Tripredacus

I'm working on a project to image a DOS hard disk using Imagex in WinPE 3.0 x64. Here is some preliminary steps and testing results. While I have already done a bit of work on this project already, I am "starting over" but using what I have learned already. One problem I've encountered was that I am not quite able to replicate the exact disk properties using Diskpart, so the first thing to do is get some data about the original HDD with the DOS image on it. The original HDD is a 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA. My testing drive is a 60GB Toshiba HDD2D35. I am using a different sized drive for testing on purpose, since I do not want to lock the deployment method down to a particular hard disk or volume size. Since I am using a 64bit WinPE, there are some inherent limitations to what kinds of programs I can run, since there is no WoW in WinPE. Fortunately, Systemintegrasjon has available a 64bit binary of MbrFix.exe: http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm I found that it is important to get this information first, so I can compare the after-effects to maybe help determine how to properly image with Imagex. First up is what Diskpart can tell us about the original drive. DISKPART> detail disk Disk ID: F0F97B27 Type : SATA Status : Online Path : 0 Target : 0 LUN ID : 0 Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C00T00L00) Current Read-only State : No Read-only : No Boot Disk : No Pagefile Disk : No Hibernation File Disk : No Crashdump Disk : No Clustered Disk : No Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 C FAT32 Partition 465 GB Healthy DISKPART> detail part Partition 1 Type : 0C Hidden: No Active: Yes Offset in Bytes: 32256 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 0 C FAT32 Partition 465 GB Healthy DISKPART> detail vol Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- * Disk 0 Online 465 GB 1024 KB Read-only : No Hidden : No No Default Drive Letter: No Shadow Copy : No Offline : No BitLocker Encrypted : No Installable : Yes Volume Capacity : 465 GB Volume Free Space : 465 GB And also what MBRFix says: D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 driveinfo Drive 0 Cylinders = 60801 Tracks (heads) per cylinder = 255 Sectors per track = 63 Bytes per sector = 512 Disk size = 500105249280 (Bytes) = 465 (GB) D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 listpartitions # Boot Size (MB) Type 1 Yes 476937 12 WIN95 OSR2 32-bit FAT, LBA-mapped D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 /partition 1 getpartitiontype 12 So shut down the client, plug in the testing drive, boot back into WinPE. I made a custom Diskpart script to run to format the drive: sel disk 0 clean create part pri size=31000 sel part 1 active format fs=ntfs label="LocalDisk" quick assign letter=c exit Run Diskpart, apply the image with Imagex. Compare the disk information now. DISKPART> detail disk Disk ID: 3F5598B3 Type : SATA Status : Online Path : 0 Target : 0 LUN ID : 0 Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C00T00L00) Current Read-only State : No Read-only : No Boot Disk : No Pagefile Disk : No Hibernation File Disk : No Crashdump Disk : No Clustered Disk : No Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 C LOCALDISK FAT32 Partition 30 GB Healthy DISKPART> detail part Partition 1 Type : 0C Hidden: No Active: Yes Offset in Bytes: 1048576 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 0 C LOCALDISK FAT32 Partition 30 GB Healthy DISKPART> detail vol Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- * Disk 0 Online 55 GB 25 GB Read-only : No Hidden : No No Default Drive Letter: No Shadow Copy : No Offline : No BitLocker Encrypted : No Installable : Yes Volume Capacity : 30 GB Volume Free Space : 30 GB And MBrfix: D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 driveinfo Drive 0 Cylinders = 7296 Tracks (heads) per cylinder = 255 Sectors per track = 63 Bytes per sector = 512 Disk size = 60011642880 (Bytes) = 55 (GB) D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 listpartitions # Boot Size (MB) Type 1 Yes 31000 12 WIN95 OSR2 32-bit FAT, LBA-mapped D:\>mbrfix64 /drive 0 /partition 1 getpartitiontype 12 And time for a reboot... but it boots to: "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart." And to compare, all the volume information matches, except for the obvious difference in the two different hard disks. I shall entertain ideas about how to make this disk bootable...

Nice job. I definately like the 100x100 one, mostly because the Ravage image isn't distorted. It may be an idea to refind where that picture came from instead of artificially inflating its resolution. I'll search around, I'm sure I can find it. Here it is: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3400/3603383893_3af4760d8b_o.jpg This is the wrap-around cover of Dreamwave's Transformers #1, which (iirc) is a special cover.

WinPE 3.0 Diskpart can only format a FAT32 volume if under 32GB.

