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daremo

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  1. I think you can start by investigating the bcd store on the AIO DVD, and locate the entry that points to the dART environment. It most probably is a wim file (either boot.wim, or another small wim or winre file). Say it is boot.wim. Use dism to enumerate the images included in the boot.wim file, and check the descriptions, and one of them should be the dart image. you can then use dism to mount the image using its index, and make a standalone copy or place it on USB, or add it to your own boot.wim. Without having a copy of the AIO iso (i found a few of them on the torrentz, which specify dart included in the iso, but I am reluctant to make use of them), I cannot offer much more than the above outline. Dai
  2. your problem is changing the active partition. When booting, bootloader needs to know on which partition the bcd store exists. You had initially set up a partition as active and created a BCD store, then you later change your active partition, and the system is unable to find the bcd store to load a system. If you are using a dedicated partition for BCD store (the reserved, "system" partition), then keep that partition as the active one at all times! You can always use a win7 dvd to boot into winpe, in case you have problems boting up the system. You cana lso use bcdedit to edit the existing bcd store on a partition. Making one partition active at one time then another partition active on other times, you will only create a mess of confusion unless you know what you are doing. Personally, I use grub4dos as bootloader, becase it gives me flexibility to direct a system to boot from specific partitions. I also create for each Windows installation on different primary partitions, a dedicated bcd store on the respective partition using bcdedit command. Then I use grub4dos to boot using the bootmgr and bcd store on the relevant partition to boot into the respective windows installation (on the relevant partition). C:\ Windows 7 D:\ Windows 8 E:\WINPE Install grub4dos on the HD0. Create grub menu (menu.lst located on c:\grub) as follows: title win 7 (on hd0,0) root (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader (hd0,0)/bootmgr boot title win 8 (on hd0,1) root (hd0,1) makeactive chainloader (hd0,1)/bootmgr boot title Winpe (on hd0,2) root (hd0,2) makeactive chainloader (hd0,3)/bootmgr boot Ensure that relevant partition is set active, and install the relevant OS to the partition! You will end up with the 3 partitoons, 3 OS's, and each partition containing the BCD store for the respective OS. Then you install Grub4DOS, and make the menu.lst file, and when the system is booted you will be presented with a menu to select the OS to boot into! When you select the OS to boot, the corresponding partition is set active, and the system boots into the selected OS (using the bootmgr and bcd store stored on the corresponding partition!) If you check out following links for info: Windows PE Walktrhoughs (covers various ways of Winpe boot from CD/UFD/HD/etc.)- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799278%28v=ws.10%29.aspx Scenario 3: Performing an Advanced Deployment of Native Boot VHDs- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg318055%28v=ws.10%29.aspx Although this covers a case of winpe partition, and a second partition containing 2 VHDs (win7 and win 2008 R2) for a triple boot system, you can adapt/change the ideas and come up with a general case of 3-partition, triple-boot system, instead of using virtual HDs! It is very informative! kindly, Dai
  3. JFX is right. While capturing an image with imagex, you must have captured the existing boot folder and bcd store data. As a default, imagex can skip certain files, but you can use the "/Config <drive:\folder\myconfig.ini" option to direct imagex to use your custom config file which should specify which folders and files to skip during capture operation. Since you have a single drive - single partition, your boot files (BCD store) are on the same partition, instead of the system reserved partition. Because default imagex configuration does not exclude \boot folder and files (as well as bootmgr), imagex capture operation will include the folder and the files in the wim image. When applied, you will have the boot folder, files and bootmgr written to the new disk, which will cause you the problems you indicated. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766147%28v=ws.10%29.aspx for info on config.ini, and how you can customize it and use it during imagex capture operation. You have several choices: 1. Fixing the problem disk where image is applied: Before booting the system after applying an image containing old BCD store (boot files), boot into windows PE (using the win 7 install media), go to the drive where the image is applied, locate and take ownership of the existing boot folder and files and bootmgr, change permissions and then remove them. Use "bcdboot C:\windows /s C:" command to create a proper BCD store, and reboot the system from the drive. Ensure that the partition is set to active!!! 