SIW2 Tools

[Megahertz07]

Everyone that isn’t a first trip sailor on this site knows that SIW2 is a high skill geek.
He builds and shares his wonderful tools with us. The main problem is that, as he builds for himself, it lacks the information on how to use.

I am learning about his wonderful and powerful 17514x64-v6 tool.
Every time I boot it there are a lot of missing drivers, so I run the driver scan and updater but there were some drivers that couldn't be found. With the 7UPDATERv6 I added some drivers on Boot.wim for Intel64 (AHCI, Chipset, IO, MEI, MVMe), Lan and Samsung MVMe) (I had to "create" a /sources\install.wim as 7UPDATERv6 was asking for.) After Boot.wim update, I aborted (ctrl+c).

Now I boot the 17514x64-v6 and I search for updates on Device manager and it loads the drivers.
So, after a while I have the tool with almost all drivers.

I noticed that there is one \sources and another \sources17514 with almost same files on it,. Why?

From this point I would like to do the reverse, that is, save the ramdisk drive X: to boot.wim.
I saw it has SIW2 Dism10 and it has a Capture function.
Can I use SIW2 Dism10 to create a boot.wim from drive X:? Do you have any instructions on how to use Dism10?

I tried to extract boot.wim to the USB flash disk (NTFS) and boot directly to the \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe. I've created an option on the bcd file for it.

It gave me a BSOD.
Why it can boot the \sources\boot.wim drive and can't boot the F: drive?

 

[SIW2]

1.

Every time I boot it there are a lot of missing drivers

Drivers included are those necessary for it to function as repair media. If that is working, then you do not need any more drivers.

If you want everything to look nice in device manager, you could end up with a gigantic wim file.
If you wish, you can add any drivers you like - mount the wim and install the drivers- the way you did it is fine.


2.

I tried to extract boot.wim to the USB flash disk (NTFS) and boot directly to the \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe. I've created an option on the bcd file for it.

The EASYBCD Tab that says Winpe is a bit misleading. It is for booting wim files.

If you have extracted the contents of boot.wim to a drive, you are not trying to boot a wim file.

The bcd entry for non ramdisk boot should be the same as for a regular operating system. If you are using EASYBCD, the entry should be made using the regular Windows TAB , just select the drive letter in the dropdown and pick a suitable name.

Or you can do bcdboot f:\windows


3.

I noticed that there is one \sources and another \sources17514 with almost same files on it,. Why?

When you run setup.exe from winpe it searches all drives for sources\setup media

Some installation media ( e.g. the DELL "skylake" media) have altered the setup files. In that case you will need to run the setup18015 from winpe for it to recognize the installation media. Otherwise, use the regular setup17514. After booting to the pe desktop, you can find those setup options under Start menu\Install folder.

 

[SIW2]

If you extracted files from boot.wim to a normal hard drive or SSD, use a normal windows bcd entry.

If you extracted files from boot.wim to a usb drive, you will need to make some registry changes to enable usb boot. Win 7 doesn't natively support booting over usb. You will get a BSOD because the polling times out. That determines the kernel wait time while PnP tries to find the boot disk before it throws bsod code 0x7B.

You can use winntsetup to do it for you
http://jfx.cwcodes.net/WinNTSetup/Release/WinNTSetup3.rar

V is my usb drive letter. Set X as the mount letter.





Then click SETUP

in the next window tick enable native usb boot





If you prefer to DIY, it is just a couple of simple changes:

Load the extracted system hive and call it, e.g. SYS

reg.exe add HKLM\SYS\ControlSet001\Control\PnP /f /v PollBootPartitionTimeout /t REG_DWORD /d 30000

reg.exe add HKLM\SYS\ControlSet001\Control /f /v BootDriverFlags /t REG_DWORD /d 0x6

 

[Megahertz07]

I started over.
If I understood well, it's possible to boot a USB NTFS flash drive with the files extracted from boot.wim.
There was no Boot folder
I opened the Easybcd:
- Under BCD Deployment I installed BCD. A boot folder was created
- Added a new entry (windows tab)

I tried to boot the USB flash. This time it didn't gave me a BSOD.
It gave me an error: ntoskrnl.exe not digitally signed.

