ok, a short background:

I have WinPE working great. I am trying to install an unattended Win2k3 Server install.

1) I use diskpart to clean and partition the drive
2) Then use format to format to ntfs.
3) Then run the winnt32.exe with command line switches.

Once it is done, it reboots to a black screen with a flashing cursor.


Things I have tried (on PATA, SATA, SCSI, SAS):

1) running "bootsect /nt52 c: /force", right before the winnt32.exe setup is run
2) running "MbrFix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes", right before the winnt32.exe setup is run


If I do the same steps on WinPE 2005 based on Win2k3SP1, it works fine.

Any ideas? Am I missing something obvious?

I am having the same problem.
After some research I found that the new type of disk tables called Guid Partition Tables or GPT. More on GPT can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table
I think you need to some how create the partition in the old MBR format instead of the new GPT format. I am theorising (and in the process of testing) that when you clean the disk you used the command convert mbr create the partition and then add the command ID=06 it should create a MBR partition instead of GPT.
i.e.
Diskpart
select disk 0
clean
convert mbr
create partition primary size=32000 ID=06

Have no idea if this works or not but may give you something to look at?
Will let you know if I find a way to get around this.

Hi

You have to remember to set the disk active in diskpart

Like:

Diskpart
Sel disk 0
create par pri
format fs=ntfs label=system quick
active
exit

then launch setup



Best Regards

Rico Raja
www.windows-admin.com
MCP, MCSA, MCTS, MCT

It seems that the new diskpart has "issues". On some motherboard chipsets, it can corrupt the MBR of the drives. I ended up using gdisk32 to wipe the mbr, and seems to have fixed the problem.

EDIT:
I'll have to look into the "convert mbr" and "ID=06" commands. Thanks for the heads up.

Yeah I've since found out from this article http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=po...=81&t=88083
OK here is what Microsoft says:

The BIOSes on these motherboards is incorrectly reporting CHS Values (240 heads). The problem has to do with the algorithm used to calculate CHS settings and the difference in policy between drive partitioning between Diskpart 1.5 (which aligns partitions on cylinder boundaries) and Diskpart 2.0 (which aligns them on 1MB boundaries). When partition sector comes along, that has been created with diskpart 2.0, Windows XP tries to change the values for the logical end of partition and translate them into CHS values, which fails therefore booting the operating system also fails.


Your options are:

-An updated BIOS from the motherboard vendor to correct the invalid CHS values. Many vendors have already corrected this and that is why some motherboards fail and others do not. *This is the ideal and correct solution*

-A software change, if created, would be to Windows XP setup. This would then require you to update all of your Windows XP configuration sets to include the hotfix.

-Use the older version of WinPE when installing XP.

I am guessing the same applies for windows 2003.

You mentioned you used Gdisk to fix the problem. What commandline did you use?

Cheers

I raised the issue to microsoft and they gave me the following answer back:
POTENTIAL WORKAROUND #1:
------------------------

When creating the partitions for use with XP and 2003, you can use the following command to create the partition:

create part primary align=16065

Advantage: No modifications required to the WinPE image itself or to the XP/2003 install image, only change is a slight modification to the diskpart script.

Considerations:
- This will leave anywhere from 16MB to 32MB of the disk unused. (This is not as big a deal as it might sound; even under the old XP partitioning scheme we always left from 1MB to 8MB of the disk unused. On modern-day disks this amount of space is trivial.)
- If users look in Disk Management after the OS is installed, they will notice 16MB of unpartitioned space shown at the beginning of the disk.

POTENTIAL WORKAROUND #2:
------------------------

Modify your WinPE 2.0 image to have the following registry changes:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT
LessThan4GB REG_DWORD 0
Between4_8GB REG_DWORD 0
Between8_32GB REG_DWORD 0
GreaterThan32GB REG_DWORD 0

This can be done by modifying the registry hive in the boot.wim file used to create the WinPE disc.

Then use diskpart as usual to partition the disc.

