Windows 10: Capturing a backup wim from an already working PC and getting back the one-key recovery...

First of all, it's my first post and I don't know the place, so if I put this post in the wrong place please kindly show me where should I post


So, I had to reset my laptop today, and struggled about five hours to solve some problems like the install media getting wrecked, and I kind of miss that Lenovo OKR function was destroyed by me upgrading to Windows 10 and want to get it back. Other steps are OK, I know how to rebuild that OKR partition, but I kind of think that I can feed it my own wim file to have an even more sophisticated backup I do experimental things on that laptop, so here is what I ask:

From an already working Windows 10 installation digital entitlement, upgraded from Windows 8 OEM, I can fresh install without running into activation problems, and has just been fresh installed how should I capture it? I know of the dism /capture, but should I sysprep? I remember sysprep strips off activation, so any way to get through this?


After it, activation. Does my activation get into trouble if I:

*Capture an activated installation

*Deploy the very same installation on that very same computer?

:)

 

Is it possible to sysprep a wim file after it is captured?

I know what I am supposed to do: Run sysprep and then capture the image.

I know that you can do a lot of offline work on a WIM file using DISM. I know you can mount, edit, and unmount a WIM.

Is there some creative way to perform the sysprep steps on a WIM file that was captured from a production system?

I've looked far and wide but I've only seen people talking about the Microsoft way of doing things.

 

MDT Stops capturing after 3470 kb

Hi Michael,

Would you be kind enough to share how you got your WIM to capture to network. Was it specific rules you setup in your customsettings.ini or additional steps in your SCCM/MDT Task Sequence?

I'm able to get my offline WIM captured but it stores it local in C:\Statestore. I already tried adding these variables to my customsettings.ini but it does not send the WIM to network share:

Optional Full WIM Backup

ComputerBackupLocation=NETWORK

BackupShare=\\lax-scm-15\offline_wim_backups$

BackupDir=LA_Backups

BackupFile=%OSDComputername%.wim

Thanks

 

Recovery Key Number

Hi Alexander,

You can find the instructions for retrieving your BitLocker Recovery key on the Windows Support site at this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026181/windows-10-find-my-bitlocker-recovery-key

The following text comes from that link:

• Places to look for your BitLocker key:
  
  • On a printout you saved. Look in places you keep important papers.
    
  • Saved on a USB flash drive. Plug the USB flash drive in to your locked PC and follow the instructions. If you saved the key as a text file on the flash drive, use a different computer to read the text file.
    
  • In your Microsoft account. To get your recovery key, go to BitLocker Recovery Keys.
    
  • In your Azure Active Directory account. For work PCs where you sign in with an Azure Active Directory account, to get your recovery key, see the device info for your Microsoft
    Azure account.
    
• 
  Or ask someone for help:
  
  • Ask someone with administrator privileges on the same PC to unlock it with their key.
    
  • If your PC is connected to a domain (usually a work or school computer), ask a system administrator for your recovery key.
    
• If you still can't get in, you'll need to reset your PC. Learn how.
• If you want to make a backup of your BitLocker recovery key: Select the Start button, type BitLocker, select Manage BitLocker from the list
  of results, select Back up your recovery key, and follow the prompts for your preferred backup method.