Tag Archives: Vista

Windows Deployment Server woes

Posted on by
Reply

I have been configuring up some nice new Dell Optiplex 960 workstations. I use WDS under server 2003 and 2008 so I thought it would be a walk in the park…..

Problem 1

The first problem. Drivers are not included in the boot.wim image for the Intel Pro1000 Gigabit 825xx network card. Not a great problem in itself so a quick download of the network drivers from the Dell website and hey presto I have something to work with.

You need to ensure that you have the Windows Automated Install Kit (WAIK) installed. Now open up the command prompt through the WAIK program group.

Mount your boot image with ImageX. I would recommed setting up a couple of directories, so you can put the files in and then mount the image to.

I created a temp folder in the C drive. And a mount directory beneath it. I extracted the drivers into a folder called network beneath the temp folder.

Copy the boot.wim file to the temp folder. Then issue the following command:

imagex /mountrw c:\temp\boot.wim 2 c:\temp\mount

The number 2 is very important, it relates to the install image inside the boot.wim file. You can find out which images you have in a file by using imagex /info <wimfile>

Now you want to inject the drivers:

peimg /inf=c:\temp\network\*.inf /image=c:\temp\mount

This should complete successfully then all you need to do is commit the changes and unmount the wim image.

imagex /unmount /commit c:\temp\mount

You should now have your boot.wim file updated with new drivers. Insert this back into WDS using the console tools.

Problem 2

This one had my screaming at the machine for hours….

When the boot image loads it start Windows PE and gives you this error

WdsClient: An error occured while obtaining an IP Address from the DHCP Server

The only option is to hit OK, and thats the end.

The solution…..you might be interested in has nothing to do with the WDS server or the image file. It is actually the network switch. I have some very nice pretty shiney new Dell Powerconnect switches (62xx series), this is also a problem with Cisco switches. I messed about with some simply unmanaged switches and the problem goes away. So what is different??

Its called Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) portfast. You must enable this on the ports on your switch that you want to be able to network boot the machines on.

For the Dell Powerconnect 62xx series you need to log onto the switch in CLI mode and issue the following

at the Console> prompt

enable
configure
interface ethernet 1/g1
spanning-tree portfast

Where 1/g1 above that is the switch/port-type(number) 

I hope this helps.

Create a bootable USB stick for installing Windows Vista, 7 or 2008

Posted on by
4

This will walk through the steps to create a bootable USB flash drive for the purpose of installing a Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 2008 OS. The instructions can be applied to a physical DVD or an ISO image that has been downloaded. Treat an ISO file the same as a DVD, just mount it in a virtual drive. These instructions assume that you have a computer with Windows Vista installed on it. Most steps can be completed from Windows XP, but mileage may vary.

Required:

  • USB Flash Drive (4GB+)
  • Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 2008)
  • A computer running Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 2008

Step 1: Format the USB Stick
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. Be warned: this will erase everything on your USB drive or Hard Drive if you select the wrong disk ID.

  1. Plug in your USB Flash Drive
  2. Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select Run as administrator
  3. Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
    diskpart
    list disk
    The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step.  I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
  4. Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number 1 with the number of your disk below.
    select disk 1
    clean
    create partition primary
    select partition 1
    active
    format fs=NTFS
    assign
    exit
    When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable 
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 2008 disk to make the flash drive bootable. In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

  1. Insert your Windows DVD into your drive or Mount an ISO image in a virtual drive.
  2. Change directory to the DVDs boot directory where bootsect lives:
    d:
    cd d:\boot
  3. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
    bootsect /nt60 g:
  4. You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go. Alternatively extract all the files from the ISO image to the bootable USB stick.

EDIT:

I have recently been pointed in the direction of a tool from Microsoft to do the above steps all in one go. Take a look here:

http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool