Solved How to create an image of the MSP Partition on a drive using DISM

I am trying to create image of my drive. For that I followed a very well articulated article from MS Learn website. Now typically a drive that is preloaded with Win 10/11 has 4 partitions. They are
1) UEFI System partition for booting, i.e. ESP
2) Microsoft reserved partition (MSR)
3) Windows OS partition or Data Partition
4) WinRE partition or the Windows Recovery tool partition


For creating images I could assign drive letters (like D:\, R:\, S:\, W:\, etc) to all the partitions but not the second one. i.e. Microsoft reserved partition (MSR). The error message that I got is that since a volume is not assigned to the partition, hence cannot assign a drive letter. So my questions are as follows

1) How can I assign a drive letter to the Microsoft reserved partition (MSR) partition? Do I have to create a volume, assign the volume to the Microsoft reserved partition (MSR) and then assign a drive letter? Is there some other way?
If I have to create a volume, assign the volume to a partition and then give it a drive letter, then will I have to undo the steps after creation of the image? i.e. unassign the drive letter. disassociate the volume from the MSP and then delete the volume that was created? Gosh I hope there is a better way.

2) Is there a mechanism via which DISM can create an image without assigning a drive letter? Can I mount the partition into some folder say %TEMP%\MSP? I will create this particular folder, i.e. %TEMP%\MSP

Why not use backup software to create images of disk.

Transcendence72 said:

I am trying to create image of my drive. For that I followed a very well articulated article from MS Learn website...

For creating images I could assign drive letters (like D:\, R:\, S:\, W:\, etc) to all the partitions but not the second one. i.e. Microsoft reserved partition (MSR). The error message that I got is that since a volume is not assigned to the partition, hence cannot assign a drive letter. So my questions are as follows

1) How can I assign a drive letter to the Microsoft reserved partition (MSR) partition? ...

Click to expand...

Hi Transcendence72,

You can't and you shouldn't. See chart below from this article:




I would suggest you make the MSR partition after you do all your capturing. Just leave a empty partition in the preferred order and then make your MSR partition with it.

Kind regards,

tecknot

Is there a mechanism via which DISM can create an image without assigning a drive letter

Click to expand...

Yes I prefer to use wimlib, but it can be done with dism

couple of examples

guid path
Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:"I:\somename.wim" /CaptureDir:\\?\Volume{789F97D1-BE32-4F0B-9405-7798D093A712}\ /Name:anyname

device path
Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:"I:\somename.wim" /CaptureDir:\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume1\ /Name:anyname

the easiest way to find both of those paths is with diskgenius (free version will do ) . Can be handily rt clicked and copy





can also be found using ray hinchliffe's siv under disk mapping






I like to have both the above tools in/accessible to my winpe



I have a little thing with pecmd for finding bootdevs which displays the paths, but not for the msr obviously. Wim is file based and there is nothing in the msr

MSR doesn't have a filesystem. It's normally empty.

In case you need to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, or perform other legacy disk tasks, it gives up a certain amount of blocks to store metadata for the dynamic disk. If you're not doing anything like that, then technically a Windows system disk can be created without a MSR.

When using DISM, there's no way to capture that metadata. If you were re-install Windows, the correct approach would be to recreate the dynamic disk from scratch. Most users aren't using dynamic disks, so there isn't a real need to capture the MSR's contents. Especially if it's unused data.

If you are restoring from a wim there has to be a partition to apply it to. An alternative is to capture the os partition as install.wim and pop it into the sources folder on installation media then if you fancy using setup.exe it can do the partitioning for you

One way is something like this

wimlib-imagex.exe append %systemdrive% "N:\install.wim" --snapshot --create --config="path_to_wimscript.ini"

the first time that is run it creates n:\install.wim by capturing %systemdrive% using vss snapshot ( the configfile is optional )
each subsequent run uses vss and appends the changes to another image in the same wim

or you could do something similar with dism++ Save Image

Transcendence72 said:

I am trying to create image of my drive

Click to expand...

Why not try backup software. It is simple and easy to use.
I suggest Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows here and Macrium Reflect here.

FreeBooter said:

Why not use backup software to create images of disk.

Click to expand...

pewa said:

Why not try backup software. It is simple and easy to use.
I suggest Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows here and Macrium Reflect here.

Click to expand...

@FreeBooter and @pewa there are two primary reasons. Firstly, I wanted to see how far I can go without depending on 3rd party solutions and only solutions available OOTB with Windows. A wise guy told me once, always keep your options open and have alternatives in place, just in case.
Secondly, I am observing a trend that most of the basic partition/recovery tools are going the way of a subscription models, like ChatGPT or Claude or Netflix. In this economy, this is getting way too much in terms of financing. Also it does not make sense for me to pay for subscription for a functionality that I use say once a quarter or worse come worse once a month. I am the resident IT expert for my parents, extended family on both of my parents side, few neighbors and a few close friends. I need a permanent license which is getting hard and hard to come by.

Not belittling your suggestion, just my 2 cents.

tecknot said:

Hi Transcendence72,

You can't and you shouldn't. See chart below from this article:

View attachment 160917


I would suggest you make the MSR partition after you do all your capturing. Just leave a empty partition in the preferred order and then make your MSR partition with it.

Kind regards,

tecknot

Click to expand...

Thanks @tecknot. I do not know how I missed this.
One question that I had, after looking at the image given above, was that it said No to Extended Partitions but yes to Logical Partitions. Is it because Extended partitions are typically MBR based partitions. While Logical Partitions are GPT based partitions? Or is there some other reasons?

garlin said:

MSR doesn't have a filesystem. It's normally empty.

