XPE Boot problem

[Godzilla]

Dear all,

I have cloned the XPE image and deployed it to a new CompactFlash,
booted in WinPE and by using diskpart, I partitioned the CompactFlash
into 2 parts, made partition 1 as the active partition. After
formatting it to NTFS format and copy all the image files from USB to
partition 1, C:\, I restarted the device.

But when it boots up and gone past Post, the device just sits on the
configure (blue) box with a semi-colon ( printed after the box. It
does not even boot into the XPE image as I cannot see any FBA
activity. I believe there is something else I have to do to the CF but
ran out of idea.

Can someone point me out?

Thank you.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

The CF is probably ID as removable. When you format the CF under WinPE and
Win XP Pro it will NOT lay down a boot sector to boot XP. The CF needs to be
prepared using MS-DOS

One the target system boot to DOS and perform the following:
1. Fdisk
2. Format
3. Bootprep (comes with XPe to change the boot sector from MS-DOS to NT)

Copy the image to the CF using a USB to CF adapter.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[Godzilla]

Hi Sean,

Should I be using a win98 disk for fdisk?

One thing that you pointed out is that CF could be seen under Diskpart
and I thought that constitute a fixed disk CF. Is there any other
build-in tools which I could use for format and bootprep the CF?

Thanks.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

Windows XP can create a bootable floppy. The FDISK and FORMAT utilities
needed can be found in the CD Contents of the XPEA book:
http://www.sjjmicro.com/XPEA.html. Or you can get them from www.bootdisk.com

I don't use Diskpart so I do not know what it sees or what it doesn't see.
The steps below are the recommended best known method to creating a bootable
CF.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[KM]

Your CF is likely marked as fixed. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to create 2 partitions on it under XP/PE OS.
(and you wouldn't see removable media as fixed volume using diskpart on XP)

Did you use WinPE to partition and format the CF on the *target* machine? This would be important step to preserve right disk
geometry.

Yes, you can use Win98 or MS-DOS disk to use fdisk and this approach is probably less erroneous than using WinPE. Again, you should
do this on the target.If the CF is still not bootable, try fixing MBR (use fdisk /MBR switch or tools like MbrFix).

Also, make sure to put a non-zero timeout in the boot.ini. This way you can see if you are getting to the ntldr's menu at least.

 

[Godzilla]

Hello,

I am trying to make a boot CD and chuck fdisk, format and bootprep
into the CD content as I do not have win98 CD with me.

I did format and partition the CF on the *target* machine under winPE.
But something isn't lining up is that someone says bootprep only
required if the file system is FAT. I formatted the CF using NTFS file
system but still no boot.

I will tell you guys how I go...


Thanks guys.

 

[KM]

I did format and partition the CF on the *target* machine under winPE.

But something isn't lining up is that someone says bootprep only
required if the file system is FAT.

Bootprep is a DOS utility hence you deal with FAT there.

I formatted the CF using NTFS file
system but still no boot.

NTFS means you already got the right boot sector.
I'd recommand you to try the MbrFix tool (google for it). It worked nicely for me on many other targets including even VPC.

 

[Godzilla]

Can I boot into DOS and run fdisk /mbr?

I'd recommand you to try the MbrFix tool (google for it). It worked nicely for me on many other targets including even VPC.

 

[Godzilla]

Hi KM,

Just downloaded MbrFix tool and can you give me a bit of instruction
on how to use it?

I assumed that I have to boot into winPE and run mbrfix /fixmbr
command? Do I have to reformat the CF or repartition it?

Thanks again.

 

[Godzilla]

Just to confirm that everything works when I ran the command mbrfix /
fixmbr under winPE.

But I've got another question, why is EWF switched mode from RAM to
RAM (REG) mode?

 

[KM]

Just downloaded MbrFix tool and can you give me a bit of instruction

on how to use it?

Run MbrFix /? to see what's supported.

Basuically you'd need to run somethinglike the following:
MbrFix /drive <num> fixmbr

I assumed that I have to boot into winPE and run mbrfix /fixmbr command?

Yup, WinPE will do it. You can run the tool off a USB mass storage device connected.

Do I have to reformat the CF or repartition it?

Nope, just run the tool (assuming you already partitioned and formatted the CF)

 

[KM]

Check out FBALog.txt. Perhaps you left no space for EWF to create EWF Config partition.

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

If you have fdisk, then you can. fdisk /mbr is not going to give you an NT
boot sector. You will have to use Bootprep.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
XP Embedded Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental
Toolkit

 

[KM]

Yes, that would also do it.

But I like to use MbrFix tool as it can be run under XP/PE/XPe.

 

[Godzilla]

Thanks guys. That's been really helpful...

With the EWF configuration setting, I did check the FBALog.txt but it
does not reveal any information on the install after it is being
cloned... i.e. the information contained in the log file is for the
previous install of EWF, but the cloned EWF install.

One thing I can think of is that I did not turn off EWF (RAM mode)
before I run "fbreseal.exe -keepall"... When the image was cloned, EWF
was automatically started in RAM Reg mode. It is inconsistent to some
documentation I found on the web. Maybe that's the mistake I've made.

Any thoughts?

 

[KM]

I suggest you to create a new thread on the EWF problems. This way more people can start looking into this problem of yours and may
be able to help more.
Also, it may help folks in future while searching NG archives.

Sorry, while I was helping you with the boot problem I actually forgot your initial post where you mentioned you *cloned* the image.
Certainly you won't see much related details in FBAlog after you cloned the image.

Taking into consideration you cloned the image your EWF problem is clear now. How exactly you copied files from original device to
the new CF? Sounded like you used USB mass storage device to transfer files? Please keep in mind that EWF Config partition is hidden
and you can't get it copied (cloned) easy way. You will have to use raw block copy switch of Ghost or similar tool to copy the
entire disk content.
To eliminate such it is usually recommended to implement EWF RAM Reg mode. That mode is much easier to use, configure and, most
important, to clone. If you are with FP2007 or even SP2 there won't be any feature of EWF RAM that is not there in EWF RAM Reg.
So, any particular reason you are trying to stick to EWF RAM?

 

[Godzilla]

Hello KM,

After some initial research, I found that using RAM Reg mode has other
unexpected benefit in which I kind of skipped to look at... The
initial reason for using RAM mode is that I do not want to complicate
EWF settings with the registry. Also, I thought with RAM Reg mode,
some write filtered data are cached in registry, which means that
there is still some writes to the underlying CompactFlash.

You were spot on with my copy over procedure... I did not even think
of using Ghost or similar utility for deploying the cloned images. In
future, I should be using RAM Reg mode...

Thanks KM and hope we can exchange further help in the near future.