Windows 10: Prepare Windows in Audit mode and clone it to smaller harddrive

I need to install and configure Windows 10 on my customer's computer, but I will not have much time, so I want to prepare configured Windows with applications installed and only extract image into harddrive.
I don't have access to target computer right now (it's beeing used), so I need to use virtual machine on my computer for preparation of image.
I'm able to run Windows 10 in Audit mode and install all applications. Problem is that DISM image can't be extracted to harddrive with different size, or can be?
Is there a way how to achieve my goal? Is it possible to image installed Windows and extract it to harddrive with different size? Or to install it with Windows installer (add it to install.wim)?

It would be possible to prepare it with virtual harddrive similar size as physical drive, but every drive is different formatted size, so it's hard.

:)

 

Clone a 1 Tb drive to a 512 Mb SSC

Hi Vaughn,

You can
clone larger HDD to small SSD with a professional disk cloning software as long as the used space is smaller than the SSD. You will not worry it will clone the unused space unless you use sector by sector clone mode.

I suggest you to clone your HDD to SSD with AOMEI Backupper, if the used space is larger than the SSD, you can clone only the OS to SSD and keep the HDD as data storage. This software is very easy to operate.

 

Cloning an upgraded harddrive

Hi Joan,

I realize the inconvenience you are facing. Let me help you in resolving the issue.

Let me confirm that once you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 using the free upgrade offer, you will be able to reinstall, including a clean install, on the same device. You can use the

Media Creation Tool for the same. You won’t need a product key for re-activations on the same hardware. If you make a meaningful change to your hardware(I.e. Like HDD replacement),
you will be required to activate Windows again.

However we can't assure or predict that the cloning will be successful, which is performed using third-party software. I suggest you to take a backup of all your personal files to other external device before you initiate the process.

Keep us posted on Windows related queries and we will be happy to assist you further.

 

Hi Dacesilian, welcome to the Ten Forums.

If it's just one (and up to a dozen or so) PC you need to deploy the image, using a third party imaging app like Macrium instead of MS deployment tools is a good alternative.

This tutorial shows you exactly how to do that using a virtual machine to create the image, then use Macrium Free to capture and deploy the image: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

See the end of the first video about how to use Macrium (or any other imaging solution) to capture the customized image, then the second video about how to deploy it. Be sure to use smaller virtual machine VHD than the target computer's HDD; the image can be deployed to any hardware with the same size or bigger HDD than the VHD on your technician virtual machine.

 

Thank you, Kari.
I've already done everything including Part Six (Sysprep). So now I will continue with Part Eight and use Macrium.

I wanted to avoid to use 3rd party software like Macrium, but if is it free, why not. Thank you!

 

Macrium Reflect Free does remarkable job in this. My recommendation is to use it when the image only needs to be deployed to a few computers.