Boot WinPE from CD using SDI image

[David]

I have a winPE cd that works great, except that I need to be able to
switch cd's once it is loaded.
I've read various posts here and come to the conclusion that booting
the cd using ramdisk and booting a .sdi image is probably the best
approach.

I have a few questions about this process because I haven't been able
to get it to work.

The current cd I have has a directory stucture like:
+---I386
+---FONTS
+---HELP
+---INF
+---MSAGENT
| \---INTL
+---SYSTEM32
| +---CONFIG
| \---DRIVERS
| \---ETC
\---WINSXS
+---MANIFESTS
\---...more directories...

I've seen in a few posts that i386 needs to be renamed to minint,
setupldr.bin renamed to ntldr, and add ntdetect.com
Question: Do I need to really do this in this case?

To create the .sdi file I've followed the steps located at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnxpesp1/html/ram_sdi.asp

Specifically:

sdimgr /new ramdisk.sdi
sdimgr ramdisk.sdi /readpart:E:
sdimgr ramdisk.sdi /import:BOOT,0,startrom.com
sdimgr ramdisk.sdi /import:LOAD,0,ntldr
sdimgr ramdisk.sdi /pack
sdimgr ramdisk.sdi

In the above case, E: is the cd-rom drive. I've also tried copying the
cd to another .sdi image where I had mounted it using sdiloader, but
same results.
The .sdi file is created just fine with an offset of 4096.

Question: I see in the above MS url about an OEM authored boot program.
Do I need a OEM authored boot program to boot a .sdi image on a cd?

Once the .sdi file is created I create a directory with the following
structure:
\ramdisk.sdi
\ntdetect.com
\ntldr
\boot.ini

boot.ini looks like:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=ramdisk(0)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
ramdisk(0)\windows="XP Embedded RamDisk"
/rdpath=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\ramdisk.sdi
/rdimageoffset=4096

I then create a .iso by running:
OSCDIMG.EXE -n -betfsboot.com sdi sdi.iso

SDI is the directory that contains the sdi file and boot.ini,
ntdetect.com, ntldr.

When I try to boot from this cd I get the following error:

CDBOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR

Any assistance is very appreciated!

 

[KM]

David,

Are you trying to use XPe tools (like sdimgr) to capture the SDI image off the WinPE CD?
Then it is wrong way and it won't work for you.

You will need to create your own XPe image, deploy it on hard drive, run through FBA, then do some little tweak to be able to create
bootable CD or capture the image in SDI file.

 

[David]

I admittedly don't know what the heck I'm doing
We currently build our cd using a customized mkimg.cmd and OSCDIMG.exe

We pull files from xp sp32 and modify and use txtsetup.sif, to use
osloadoptions /minint etc...
We have a OEM license deal through MS for this...

The cd solution works fine, but I want to be able to take that same
..iso and be able to take it out to copy data from another cd and I
can't do that with the current solution.

I don't even know where to start wrt Target Designer, etc. I know that
FBA is first boot agent and that is about where my knowledge ends.
How to run through the FBA... don't konw.

 

[KM]

David,

Start here http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/e...tingEmbeddedRecoveryCDByUsingWindowsPESDI.asp

But you will have to get familiar with XPe ToolKit and Development Process anyway:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/xpembedded.asp

I admittedly don't know what the heck I'm doing
We currently build our cd using a customized mkimg.cmd and OSCDIMG.exe

We pull files from xp sp32 and modify and use txtsetup.sif, to use
osloadoptions /minint etc...
We have a OEM license deal through MS for this...

You may walso want to post your question to microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment newsgroup. Maybe somebody else will give you
a hint there how to implement what you want with WinPE.

The cd solution works fine, but I want to be able to take that same
.iso and be able to take it out to copy data from another cd and I
can't do that with the current solution.

WinPE surely has more limittations vs XPe in general. So you may be on the right track to create your own XPe bootable CD (SDI/RAM
boot) where you can do much more inclidung ejecting CD and quering user to insert another CD

I don't even know where to start wrt Target Designer, etc. I know that
FBA is first boot agent and that is about where my knowledge ends.
How to run through the FBA... don't konw.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xeconaboutwindowsxpembeddedstudio.asp

Or, faster, start with tutorials:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/xpehelp/html/xetbsTutorialBuildingDeployingRun-TimeImage.asp