2. Fixing the wim image itself (for re-use): Mount the existing wim image, remove the existing boot folder and files and bootmgr and save the image. You may need to take ownership and change permissions to be able to remove the boot files. Now, your image will be ready for use without any other modifications for the next use. You can test the image by re-applying the image to the new system (new disk). 3. Fixing imagex capture operation issues: This option is, of course, a general case for when capturing images, and hwtahow to capture images! In principle, you might go through this process for your current situation as a test case, to confirm that your capture ops and apply ops are being performed correctly and as expected. What you need to do (if you have the time) is to create a custom imagex config.ini file, specify boot folder and files, and bootmgr as exclusions in the configuration, and then use this config.ini file during a wim image capture from an existing system (Note: the system is sysprepped with OOBE, Generalize options, and ready for capture, correct?). Finally, you test functionality of the new system (after the wim image is applied and new BCD store - boot files are created by issuing the BCDBOOT command) and check that the system boots correctly. Control your bcd store contents with bcdedit!. Keep a copy of the custom config.ini file with your WAIK-3 tools for re-use for other capture ops! Dai Addendum-- On a subject related to capturing and applying images, I wanted to remind you about an issue with the sysprep - OOBE - Generalize operation to prepare a system for WIM image capture. There's a registry key "skiprearm" which may cause sysprep operation to fail, because you have exceeded rearm counts! When you try to sysprep a system that was already sysprepped previously, eventually you will run out of the rearm counts which is triggered during a sysprep - OOBE - Generalize operation (i.e. rearm count is decremented during the sysprep oper). There are ways around this issue which you may want to check by googling for "enable/disable skiprearm". There is also a method to reset the "rearm" count by removing a hive from the registry, and later re-installing a license, which might be of interest. Ensrure that you have good backups of your existing system before sysprepping and playing with the skiprearm registry key, and resetting rearm counts!!! Tip: Usually when I prepare a computer (or virt. machine) for imaging with Win7, Win 2008, I enable skiprearm, and put the system into Sysprep-Audit mode (CTRL+Shift+F3 at the initial boot of the OS after the installation of OS). I perform driver and software installs, configs, and customizations. When the system is configured as I want it, I boot the machine into WinPE, access the offline registry of the installed OS, and remove registry item related to rearm counts (WPA key under HKLM\System) [source info: http://www.zimbio.com/Windows+Vista/articles/ahWKUTCstH9/Unlimited+Rearm+Windows+7+Forever+Usage+without]. Reboot the machine into sysprep-Audit, install the product license, and keep skiprearm registry enabled (to prevent decrement of rearm count). When you check activation, you will see the license info, grace period and remaining rearm counts. I will disable skiprearm before I perform a Sysprep-OOBE-generalize before attempting an image capture. The enable/disable skiprearm, and deleting of WPA key enables me to overcome/resolve issues arising from activation grace period, and sysprepping a machine multiple times. It is good that with win 8 and win 2012, sysprepping is not limited to 3 times as it is with Win Vista/7/2008.
  4. Or you can use imagex /apply and place the contents of install.wim onto c: drive. Place imagex and other necessary files and install.wim on D-drive, then use imagex /apply to extract and write the contents of install.wim onto C-drive. Then, you can use BCDBOOT command- Bcdboot.exe <source> [/l <locale> ] [/s <volume-letter> ] [/v] <source> is windows source folder /l <locale> is locale (such as en-us) /s <volume-letter> is the target drive /v is verbose mode So you should issue- bcdboot C:\windows\ /l en-us /s C: /v to create a bcdstore on C drive (based on windows source files extracted from install.wim onto c-drive). Make sure c drive is the active partition, and boot the system, and it should start windows setup.
  5. For some type of drivers such as new network drivers (but not the sata drivers), it is possible to update the bartpe without going through the full rebuild option. You need to check out the minint folder and subfolders and see where the dll, inf, cat, and sys files are located, then for the new drivers, you should copy the relevant files to the respective subfolders. I have done that for additional or new network drivers, by extracting the bartpe iso to my hd, and copying the inf, dll, sys, cat files to the subfolders of minint, and making a new iso. However, with sata drivers or drivers that are needed during system boot up, this method doesn't work.
