Multiple USB Keys - Deployment to remote techs

[strikesbac]

Im trying to think if there is a better way to handle this. We have a number of remote techs that need to be able to flash FFUs to workstations. There isnt any central file store so we cant copy Driver Packs and the necessary files to their systems in order for them to use the USBImagingToolCreator.ps1 script.

The only obvious method that I can think of is to create the first USB and then take an image (bin) of that using something like PassMark ImageUSB. Whilst this works there are some things that are less than optimal. Our build is around 180Gb (lots of driver packs). So, we have to use 256GB USB drives for the FFU build. We then grab an image (bin) of that 256GB drive, but because its a bit for bit clone, that includes copying all the free space. Then the drive that your writing the bin file to needs to be bigger than the source drive that it was captured from. You might get lucky and find that the source drive was smaller than the destination drive but to be safe you need to step up to the next size, 512GB. The other annoying thing about using a bin is that because you capture all that free space (from 180-256GB) then the output file that we're uploading to share takes even longer to download.

So, unless I can think of another method im using 512GB USB drives to distribute a bin file that is 256GB in size, which contains 180GB of data.

[strikesbac]

I thought that id post back as I think ive answered my own question.

1. Use disk part to shrink the deployment partition by a reasonable amount (in my case approx 20GB).
2. Install WSL2 and usbipd
3. Mount the USB drive in to WSL
4. Use DD to capture an img.gz

Extract the .img file and then distribute that and techs flash using Rufus. The alternative is to use a linux vm and a virtualbox to passthrough the USB device and do the same thing, but Virtual Box and Hyper-V dont play well on the same host.

[astavitsky]

Why not create a read-only file share on the build server and use USBImagingToolCreator.ps1?

[strikesbac]

Why not create a read-only file share on the build server and use USBImagingToolCreator.ps1?

Please read the first paragraph of the original post. :)

[rbalsleyMSFT]

Interesting way to handle that. Even though there isn't a central file server that they have access to, could you use any cloud storage provider (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc)? I understand the driver packs are large and would take time to download, but I presume they'd just download them once.

And if you could fix this in FFU Builder so it was native to the tool, what would you suggest? We have a lot of users that are in rural areas that don't have great connectivity. I have plans to revamp the USBImagingToolCreator.ps1 script and provide a UI for that to make it easier for remote techs to use and make it easier to create USB drives.

[strikesbac]

I'll provide some additional context, although I don't expect this to be a common use case.

Some of our remote sites have no on-site IT support, so we rely on temporary contractors or, in some cases, power users to assist. Many of these individuals don't speak English, which is one of the reasons we were interested in FFU Builder: simplicity and speed of deployment.

Our current FFU Builder process is straightforward. We send a single (large) BIN file, the user downloads it, opens ImageUSB, writes it to a USB drive, flashes the FFU to the device, and the deployment is complete.

The alternative is far more complex: downloading a Windows ISO, sourcing any required WinPE drivers, creating bootable media, and performing a clean Windows installation.

Managing driver packs for 50+ models is also challenging, as it creates over 100,000 files, which OneDrive struggles to handle. Packaging them as WIM files helps, but regenerating the boot.wim removes the PE drivers, introducing additional manual steps.

We're currently using a Backblaze B2 (S3-compatible) bucket to distribute our BIN files.

Ideally, we'd like a simple application or script that downloads the required files from the bucket (or shared storage) and creates the USB media automatically. The simpler and more user-friendly the process, the better.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.