In case you need to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, or perform other legacy disk tasks, it gives up a certain amount of blocks to store metadata for the dynamic disk. If you're not doing anything like that, then technically a Windows system disk can be created without a MSR.

When using DISM, there's no way to capture that metadata. If you were re-install Windows, the correct approach would be to recreate the dynamic disk from scratch. Most users aren't using dynamic disks, so there isn't a real need to capture the MSR's contents. Especially if it's unused data.

Click to expand...

@garlin I do not plan currently to use a dynamic disk. And I will not like to close the option to use dynamic disk in the future. Though using Laptops, All-in-one and Mini Desktops does typically preclude one from using a dynamic disk.
Is there a way to capture the data of the dynamic disk which is stored in MSR?

SIW2 said:

Yes I prefer to use wimlib, but it can be done with dism

couple of examples

guid path
Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:"I:\somename.wim" /CaptureDir:\\?\Volume{789F97D1-BE32-4F0B-9405-7798D093A712}\ /Name:anyname

device path
Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:"I:\somename.wim" /CaptureDir:\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume1\ /Name:anyname

the easiest way to find both of those paths is with diskgenius (free version will do ) . Can be handily rt clicked and copy

DiskGenius Download Center | Free Download DiskGenius

Free download DiskGenius to recover lost data & partitions, manage disk capacity, backup Windows and personal data, and fix disk issues on PCs and Servers.

www.diskgenius.com

View attachment 160923


can also be found using ray hinchliffe's siv under disk mapping

SIV - System Information Viewer

SIV - System Information Viewer

rh-software.com

View attachment 160921


View attachment 160922

I like to have both the above tools in/accessible to my winpe

View attachment 160924

I have a little thing with pecmd for finding bootdevs which displays the paths, but not for the msr obviously. Wim is file based and there is nothing in the msr

View attachment 160925

Click to expand...

Thanks @SIW2. One of these days I need to have a in depth look at wimlib and dism+. Are there any posts in this forum which can help? Or are there any tutorials that I can follow.
Also in light of what @garlin said in an earlier post, what would you suggest?

Will have to check whether HirenbootPE has ray hinchliffe's siv as well as winlib installed.
I liked the disk mapping schematic given by ray hinchliffe's siv application. why cannot windows Diskpart give something equivalent? It is sloppy on the side of Redmond. Very sloppy indeed.

Transcendence72 said:

@garlin I do not plan currently to use a dynamic disk. And I will not like to close the option to use dynamic disk in the future. Though using Laptops, All-in-one and Mini Desktops does typically preclude one from using a dynamic disk.
Is there a way to capture the data of the dynamic disk which is stored in MSR?

Click to expand...

Again, the MSR doesn't store anything. If you create a dynamic disk, a new 1MB partition gets carved out which stores a copy of the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) database. There are no normal Windows tools for reading or writing the LDM.

You're supposed to run Disk Manager to create, destroy and manage dynamic disks at a high level.

Some paid backup tools are aware of dynamic disks, and treat them correctly for recovery. If you're not using a dynamic disk, then it's all irrelevant. Dynamic disks have fallen out of favor as an outdated feature, as Storage Spaces and onboard HW RAID (ie. Intel RST) are more common.

Stop worrying about it.

If you want more options, you can create a recovery drive. This video will explain step by step how to recover from a BSOD.


Let me put it this way. A recovery drive is stronger than an MCT.
It cleans your drive, ensures that your system is not corrupted and malware-free and you have essential BIOS/UEFI settings for optimal performance and security.

One of these days I need to have a in depth look at wimlib and dism+. Are there any posts in this forum which can help? Or are there any tutorials that I can follow.

Click to expand...

There are instructions for the various commands on wimlib site.

I already posted the most useful command for backing up the os to a .wim which seems to fit the bill for what you want

dism++ is easy. Just look through the menus. If it is not obvious to you, ask here, I am quite familiar with it.

You could also use winntsetup which is excellent. It requires a bit of knowledge if you want to put presets in the WinNTSetup.ini file . pdf file attached at bottom of post if you want to do that. It is not required.


If you are using wim backups it might be a good idea to have a simple pe on usb stick with dism++, winntsetup and a partition manager e.g. diskgenius included. That would be handy for restoring.

something a bit like this but you wont need macrium, hasleo or backupper in there if you are using wim files


I usually set up hotkeys as well in case recovery environment is wanted.. ctrl+alt+r for recovery environment. ctrl+alt+m return the menu

Wim files have to be applied to a partition.

Most likely recovery scenario is just applying the wim contents to the original os partition. Typically format the existing os partition, apply the wim and that is all.

If the disk has failed and you need to apply the wim to a new disk, it needs partitioning first.
Both bootice ( included with winntsetup ) and diskgenius have "quick partition" function

this kind of thing

Thanks to all who replied back. I will be marking this topic as solved. I have got my answer and some more.

Transcendence72 said:

Thanks @tecknot. I do not know how I missed this.
One question that I had, after looking at the image given above, was that it said No to Extended Partitions but yes to Logical Partitions. Is it because Extended partitions are typically MBR based partitions. While Logical Partitions are GPT based partitions? Or is there some other reasons?

Click to expand...

Hi Transcendence72,

Logical partitions are to a MBR as primary partitions are to a GPT disk. You will not find logical partition on a GPT disk.

In a GPT (GUID Partition Table) disk, the concept of logical partitions as seen in MBR (Master Boot Record) is not applicable. GPT allows for a maximum of 128 primary partitions without the need for extended or logical partitions, making it more flexible and efficient for managing disk space.

Kind regards,

tecknot