WDS boot image

[MarkAtWag]

After we switched vendors for laptops, the new ones have some sort of hidden oem partition that goofs up the boot manager after imaging (<Root Windows>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt).

I found a great fix that can be run in WDS before imaging and it makes the rest seamless.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...a5-db8af038fb0c

What I would like to do is integrate the commands into a new boot.wim. So ideally when we PXE boot to wds, it will allow me to select Dell or HP; just like it does when we enable the capture boot wim. Since I didnt create the original boot wims im a little stumped. I see there is just one boot.wim and the rest (including our capture) is boot.wim.bcd . Any pointers on how to create a new boot option that can run a script before logon would be helpful!

If im going about this all wrong let me know too ) Thanks again MSFN!

[Tripredacus]

This is actually very easy to do. You will kick yourself, I know I did!

Open up WDS, and right click on the Boot Images container, and add new image. When you select your file, and hit next, you get to a part where you can change the description/name of the image. Type what you want in there and when its done, hit finish. You will then have two images in Boot Images.

When you PXE from a client, it will go to a menu, and the descriptions you typed in will appear as the selections.

My test WDS has 4 boot images, so the clients on there see 4 items:

Win PE v2.1 (x86)

Win PE v3.0 (x64)

Vista x86 Setup

Server 2008 x64 Setup

[MarkAtWag]

Sweet, yeah that was easy to make another instance.

Now, I can AIK mount that wim to edit it to make the changes that I need. However, i just cant wrap my head around how i can force that script to run. It will boot to the deployment screen, but i want to force the following to run before we log in to deploy an image.

DISKPART

SELECT DISK 0

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

EXIT

EXIT

*Edit - essentially i want to run an autoexec.bat when the boot image loads.. but dont know where to put it.

Edited August 26, 2009 by MarkAtWag

[Tripredacus]

Look in the help file about STARNET.CMD and/or WINPESHL.INI. Both can launch commands. Use one or the other tho. If you have stuff in your startnet.cmd AND winpeshl.ini, it will ignore the CMD and only use the INI file. I have PE images that use either of the options. Basically, use the startnet.cmd if just starting. the winpeshl.ini is best used if you don't want your end users to have access to the command prompt. Also note that startnet.cmd uses standard .Bat syntax, but the INI is a bit different.

[MarkAtWag]

Thanks for the help, I seem to be getting closer.

I tried with just the startnet.cmd , putting

wpeinit

DISKPART /S X:\windows\system32\deploy.txt

deploy.txt has SELECT DISK 0 ,CLEAN, EXIT.

I never saw the command prompt come up, and I can tell it didnt run.

--

I tried the winpeshl.ini way, (cleared out startnet.cmd except for wpeinit)

So in winpeshl.ini i have

[LaunchApp]

[LaunchApps]

X:\Windows\System32\deploy.cmd

same thing, didnt run.

If I Shift+F10 and search under windows\system32 I do not see my files , yet if i unmount the image and browse it I see them all. - i know im booting and mounting to the correct ones.

I'll bake a pie for anyone who leads me to solve this =)

[Tripredacus]

winpeshl works a lot different.

try using

x:\windows\system32\DISKPART.exe "/S X:\windows\system32\deploy.txt"

[MarkAtWag]

I tested this with the following in my windows\system32\winpeshl.ini

[LaunchApp]

[LaunchApps]
x:\windows\system32\DISKPART.exe "/S X:\windows\system32\deploy.txt"

but not luck. I'm wondering if somehow the WDS part of my WinPE is loading first (Install Windows screen) even though i have winpeshl file in system32.

[Tripredacus]

Oh, are you saying your Boot Image has is an Windows Setup? or a WDS Capture image?

[MarkAtWag]

Yes, this boot image is for windows setup in WDS, not my capture image.

Edit: side note, i also thought that i might need to install some packages, like

peimg /install=WinPE-Scripting-Package D:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows

i get the 0x80070002 error - only thing i could think it because its mounted on D, and AIK installed on C - just a thought

Edited August 28, 2009 by MarkAtWag

[Tripredacus]

These are uncharted waters for me then. I have not modified a standard BOOT.WIM besides injecting NIC and Mass Storage Drivers. All other modifications are via unattend file, or for me WDSClientUnattend.xml.