I wasn't 100% sure which section to post this under, hopefully I got it right. This is the situation:
I've been asked to create a PXE boot environment using WInPE and ghost, that can do two things:
1. The network admin wants to be able to image all the workstations at once, by having them boot into the ghost console (once a day)
2. Because it's an environment where some users use different OS's, it should be able to display a menu that lets you choose different OS's and ghost the right image accordingly (rest of the day)
I've done both things by PXE booting into WinPE (using WDS) and having a script either show the menu or connecting to the ghost console when needed (I don't think the details of this script are relevant, but I can provide it if needed).
Now here is my problem: PXE must be the first boot option in BIOS; if this were not the case, the network admin would have to choose PXE manually on each and every PC when he wants them all to PXE boot. This however creates a problem for the OS menu: someone chooses an OS from the menu and it is ghosted to his machine, then his machine reboots; now because PXE is the first boot option, it will simply go back to the OS menu, creating a boot loop.
What I want to do is check whether an image has just been ghosted from the menu (which I have already scripted), and if so, simply booting the OS from hard drive, thus solving the boot loop. This last part is what I can't figure out, because I would have to boot from hard drive out of WinPE. Obviously there aren't any simple DOS commands to do this, it would have to be something like a bootloader, perhaps Grub4dos. However I am not sure whether this is possible.
Is there a way to boot an OS from hard drive out of WINPE, using grub4dos or some other method? Or have I built myself into a dead end?
Hopefully I was able to explain the problem in a clear enough manner Thanks in advance for any help!
Edited by DPA, 03 June 2012 - 05:40 PM.