hi

I have problems to install Windows XP under WinPE 2.0 (Vista).

so here are the installation steps.
1. Boot into Winpe2 (Vista)
2. Prepare the harddisk with diskpart
3. format harddisk
4. Use bootsect /nt52 c:
5. install from commandline (winnt32 /syspart:c: /s:t:\winnt\i386
/makelocalsource /unattend:t:\winnt\i386\auto.txt)


Under Winpe 2005 (step 4 is not needed) it works fine.
Under Winpe 2.0 the folllowing happens:
- after exit from winpe 2.0 the system boots from hdd an recognized the
ntldr bootsector
- the textmode screen appears an copied the files
- when finished, the PC boots again to enter the GUI mode
- PC stopps immediately when it try to boot from hdd

Error message: A disk read error occured. Press
strl+alt+del key

How can i fix this issue ? I use the RTM Version

try: bootsect /nt52 c: /force

I'm having a similar problem.

I'm using WinPE 2.0 and ImageX for imaging to deploy a windows XP image.

I'm preparing the drive the same way you did. Even with the bootsect command (with and without the /force) and after I restore the image (in vmware) it boots up, finishes the mini setup and blue screens the first time it tries to boot into windows with "unmountable boot volume".

Under WinPE 1.6 this works. But other things I need don't work, thats why I want to go with 2.0.

It seems like the diskpart command creats some kind of unsupported partition with windows xp. I've tried this on a Dell GX150 and vmware and they both fail.

However it did work on a Dell D420. So something is not compatible.

At this point I may have to go back to WinPE 1.6 and use ImageX but I really want to figure this out.

Anybody have any free tools for creating partitions that work under WinPE 2.0?

i try to figure the problem out. Can you give me Bios informations please


What Bios has the Dell D420 and what Bios has the Dell GX150. Have they both award bios ?

I have read that WinPE2 sometimes has issues on some BIOS's hard drive detection methods. If yours is set to "Auto" detect drives, set it to "Large" or disable LBA mode. See if that makes a difference.

You know, you could make a WinXP WIM file and install it that way...

@cluberti
Thanks i know this method, but i want to automate windows via winnt32.

@Jazkal
Thanks for your great info. When i set it to "large mode" it works!!

It seems so that many non Intel Mainboards have this issue. On my tested Intel Mainboards
it works always fine. I have made up a service request to Microsoft.

Have a great weekend.


kyor

kyor,

What mother boards did you see this issue on? Do you know what chipset (north/south bridge) it is using?

I'm trying to narrow down the issue to what chipsets are effected, because I think Microsoft is going to say that it is the chipset makers problem.

Let us know what Microsoft says.

Hi Jazkal,


I've tried it on

MSI Mainboard with the new nvidia61 chipset
Gigabyte 945GZME (Intel 945)
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (intel 965)
Foxconn 865G7.. (Intel 865)

They all fail with standard setting.

Intel Mainboard works fine:
Intel D945GTP and another Intel Mainboard with 945 Chipset
Intel DQ965GF

I will inform you what Microsoft says.

How do you do that, i have searched high and low. Please Explain...

His method won't help in this instance. Even if you had a WIM with a captured WinXp install (syspreped), it would still see the same problem when you laid the image down. The problem is with WinPE v2's diskpart or bootsect.

Now to answer you question on how to to this:

You have a base install of WinXP, configured how you want it.
Then you configure your sysprep answer file for mini-setup.
Then you run sysprep to prepare the OS.
Then you bring the machine up into WinPE and run imagex to capture your new WIM.

From this point you can deploy this image to other boxes.

sorry if this is a stupid question but how do you use sysprep and what is mini-setup lol. I am a novice currently at this.

Get your WinXP CD, and look here:

%ROOTOFCD%\SUPPORT\TOOLS\

here you will find a deploy.cab file. extract this out and have a look at these two files:

deploy.chm
ref.chm

These two files will answer most of your questions.

what if i dont do a sysprep ??

i just capture my fully configured xp install on c: drive

and deploy it to my machine at later time

is sysprep is really nacessary ??

unless the hardware is an exact match, then yes, sysprep is needed.

i always install xp 2 C:\

so making xp wim without sysprep with all users setup and conf. made

re applying to c:\ willnot caus any probz
isn't ??

@Innocent Devil

sometimes i do it the same as you for pc's with the same hardware. But it isn't the microsoft preferred way.

The advantage when you use the sysprep.inf is, that you can customize your image and strip out information that is bundled with the pc.
Example:
- Random Computer name when the PC boots up the first time.
- Image is sometimes smaller. Not necessary files were stripped out. (pagefile.sys)
- you can add additional Driver that windows detects when you start the pc the first time after sysprep, etc.


