Cloning existing operating system as Customized windows in ISO format

Samuel, welcome to these public User Forums.

Acronis Universal Restore was designed to help migrate Windows OS to different hardware by using a combination of the standard Acronis Backup and Recovery followed by using AUR (if needed) to provide any additional device drivers that may be required.

See KB 65413: Acronis True Image 2021: Restoring to dissimilar hardware with Acronis Universal Restore and in particular review Steps 4 and 5 of this document.

Also KB 2149: Acronis Universal Restore

KB 36187: Windows activation required after restore with Acronis Universal Restore, cloning or converting backup to virtual machine

KB 45432: Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Universal Restore and Bootability Issues

KB 46405: Acronis True Image: Restored Operating System Fails to Boot

Samuel

It is possible to do what you want; but before we can guide you through the process, we need information on your current PC:

• what operating system does it currently use, for example Windows 10 Enterprise, Version 22H2, build 19045.2311
• is the bios in your current PC set for UEFI or BIOS/LEGACY - the new PCs will have to be set in the same mode. To find out which mode is currently used see 59194: Acronis True Image 2017: How to check if the computer is running 32 or 64-bit UEFI?
• do the new PCs have SATA drive or an M.2 drive (either NVMe or SATA).

Ian

Samuel,

Reading your post suggests that you intend to deploy OS images to a number of machines using a single Reference PC as the source OS image.  Your best bet in doing this successfully on any scale beyond a single single PC is to use Windows DISM Capture Image command to do so specifically the capture-ffu command.

I am providing a link to an MS article covering this subject.  Because the capture-ffu command works as a Sector based Capture/Apply basis it is capable to doing exactly what you have in mind. 

Capture FFU image

When you capture a Windows OS image to deploy to multiple machines you must Generalize the image using Sysprep to remove the SID among other device specific drivers.  When you apply/deploy such an image to another PC that machine will boot to the OOBE (out of box experience) screen just like a new PC would.  At this point Windows will either search online for device drivers for the hardware it encounters or if not online will search Windows DriverStore for generic drivers for devices detected.  It is possible add these drivers via servicing the FFU image prior to deployment using standard DISM servicing add-driver commands.  A link to Sysprep appears below.

Sysprep

Below is a link to device driver servicing.

Device driver servicing

First of all, thanks for your answers.

I tried to do a disk clone, but I got the blue screen Could not boot from disk error.

-64-bit UEFI can using.

I am using Windows 10 LTSC enterprise.

version:1809

build:17763.1

Both computers that I want to clone and where the cloning will be installed are intel Nuc11TNKi7.

The computer has a built-in 512 GB SSD hard disk.

I want to create an installable Windows 10 image file with all its settings and installed applications. Then I want to write the iso file to any flash memory with rufus and install it on any computer with the same specifications.

I've looked at a few examples and it's getting really confusing.

From the ATI 2021 User Guide: Supported operating systems

Note
• Beta builds are not supported. See https://kb.acronis.com/content/60589
• Windows Embedded, IoT editions, Windows 10 LTSB, and Windows 10 LTSC are not supported

Not sure what you mean by wanting to create an installable Windows 10 image file...  iso file.. but Acronis does not create such files.  Acronis can create a full disk image of your current Windows 10 OS and install applications but this will be as an Acronis TIBX image file which then would need to be Recovered to any other system using Acronis bootable rescue media.  This would be an identical copy of the source machine therefore would need to be activated for both the OS and any applications that use device licensing.

You would probably be best advised to follow the information above provided by Enchantech to use Windows DISM Capture Image command for what you are wanting to do, though that may involved a learning curve on your part to understand the usage of this method.

Samuel,

The flaw in your proposed use case is that any computer you write such an ISO file to will not be able to activate the Windows image because you can only have one identical Windows installation on one machine.  A single Windows install deployed on multiple machine will result in the source machine install being activated and rest will be in trial mode which is a 90 day period.

Using the FFU image method will allow you to activate Windows with a valid key after first boot using a valid new key.  This procedure follows the process used by OEM manufacturers and therefore is acceptable and reliable.  Other methods are not recommended.  

thanks for your answers.
I guess I have to follow the steps in this link, right? so this is your suggestion.

-- youtube 'watch?v=Bl1gNZCek4c&ab_channel=GhostTechTips'

Samuel,

The YouTube video explains how to capture a Windows image as a WIM file and prepare a RAW disk to apply the Wim image on.

The link I provided Capture FFU Image performs the image capture sector by sector which eliminates the need for preparing a RAW disk by creating the partitions as outlined in the YouTube video.  This is a much more simple process and will create an image that is a complete disk image of all existing partitions.  You need to read the MS article, it is all explained there.

Hi Enchantech

I would like to ask a few questions that I am really curious about.
-What is the difference between creating and distributing the .ffu you linked above and cloning?
-I think I created everything step by step in the link you shared. But I can't get exactly what I want. I take the disk image and then apply it to the ssd hard disk connected with usb. There is no problem here. The application completes.
Currently, I have windows 10 on two hard disks on my computer. The first is the original windows installation connected via the NVME port. The other is the operating system (clone) that created the .ffu image.
It can boot from the first hard disk, everything works, but I cannot boot from the second SSD hard disk.When I remove the hard disk (connected with the nvme port) on which the original windows is installed, there is a problem in booting from the SSD hardist (Win 10 distributed with .ffu image) connected with usb. It gives an error.

Is it normal for this to happen? because i experienced the same thing I cloned with acronis True image.

Not:I did this test to test that everything is ok before trying it on a different sample computer. If everything goes well. I will copy the installed Win 10 with all its programs and settings to a usb flash disk and distribute it to any computer from there.

Does anyone have an idea about this? Maybe this is not the place for this question, but I'm really trying to reach a conclusion...

Samuel,

Booting Windows from a USB connected located is a problem in that the Windows OS is not a portable OS and therefore if placed on removable media like USB it will most likely fail.

The FFU image is meant to applied to a basic fixed disk install in a computer.  The instructions in the learning center I linked tell you that you can place the FFU file on a USB disk but you must then Apply (install) that file to a fixed disk which can then be booted.

You ask is this normal because you experienced the same thing when you cloned with True Image?  The answer is yes it is normal.

I do not like the word clone as it implies copy which is far from the Capture and Apply methods of disk imaging.  The best way to look at it is this.  Cloning is a method of copying all contents (sectors) of a physical disk to another physical disk which brings along with it all ID information.  A Backup and Recovery is a method of creating an image file of all content (data) on a physical disk which can then be recovered to another physical disk.  This process also brings along all ID information.  The Capture and Apply method of imaging differs in that the disk image itself is generalized (stripped of all ID information and certain applications) therefore allowing the Apply sequence to paste the image on disk free of ID information so that Windows keys, drivers, etc. can then be added to achieve a "clean" install if you will.

Enchantech thank you for your help. The information you provided was really helpful.
I found why the 'ffu' app is not working. After removing the Kingston PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD card installed in the computer and replacing it with WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD M.2 2280, I tried to apply the WinOEM.ffu file to this SSD, when I restarted after applying, windows did not see this drive as a bootable disk. .
The issue was resolved by applying the WinOEM.ffu file directly to the Kingston PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.

Samuel,

In your case I would assume that the disk interfaces being different between the two drives (NVMe vs. SATA) has some effect on bootability although I am not familiar with what that is exactly.  It could be that boot code differs in some way. 

You might want to review the links below for more understanding.  Pay close attention to all boot sector points in the links.

MS Bootsect commands

Fix issues with boot records

BCDboot Command Line Options