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Restoring a Disk Image (PSImage)

PSImage is not supported by FileWave Support so please do not submit tickets with them about it. The information provided here is for educational purposes only. If you would like to purchase professional services hours for consulting assistance setting up PSImage or customizing it please contact professional.services@filewave.com with your request. If you have existing unused professional services hours you may be able to use them for this purpose. Any feedback on PSImage can also be sent to the same email address. Any work on this would be done on Discord or in working with Professional Services. For the official Windows Imaging solution please see Network Imaging / IVS.

In general it's recommended that you enable automatic conflict resolution to "Automatically resolve conflicts" with "Replace old client with new" when imaging clients to avoid device conflicts and unnecessary creation of new device client IDs.

  1. Boot from the USB thumb stick or network.
  2. You may be prompted to enter the name of the server hosting the psimage share, name of the share, and credentials depending on how config.ini is set up. If you are reimaging locally you will be presented directly with the main PSImage menu.
  3. At the main PSImage menu select the option to restore a disk image. If mode.reimage file is present, the main PSimage menu will be skipped and you will proceed immediately to restore an image.
  4. If there is an existing image association, the device will proceed directly to restoring a disk image. Otherwise you will be prompted for an image to restore and computername for the client PC. A list of available disk image names will be presented for you to choose from. Copy and paste the desired one at the prompt.
  5. After the client hard disk is wiped and restored, the client PC will reboot to kick off the post-imaging process. You may unplug the USB ethernet adapter as this point if a working Wi-Fi profile is present in the extra folder.
  • On the first pass the PC will autologin with the fwadmin account, import the Wi-Fi profile, rename itself, and reboot.
  • On the second pass PC will autologin, the FileWave client will be installed, kiosk customization will be applied if present, and a Windows firewall exception will be added. Client reboots after this.
  • On the third pass PC will autologin, wait until an inventory has been successfully sent to the FileWave server, then run to_do.bat, and clean up by deleting the c:\windows\temp\psimage folder and the fwadmin account. Client reboots after this.
  • User should be presented with login screen.
  1. Once the PC reboots and the FileWave client starts up it will connect to the FileWave server and install the "Postimaging - Set Custom Fields" fileset. This fileset will fail for client devices that have been reimaged via fileset as the requirement scripts conditions are not met because custom fields have already been set during the imaging process itself when the To Be Reimaged custom field was flipped back to false (unchecked). It only runs successfully for devices reimaged via USB, PXE, and ISO.

Importing the Imaging filesets and custom field

These items can also be found in the import folder in the psimage share.

  1. Import the "Reimage PC" fileset.
    1. Open its contents and browse to the boot folder.
    2. Add the boot.sdi file from the Boot folder from either the ISO file or USB thumb drive into the boot folder in the fileset.
    3. Add your customized boot.wim file to the same boot folder in the fileset.
    4. Add a copy of bcdedit.exe from the system32 folder of a Windows 10/11 computer into the same boot folder in the fileset. You might have to copy bcdedit.exe to your desktop first before being able to add it to the fileset from there.
  2. Import the "To Be Reimaged" Administrator custom field and assign it to all devices.
    1. Create a smart group with the selection criteria To Be Reimaged - equals - true.
    2. Associate the Reimage PC fileset to this smart group.
  3. Import the "Postimaging - Set Custom Fields" fileset.
    1. View its scripts, right click the set_custom_fields.bat activation script and pick Properties.
    2. Select the Executable tab and then the Environment Variables subtab.
    3. Edit the Value for the the TOKEN variable and replace it with your base64 API token.
    4. Associate this fileset to a smart group that contains all your Windows computers. The fileset has a requirements script that blocks it from installing except on client devices that have just been reimaged.

Restoring a disk image remotely via fileset

In general it's recommended that you enable automatic conflict resolution to "Automatically resolve conflicts" with "Replace old client with new" when imaging clients to avoid unnecessary creation of new device client IDs.

To reimage a client PC remotely, it's recommended you implement the following configuration changes to streamline the disk imaging process to minimize user input on the target computer. For example

  • Edit the boot.wim file you're adding to the Reimage PC fileset to not include a password.txt. This way the local user at the remote computer does not have to authenticate.
  • Ensure that the server directive in config.ini in the boot.wim file included in the Reimage PC fileset is set to the address of the server hosting the psimage share rather than "prompt", along with access credentials.
  • Create a mode.reimage file in the config folder on the images share so that the imaging process automatically defaults to restoring a disk image. You can also set it using \config\edit_config.ps1.
  • Add an imaging association for the PC based on serial number and specify a disk image to restore, computername, and any custom fields you would like to set in the image_mappings.txt file.

With the above settings in place, when a client PC boots from the fileset it will automatically connect to the psimage share and go straight to restoring the pre-assigned disk image.

To reimage a client PC that already has a functional FileWave client on it

  1. Set the To Be Reimaged custom field for that device to true by enabling the checkbox next to it and update model. This will cause it to appear in the smart group to which the imaging fileset has been assigned.
  2. Connect to the remote client PC with TeamViewer if the PC is not next to you and you would like to monitor what's happening. The PC will reboot into Windows PE to reimage.
  3. As soon as the image restoration process starts, the To Be Reimaged custom field for that device will automatically be unchecked/reset back to false, taking it out of the smart group that the reimaging fileset is assigned to so that it does not attempt to reimage again.
  4. If any custom fields are present in image_mappings.txt for this client PC they will be set on the FileWave server.
  5. If there is an existing image association the device will proceed directly to restoring a disk image. Otherwise you will be prompted for an image to restore and computername for the client PC. A list of available disk image names will be presented for you to choose from. Copy and paste the desired one at the prompt.
  6. After the client hard disk is wiped and restored, the client PC will reboot to kick off the post-imaging process. You may unplug the USB ethernet adapter as this point if a working Wi-Fi profile is present in the extra folder.
  • On the first pass the PC will autologin, import the Wi-Fi profile, rename itself, and reboot.
  • On the second pass PC will autologin, the FileWave client will be installed, kiosk customization will be applied if present, and a Windows firewall exception will be added. Client reboots after this.
  • On the third pass PC will autologin, wait until an inventory has been successfully sent to the FileWave server, then run to-do.bat, and clean up by deleting the c:\windows\temp\psimage folder and the fwadmin account. Client reboots after this.
  • User should be presented with login screen.
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