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WinPE: Install on a hard drive (Flat boot or Non-RAM)

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Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is a minimal operating system where you can prepare a PC for installation, deployment, and servicing of Windows. Here's how to download and install it to an internal or external hard drive.

These instructions show how to set up a basic Windows PE installation that runs from the drive. This can sometimes give you better performance than booting from memory, and can help you run Windows PE on PCs or virtual environments with low memory. This procedure is also known as a non-RAMDISK boot, or a flat boot.

Note

When Windows PE is running from the drive, you must turn off the PC before disconnecting the drive to avoid losing your work.

Install the Windows ADK

Create a working directory for Windows PE files

  1. Click Start, and type deployment. Right-click Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment and then select Run as administrator.

  2. From the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment, create a working directory for the Windows PE files.

    copype amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64

Install Windows PE to the media

  1. Use DiskPart to prepare the partitions.

    Note

    The following commands prepare a USB hard drive that can boot on either a BIOS-based or UEFI-based PC.

    On UEFI-based PCs, Windows PE requires a boot partition formatted using the FAT32 file format, which only supports file sizes up to 4 GB. In this example, we create a separate partition on the drive, formatted using NTFS, that can store Windows images and other large files. To learn more, see .

    diskpart
list disk
select <disk number>
clean
rem === Create the Windows PE partition. ===
create partition primary size=2000
format quick fs=fat32 label="Windows PE"
assign letter=P
active
rem === Create a partition for images ===
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick label="Images"
assign letter=I
list vol
exit

    where <disk number> is the listed number of the external USB hard drive.

  2. Apply the Windows PE image to the hard drive.

    dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:"C:\WinPE_amd64\media\sources\boot.wim" /Index:1 /ApplyDir:P:\

  3. Set up the boot files.

    BCDboot P:\Windows /s P: /f ALL

    Note

    Ignore any warning messages that say Warning: Resume application not found.

Boot to Windows PE

  1. Connect the device (internal or external USB hard drive) into the PC you want to work on.

  2. Turn on the PC, and use the boot menus to select the Windows PE drive. Typically this requires pressing a hardware button or a key, such as the Esc key.

    Note

    For UEFI-based PCs, you might need to find an option to manually select the UEFI boot files, for example, USBDrive01\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI.

    Windows PE starts automatically. After the command window appears, the wpeinit command runs automatically. This might take a few minutes.

  3. Once WinPE is booted, you can identify the drive letters with a script or with diskpart.

Troubleshooting

  1. If the PC does not boot, try the following steps in sequence, and try to boot the PC after each step:

    1. For external USB drives, try inserting the drive into a different USB port. Avoid using USB hubs or cables, because they might not be detected during the boot sequence. Avoid USB 3.0 ports if the firmware does not contain native support for USB 3.0.

    2. If your PC requires drivers to boot, such as storage drivers or video drivers, or if your driver requires changes to the registry, add the driver to the Windows PE image. For more info, see WinPE: Mount and Customize.

    3. Update the firmware of the PC to the latest version.

  2. For tips on connecting to a network, see WinPE Network Drivers: Initializing and adding drivers.

Running Windows Setup from Windows PE

WinPE overview

WinPE: Create USB Bootable drive

WinPE: Mount and Customize

WinPE: Boot in UEFI or legacy BIOS mode

Windows Setup Supported Platforms and Cross-Platform Deployments