Simon would be a good name for Vista... maybe. Windows 8 is definately a Rubix Cube!

All my PEs are x64 but.... it may end up being true that using some other method of imaging would be better off.... since it takes 1 second (no lie, the wim is 708KB) to image, and 2-3 minutes to boot the PE. The 32GB format limitation is also a concern, since the client gets 500GB drives due to cost considerations... EDIT: MBRfix now has a 64bit version: http://www.sysint.no/products/Download/tabid/536/language/nb-NO/Default.aspx

Is there any native 64bit Windows apps that can write MBR code using command line? I have a side-project where I need to deploy a DOS image from a WinPE x64, and I have everything done except all of my MBR tools are x86 applications.

That is normal to see the System Reserved get a drive letter in WinPE when booting on a system with an existing OS.

I'll be nice and fix your title this time.... but next time I might have to go read the forum rules again.

I had an idea you'd see that .sys file. If you haven't determined already, that is a DirectX (dxgmms1.sys) file, which means you now have a direction to look at for your issues: The graphics card. There was a video card testing program I once used (and posted about here) but I can't find it now. So until I can remember that one, let's get back to your question. You say you have this problem, but have revealed little about what you are doing at the time. Then you do mention watching a video online. So here are some ideas and questions. - Update your video drivers (use manufacturer not Windows Update) - What browser are you using? - Does it only do this when the video card is being used? (videos, flash, games, etc)

While I presume that the Metro Store has its own documentation, I don't have that atm, and (to be honest) don't think I care enough about it to find it. But I can say a few things about it. To start, I do know that all apps need to be approved (and digitally signed) before they can show up in the App Store. This means that there must be some (hopefully large) amount of people that tries all these apps before making them available. This doesn't mean that you can't just make an app and toss it in your Win8, you can do this for sure. But back to why I quoted your post. There is a vision about Metro Apps (that ties into the removal of the Start Menu and the phasing out of the desktop experience) that lets Apps run without the (potential) ability to corrupt the operating system. This is yet another layer of "security" to keep users from hurting themselves as discussed many pages ago in this thread. That being said, Metro Apps aren't allowed into those protected OS areas that our advanced thingies are likely to go. Want an app to format a USB key? Too bad. Want an app to read or write an MBR to something? Nope, sorry. Want an app that can read a thread's memory contents? Yeah right. This would make me presume that even an app that could take a screenshot wouldn't actually be able to save it to your hard drive as a JPG, instead off to the cloud it goes? Other things not allowed? enabling DVD playback, access the registry, replaces the Metro store or the Metro interface (or possibly add a Start Menu).... Oh and they can't launch other apps. So to summarize, those 200 advanced type apps do not appear replaceable by a Metro app.

That was the story for me with Google + but the problem was Google then banned me because they didn't allow "aliases" at the time.

I had an idea... and I blew it out of the water halfway through. I don't know if I will be keeping this sig for that long (we'll see, I do like my old one) so I'll post it here for posterity.

Found something you might like. Take a look at this: Source

How are you doing it now? See this for reference: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrswdist/thread/07958fa7-865f-4bca-9d6a-d536b14e72a2/

Do not make multiple threads.

The MSR setting is only used in a GPT type format. The user's posted diskpart script does not mention switching to GPT mode. I'm fairly certain that Diskpart is smart enough to throw an error if you try to make an MSR partition on an MBR disk.

You should have the option for creating a dump on Process Explorer for that process at the time of high usage.

Is your image generalized?

I was more thinking along the lines of Lost in Translation, but unfortunately it appears that site does not work any longer.

Don't assign the System Reserved a drive letter at all with your diskpart script. And you can't set 2 partitions to be active, so remove the active on the "W" volume.

Your InputLocale has invalid data in it. Change it to this: <InputLocale>0409:00000409</InputLocale> Take this out of the ImageInstall object <InstallToAvailablePartition>true</InstallToAvailablePartition> Take this out of UserData <FullName>Corey Knapp</FullName>

Either use the attachment system to attach the XML to your post, or paste your answer file in CODE tags. Copying plain-text off the forum can usually lead to formatting errors when pasted into Notepad, among other things. CODE tags help in that respect, but doesn't beat attaching the file directly.

Ok, so you have an image now and need to deploy it, is that where you are getting this problem? Are you using Gimagex or Setup to deploy your image?

Does it do that even if you remove the Word Configuration object?

Set it for 20GB or so, that's what I have for my full disk, single partition answer files. Specifically, I have: 20480