  6. I had a similar problem with a HP laptop booting BartPE and WINPE1 from USB stick several years ago, and the main reason was that while the system was loading (windows is loading files), the USB bus would be reset, and the connection to the USB stick would interrupted leaving me with a black screen or the WINPE logo and no activity whatsoever (I could see the USB stick stop flashing). I could only boot the laptop with the built-in cdrom drive, and using bartpe and winpe1 burned on CDRs. Eventually, I had to reorganize the internal HD after managing to boot the system with a winpe CDR, and configured a separate partitions for winpe, Windows XP, and data, and used Grub4DOS as a boot loader. I think that even with a USB cd drive you may have problems, if what I suspect is correct (that is, if the issue is resetting of USB bus, instead of a problem with USB stick, then any USB external drive of any sort will not work). If you have network adapter and the drivers, perhaps you can build a custom winpe with the network drivers, and then try loading winpe via tftp, using another PC as the ftp server (there are free tftp progs available such as tftp32), as long as your NIC allows booting your netbook pc... Another option you might try is: 1. depending on your RAM, create the absolute smallest bartpe, winpe or whatever recovery system you want as an iso file. Probably need to use your dekstop PC for that. 2. Get a copy of grub4dos, and install it on your usb stick. 3. place a copy of the system recovery iso file on your usb 4. Use wincontig or similar utility to ensure that your iso file on the USB stick is contiguous (not fragmented and is contiguous in one piece) 5. Prepare your grub menu for loading/booting the iso image into your ram (see grub4dos documentation for using iso images for booting with the grub MAP command for details) When you boot your netbook with the usb stick grub will take conrol and load the iso image to ram, and this may help bypass the USB bus reset issue, since the system recovery iso will be already loaded into ram, and will pass the control to continue booting your system from the ram! (that is why it is important that you have to create the absolute smallest ISO image). Note: there are similarities between this method and using tftp server (booting from network), as during the network boot (with tftp), the netbook will read the boot image (your iso file or any boot image file you prepared) and load it into ram, and then boot your system from ram. In the above method instead of loading the boot image from tftp, you are loading it from USB via grub4dos. Keep in mind that your USB should contain the iso image of winpe or bart pe, not the extracted contents of the winpe/bartpe cdr image. This is different than what happens if you use WIMB's sugegstion item-2 method, where the contents of the winpe ISO are extracted to the USB. With the normal method (winpe files extracted to USB), the syste will try to load windows files from the USB, and sometimes during/after loading windows files, USB bus will be interrupted/reset, and will not be able to proceed with booting the system. If you load the WINPE into RAM (grub map into memory/ram the winpe.iso image file) then the windows system will be already in the RAM, and when the system starts loading winows files, any USB bus reset or interruption should not have any effect, since the files are available in the RAM, where the pc will be loading the stuff!!!
  7. I don't know, but logically thinking I expect the security settings to be reset, since part of sysprep is creation of new SIDs... therefore something must be going on regarding file security and the new security principals, right? File comparison: there are many file comparison utlities both free and commecial that use different comparison methods (incl. full binary comparison, md5 or other file hash comprison, same name, same size, etc.). I have mostly used NoClone, and it can compare thousands of files wherever they recide. It will list identical files (duplicates) with their full paths. If you are looking for a utility to hilight the differences between two versions of a file (what is different in between two files that are supposed to be identical) then you need to look for something like DIFF utility, but the little I have seen of such utilities require a pair of files to be fed into the utility, so I can't say I know of a utility that can take compare files in two different locations (a drive, folder, etc.) and list differences between the files..
