Question
Instructions for creating a bootable CD/DVD disk that includes the ImageX imaging utility so that images can be created or deployed manually. These instructions can also be used for creating bootable USB drives.

Answer
The bootable media will allow a computer (including the Deployment Server itself) to be booted into WinPE where an image can be either deployed to or captured from the computer, using the Microsofts ImageX application tool. The image can currently reside on a network share location when deploying the image to the computer or can be saved onto the network share location when capturing an image of the computer.

1) When booting through WinPE, a drive mapping will need to be created which will point to a network share directory which is the location to either save the image to or is the location to pull the image from. This directory will need to first be defined as a Windows shared directory with full rights to any local user account.

2) From the Deployment Server console, choose Boot Disk Creator from the Tools pull-down menu.

3) Choose to Create a new configuration and enter a name for the configuration in "Step 1 of 8". Be sure to choose the desired version of Windows PE  from the Pre-Boot Operating System option.

4) On "Step 4 of 8", be sure that the correct IP address of your Deployment Server shows under the option "Use TCP/IP to connect to the Altiris Deployment Server" Share.

5) On "Step 5 of 8", enter the local user account and password that was designated in #1 above.

6) On "Step 6 of 8", define a drive mapping to the share directory created in #1 above. While the "F:" drive is the default mapping, it may be a good idea to delete the current F: drive and select another drive letter further down the list, such as the N: drive. This can become important when used on computers that may have multiple drives (such as a memory card reader with multiple slots). If you choose to use the F: drive, this drive may be overwritten during the WinPE boot process.

NOTE: It is also a good idea to enable the option at the bottom "Step 6 of 8" for creating an entry in the LMHOST file.

7) As soon as "Step 8 of 8" is completed, the Boot Disk Type wizard will launch at "Step 1". Click the "Cancel" button so that you will be returned to the Boot Disk Creator main window where your new WinPE configuration will show.

8) Right-click on the name of your new WinPE configuration and choose "Add File" from the fly-out menu. Browse to ...\Windows\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\waik_winpe(n)\Tools\ amd64 and select the file "imagex.exe" before clicking the Open button. (Note: This will add the 64-bit version of the imagex tools. There is no 32 bit version.)

9) Below the name of your new WinPE configuration, select the "startup.bat" file and make an addition to this file by typing in the window to the right. At the bottom of the existing statements, below all of the "REM" statements, add the following line:

x:\imagex.exe <parameters>

Click on the name of the new WinPE to select it and you will be asked if you want to "save the changes". Click the "Yes" button.

10. Right-click on the name of your new WinPE configuration and choose "Create Boot Disk".

11. On "Step 1 of 3", choose the options for "ISO" and "Network Boot". Notice the location path indicting where the .iso image is going to be saved. (Note: The Boot media processor type will default to "x86". If you are using the 64-bit version of rdeploy.exe, it will be necessary to change this selection to "x64".)

12. When you click the Next button, the new configuration will be created and saved as an .iso image. It will then be necessary to use a CD/DVD burning application (such as Roxio) to burn the .iso image to a disk.

NOTE: You do NOT want to burn a copy of the .iso image onto the CD/DVD. Instead you want to choose the option to burn a disk from an .iso image. For example, in Roxio Media Creator Classic, there is an option under the File pull-down menu for "Burn from Disc Image File".

When a computer is booted using this CD/DVD, WinPE will load and create a drive mapping to your network share location. The application imagex.exe will then automatically launch and will allow you to choose to create a disk image (and give the image a name) or to deploy an image from the network share drive.

To burn to USB flash drive use Rufus to build the media

Note: Since ImageX is not our tool please refer to Microsoft on how to add parameters to use imagex: Imagex tool usage