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You can use Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment
(Windows PE) to create customized installations of Windows. You can also use
Windows PE as a hard-disk-based recovery solution. This article describes how
to create a hard disk that you can use to start a Windows PE version of
Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
Before you follow the procedures in this article, create the
installation image that you want to use on your computer screen. To create the
installation image, see the “Creating a Customized Version of Windows PE”
section of the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment User's Guide. This user's guide is the Winpe.chm file of the Windows PE
distribution CD-ROM documentation.
Create a Windows PE hard disk that you can use to start a 32-bit version of Windows Server 2003
Start your computer by using the Microsoft Windows PE CD.
To do this, insert the Windows PE CD into the CD drive or the DVD drive, and
then restart your computer.
Use the DiskPart program to create a formatted, active
partition.
For more information about how to use DiskPart to format
and partition a hard disk, see the "DiskPart Commands" section of the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment User's Guide.
On the active partition, create a Minint folder. To do
this, type the following at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
md Minint
Note You must name the folder Minint.
Copy the contents of the
Build_Location\I386 folder to the Minint folder. To
do this, type the following at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
Build_Location is the location of the
customized version of Windows PE that you created.
Partition is the active partition that you created
in step 2. For example, type the following:
xcopy "c:\build.x86\i386\*.*" c:\minint /s
Copy Ntdetect.com from the
Build_Location\I386 folder to the root of the active
partition. To do this, type the following at a command prompt, and then press
ENTER:
Create a Windows PE hard disk that you can use to start a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003
Start your computer by using the Windows PE CD. To do
this, insert the Windows PE CD into the CD drive or the DVD drive, and then
restart your computer.
Use the DiskPart program to create a primary data
partition.
For more information about how to use DiskPart to format
and partition a hard disk, see step 3 in the "Create a bootable Windows PE disk
for 64-bit versions of Windows PE" section of the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment User's Guide.
Use the DiskPart program to create a formatted, active
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) partition. To do this, follow these steps:
At a command prompt, type
diskpart, and then press ENTER.
The DiskPart
program starts.
Type 0 to select disk 0, and the
press ENTER.
Type 1 to select partition 1,
and the press ENTER.
Type the drive letter that you want to assign to the
EFI partition, and then press ENTER. For example, type
g.
Exit DiskPart.
On the primary data partition, create a Winpe\Ia64 folder.
To do this, type the following at a command prompt:
md Data_Partition:\Winpe\Ia64
Data_Partition is the primary data
partition that you created in step 2. For example, type the following:
md c:\Winpe\Ia64
Copy the contents of the
Build_Location\Ia64 folder to
Data_Partition\Winpe\Ia64. To do this, type the
following at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
EFI_Partition is the drive letter of
the EFI partition that you created in step 3. For example, type the following:
xcopy "c:\build.ia64\ia64\setupldr.efi" g:\
On the EFI partition that is in the same location as the
Setupldr.efi file, create a blank "$WinPE$.$$$" file. To do this, type the
following at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
echo blank file >> EFI_Partition:\$Winpe$.$$$
For example, type the following:
echo blank file >> g:\$Winpe$.$$$
To start the computer from this version of Windows PE that
you have put on the EFI partition, run the efinvr command. To do this, type the following at the command prompt,
and then press ENTER:
If you create a Windows PE CD that you can use to start an
East Asian language version of Windows Server 2003, you must copy the
Bootfont.bin file from the Build_Location\Ia64
folder to the root of the destination hard disk. Without the Bootfont.bin file,
the loader prompt displays incorrect characters.
You can follow a similar procedure if you start the
computer by using an operating system that is located on the hard disk instead
of starting the computer with your Windows PE CD. When you run DiskPart from a
full Windows Server 2003 operating system, DiskPart cannot assign a drive
letter to an EFI partition. Instead, in step 3 of this procedure, use the mountvol command. To do this, type the following command at a command
prompt, and then press ENTER:
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