Creating a WinPE-based recovery partition

[George00]

I have a bunch of identical ex-lease computers, which I would like to sell with recovery partitions to restore the OS. They have 256MB RAM so WinPE 2.0 is probably out of the question.

I want to use WinPE 1.6 to run this recovery using ImageX.

I can get WinXP Pro and WinPE 1.6 multi-booting fine when they're both on the C: drive, but that won't work as it couldn't then image the C: drive it was running from. So I shrunk the C: drive a bit and make a 4GB E: partition (primary, not active) to be the recovery partition (D: is the CD drive). I want to be able to boot WinPE from this partition and re-image the C: partition from it using a WIM image which will be on the E: partition.

However, I can't seem to get WinPE 1.6 to boot off the E: partition without changing it to the active (making it C:), which couldn't be done easily if Windows wouldn't boot. When I have it running off the C: partition it looks like this:

\Windows

\Minint

ntldr

ntdetect.com

cmldr

bootsect.dat

In boot.ini I would call C:\BOOTSECT.DAT /Minint for the Windows PE, which would load WinPE out of C:\Minint and work fine.

To try and get it working from the E: partition I had the following in there:

\Minint

cmldr

ntdetect.com

bootsect.dat

I call E:\BOOTSECT.DAT /Minint from boot.ini which was of course in the C: drive, and I get a message saying that [system root]\system32\hal.dll could not be found. Presumably, cmldr is looking for the WinPE files in C:\Minint.

How do I make this work? My ultimate goal is for the user to be able to press F8, select "Return to OS choice menu", select "System recovery" and for WinPE to load and run my recovery script to re-image the C: drive.

Can anyone help?

Edited November 3, 2007 by George00

[jaclaz]

You cannot call "E:\BOOTSECT.DAT /Minint from boot.ini".

Read these:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=26185

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=40604

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=47206

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=67360

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=18480&st=0

The above posts and links therein should contain all you need.

jaclaz

[George00]

Thanks very much. I've read everything you posted but I'm not sure if any of the 3rd party boot managers are unobtrusive enough. Ideally, I'd like a "Press F10 for boot options" or similar message, and for it to boot Windows if the user doesn't press that key. I'm not worried what is displayed AFTER they press the key, and I don't mind what key it is.

It's not absoulutely essential that the key is announced, either, as my original plan was for the user to have to use the F8 startup menu and then return to the OS boot menu (boot.ini).

If I had (in boot.ini, written roughly):

C:\BOOTSECT.DAT=Recovery

multi(0)disk(0).......partition(2)\WINDOWS=Windows XP

Would Windows see itself as the C: drive? If so, that's all I need and I can just switch the active partitions and put NTLDR and boot.ini in the recovery partition. I suspect that won't work though. I need Windows to see its drive as C:.

If I do indeed need a boot loader in the MBR or a small partition, what would you recommend? I don't want a menu to come up every time the PC boots.

[jaclaz]

Due to the new developments of grub4dos:

http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome

I would use it'grldr, chainloaded from your "normal" boot.ini as follows:

C:\grldr=Recovery Partition

Once you are into grub4dos, you can do everything you want, something along the lines of what tinybit suggested here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=2777&st=0

Please note that by NOT installing the grldr.mbr, your drive will be "kosher", as it will have a "standard" 2K/XP MBR and a "standard" Xp bootsector, possibly in the international language of your install.

jaclaz

[George00]

Thanks for that. It looks like the perfect solution - that, or using grub as my boot loader, as it has an option to not display the menu unless the user presses escape.

However, what I have tried is making the recovery partition 1st on the drive, and the main partition 2nd. To load Windows, I call ...........partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" from boot.ini, which lives in C:\, my recovery partition.

Windows XP loads fine at first, but then seems to pause at the welcome screen, showing only the (small) Windows XP logo and the words "Windows XP". Normally, it would say "Welcome" (IIRC) or something underneath this. The computer isn't frozen, I can move the mouse around. The hard drive light acts as though I was sitting at the desktop - small, occasional bits of activity.

I'll try safe mode soon, and maybe chkdsk. Might be an imaging problem. I used ImageX to transfer the image from another PC onto this partition, as Acronis can't pxe-deploy on a partition basis - it would wipe the drive.

The image is from a PC with only one partition, nothing fancy, and the system drive is of course C:.

EDIT: Sorted it out. Deleting the DosDevices section in the registry was all that was needed. It's running perfectly now, with no boot loader needed.

Edited November 5, 2007 by George00