I created a USB (512mb) key with Vista's diskpart with fat32.

I then used the Windows Vista AIK to install the WinPE items on a WinXP system.

I then used the following once I inserted the USB key

xcopy c:\win_adm64\ISO\*.* /s /e /f e:\

Which copied the files over to the USB Key.

I then booted the computer with the USB Key and it got to the following screen:

X:\windows\system32\wpeinit


and just hangs there. I looked on the USB key and there is no .log file or anything to tell me what is going one.

The contents of the USB key are as follows:

boot\
+------font\
+------bcd
+------boot.sdi
+------bootfix.bin
+------efisys.bin
+------efisys_noprompt.bin
+------etfsboot
EFI\
+------microsoft\
+-------+-----boot\
+-------+-----+-----bcd
sources\
+-------boot.wim
bootmgr
bootmgr.ef

Am I missing something? I want to use WinPE to allow me to install Vista. The boot portion of my Vista install cd is buggered and I found out you cannot load Vista via MSDOS.

Check Data Access Prevention in BIOS. See if you have something like this? WHat HW model you have?

Check this thread about partition boundaries:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21186
cannot say if it applies to your case, but it is worth a check.

jaclaz

Recopy the wim back onto the drive. I get this every now and then if the file doesn't finish copying (i've gotten in the habit of "safely remove hardware" so it doesn't happen anymore)

How long does it hang there? For me it can take between 20 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on which motherboard is in the PC, for that to complete.