  8. I am not sure I understand what you are trying to figure out, as the above explanation is not clear enough for me, but based on what litle I gleaned from the above post and others, I can point out the following which may or may not help you in the right direction... 1. Since you are using virtualization, you can always mount the Virtual Disk (VD), and look at the contents of a bcd store in detail; before and after a sysprep. So you have a means of comparison you can use to determine what changes (and possibly where those changes may come from). 2. You can also extract the boot.wim or install.wim (original, or modified versions), and see if they contain a bcdstore and look at the contents --mind you, original wims do not have a bcdstore, but modified wims, especially, those that you create manually [actually, images captured via imagex] which are based on a physical or virtual disk or partitions, may contain a bcd store! In the case of when you have a bcd store in such wims you can extract and compare contents. 3. During sysprep, based on your sysprep option selections, various registry settings are configured. After the first boot, some of the sysprep registry settings are changed, indicating the status of the machine, i.e. the machine has gone through an initialization of drivers, services and such (as indicated on screen by the "setting up drivers...." and "setting up/configuring services..." messages). Important: The limitation of "you can only sysprep a machine [physical or virtual] only 3 times" comes from a registry setting that keeps incrementing when the machine is sysprepped. I suspect that registry settings regarding sysprep status and possibly machine status/readines (such as the registry settings that mean: "windows OS has initialized and configured properly" or "windows needs initialize -- i.e. it needs to set up drivers and services") may play an important role in what [i suspect] you are trying to figure out [as I understand from your messages --if I misunderstood, sorry!!!] A little trick you can use is to check out all bcd stores (including the bcd store you have configured yourself, or obtain by mounting a VD, or a wim file), and then edit them so that each bcd store you have access to has the following items configured (and if not configured, add the the necessary items with relevant values): -In the {bootmanager} item, make sure the "timeout" item is set up (with a long enough period such as 30 sec), and - "displaymenu Yes" item is added as well, Make sure that each bcdstore menu item is configured with unique descriptions, so that you can always see the menu being displayed. For example, the VD has a bcdstore with 2 menu items: "windows 7", and "windows 7 recovery" Change the decriptions to: "Windows 7 - root", and "windows 7 recovery -root" You also discoverd that boot.wim and install.wim have bcdstore inside the wim images. Mount the WIM files, and edit the bcdstores. First, add the bootmenutimeout and displayboot items, and then for the boot menu options add a good description such as "windows PE - boot_wim", and "Windows setup - install_wim" When you boot the machine, you may determine, from the boot menu displayed onscreen, which bcdstore is being loaded.
  9. A question regarding your situation... Do you have both drives installed on the same computer at the same time, when you are creating and then deploying the wim file (such as HD1 and HD2)? If so, then I doubt the problem is only a matter of fixing BCd store (via repair or manual editing). There is also the issue of HD order in the BIOS, and in the Win registry (mounted drives, etc) that might come into play, besides the hardware related information being used to set up Windows Activation data. How about the following scenario: 1. HD 1 (500 GB) (first HD in the BIOS) 2. HD2 (320 GB) (second HD in the BIOS) 3. install, configure windows on HD1, take a wim image 4. Apply wim image on HD2 5. Either in the BIOS or physically change HD order (i.e. HD2 becomes 1st HD, and HD1 becomes second HD) 6. try booting from HD2 (now the first HD) and if need be fix bCD store, and see if the problem goes away. Basically with the above scenario there's no excessive chaneg in your hardware configuration which Windows Actiation will use, except HD order (and the way they are attached), and by swapping the HD order, you may overcome the Windows registry issues, since HD2 which has the wim image applied becomes the first HD (just like the original HD1 where windows was initially installed). With regards to the Regitry settings there's a neat little trick you can use (from another post in this forum): MULTIBOOT WINDOWS 7 So, before taking a wim image of your installation on HD1: execute the above reg hack, shutdown machine, boot into winPE, obtain a wim image of HD1, and apply wim to HD2, [possibly optional but you can still try changing HD boot order either phsycially and/or in the BIOS], and then try booting from HD2 where wim image is applied. Curious if this will work without sysprepping step!!! and whether it will overcome the Windows Activation issues as well (non-genuine Win message)???
  10. ADDENDUM I encountered a slight problem when native booting a winpe differencing VHD file (i.e. a standard or customized boot.wim file applied to a VHD file). I was trying to set up the following situation: 1. Internal HD partitioned C (Active, primary) to be used for bootmgr and bcdstore (and grub), D (logical drive on extended partition) to be used to store VHD files, E (logical drive on extended partition) to be used to store differencing VHD files. 2. bootwim.vhd (fixed vhd with 5gb cap, single partition, primary) located on D drive. Obtained by applying boot.wim file on to bootwim.vhd 3. bootwim-diff.vhd located on E drive (which is a child of the bootwim.vhd [ "parent VHD" ] that is located on D drive) The reason I tried to use differencing disk is to keep the original bootwim.vhd file static, and get any changes written to the differencing disk, and if need be later merge the child vhd (differencing disk) with the parent vhd. Then, I configured the bcdstore on C drive to boot from the bootwim-diff.vhd (located on E drive), and while testing this configuration, I end up with bcdstore errors. I have not been able to boot from the differencing disk (on E drive)! However, if I set up bootwim-diff.vhd on the D drive (same drive where bootwim.vhd -the parent vhd- file is located), then I can boot from the differencing VHD. Unfortunately, I don't have any answers to the problem yet.
