Failed to find the current TS configuration path (0x80070003)

When capturing Windows 7 SP1 on VMware with a VMXNET3 network onboard, the following error is displayed during Capture media:
-Unable to read task sequence configuration disk
-ConvertBootToLogicalPath failed to convert 'MULTI(0)DISK(0)RDISK(0)PARTITION(2)\_SMSTASKSEQUENCE\WINPE\SOURCES\BOOT.WIM' (0x80070003)
-Failed to find the current TS configuration path
-Failed to find the configuration path. The system cannot find the path specified. (Error: 80070003; Source: Windows)
-Execution failed with error 80070003

This because of the following configuration:
-VMXNET3 Network device in virtual machine
-VMware Tools installed/running in virtual machine
-VMXNET3 Ethernet Adapter driver missing in boot image
-VMware PVSCSI Controller driver missing in boot image

Just use a virtual machine with Intel E1000 or VMXNET3 Network, and uninstall VMware Tools when installed/running. Make sure that both VMware Ethernet and PVSCSI drivers are installed in the boot image(s) used for Capture media.

After that you will be fine!

No IP-address set during MDT Sysprep and Capture

Last week I created a Windows 7 SP1 image manually, installed almost 200 updates in it (!) and started the MDT 2013 default task sequence "Sysprep and Capture". The first part went fine (Sysprep), but when in Windows PE there was no IP-address set. Oops! Lucky me you can start a command prompt and start "Retry" later. Let's have a look how to enter a static IP-address within Windows PE.

 
Just start Command Prompt with F8 and type in the following command: "Netsh interface ip show config" > which is showing that my interface is called "Ethernet0"

After that type in the command: "Netsh interface ipv4 set address “Ethernet0” static <IP address> <Subnet mask <Gateway>" 

After that it was possible to capture Windows 7 SP1 successfully!

This simply made my day! ;)

Create Task Sequence "Capture" Media

In ConfigMgr 2007 R2 there can be created Task Sequence Media. This is extremely useful when PXE boot is not available, or not allowed, and an image must be created. Default there will be jobs for Stand-alone media (used for offline devices), Bootable media (used for deployment) & Capture media (used for capture a reference machine). With ConfigMgr R3 there is even more functionality available in the Task Sequence Media wizard. Then there will be a job added for Prestaged Media (used for re-deployment).

In this blog the Task Sequence Capture Media will be explained. Install a reference machine with Windows installation, Windows Updates and possibly Microsoft Office. Then start The burned Capture Media for starting ConfigMgr Task Sequence. For a Windows XP image the device must be placed in a Workgroup, and Sysprep deployment tools must be placed in C:\sysprep. On Windows Vista & 7 this is not necessary. Then only the device must be placed in a Workgroup. The Sysprep deployment tools are already build-in.

Choose Next, and fill in the path and name for storing the image, and use an account which has security rights for storing the image on that location. Choose Next again and Sysprep will start running. After the reboot WinPE will start, and a Capture job will save the image to the given location.

After capturing the only thing to do is importing the WIM image on "OSD - Operating System Images", and add it to the Distribution point. No additional Build and Capture Task Sequence is needed anymore! This becomes very handy when PXE boot is not working or not possible in a environment!

For OSD can also the "Bootable media" be used for deploying the image. This will be a different ISO file to create, and deployment will also works this way!