Jump to content

How-TO? Ramdisk on WinPE


Maelstorm

Recommended Posts

I've searched though the forums and google, found a few good tutorials, but none of them work. I'm using a WinPE built from a WinXP SP2 source. From what I gather, ram disks don't work with this WinPE build? Judging by the sheer number of posts, someone somewhere must have gotten this thing working. I don't need very much space on the drive, the 32MB is plenty...Heck, 1M is overkill too.

Any ideas?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


I loaded everything needed to build a WinPE 1.6 (2005) and now I'm getting this weird error when I run mkimg.cmd.

E:\OPK\WinPE\BuildPE16>mkimg e:\Images\Win2K3SESP1 E:\OPK\WinPE\WinPE16 /WMI /PNP
Verifying media ...
Building hives ...

MKIMG failed to build WinPE's registry from the 'config.inf' file.
If you have made modifications to this file, please check them for errors.

This is a clean installation, and I have not modified any files yet, other than to slipstream the Win2k3 SP1 into the Win2k3 directory. There is a text file that says something about an error, but it's empty.

Any ideas?

-- Update 04-24-2009 05:20AM PDT --

I figured out what the problem was. Since the name of the text file is bldhives-err.txt and there is a bldhives.exe file. I ran the exe and got the help for it. As it turns out, there is a missing file in the WinPE 1.6 (2005) distrubution called fonts.inf that is specified in config.inf. I copied the fonts.inf file from the WinPE 1.5 installation that I have and now it all works. Now to try and add in the ramdrive and see if I can get that working.

Edited by Maelstorm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

add ramdrv.sys to system32/drivers then add this to winpesys.inf just before the language specific section (Recompile with mkimg.cmd). This shuld give a ??mb ramdrive on z:

;######################################################################################

;Ramdrive

;RAMDRV

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171},"Class",0000000000,"Sample"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171},"Icon",0000000000,"-5"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","DriverDate",0000000000,"11-14-1999"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","DriverDesc",0000000000,"Ramdrv Driver"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","DriverVersion",0000000000,"5.0.2183.1"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","InfPath",0000000000,"ramdrv.inf"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","InfSection",0000000000,"DiskInstall"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","InfSectionExt",0000000000,".NT"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","MatchingDeviceId",0000000000,"ramdrv"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000","ProviderName",0000000000,"Microsoft"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE",,0x00000010

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","Capabilities",0x00010001,0x0

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","Class",0000000000,"Sample"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","ClassGUID",0000000000,"{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","ConfigFlags",0x00010001,0x4

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","DeviceDesc",0000000000,"Ramdrv Driver"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","Driver",0000000000,"{78A1C341-4539-11D3-B88D-00C04FAD5171}\0000"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","HardwareID",0x00010000,"ROOT\ramdrv"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","Mfg",0000000000,"Microsoft"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000","Service",0000000000,"Ramdrv"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000\Control","ActiveService",0000000000,"Ramdrv"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\SAMPLE\0000\LogConf",,0x00000010

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv","DisplayName",0000000000,"Ramdrv Driver"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv","ErrorControl",0x00010001,0x1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv","ImagePath",0x00020000,"System32\DRIVERS\ramdrv.sys"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv","Start",0x00010001,0x0

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv","Type",0x00010001,0x1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Enum","0",0000000000,"ROOT\SAMPLE\0000"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Enum","Count",0x00010001,0x1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Enum","NextInstance",0x00010001,0x1

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","BreakOnEntry",0x00010001,0x0

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","DebugComp",0x00010001,0xffffffff

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","DebugLevel",0x00010001,0x0

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","DiskSize",0x00010001,0x1000000

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","DriveLetter",0000000000,"Z:"

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","RootDirEntries",0x00010001,0x200

HKLM,"SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ramdrv\Parameters","SectorsPerCluster",0x00010001,0x2

Edited by gadget
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't mention it, so where do you get the ramdrv.sys file?

I found something interesting though. http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/Dow...oad_and_001.htm has a download that gives you a run-time installable ramdrive that is installed on the fly from a .bat file. It does work, but since it's evaluation, you get a nag screen, but it does work.

-- Update: 04-24-2009 19:40 PDT --

I finally got around to installing the Windows DDK CD that I bought from Microsoft. It supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. It seems they all use a similar build environment. Using the ramdisk package from Microsoft, and the DDK, I rebuilt the driver.

You can download the DDK here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/ddk/default.mspx

I'll post back to see how it works.

Oh, if you do run the build, and you get an error about jvc is missing, then you have a space somewhere in your paths. The DDK build tools do not like spaces in any of their path names.

Edited by Maelstorm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm,

@gadget

I may be wrong :unsure:, but I don't think that WinPE 1.x is much different from BartPE or a Winbuilder PE.

@Maelstorm

The one you managed to build appears to be the "old" 1999 Windows 2000 sample driver, that AFAIK has a lot of limits, and has at least THREE different "stages" of evolution, the Christian Ghijselinck's/QSoft professional version you found:

http://www.ramdisk.tk/

http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/RAM.../ramdiskent.htm

and the "old" but still better than the MS "sample" freeware version here:

http://www.freeramdisk.com/

http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/RAM...ramdiskfree.htm

And newish "Gavotte RRamdisk.sys":

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4064

More resources:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=1507

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We cant use bartpe here as evrything has to be a genuine MS solution.

ramdrv.sys can be copied from any server 2003 sp1 installation or extracted from the install media. Else i cn 'post' it to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...