Running WinPE 2.0 with a Flat File structure on a USB drive

[Vuong Nguyen]

I'm getting a BSOD when I try to boot a WinPE 2.0 image using a flat file structure instead of the ramdisk. I only get this BSOD if I boot off of a usb device (flash drive or external dvd drive). If I boot from an internal dvd drive, the exact same WinPE image boots correctly. I basically followed the instructions in the following KB article, except for the parts about applying the hotfix because I'm already using Vista SP1 to generate the WinPE files.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928570/en-us

Has anyone else seen this problem?

[Radimus]

from everything I've seen about this, the issue is due to the OS at some point re-initiallizes the USB bus. When it does that, it looses the USB drive and the data on it. Therefore it cannot read from the disk and tends to Blue Screen.

To work around that, they developed the RAM Disk proceedure.

[killerb255]

If it weren't for that problem (reinitialization of the USB bus), then that would be a nice option for machines that can boot from USB, but have less than 512 MB of RAM.

I never tried flat-file from CD, though (of course the entire PE environment would be read-only)...

[Atheros]

you will need to modify/add the following values to your registry.

you can only do this when the cd key is not booted. so do it on another machine.

open regedit and then load the system.hiv %systemroot%\windows\system32\config

modify the following values in the hiv

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\*pnp0a03]

"Service"="pci"

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#cc_0c0320]

"Service"="usbehci"

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#root_hub20]

"Service"="usbhub"

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#class_09]

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

"Service"="USBHUB"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#class_08]

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

"Service"="USBSTOR"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\gendisk]

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

"Service"="disk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usbstor#disk]

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

"Service"="disk"

unload the hive,

boot from the usb key and it should boot up fine.

the issue you are seeing is that that windows plug and play is kicking in and loading the driver, dropping the usb key. ususlly with the blue screen of 0x0000007B

[Vuong Nguyen]

you will need to modify/add the following values to your registry.

you can only do this when the cd key is not booted. so do it on another machine.

open regedit and then load the system.hiv %systemroot%\windows\system32\config

modify the following values in the hiv

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\*pnp0a03]

"Service"="pci"

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#cc_0c0320]

"Service"="usbehci"

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#root_hub20]

"Service"="usbhub"

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#class_09]

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

"Service"="USBHUB"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usb#class_08]

"ClassGUID"="{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}"

"Service"="USBSTOR"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\gendisk]

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

"Service"="disk"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM.SAV\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usbstor#disk]

"ClassGUID"="{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

"Service"="disk"

unload the hive,

boot from the usb key and it should boot up fine.

the issue you are seeing is that that windows plug and play is kicking in and loading the driver, dropping the usb key. ususlly with the blue screen of 0x0000007B

Atheros, I merged your values to the WinPE SYSTEM hive, but that didn't stop the BSOD. Still getting the 7B stop error on boot. If you have any other suggestions, I would like to try them.

[jaclaz]

Check these seemingly unrelated posts (How to install Vista on USB and on FAT32):

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1707

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1712

they may contain some useful info to work around the 0x0000007b BSOD.

jaclaz

[Atheros]

are you sure you did them correctly

hkey_local_machine\"whaterer you loaded the hive as"\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usbstor#disk

etc

etc

you may not have the drivers in the pe image. even though in winpe theyre normally copied by default. have a look and see.

[Vuong Nguyen]

are you sure you did them correctly

hkey_local_machine\"whaterer you loaded the hive as"\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\usbstor#disk

etc

etc

you may not have the drivers in the pe image. even though in winpe theyre normally copied by default. have a look and see.

Atheros,

I checked my WinPE System hive, and it had all of the settings.

I also checked windows\system32\drivers subfolder for missing driver files. Based on the registry values that you posted, there was one missing file -USBSTOR.sys. I copied it to the WinPE drivers subfolder from my own Vista workstation's drivers subfolder.

However, after doing this, I'm still getting the 7B stop error, so at this point I would probably need a checklist of all of the usb driver files that I should have in the WinPE drivers folder to make sure that I do have all of the necessary driver files in this WinPE image.

[Atheros]

ok i will have to reopen this project as i worked on it some time ago. i will see how it goes and let you know on my progress.