PE Installation Problem

[Edward1983]

Hi All,

I am having a problem with a PE installation, basically I created a 10GB wim image from a 64bit HP machine, I have successfully deployed the image to a virtual machine, however as I don't have any spare HP's knocking about I am trying to apply the image to an old Dell we have lying around.

I use Diskpart to clean the C drive and then install the image onto the disk exactly like I do on the VM, however on the Dell when I try to boot it afterwards I get this error:

Fie:\Windows\System32\winload.exe

Status:0xc00000e

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

Does anyone know why this might be happening? Have I done something wrong or is it a compatibility issue between the two different machines I am using?

Many thanks

[Tripredacus]

It could be many things. Maybe you are missing a critical driver, maybe a driver is the wrong version. Even so, maybe the entire deployment didn't finish. Is the HDD big enough for that, say 20GB or larger? How much RAM on this Dell?

[Edward1983]

Thanks for replying, the hard disk is 80gb so it should be ok and I can install Windows 7 onto the Dell via a recovery disk and that works ok, the Dell has 2gb of RAM installed in it.

[Tripredacus]

Wait, you are not using Setup to do the install? Are you using Imagex then?

[winoutreach5]

Tripredacus poses a great and important question, what are you using for / with your Windows PE installation. Depending on your configuration, the solution may differ. However, one point that did come to mind when reading your post is that as I understand it, you are using a Windows image you captured from an HP machine and you are now trying to deploy that on to entirely different hardware and that can cause the error you are receiving. As Tripredacus also said though, it can be several things.

For the type of installation you are attempting to do you may want to consider using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) as it acts as a common console that combines all deployment tasks into an easy to use interface. MDT allows you to create “universal images” as it allows you to easily add and / or remove drivers and applications to and from the deployment images. It is also compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 so you would only have to learn one utility to learn ALL of your deployments.

You can even use the Format and Partition Disk in MDT to add formatted volumes contingent upon the percentage of remaining free space or a specific size. From within MDT you would select a task sequence, right click and select properties. Next, you would select the Task Sequence tab and proceed to click add, hover over “disks” and then select “format and partition disk”. Next, you would select the yellow star for “add” at the bottom of the right hand side above the volume area of the properties window. From there you could name the partition, choose the partition type and opt to use a percentage of remaining free space based on size in percent format or a predetermined size allocation. This would eliminate the need to use diskpart as the deployment process would be fully automated.

Again, the more information you can provide on your deployment, the more assistance we can offer to help assist you further.

Jessica

Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro