WINPE 4.0 boot modifes BCD hive on C drive

**jtalbot35** · May 17, 2013

jaclaz

I did the test with SanPolicy=3. That worked as far as not changing the BCD hive but I could not get the fixed drive to remove the readonly bit. All the drives (including the PE drive came up "offline" as expected. I used diskpart to mark the disk "online" which was successful and did the "attributes" command. It failed with the "Diskpart failed to clear disk attributes" msg. I repeated the steps on the PE drive and the "attributes" command was successful. From that, since I may need to fix a problem on a users drive, I think the SanPolicy=3 won't work. Of course I may just be doing something dumb but at this point I'm going to go down the "NoAutoMount" path and see what happens.

I can try other things if you would like.

BTW, if you have VMWare, you can build a Win 7 VM normally and then configure the boot sequence in the VM BIOS to first try booting from CD then hard drive. You can then build an ISO from you PE USB drive using:

"oscdimg -n -betfsboot.com "drive_where_your_PE_DISK_IS" name.iso. You can then attach your iso to your VM and boot it and your WinPE will be in control. I used this method to initially look at the hibernated state issue (I hibernated my Win 7 VM image and then attached my WinPE iso to it and rebooted. All of my above test where done on real hardware though. Never know when VMWare is not telling you the truth.

**jaclaz** · May 17, 2013

I can try other things if you would like.

Yes, there are two "levels" of read/write.

Try booting then check BOTH the disk and volume status, see:

http://emalf-pc.blogspot.it/2011/11/clear-readonly-disk-in-windows-server.html

If you could post a copy of the commands and feedback you get would be nice.

Was the disk online?

You may need to put it offline, and then attempt changing the read only status (or viceversa )...

It is possible that BOTH the disk and volume are set as "read only" or maybe the disk (or volume) being in hibernated state prevents the command with 3 or 4?

Try also if this:

http://www.happysysadm.com/2010/11/disk-is-offline-because-of-policy-set.html

Diskpart> san

applies....

jaclaz

**jtalbot35** · May 20, 2013

jaclaz

With SanPolicy=3, I could never get the disk writeable. Here is the output of my DISKPART session

DISKPART
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.2.9200
Copyright © 1999-2012 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MININT-2DO01EC
DISKPART> san
SAN Policy : Offline All
DISKPART> san policy=onlineall
DiskPart successfully changed the SAN policy for the current operating system.
DISKPART> rescan
Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration...
DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration.
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Offline 465 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Offline 1912 MB 0 B
DISKPART> select disk 0
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
DISKPART> detail disk
WDC WD5000BEVT-75ZAT0
Disk ID: E1F2EA89
Type : SATA
Status : Offline (Policy)
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : Yes
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
There are no volumes.
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly noerr
DiskPart failed to clear disk attributes.
DISKPART> rescan
Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration...
DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration.
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Offline 465 GB 0 B
Disk 1 Offline 1912 MB 0 B
DISKPART> detail disk
WDC WD5000BEVT-75ZAT0
Disk ID: E1F2EA89
Type : SATA
Status : Offline (Policy)
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : Yes
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
There are no volumes.
DISKPART> online disk noerr
DiskPart successfully onlined the selected disk.
DISKPART> rescan
Please wait while DiskPart scans your configuration...
DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration.
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly noerr
DiskPart failed to clear disk attributes.
DISKPART> detail disk
WDC WD5000BEVT-75ZAT0
Disk ID: E1F2EA89
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : Yes
Read-only : Yes
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 C RECOVERY NTFS Partition 15 GB Healthy
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 450 GB Healthy
Volume 3 FAT Partition 78 MB Healthy Hidden
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C RECOVERY NTFS Partition 15 GB Healthy
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 450 GB Healthy
Volume 3 FAT Partition 78 MB Healthy Hidden
DISKPART> select volume 2
Volume 2 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> detail volume
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B
Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes
Volume Capacity : 450 GB
Volume Free Space : 434 GB
DISKPART> attributes volume clear readonly noerr
DiskPart has encountered an error: The media is write protected.
See the System Event Log for more information.
DISKPART> detail volume
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B
Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes
Volume Capacity : 450 GB
Volume Free Space : 434 GB

**jaclaz** · May 20, 2013

jaclaz
With SanPolicy=3, I could never get the disk writeable. Here is the output of my DISKPART session

Hmmm.

Cannot really say what is preventing the thingy to change attributes.

Check this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2011/06/02/my-disk-is-read-only-help.aspx

I also had this problem and noted this post did not fix the issue. I was able to resolve this issue on my computer by modifying the following registry key from 1 to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect
Switch from a 1 to 0.

but that should only affect USB drives.

DiskPart has encountered an error: The media is write protected.
See the System Event Log for more information.

Is there anything worth of note in the event log (if it exists in your PE)...

jaclaz

Edited May 20, 2013 by jaclaz

**jtalbot35** · May 20, 2013

jaclaz

Thanks for all of your help. Not sure why the original issue happens (BCD file changed on boot) but I'm going to work around it with the NoAutoMount setting. Thanks again.

**jaclaz** · May 20, 2013

Thanks for all of your help. Not sure why the original issue happens (BCD file changed on boot) but I'm going to work around it with the NoAutoMount setting. Thanks again.

You are welcome .

Re-thinking about the Read-only that cannot be cleared, maybe it is because as soon as you put the disk online volume on it were mounted to a drive letter.

Maybe all volumes need to be unmounted to allow to change the read-only status?

jaclaz

Edited May 20, 2013 by jaclaz

Sign In

WINPE 4.0 boot modifes BCD hive on C drive

Recommended Posts

jtalbot35

jaclaz

jtalbot35

jaclaz

jtalbot35

jaclaz

Please sign in to comment

Recently Browsing 0 members

Activity

Browse