Jump to content

PE4.0 x86 Boot failure related to image size


mgroover

Recommended Posts

Hi!

First post here for me, here goes.

I have created a WinPE-boot for our WinXP-deployments, we are using some PowerShell scripts hence using 4.0, which crashes and reboots on loading now that I've updated the ADK 8 from RC->RTM.

As soon as the file size of the boot.wim goes somewhere above 600Mb's and any module (Scripting/WMI/MDAC/HTA/PowerShell) is integrated and enabled it crashes on load.

The strange thing is that it works with the image files that came out with the RC of ADK 8.0, the one released in conjunction with MDT2012.

Currently my testing environment consists of a VMWare Workstation 8.0.4 machine but the same issue exists regardless of which hardware I am running.

Any ideas appreciated!

Btw.. Is there any way I can set some debugging params with bcdedit (like not rebooting the PE environment upon blue screening).

Update edit: This is NOT happening with the x64 image so might just be a bug in the ADK?

Edited by mgroover
Link to comment
Share on other sites


As soon as the file size of the boot.wim goes somewhere above 600Mb's

Wow! What are you putting in your boot.wim to make it so large? Also, the boot.wim size is directly related to the amount of RAM in the system. A 600MB boot.wim may require at least 2GB RAM on the client, although that is just a guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The full I386-media folder from Windows XP :)

It's just a way of being able to speed up the actual WinXP local media build and not having to keep the USB media plugged in, something my local IT-guys appreciate when they can load the WIM in to memory in appx 10s with an USB 3.0 memory and then go to the next machine.

Pump and dump if you will. :)

The strange thing is that it works with PE 3.1 and 4.0RC but not with the full RTM-release of 4.0. x64 works. So there has to be a bug in the x86 4.0-release.

Could someone take the time and verify that this happens on other installations? Just build a standard x86 PE, add one feature (Scripting perhaps) and then just copy the I386 folder to root of the mount folder before committing the changes.

// Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The full I386-media folder from Windows XP :)

Well I'd go with what works... but... I recommend you put your XP files on a network share. That way you don't need to worry about UFDs either.

We have the media on distributed network shares as well but in remote locations where they are reinstalling machines on a slow line (read 64KB ISDN) where the distributed shares aren't available it is not an option.

Guess I'll have to send this off to MS support so they can have a look at it as there clearly is a bug in the x86-version of the WinPE 4.0-media!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tripredacus, does mgroover need to expand the WinPECacheThreshold, see here, or am I totally off base?

I still think the client PC needs more memory, but your suggestion might work. I've never used that setting and I don't know if it can be used without increasing client memory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tripredacus, thanks. I only have used imagex to look at information in an image. The link I provided does not do a commit, is this an omission? Thanks and enjoy, John.

Imagex is deprecated in ADK. Those instructions are not for WinPE 4. And normally you would need to commit the changes afterwards. Its strange there is no instructions to unmount the image.

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...