[IcemanND]

@ kingspawn - Yes, in theory, though as of right now I know of no application that allows multicasting of WIM images. It is in the works as mentioned in the document for server 2008 and WDS (still in beta).

[joe blog]

Hi Iceman,
Followed your guide all the awy and created the boot CD. But when i boot to it, I get the DOS screen with things like 'USB support successfully initialized', ' No FAT32 volumes found, exiting'; 'Caldera DR-DOS 7.03', but then it presents me with the A:\> dos prompt and my keyboard just doesn't work anymore. Could it be becase I am using USB keyboard?
I have tried a couple of machines (Dell Optiplex GX620 andoptiplex 745) .
Please help.

[IcemanND]

I have never had a problem with PS2 or USB keyboards.

What all have you added to the CD? You might try starting with the base cd I describe in the guide, add you applications you want and then run them manually rather than automatically, it might be something you are loading that could be causing the issue.

[Tripredacus]

I am now wondering if there is a way to create a standardised XP image that does not capture the drivers for the motherboard and HDDC for example. Because I can't use an image captured from a Shuttle onto a different motherboard, or else Windows will just reboot constantly.

[kyor]

@ joe blog

>Caldera DR-DOS 7.03
Perhaps you have a floppy in your floppy drive. Make sure you boot from your created Boot cd.

If you have Problems under Dos to use your USB Keyboard, you have to enable USB Legacy Support in your Bios.
But you don't need it for WinPE. The USB driver is loaded during the WinPE Start.

[joe blog]

I have started with a base install, no applications at all. I have also noticed that when it boots to the Cd-rom, just after the writing 'Starting Caldera Dr Dos', it says
Device name: MSCD001
No Drives Found Aborting Installation. Then it carries on with the rest of what I reported in my previous post.
Any chance I could get a working boot disk from some website to get me cracking or if someone can upload some boot CD to yousendit.com for me to pickup. My e-mail address is: ndiosha@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks

[p4ntb0y]

Iceman has done a very nice guide very precise and complete

It is unfair to bombard this thread with issues that are semi connected. I would start a new thread if you have a problem so the maxium people will see it.

USB keyboards have never been a problem with winpe 2.0

with the caldera dr-dos where is this in the guide? I think maybe your trying to load a 16bit app?

I don't know

On the uploading of boot cd's Your not allowed to distro winpe sources.

To be honest iceman is a brave man posting his guide as a you get a flood of mails on how do you do this etc and it puts people off posting guides. He has a job to do not be the support point for everything that is related to this guide.

This guide has everything you reguire.

A good start would be to RTFM winpe.chm


@A1Dan

the speed of the switch will help but the data only gets sent once so that all clients respond so Multicast will help on whatever speed the hardware is it will just take a bit longer

[joe blog]

That's exactly the problem. I appreciate his guide and followed it word for word. Burnt the cd without any probs, but when I boot to it it halts. If Iceman is happy to help who do you think you are to stop him? Not everyone is as selfish as you.

[p4ntb0y]

look I am not flaming you and iceman can indeed do what he wants to I just telling you what it can be like.

I can't be selfish can I if I am trying to help you?

PS don't make this into a flaming session there is no need beleive me

@Joe Blog

What hardware you booting on?

[IcemanND]

Ok, guys, cool it.

@JoeBlog - where did caldera come from???

If you follow the guide the first thing you would see would be the normal "press any key to boot from cd/dvd...." prompt, then the progress bar will appear as it loads. You should not have anything from caldera if you followed the guide and are writing the created ISO to a CD and booting from the cd. The last thing you should end up with is the default Vista background, looks like green and blue rays going up the screen, with a dos window open that rean winpeint and then dumps you to an X:\windows\system32 prompt.

You don't need any boot disk. All you need to do is download the WAIK, link in the Guide. Everything you need to follow the guide is included in it.


@Tripredacus - do a search for "hardware independent image" or "universal image" via google or here in the forums, it has been disused in multiple threads here different approaches to do what you are after. If you can't git it worked out start another thread over in the windows xp forum.