  11. I'm not sure how to take this statement. If you have an attached VHD, and apply a wim file, and you're not happy with the result, you can always do a quick format of the VHD, modify your wim, and reapply. If this is a situation where you already had data in the VHD and are applying a wim and not happy with the results, the only UNDO option you have is making use of a differencing VHD: 1. Keep your original data in the parent VHD (parent vhd), 2. create a differencing VHD (child vhd), 3. apply wim on the differencing vhd 4. test results... If not happy, remove the differencing disk, recreate it, and modify what ever it is you want to modify in your wim, and re-apply the wim on the new differencing disk. If you're happy with the results, then merge the differencing disk with the parent disk, and then you can remove the old vhd disks, and make use of the new vhd (merged VHD).
  12. Problem is I don't have office 2007 to do tests, as I use Office 2003, so it's difficult to find out what is going on, forcing me to guess. Now, with the comment from Ponch, which is opposite of what Novie is saying, I'm wondering if Novice has a named/defined the range K10:M10 somewhere on the worksheet? I suspect Ponch tested this out on a clean worksheet, and that forces me suspect that Novice has a named range or something similar defined for K10:M10 on his worksheet. Perhaps selecting the first cell of a "named range" is forcing the formula to h-light/select the full named range???
  13. I am pretty sure the original post mentioned that after a wim file is applied to a drive, the user has also run repair operation which usually scans and fixes the BCD store issues. So, yes, editing BCD store manualllyor running repair (or booting with original win 7 DVD and choosing repair int he install screen) should fix the problem, but it user complains about blue screen + Non Genuine Windows message. Sooo... what is exactly going on and after doing the following: 1. create wim 2. deploy wim to another drive how can you get the system working from the new drive without issues (and solve the issues that arise?) I think sysprep is a necessity. I also remember (though I am not sure 100% where I have seen/read it but possibly at MS technet) that wim cannot be used as a sort of backup to restore a system...
  14. Thank you, Jaclaz, for the corrections and clarifications over MBR/PBR. It is unfortunate that so many companies are using terminology in an ambiguous manner (even using words interchangably and wrongly), or use technical descriptions that are imprecise. I have come across a good web-site on the subject of multi-boot and multi-boot process that deal with Windows and other boot managers and the details of booting (theoretical/practical) and HD boot sector/MBR, etc. which I hope would be of some use to us to get a better understanding, especially, in the light of your corrections: Boot and MultiBooting (as related Windows XP, Vista booting, and details of multibooting the 2 different types of Windows booting - ntldr and bootmgr)
  15. I am not sure how to turn off the help from Excel, but your problem regarding automatic selection of a range of cells reminded me what might be at play. However this is based on Excel 2003, so may not be applicable in your case. When you are starting a formula but especially when you use the SUM function (via the toolbar icon), Excel seems to select a range of cells in a column that are "contiguous". If, for example, in a column you have a range a1 to a5 [A1:A5] and another range from a7 to a10 [A7:A10], and you are inputting a formula or SUM at A11, then Excel hi-lights the range [A7-A10] instead of [A1:A10] as the range [A7-A10] is the first contiguous range next to A11 where the formula is being started. However, if you input <space> in cell A6, so it looks empty at a first glance (because <space> is not an obvious, visible character), and perform the same test, you will see that the range [A1:A10] are hilighted, since the rane [A1:A10] is a contiguous range! I suspect that in your case the cell M10 has some value (even if it is a space character or something similar and left over from some other operation). Thus, first check if that assumpation is correct, i.e. if cell M10 contains anything, and perhaps try a Delete and/or Clean Contents operation on M10, then try out writing your formula and see if M10 is automatically selected. I suspect that the issue you have is related to Formula Autocomplete function. When formula Autocomplete is enabled, as soon as you input "=" and type a letter a list of functions are displayed in a drop-down list for you to quickly select a function. However, in your case, you type "=" and then with the mouse you click on a cell, and since you have not continued your input into the cell with a character where Excel can help you out with formula autocomplete by displaying functions in a drop-down list (starting with the character you have input), but instead, you have selected a cell with your mouse, then Excel is probably trying to perform the formula autocomplete ability by hi-lighting a range selection... Perhaps you can Disable formula autocomplete. You might want to test the above possibility by going to the Menu system, and then Options, choose 'Formulas', and selecting 'Working with formulas' group, and looking at the choices there and reconfiguring them! In the meantime, if I find something specific regarding Excel's (idiotic) "helpful" hand :-) I'll post it here.
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