I'm currently testing work around 2 on vmware. I've injected the registry changes in to my boot.wim by mounting it to a folder c:\Winpe\mount and the executing the following commands:
reg load HKLM\PE-SYS c:\Winpe\Mount\Windows\system32\config\system
Reg Add "HKLM\PE-SYS\ControlSet001\Services\vds\Alignment" /t Reg_Dword /v LessThan4GB /d 0 /f
Reg Add "HKLM\PE-SYS\ControlSet001\Services\vds\Alignment" /t Reg_Dword /v Between4_8GB /d 0 /f
Reg Add "HKLM\PE-SYS\ControlSet001\Services\vds\Alignment" /t Reg_Dword /v Between8_32GB /d 0 /f
Reg Add "HKLM\PE-SYS\ControlSet001\Services\vds\Alignment" /t Reg_Dword /v GreaterThan32GB /d 0 /f
reg unload HKLM\PE-SYS

I can't confirm if this works or not yet.

Cheers

Hi,

i've make it works on Winpe 2.0 to do an unattended install of W2K3.

Not with .reg, align=16065, bootsect (all these workaround was failing for me except bootsect that allow me to reboot on ntldr but bluescreen at startup of setup)

format partition to fat32 filesystem and anyway W2k3 convert partition to ntfs while setup (okay it's come with a reboot but it work well!)

I've used W2K3 with SP1 on a IBM x3650 with serveRAID 8k controler for SAS drives.

Hope that can help someone!

I'm using PE2.0 and trying to build a 2k3 server and have this issue.
So creating the logical and extended partitions as fat32 first works?
How do I tell the 2k3 setup to convert both to NTFS?

Please advise...

Or is there a better solution?
IBM x225.

What is the best way to workaround this issue?
Please can someone respond, I am hoping by now more research has been done,
and there is a failsafe way to get around this issue.

Thanks.

Right before I kick off my install script on WinPE2, I use the method above:

Modify your WinPE 2.0 image to have the following registry changes:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT
LessThan4GB REG_DWORD 0
Between4_8GB REG_DWORD 0
Between8_32GB REG_DWORD 0
GreaterThan32GB REG_DWORD 0

Once I've made those reg changes, then I use diskpart to create my partitions and format them, then I kick off the install.

Sounds great.

>>Modify your WinPE 2.0 image to have the following registry changes:

Exactly where do I make the changes you listed?
So far, I have only needed to add in a custom startnet.bat.

Any help would be appreciated.
CHEERS!

I import the following reg file from my install script once WinPE2 is loaded:

Thanks again.

I boot my Pe2.0 CD, sees the NICS and RAID controller no problem,
attach to the network, and run a diskpart and format script.
Although the format is EXTREMELY slow...the old PE used to format really quick.
Is this the Vista format that takes so long?

It creates a C and D drive as I expect, and starts loading Windows.
I'll see if I even get any errors related to this and give your solution a try.

Thanks.

Are you using the format command from within diskpart? or are you using the standalon format?

What is your command line for format?

DISKPART then format. Is there a better way to do this?

I run a diskpart script giving 20GB to C and the rest to D:
SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY SIZE=20000
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
ASSIGN LETTER=C

CREATE PARTITION EXTENDED
CREATE PARTITION LOGICAL
ASSIGN LETTER=D

SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE

EXIT

Then this format command:
FORMAT C: /FS:NTFS /Y /V:SYSTEM
FORMAT D: /FS:NTFS /Y /V:DATA

Try this winpe2 diskpart script:

I am on it, thanks for you help.

Question, are there any negatives to using the 'quick' option on a brand
new server ? Versus normal format?

CHEERS!

I will keep the format within the diskpart script, thanks for that.

Without the 'quick' it is dead slow as well though.
Any idea why it is so slow, and what are the cons to using the 'quick' format option.
These are brand new servers, that have never had an OS loaded before.

Thanks.

I have built hundreds of new servers with the "quick" option ... no issues at all

However, I did use the format command from PE ... not the diskpart option.

Both ways of formatting (diskpart and format) are dog slow in PE2.0.
Even when booting to a machine that I use PE1.0 to build now.
PE1.0 is very quick, same machine PE2.0 is dog slow.

I will leave it as is with the 'quick' option.
Thanks for your help.

Just a thought ... I use HP SCSI drivers integrated into PE

Could it be you have a poor performing HD driver?

In your answer file, put the following line in:

[Unattended]
FileSystem=ConvertNTFS

This is a little late.. but since it seems to be asked a couple times in this thread, and I didn't see an answer..

The only Negative is that it doesn't do a full format, it only formats the MBR/leading tracks.

What this would mean, is if you have a bad HDD, you may not notice it right away.
At least with my business the failure of a new HDD is so rare that this is a non issue.