Image your system with free Macrium

Lots of posts already, some people are obviously interested in how macrium does the pe creation, and what it requires.

There was also this question:

cutypie
I have already downloaded the WAIK file as an .ISO but how do I actually 'install' it to drive "C"??

I guess you could mount the ISO if you have a suitable program installed. Failing that I think burning a cheap DVD is the recommended approach. See install instructions:
Download The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 from Official Microsoft Download Centre

Although I have the WAIK I am one of those interested in how Macrium does the pe creation using just their pe downloads. I'm sure there would be others who ran the patch for the latest version of free Macrium and might like to have a pe 4 or 5 using the Macrium downloads.

Edit: If I select the "Custom base WIM" and browse to the Macrium downloaded (v4 in my case) pe then create the rescue.iso it appears to work. It also appears to be Windows 8 pe environment. I've only tested mounting images.

I am just about to try that. I have a good idea what it does. Will check and see.

Yep, it just mounts the image and throws in these files.

launch.exe
aesdll.dll
le5.dll
networkshell.dll
oledlg.dll
peexplorer.exe
textedit.exe
diskrestore.exe
PrimoBurner64.dll
taskbar.exe
psmounterex.sys
license.rtf
syntaxedit.ini
Winpeshl.ini
reflect.exe

as expected, winpeshl.ini is the bog standard

[LaunchApp]
AppPath = %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Macrium\launch.exe

It tries to set scratch, but that isn't going to work running win7 dism against win8.1 image. Then it unmounts.

That will be ok ( sort of) for some custom pes. But reflect will be the shell - replacing whatever shell you had carefully set up in your custom pe. If you aren't using winpeshl.exe as the cmd line, you will have a bit of a mess.

It loads the program from the media you booted from. It will usually detect your saved backups wherever they are.

Another Macrium Update correcting a few issues.

Bug Fixes: 5.2.6515:

USB rescue media
Some USB pen drive configurations were not supported by the USB rescue media wizard. This has been resolved.
Windows PE
On specific windows XP configurations, the PE based rescue environment build can fail. This has been resolved.
Image verification Problems
A rare situation could cause Images created with v5.2.6504 to fail verification due to a race condition during image creation. This has been resolved.

Thanks Keith for the heads up.

Also new version of winpe maker,which will include macrium for you. Some nice improvements, it looks pretty, too



HERE