[joe blog]

Sorry P4ntBoy and Thankyou P4antboy and Iceman.
I guess we may be singing from different hymbooks. I was doing this on an XP machine (not vista). Hardware is Dell Optiplex GX620 and optiplex 745). I have set my PC to boot from Cd-rom in bios, but it does not give me that 'press any key to boot from CD...' prompt;it just boots straight into caldera DOS. Where this came from I do not know. I have also followed a Microsoft Walkthrough, which is in the help section of WAIK, but it gives me the same effect.

Even where you say in your guide we should not close the window as this will cause the machine to reboot. There is no way I could close mine as I do not really have a modal window. Myabe I should start a new thread as suggested.
Thanks for your help.

[IcemanND]

that new thread suggestion wasn't for your problem it was for Tripredacus.

when you are walking through the guide are you using the cmd scripts in it or are you typing in all the commands manually?

On page 7 step 13, where the winpe_x86.iso file is created, how are you burning this CD image to your CD? Its default location in my guide is c:\winpe_x86\

If you have virtual machine software, create a virtual machine with at least 384MB of memory, then set this CD ISO image file for the cd. and then boot the VM and boot form the cd and see what you get. You can get Virtual PC from Microsoft or VMWare Server from VMWare for free.

[joe blog]

Hi Iceman,
Iam not using the batch files you you provided. I am typing them in. Everything goes smoothly, but I may have gotten something wrong when creating the CD. I use Nero to burn the CD, I select make data disk, then bootable disk, then I browse tothe C:\winpe_x86 and select the .iso file. What could I be doing wrong here?The .iso file is about 202MB. It is obvious I am either not creating the right image or not burning the CD correctly. I have tried burning the .iso file as a normal data file, but the boot process does not read the CD at all, and as a bootable file, it starts referring to caldera DOS. Is there another option of creating the CD??
Please help.
Thanks

[IcemanND]

I have not used nero in a long time, but I believe there should be an option to burn an image to disc or something similar. That is what you want to use to burn the cd. Select that option browse to the ISO and then click burn.

[joe blog]

God Bless you Iceman!

I misunderstood the 'burn image to CD'. I was just burning a bootable CD. Should have gone for the nero option which says "Burn image to CD". If this helps you may want to update the guide for idiots like me whodonot knowthere is a difference betweemburning a CD and burning an image.
Cheers and Thanks for sticking with me through this task.
joe b

[IcemanND]

Not a problem Joe Blog. Glad to help the i d 10 t's out whenever I can. Don't feel too bad about it I had a manager that did the same thing, more than once.

[foxbymariuss]

Hello

Very good tutorial.
Having some problems... if someone could help me, i thank you very much.
So... I am creating the CD, I am booting the source system from the CD, I type the command imagex /capture c:\ d:\C_Image.wim “Drive C” “My image description” /compress maximum
(page 9 step 5)... and it starts scanning files. The problem is that after 8500 files scanned it stops with an error (related to a file - c:\windows\system32\camocx.dll) - Error:0. I also tried imaging other systems - I receive errors in the same step - but not on the same file. Sometimes it steps scaning at boot.ini - Error 8, sometimes at other dll.
Can anyone, please, help me with correcting this ?
Thanx very much in advance.

[reddog64]

So let me get this straight...

I can no longer (with wds) walk up to a workstation, hit F12, select my image and walk away as I did with RIS...

This seems like alot of work to make an image now.. and even more to deploy it...

[IcemanND]

The process described here has nothing to do with WDS. As I have not had but maybe 20 minutes to play with WDS and could not use RIS I can't say what you can and can't do with it.

[p4ntb0y]

@foxbymariuss

I take it d: is your external drive?

I would do a chkdsk on your vol first before you do a capture I have had this happen to me once before.

I think the cmd line is chkdsk /r

Correct me if am wrong.


@reddog64
You can so many things with this...

SMS OSD FP Deploy by SMS.
you can have a lite touch deployment based on serial number or mac address subnet anything really.
or maybe a fully zero touch deployment will be better but your need a "Provisiong Server"

You can have just a straight F12 Ris to boot your winpe or os or use WDS.

This is all extra stuff thats not covered in the guide.

The BDD2007 Workbench is very good as well as the BDD2.5 wait till you read thru the whitepapers took me ages to read.

This is a guide to produce a reference image and guide you thru the steps required so that you can understand and not just follow the steps without understanding.

Iceman please dont get put off posting further guides :-)