winpe ramdisk

[Guest]

Can anyone point me to detailed instructions on how to add a ramdisk to a customized winpe image?

I have successfully setup a customize WinPE image, per WINPE.CHM, but I am now trying to figure out how to had a RAMDISK - no luck so far.

Thanks in advance

 

[Diana Reichwein]

this article is a good description how to do it... works fine for
me...

http://tjb.xgameservers.com/WindowsPE.html

bye diana

 

[Guest]

Diana,

Thanks for the reply - Actually I have been working from that document, but no luck.

Below is copy of the actual steps I had taken and some notes;

**** Begin excerpt

Here is the background of what I have done.



1) I have a VM setup where I have successfully installed a RAMDISK
2) I have exported the registry key from ControlSet001 as you document says – so far so good
3) Where I run into confusion is the location of SetupReg.hiv, RAMDISK.INF, and RAMDISK.SYS



Explanation of my confusion;



* The source of my Windows XP files is C:\XP_DIST (created by using Setup Manager from deploy.cab – no problems with source, works fine)

* The location of my WinPE files is C:\WINPE (copied from the OPK CD – again, no problems works fine)

* Looking over the MKIMG.CMD script, it appears that BLDHIVES.EXE runs against the hives that are copied over from the Windows XP source files (C:\XP_DIST). What I found is that if I load the SetupReg.hiv in C:\WINPE (and do the edits as your doc shows), when my ISO is built it will not include the registry entries for RAMDISK support. At this point, I loaded the SetupReg.hiv located in C:\XP_DIST (and do the edits as your doc shows), my final ISO does include RAMDISK support (at least visible using REGEDIT under HKLM\SYSTEM\CURENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES)

* Lastly, the location I copy RAMDISK.SYS and RAMDISK.INF. If I copy the files to C:\WINPE\DRIVERS and C:\WINPE\INF and then run MKIMG – the files don’t end up in the final ISO. What I have done is, run MKIMG (mkimg c:\xp_dist c:\winpe_tmp c:\winpe.iso), copy the files into my interim (C:\WINPE_TMP under I386\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS and I386\INF), then run OSCDIMG to against C:\WINPE_TMP to create a new ISO.


When I do the steps above, my final ISO has the necessary files and registry entries (that I know of) for RAMDISK support – but I don’t have a RAMDISK – not at B: or anyplace.



What am I missing? Any help or reference you provide would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. - amount of RAM for this setup is 512MB

*** end of excerpt.

Any hints? Thanks again.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

You do not need to load/unload hives for changing the windows PE
registry. There is builtin support for modifications to registry witin
the Windows PE tools structure.

The mkimg.cmd script that executes bldhives and actually builds
(compiles) the registry hives from info in the winpe*.inf files (the
winpe*.inf does not get copied from the cd when running mkimg).

For a ramdisk you need to modify the WinPESys.inf file.
For more info on how, see this link
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...echnet/itsolutions/edc/pak/build/EDCBLD05.ASP
(search for WinPESys.inf)

I do recommend using the Q-soft ramdisk since it is easier to deploy
than the Microsoft ramdisk above (from the DDK)

You would also like to aquire a ramdisk driver that supports more than
64 MB of RAM
En eval version can be downloaded here
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn181612/RAMDisk/RAMDisk_Evaluation_5290PRO.zip
(the standard version of this ramdisk is the one used in Bart
Lagerweij's PE Builder)


Another example of making changes to the registry:
To change the background image in Windows PE, you change this row in
the winpedef.inf before running mkimg.
HKCU,"Control Panel\desktop", "WallPaper", REG_EXPAND_SZ,
"%systemroot%\system32\winpe.bmp"

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net

 

[Guest]

Johan,

Excellent response and great resource reference.

Working wonderfully.

Thanks for you time and answer, greatly appreciated