Greetings
kyor

i didnt made a sysprep.inf

idid was

sysprep -factory
reboot
sysprep -audit
reboot
dont reset activation
generate new sid
sysprep -reseal
reboot

went to vista and open cmd

imagex /compress maximum /config myconf.ini /capture c: h:\xppro.wim "XP Pro" "customised XP"

myconf.ini excludes \boot dir and \bootmgr

bu on deployment i got
windows message: setup isnot complete

what does it mean ??
btw i didntcreated winbom.ini in c:\sysprep

@Jazkal


On some mainboards it does not work to install WinXP via winnt32 even
when i set the HDD access mode in the BIOS to 'Large'.
Diskpart freezes when it try's to format the Harddisk.


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.


The chance is good that Microsoft release a Hotfix for that problem. The Hotfix must be slipstreamed into the source of the i386 directory.

... to be continued

kyor

Do you know the hotfix number? That would help greatly for when I call in to ask for it.

Thanks.

And I have one issue that doesn't fit into that explanation from Microsoft.

Using WinPE 2005 (based on Win2k3 SP1), and deploying Windows 2003 images captured with ImageX, I see the same kind of Issue.

This is using the older "working" diskpart, with and without bootsect/mbrfix (before and after image lay down).



Anyone know if there is an older pre-WinPE2 version of bootsect ?

it is not 100% sure that Microsoft release a Hotfix for that, but the chance
are good, because i know that a lot of people contact Microsoft for that
problem. sorry, i don't know the hotfix number.
If i get more information on that issue, i will post it here.

I know that this issue concern Windows 2003 and Winpe2.0, too.

But i don't know the other issue you have, because we have to install WinXP
machines only.

ok i think here is the complete workaround to solve
the installation issue with winnt32.exe

do the following only for xp and win2003 installations.
On vista you will get performance problems with raid controllers
if you use the fixbootxp.reg

1. run winpe 2.0
2. regedit /s fixbootxp.reg (attached in this post)
3. diskpart
4. bootsect /nt52 c:
5. start winnt32

It works's for me. But i do additional test's


Greetings
kyor

Did you get those reg settings from Microsoft?

yes, it's from Redmond.


kyor

I will give this some testing.

I've included a command line tool I just created to use these settings. (I hate using REG files, but thats just me)

run the EXE file as follows: (only one example at a time) (only run under WinPE v2.0)

DriveAlign.exe XP
DriveAlign.exe 2003
DriveAlign.exe Vista

It will adjust the registry as needed.

If you want to look at the source code, It's included.

thanks. please give feedback for Win2003. I haven't tested with it

kyor

I think this is IT!!!! I have been doing tests on a VMWare machine which has been failing previously. After applying this reg fix it finally was successful.

What I have done is used WinPE 2.0 to deploy a Windows XP Sysprep'd WIM image.

Previously it was bluescreening after the mini setup when it tried to boot into the OS for the first time. After applying this fix I used diskpart to partition and format the hard drive and it now works.

I will have to test on some other hardware I have been having the same issues with but once it works in my vmware image I'm sure the others will work.

Is this method "supported" by microsoft. Are there any KB articles on the web anywhere that reference this? The reason I am asking is this is something that I have to be sure of when presenting it to our client. I need to make sure its a supported solution and not some kind of hacked work around.

Much thanks for the info and solution!!!

Awesome they all work great. The wonders of being 13 yo.

Well, I'm still having the problem under Win2k3. It may be a separate issue but I'm not sure.

@knockz
It's a workaround that Microsoft sends me via email. It does not exist a KB article as i know.

@Jazkal
If you found a solution for imagex and w2k3, please post it here. My college have to handle
with win2003.
But do you really need bootsect on winpe 2005 ?

I think i have tried imagex on winpe 2005 to install a sysprep Windows XP image without bootsect. It works in the beta version of imagex.


have a great weekend
kyor

I've checked them and learnt about that stuff, but it doesn't tell me how to access or use mini-setup or a very good explanation of it, jsut a brief description.

Also do you just sysprep -factory it or syprep -audit and then reseal.

Can this be used on systems with totally different HAL's and update them during mini-setup?

WinPE2 and Imagex works fine with Win2k3 on most of systems, it's just a few that we are having problems with.

And our tests of WinPE 2005, work fine, it's just that we want to move to WinPE2.

Don't see attachment

am-i blind ?

The attachment that i have posted is gone. I Don't know why. I will repost the reg file, when i am at work next week.

Greetings
kyor

I have found it on my desktop :Ö-)

That is strange. I'm wondering if Microsoft asked a Mod to remove the attachments? Wouldn't they tell us if they did that?

