Cherie.Watts

Hey The solution suggested by IcemanND, worked. Which is totally awesome and most appreciated. Thanks heaps for everyones suggestions Happy Building Cherie

I will go check out your links to see if there is anything that could help. But in answer...I know the current version of the bootsect.exe doesn't rewrite the MBR...I tried to get my hands on the version released with AIK 1.1 (I believe it's this version) as it does write the MBR as well...but no luck on this. As to the idea that NTFS could be the culprit...yeah I have been thinking along these lines...that there is a difference in the Vista version and windows 2003...but I haven't found anything to support this idea. As to why I am using Winpe2.1....firstly...why not. Wasn't version 1.1 only for OEM providers?? I thought version 2.0 was the first release for general usage...but I am not certain of this. As for Bartpe versus Winpe..I guess I thought that the microsoft product would have more inherent support and less compatibility issues

Hi I think my source is OK as I can build fine if I format with FAT32. But in answer the source is off Microsoft CDs, Windows 2003 R2 SP2. Cheers

Hey The steps are 1. PXE Boot winpe 2.1 image 2. Delete any existing Virtual Disk on the RAID controller and create new VDs 3. Run Diskpart /s script file list disk Select disk 0 clean create partition primary size=65000 select partition 1 active format FS=NTFS Label="System" QUICK 4. Copy OS files to C drive 5. Copy Raid Controller and NIC driver files into the OS installation files 6. Copy unattended.txt and post OS installation scripts to c: 7. Kick off unattended installation c:\w2k3r2\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:c: /unattend:C:\netinst\unattend.txt 8. Run Bootsect.exe bootsect /NT52 All /force Then reboot. I have also tried bootsect /NT52 SYS /force bootsect /NT52 c: /force With and without the /force switch. Thanks C

Hey Thanks for the reply..unfortunately I already have the registry entries loaded. I implemented them the first time I came across the problem. Any other thoughts? I can post the MBR produced with secinspect...I haven't had to go to this level previously and hence I don't really understand what I am looking at. Although I can identify information in some of the Hex code.. ie the OS and disk signature I just can't help thinking it just shouldn't be this difficult, there has to be a simple solution..and I am missing it. Cheers

Hi I have a problem when I create partitions with winpe 2.1 and format NTFS to perform an unattended installation of Windows 2003 R2 with i386. When the server reboots I get a "A disk read error occurred". When I first started I came across this error and fixed it by applying KB931761 and using Bootsect to set the boot sector for ntldr, not a problem. However originally I chose FAT32 and configured Win 2003 to convert to NTFS to avoid any possible NTFS version/compatibility complications between winpe 2.0(Vista) and 2003 etc... Now I have upgraded to Winpe 2.1 and the servers have to have partitions that are 65Gb and hence can't use FAT32 any longer. Every time I have attempted this the server boots with the "A disk read error occurred". I have run bootsect in almost all it's variations, ie /nt52 with all, c:, SYS and including the /force switch. None of which have made any difference. I have run secinspect whilst in winpe 2.1 before and after each command and there is no change at all to the mbr or the bootsector on the partition. I downloaded mbrfix.exe and gave it a run as well, with no success. However if I change the partition size and format with FAT32, everything works like a charm. I have read and looked at heaps of sites. I understand that this has been covered by heaps of people but I haven't read a solution that fits my problem...I have tried most solutions I have read. I would really appreciate it if someone has a solution or can give me a direction to go in. Most Appreciated