How to turn digital signature off?

 

[Megahertz07]

Sorry SIW2, you posted when I was preparing my post.
I'll take some time to understand your post.
Will try to do what you posted and will return latter.

Thank you for your time and sharing your knowledge.

 

[Snick]

SIW2

 

[SIW2]

It is tricky because we are trying to combine two different things.

1. Non ramdisk boot winpe. That is doable from a regular Hard Drive.
WinPE: Install on a Hard Drive (Flat Boot or Non-RAM) | Microsoft Docs


If you are trying that with 17514x64-v6, the full Windows\Boot folder is not there. You would need to copy the full Boot folder from the root of the media into the extracted Windows folder. Then you should be able to run bcdboot command outlined by MS.

2. Boot win7 ( the full win 7 OS ) over usb. That is doable with the registry changes mentioned previously - winntsetup provides a method for it.

You seem to be trying to combine 1. and 2. - non ramdisk boot winpe over usb.

Maybe first check if you can flat boot winpe from a regular hard drive.

I haven't tried doing it with 17514x64-v6. It is not the same as regular winpe - lots of extra drivers, winsxs has been trimmed, and it uses a preshell loader running after winpeshl.exe is called.

 

[Megahertz07]

1) Your tool is great. I want, in my point of view, to improve it.
My USB pendrive is 4G. I don't see any reason to have a wim file to be expanded on a ramdisk. What I'm trying to do is to create your tool directly on the pendrive so the modifications I eventually do (like adding drivers) won't be lost when I quit the tool.

I copied the created Boot folder on post#4 to \Windows. It gave the same error: ntoskrnl.exe not digitally signed. Can you detail "If you are trying that with 17514x64-v6, the full Windows\Boot folder is not there. You would need to copy the full Boot folder from the root of the media into the extracted Windows folder. Then you should be able to run bcdboot command outlined by MS."

2) No reason to have the full win 7 OS.

 

[SIW2]

Winpe is not persistent. The only way to add drivers permanently is to mount the image and install them using dism ( or dism++). It is possible to add reg entries and files for some things, e'g filter drivers that come with imaging programs. You can try fiddling in the registry with service start types, but it easy to make a mess.

That doesn't mean they automatically load on startup. Winpe will load the drivers it detects are needed.

If you want to load unnecessary stuff, you will have issue a specific instruction, to run pnputil or similar. Or you could do
pecmd devi %windir%\inf\*.inf, but it takes a little while.

For example, I have included monitor.inf. It is not necessary, winpe just uses vga.sys by default.

If you look in pecmd.ini you will see a specific instruction pecmd devi %windir%\inf\hd*.inf, That will get the sound going. Without that instruction, it wouldn't start the sound, because it is not necessary.

That is the way winpe functions - it is supposed to be minimal.

 

[Megahertz07]

I'm getting frustrated
- Reading WinPE: Install on a Hard Drive (Flat Boot or Non-RAM) | Microsoft Docs, I was trying to make two partitions to my pendrive (one 80M fat32 for efi and a NTFS 3200M for WinPe). Can't do it, due to USB pendrive limitation. This will exclude UEFI boot.

- You said that Winpe is not persistent, I suppose it's the core as you have changed the GUI

 

[SIW2]

If you have installed 3rd party drivers using dism,there will be some oem*.inf files.

You could add line to pecmd.ini

DEVI %WinDir%\inf\oem*.inf

Can't do it, due to USB pendrive limitation. This will exclude UEFI boot.

You can use partition guru to create partitions. There is also bootice "set accessible".

View attachment BootIce.zip



You can use Rufus - just press alt+e for the option. That way you can use ntfs and have efi boot ( but it doesn't work for secure boot). If for whatever reason you want the usb stick to also support secure boot ( windows 7 doesn't so there is no point if it is just for 7)

see here:
How I make an NTFS UEFI Bootable USB with No Rufus = Works with Secure Boot

 

[SIW2]

 

[Megahertz07]

Thank you again.