I raised the diskpart problem to microsoft this morning and this is the solution they gave me:

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

that worked for me.... i would get a corrupted file system after xp rebooted the second time.... i added a registry import to the task sequence, before partition.

Very interesting thread and solutions are logical. I have been searching for this issue long time ago as soon as winpe 2.0 appeared and no results. Though i tried my work this way:

1: Start winpe 2.0
2: run the regedit to apply the fix boot
3: diskpart normally with the script
3 1/2 : bootsect /nt52 c: (Forgot it almost)
4: runn winnt32 either unattened or attened
5: restart

windows installation proceeds by restarting it (manually after first install) and enters the blue screen like the cd setup, copies the files, and restarts automatically, after this install i got a problem
I get a fast message before it keeps rebooting automatically and it says
A write operation was..... I cant get the rest it restarts too fast (this is the only case i wish the machine was slower)

Anyone can give me a hint how to fix this part, what am I doing wrong.....thanks

I am having a problem while installing Windows XP Pro thru winnt32 thru WinPE v2.

The installation works fine if I am using just a plain Windows XP with SP2 without any updates or tweaks etc but if I apply any of Ryans updates or the whole series of update packs etc to make it upto date it does not even go past the first reboot after the text mode.

The error comes as "Setup was unable to verify Drive c:, youc computer does not have enough memory to examine............"

If it is just a plain XP Pro + SP2 CD it works fine and installation goes thru perfectly.

Any help please......... Setup was unable to verify Drive C: after text mode.

You may get better answers by asking in the Ryan forums.

Personally, I use HFSLIP to do my hotfix slipstreaming, and don't have any issues with WinPE2 and winnt32 over the network.

Sorry I couldn't help with the actual question though.

EDIT: removed. Sorry i posted in the wrong thread

Hi, Kyor
I also tried to install Winxp via winnt32 in Winpe v2.0 on my UFD.
I followed what you posted, but I still met some problems.

1. I can't find "bootsect.exe" on my UFD.
I followed the steps from WAIK Walkthrough "Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on UFD",
(In LRMOPK_TW.iso, we can find bootsect.exe in the BOOT folder)
but I didn't find bootsect.exe in the BOOT folder on my UFD.
So I copied it from "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86" to BOOT folder.

2. The winnt32.exe will close after "Preparing installation".
I followed the steps you mentioned above,
I run winnt32.exe without unattended file,
I typed the regist key then the setup program went on.
But after "Preparing installation", the setup program closed and return to the command line promote.

could somebody do me a favort?
I've bothered about this for months .

That's correct you have to copy it from your opk kit to your WinPE CD or to a network share.



Normaly, after typing in the reg key the setup Program copies the necessary files to your harddisk and
return to the command prompt. after that you have to exit winpe. type exit in winpe and remove your winpe source (i.e. USB Stick, CD)

Hi,kyor
Thanks for your help.
Now I can complete my winpe UFD.

By the way,at first I typed the following commond
%SOURCE%\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:c: /unattend:%SOURCE%\i386\WINNT.SIF
After the computer reboot, the setup program asked me to put "windows xp sp2" setup cd into the cdrom.

So I used /makelocalsource and /tempdrive:c: parameters,the full commond is
%SOURCE%\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:c: /unattend:%SOURCE%\i386\WINNT.SIF /makelocalsource /tempdrive:c:
the unattend setup went on successfully, just like it run from unattend setup CD.

Is it possible run a unattend Xp setup under winpe 2.0 ram disk on UFD without copying all source files to the Hard disk?

I think it's not possible. You need the Harddisk for the necessary installation files

Did you try just creating another folder in your mount or mount\Windows folder before the Prepare your image step?

This would compress it on the .WIM file ... it ceratinly would increase the boot time.

I haven't seen if there is a maximum size for the RAM Drive used (I don't think that information is in TFM)

I am actually going to try this today.

So, this worked (having the i386 source on the RAMDrive). However, I did not have the option of a USB Key ... So, I created an ISO

I added the logic to get the "WINSRC" directory on the RAMDrive to the batch file I have to create WinPE 2.0

Should be adble to modify the SET statements here to make it work for you



Here would be the line(s) that I added to my custom STARTNET.CMD

CD /D X:\WINSRC\i386

WINNT32.EXE /DUDISABLE /SX:\WINSRC\i386 /SYSPART:C /TEMPDRIVE:C /MAKELOCALSOURCE /UNATTEND:C:\UNATTEND.TXT

Well I'm still gettting the error even with the fix to the diskpart.txt file. Oh and I have Intel based boards that are on the most current BIOS.