Boot Windows PE from RAM Using a Hard Disk Drive (Standard 7 SP1)

  • Article

7/8/2014

This walkthrough describes how to create a bootable Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 3.0 RAM disk loaded from a hard disk drive. For information about the benefits and methods of booting from RAM, see Boot Windows PE from a RAM Disk.

In this walkthrough, you build a Windows PE RAM disk on CD or UFD. You then use the bootable media to start the computer, format the hard disk drive, and copy the Windows PE source files to the hard disk drive.

Hardware and Software Assumptions

To complete this walkthrough, you must have the following:

  • An x86-based or x64-based computer running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003.
  • If using a CD or DVD, a CD or DVD burner and image-burning software to create a bootable CD or DVD, and a blank CD or DVD.
  • If you are using a USB flash device (UFD), the UFD must have enough memory to store your Windows PE image and associated files, with at least 64 MB still available.

Step 1: Create bootable media that contains the Windows PE RAM image

Step 2: Prepare the hard disk drive

  1. Boot the computer by using the bootable Windows PE media that you created.

    If the hard disk drive contains an active partition, you might need to override the boot sequence to boot from the CD or UFD. During boot, select the key that overrides the boot sequence. The key varies depending on the BIOS.

    If the computer is a new computer with an unformatted hard disk drive, you can skip the hard disk drive preparation and begin copying Windows PE source files to the hard disk drive.

  2. Format the hard disk drive by using DiskPart, and then set the partition as active. The active partition must be at least as large as the Windows PE image.

    For information about using DiskPart, see DiskPart Command-Line Options.

    Consider the following example:

    diskpart
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=1024
select partition 1
active
format
exit

Step 3: Copy Windows PE source files to the hard disk drive

  • Manually create the directory structure on the hard disk drive for the Windows PE source files, or use the xcopy command to automatically build and copy the appropriate files.

    Consider the following example, in which C is the drive letter of the primary partition on the formatted hard disk drive, D is the drive letter for the CD or UFD, and the /e option specifies that directories and subdirectories be copied:

    xcopy d:\*.* /e  c:\

See Also

Tasks

Create a Custom Windows PE Image