One of the most common issues with MDT 2010 LiteTouch is leftover junk from a previous installation preventing a second installation to continue. The solution – Get rid of the junk. Here is sample script…
WARNING!: Per the instructions you will modify the unattend.xml inside the boot image you use for bare metal deployments only, meaning the boot image(s) on your WDS server. Please don't go outside the instructions and modify the boot images in the MDT deployment share – That will kill all your Refresh and Replace deployments.
Instructions for Manually updating your x64 boot image
Just change x64 with x86 for updating your x86 image if needed.
- Extract the article sample files to a folder
- Create the D:\Mount folder (My Data drive is D:)
- Start a Deployment Tools Command Prompt
- Use Imagex to mount your boot image
Imagex /mountrw D:\RemoteInstall\Boot\x64\Images\LiteTouchPE_x64.wim 1 D:\Mount
- From the article download folder, copy the ZTICleanSetupInProgress.vbs script to D:\Mount\Deploy\Scripts
- From the article download folder, copy the x64\Unattend.xml file to D:\Mount (overwrite the existing file)
- Unmount the wim file (close all Explorer windows first)
Imagex /unmount /commit D:\Mount
- Done
Note: If you want to automate the above updates of the WDS boot image, you can do this via an Exit function to the Deployment Share Update process. In the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Samples folder you will find a sample named UpdateExit.vbs that you can customize.
See the Automatically update MDT 2010 boot images in WDS article by Michael Niehaus for more info on the Deployment Share Exit.
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Happy Deployment
/ Johan
Check the ztiuserstate.log and scanstate.log… If the backup breaks, MDT will not wipe your drive, that's why it boots back into windows.
/ Johan
I'm trying to migrate from Win XP to Win 7 (REFRESH). I searched Google, found the below url but the last one is similar to my issue which is un-answered till now. Below are steps followed,Why the migration is not success @ first trigger of litetouch.vbs? Am i missing something? social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ar/mdt/thread/a80bdbb2-4090-446b-959e-a8dad39420d1?prof=required . I ran the LiteTouch.VBS Script from USB drive after logging into the Windows XP laptop with domain user ID which is a Local Administrator rights.. The PC ran the script successfully to Applying Win PE and additional other processes to Restarting PC.. The PC rebooted back to the… Read more »
Does the Task Sequence work if you wipe the disk using diskpart before starting the deployment? The best way to test that is to use a virtual machine with a blank disk (take a snapshot directly after creating the virtual machine so you can revert to a clean state between the attempts).
/ Johan
Hello, I have an issue with a previously functioning OS Deployment Task Sequence (deploying a 32-bit Windows 7 captured image, via WDS and MDT2010 on 2008 R2). When deploying the OS, I get failure messages related to commands in the task sequence that are no longer there. Meaning, the task sequence failure message references items I since removed (and also tried creating a new task sequence to deploy the same image), But the failures still show tasks no longer there. I stumbled across this posting, but also tried it (inseted the clean script in my image file),but I still get… Read more »
I have updated the article with additional details on the manual process as well as a link to the Exit hook for the Update Deployment Shareprocess (Automating the whole thing). Hope it helps…
/ Johan
Hi Johan,
I just ran a test over this. I crashed my VHD deploy and i have a unattend.xml modified and the ZTICleanSetup script which cured my leftovers.
Can you explain this more – as below
"If you want to automate, you can do this via the UpdateExit.vbs built-in sample. But again, make sure to ONLY update the wim on your PXE server. Do NOT modify the wim's inside the Boot folder.
"
Only modify the unattend.xml inside the boot wim you use for bare metal deployments, otherwise you will kill all your Refresh and Replace deployments. The script needs to be added to the boot image. It is used before any Task Sequence is selected, in fact even before any litetouch related stuff happens.
If you want to automate, you can do this via the UpdateExit.vbs built-in sample. But again, make sure to ONLY update the wim on your PXE server. Do NOT modify the wim's inside the Boot folder.
/ Johan
Hi Ogeccut,
I did not have to modify unattend_pe_x86.xml to get it running. I could insert as needed in the unattend.xml in the control folder with your specific task sequence number eg: c:deplymentsharecontrol1 (When 1 is my task sequence number) Also it needs to be in the 1 in the unattend.xml as we need it to execute it before our Litetouch.wsf
and yes the ZTICleanSetupInProgress.vbs needs to be under the scripts folder as that is mapped to x:deplyscripts.
Thanks
One more question? Just to make sure. ZTICleanSetupInprogress.vbs has to be in the serverdeploymentsgare$scripts folder?
Thank you.
Thank you for this blog. Do i need to edit Unattend_PE_x86.xml in the "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Deployment ToolkitTemplates" and then recreate the boot disk?
Thank you.
Sorry to write the above but if you read the content of the script file attached in Johan's post does the same thing.
'Delete any existing C:MININT directory
Johan nice work – Your book helped me out to understand a lot – Fundamental Vol 1
Thanks
Hi,
I belive deleting the content on minint or some such folder used to allow the next installation. I dont remember the exact name but when the Old installation which had crashed or stopped in middle used to keep the folder and not remove the content. The Folder is created on the server in the root folder of OS or under deploymenst share.
Johan please correct me if I am wrong.
I did not see such folder being created in 2012 beta.
Thanks