Can't capture Win7 disk for use with WDS multicast

[Ewillox]

Hello,

I'm evaluating Smartdeploy with an aim to use it to deploy Windows 7 to all our various makes and models of desktops and laptops from a single point and so far it looks pretty good. My tests are working fine but now I want to integrate it with WDS so our technicians can rebuild PC's anywhere over the network with minimal fuss and this is where I'm hitting a problem.

I want to create an image of my Windows 7 VM and enable it for WDS. I run the Capture Wizard and select the vmdk file, the wizard comes back with two partitions (as it should) - the 100MB system reserved partition and a 79.9GB Local Disk. So far all is good. I tick the check box to use with WDS multicast and I get a pop up saying processing this image will remove all volumes except the boot volume. OK that and I get another popup saying 'This is a system partition. It cannot be unchecked.' I am then returned to the disk volumes screen where both volumes are ticked but so is the WDS multicast tick box at the bottom. I cant manually unselect the 100MB partition either at this point, I get the same error.

I've tried continuing thinking it might be working as designed but when I come to add the .wim file to WDS it gives an error saying 'The file does not contain a valid install image'. The same image can be used if I boot the smartdeploy iso, map a drive to my server and select the image.

This may be me being a n00b but any help appreciated.

Thanks

[Erik]

Hello Ewen,

It sounds as though you are doing everything correctly. This may be a problem with the new Silverlight version of the Capture Wizard. Can you please try downloading this capture.exe file and pasting it into the SmartDeploy install directory. You can then run it from there and test the WDS Multicast check box. Please let me know if that works or if you run into any problems.

Thanks,

Erik

Note: With version 1960 and above this is no longer an issue.

[Ewillox]

Brilliant! That works.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Ewen

[Erik]

This problem has been fixed in version 1960 of SmartDeploy which is now on the website for download. If you continue to have problems please let me know.

Thanks,

Erik