Understanding the Volume Page in the Modena Beta OSD Setup Wizard
One of the features enabled in the PXE experience (bare metal) is the volume page. This page is disabled by default when running from Run Advertised Programs (RAP) or ARP as all the information is available from within the operating system. In this post, I’m going to focus on explain our Modena OSD Setup Wizard’s volume page such as how to enable it but more importantly what is going on in the background based on selections made in the wizard.
Volume Checks
The first thing to note is the fact that the OSD Setup Wizard requires an NTFS partition exist otherwise we will throw an error. This isn’t a bug in the actual OSD Setup Wizard but instead is a requirement for ConfigMgr 2007 OSD. Thus, their is no support for RAW drives and the wizard will produce the volume page but it will be grayed out and give the warning message that no NTFS volume is present.
To resolve this problem, it is pretty straight forward using these commands:
In short -
- Open Diskpart by typing Diskpart
- Type:
Sel Disk 0
Create Par Pri
Format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=c:
Now give it another try and you should see the drive listed as an available volume.
WinPE vs. Full OS Configuration
It should be noted that, with our Modena Beta OSD Setup Wizard tools we deliver two configuration files. The purpose of this is to show how to effectively have a configuration file for the wizard that supports the bare-metal experience versus the scenario where a user is running the wizard from a full OS.
| File Name | Purpose |
| osdConfWinPE.xml | This file differs slightly in the fact that it is expected to be used when the Task Sequence detects that it is running in WinPE. In this case, all pages by default are enabled in the XML including the Volume Page. |
| osdConf.xml | This file is the default configuration used when the Task Sequence detects it is not running in WinPE (e.g. Full OS) and will disable the volume page since assumptions can be made that the end-user would like to upgrade the current OS running on this current partition. The key thing to note here is that by default the users data will be backed up no matter what (since the format/no format in a selection on the volume page) |
Enabling the Volume Page in the Configuration File
The purpose of this blog is to just make sure that those participating in the Modena Beta understand how to test and configure the OSD Setup Wizard tools. This is the key to us getting good feedback that can drive some design changes (if necessary) that will make this wizard as useful as possible. For this example, I’m going to outline how to modify the XML configuration file to enable the Volume page.
To enable the volume page, do the following:
- Open the XML configuration file (osdConf or osdConfWinPE) using your favorite XML editor
- Locate the <pages> element (e.g. CTRL+F)
- Modify the Volume page to say enabled
- Save the file
The enabled volume page XML should look like the following upon completion:
- <Page>
<Option name="WelcomePage" mode="Enabled" text="Welcome." />
<Option name="ComputerPage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="NetworkPage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="LanguagePage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="VolumePage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="SummaryPage" mode="Enabled" />
</Page>
The disabled volume page XML should look like the following upon completion:
<Page>
<Option name="WelcomePage" mode="Enabled" text="Welcome." />
<Option name="ComputerPage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="NetworkPage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="LanguagePage" mode="Enabled" />
<Option name="VolumePage" mode="Disabled" />
<Option name="SummaryPage" mode="Enabled" />
</Page>
Multiple Image Options Available for X64 Machines
A often asked question is around how the wizard determines what to show in the Image list. For example, a WIM might combine both a Vista & Win7 image hence leading to the user having multiple options such as: Windows 7 (x86) and Windows Vista (x86). This could balloon up to 4 or more options in the drop down such as the case where Vista & Win7 are offered on a x64 machine – Windows 7 (x86) and Windows Vista (x86), Windows 7 (x64) and Windows Vista (x64).
To avoid confusion by end-users, the image selection field can be locked to ensure that they are only offered what they should get. However, in a very flexible environment where the end-users are knowledgeable, this option becomes very nice.
-Chris
