WinPe does not see other drives

[Sebastian42]

I've been persuaded that WinPe is the way to get the required 'authority' to alter registry keys that resist change. The registry is obviously on a drive and so WinPe must 'see' drives to be able to alter their registry. I managed to get a bootable USB which launches WinPe. It has a THIS PC option, but when that is opened, connected drives do NOT show. (How) can that be remedied ?

 

PS WinPe DOES see other drives - ones that were already connected when WinPe booted; I can't connect the system drive - whose registry I want to change - before booting WinPe, because then the PC boots from the system drive rather than from the WinPe USB.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Sebastian42

[jaclaz]

So, what you really need is a way to boot the PE at a time when the normal "system" disk is connected.

Essentially you are saying that when you hot-connect the disk to the PE, it cannot see it, it may be a limitation of the WinPE (of all WinPE's or just your particular build) or it may be something connected to one of your BIOS/UEFI settings.

Usually there are settings in BIOS (or UEFI) that allow booting from an external disk (USB) with the internal disk(s) normally connected.

Which motherboard is it?

Are you booting BIOS (or CSM) or UEFI?

It would be really strange that you don't have such an option, in case there really isn't one there is a possible workaround adding an entry for a bootloader to your existing BCD, but depending on your PC booting BIOS or UEFI and other factors it may be complex.

Before anything else, have you tried re-scanning with diskpart or devcon [1] after having connected the disk?

See here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/all/windows-10-does-not-detect-a-hotswap-hard-drive/4bab657c-8c62-4092-99e1-ef7c83466cc0?page=1

jaclaz

[1] diskpart is surely in your WinPE, devcon may or may not be there

[Tripredacus]

If the system drive is not being connected via USB or other external means, and you are connecting with SATA, make sure the board supports hot-plug on the SATA port. Normally I would just use a USB enclosure for an instance where I don't want to have the disk connect at boot time.

[Sebastian42]

"what you really need is a way to boot the PE at a time when the normal "system" disk is connected."  - I would gladly settle for that.

"settings in BIOS (or UEFI) that allow booting from an external disk (USB) with the internal disk(s) normally connected." Lacking that seems to be the root of my problem.

I have only chosen 'boot-from-USB' in the Boot sequence, not in the actual BIOS settings - I KNOW of an option there, but have not yet tried that.

I wont list the mobo code yet

Booting from BIOS.

"have you tried re-scanning with diskpart or devcon [1] after having connected the disk?" No, and never heard of devcon.

My post has been severely interupted and other things are going wrong, so I will just post this now, and look at it again tomorow

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Sebastian42

[Sebastian42]

'use a USB enclosure for an instance where I don't want to have the disk connect at boot time.' That sounds to me like it might work.

I'll try it as soon as I can.