Integrate Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Tools (DaRT) into the MDT boot image

I recently found out Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Tools (I'll refer to it as DaRT thereafter) was quite handy. It is part of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, which is available for free if you're covered by Software Assurance.

So basically the goal here it to integrate the tools available in DaRT into the WinPE boot image generated by MDT.

Looks handy, doesn't it?

DaRT is distributed as an installer which requires Windows 7 setup files to generate a custom WIM encapsulated into an ISO. Sounds quite cool but that's one more thing to maintain and update with new drivers... Since the DaRT installer uses WinPE that shouldn't be too hard to figure out a way to add some more files to make it work.

Took me a little while to figure out but it ended up working so I'm sharing the technique with you guys:

You will need: Windows AIK, the DaRT installer, MDT 2010 and some kind of archive utility like 7-zip.

You will also need to do this twice, once for the x86 Boot Image and once for the x64 Boot Image.

1. Acquire the MS DaRT installers for x86 and x64 located in the MDOP iso available through MS Volume Licensing or MSDN.
2. Follow the wizard to create the 2 ISOs, 1 for x86 and the other one for x64.
3. Create a directory called the following directories: c:\DaRT\ERD and c:\DaRT\files (or whatever/wherever you like).
4. Expand the ISOs to c:\DaRT\ERD\x86 and c:\DaRT\ERD\x64 (using 7-zip for example).
5. Open a privileged command prompt and use the following command:
   C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing>dism /Mount-Wim /wimfile:c:\DaRT\ERD\x86\sources\boot.wim /mountdir:c:\DaRT\files\x86 /index:1
   and
   C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing>dism /Mount-Wim /wimfile:c:\DaRT\ERD\x64\sources\boot.wim /mountdir:c:\DaRT\files\x64 /index:1
6. At this point you can delete c:\DaRT\ERD if you want.
7. Go to c:\DaRT\files\x86 and x64. You should see the following directories:
   Program Files
   Program Data
   sources
   Users
   Windows
8. Delete Program Data and Users.
9. Go to Program Files, delete all directories but "Standalone System Sweeper".
10. Go to sources, delete all directories but "recovery".
11. Go to Windows, delete all directories but "System32". Then, under System32 sort files by date. Delete all files and folders that are not timestamped as of the day you created the ISO. That should leave you with 28 files (37 if you have the debugging tools). Additionally, delete winpeshl.ini as it interferes with the MDT wizard.
12. At this point we're pretty much done.
13. Go to MDT, right click on your Deployment Share > Properties.
14. In both Windows PE x86 Settings or Windows PE x64 Settings at the Extra Directory to add, specify C:\DaRT\files\x86 for the x86 boot image and C:\DaRT\files\x64 for the x64 boot image (or any other folder you may already be using/wanting to use).
15. Rebuild your deployment share.

You're done.

Namaste.

Posted in: DaRT,Deployment,MDT,Troubleshooting,WinPE