Create Bootable USB Media without Vista in SCCM

Have you ever tried to create a USB bootable media for a task sequence in SCCM but did not have access to an already bootable USB media or a Vista machine with the SCCM console?

If you have a vista machine (or server 2008) it is easy to create a bootable USB media.  Simply format the media as NTFS and then use the disk management utility - right click on the media and select "Mark Partition as Active".

If you do NOT have access to a Vista or server 2008 machine you can still achieve the same result with a little more work using just the SCCM console and a writable DVD+-R or CDR.  Just follow these steps.

1. Ensure your boot image has "Enable command support (testing only)" selected.  (Done via the boot image properties page, Windows PE tab.  Usually with the x86 image unless you wish to use the x64 image for this).
2. Select any of your task sequences and "Create Task Sequence Media".
3. Create Bootable media and choose a CD/DVD set - Pointing to a Media File name of your choice.
4. Burn the media to a blank CDR.
5. Boot the burned media on a machine (any machine with USB will work, you will not format the HD so you can use a production machine if necessary).  Once booted to the SCCM screen, hit F8.  (do NOT continue with the wizard if you are using a production machine)
6. While the machine is booting PE 2.0 plug the USB media you wish to use into the USB slot. 
7. From the command window run "diskpart"
8. In Diskpart run the command "list volume"
9. A list of volumes will appear.  Determine which volume is the USB media.
10. In Diskpart run the command "select volume X" where X is the volume number of the USB media.
11. In Diskpart run the command "active".
12. You can now use the media as often as you like in the SCCM console as bootable media (you do not need to run this process every time, once it is active (bootable) it will remain so unless you delete the partition).

I hope this tip helps!

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