows 7 Professional from the /sources directory in the WDS MMC console

Then I created a capture image by right clicking the previously added boot image in the WDS MMC and choosing create capture image.

I then setup my reference computer with Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) with drivers, applications etc.

I then ran sysprep from c:\windows\system32,  **sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown

** I then booted via the network card and selected my Capture Image created earlier from the WDS menu.

Initially I was unable to see a 'Volume To Capture' in the drop-down box, so I did a SHIFT + F10 and ran DISKPART then lis dis .  Sure enough, it appeared that the mass storage controller drivers needed to be loaded, as the volume wasn't listed.

I then ran drvload xyz.inf to load the mass storage drivers from my USB HDD.  The drivers successfully loaded, I then ran DISKPART again and then rescan .

The RAID volume was then visible, however the volume to capture drop-down box is still blank.  I'm not sure where I'm going wrong here, as this works perfectly fine when capturing Windows XP on the same hardware.  It looks like sysprep worked successfully as when I exit WDS and allow the machine to boot up the sysprep process goes through fine.

Any ideas? As I'd really like to be able to deploy Windows 7 machines.

Regards
Chris

All replies (6)

_{Wednesday, January 20, 2010 8:08 AM ✅Answered}

Hi Chris,

Did you add the mass storage driver for Windows 7 to the boot image? If you add the mass storage driver for Windows XP, it probably will not work. I suggest contacting your hard drive manufacturer to obtain the most appropriate driver.

Hope it helps.

Tim Quan - MSFT

_{Wednesday, January 20, 2010 8:53 AM | 1 vote}

Hi,

another reason could the that you haven't run sysprep before. As far as I know you can only select partitions of sysprepped installations.

Greetings

ChristianChristian Groebner MVP Forefront

_{Wednesday, January 20, 2010 10:37 AM}

Hi Tim, cheers for the reply.  I will use DISM to inject the 64-bit RAID drivers directly into the capture image to see if that helps.. Still it seems odd that I'm able to use drvload successfully during the 'online' stage and the volume is listed when running 'lis dis'.  But the volume to capture box is still empty..

Christian - This issue does not seem to be with sysprep, as you can see I ran **sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown on the reference machine beforehand.
**

_{Wednesday, December 29, 2010 11:58 AM}

As you will see at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766320%28WS.10%29.aspx it clearly states that:

"You will only see drives that contain operating systems prepared with Sysprep. If you do not run the command in step 4, you will not see any drives to capture".

I had the same issue with an XP and run sysprep -mini -reseal -reboot and worked like a charm.

Cheers,

Dimitris

_{Wednesday, March 30, 2011 3:51 AM}

Dear All, Thanks alot for input for configuring WDS Server.

I have tried to configure WDS Server, like other i also got the blank drop box. ( Tried to configure with the sysprep command - sysyprep -mini -reseal )

for resolving this issue , you can try to run sysprep in graphically..

You will get minisys prep option and click on reseal button.

For further clarification, pls revert 

Regards, Ravisankar K P MCITP, MCT , MCTS , MCSA

_{Thursday, November 29, 2018 3:58 PM}

Hi Chris,

I know this is a very old post of yours, but for those out there I found out that after updating the storage firmware and drivers the drive now shows. So before you perform "system prep" ensure you have updated all your firmware and drivers so that the storage locations are presented correctly during this process.

Hope this helps!

Thank you,

Gustavo