Heres a new script Idea.

It would be nice to take all the driverpacks and infuse them in the LiveXP Disk. Now I know that this means most likely you will need to burn it on to a DVD but it would make for a nice all around tools disk to recover machines from many of the errors that happen. I don't know anything about the scripting your using or I would love to take part. I can beta test for you. I do have a lot (A LOT) of different PCs at my disposal.

Tell me what you think.

Thanks

Claw

Hi there.

Currently, mass storage and lan can be integrated. Isn't that all that's really needed in a rescue disk?

Regards,
Galapo.

I would be intrested in this.

You need to be able to load the Hard Disks to be able to do the repair / restore. On Servers and workstations with SATA and/or RAID (possibly SCSI disks) you will more than likley need drivers that are not included. We need to collect as many of these to include in the disk. I would like to create a rescue disk to repair and restore Servers such as Dell and HP.

What does anybody think to this.

The VistaPE method of using peimg to inject drivers works for on an XP installation knowing a few tricks. I wonder whether it can be adapted to an xp/2003 live cd? For mass storage drivers, does entering entries into CriticalDeviceDatabase and services allow devices to be recognised as with a full install, or is writing entries to txtsetup.sif the only option? If peimg can indeed be used, the 'Vista Driver Integrator' script could be adapted. But I don't have answers myself to these questions yet.

Regards,
Galapo.

... does entering entries into CriticalDeviceDatabase and services allow devices to be recognised as with a full install, ...

Hi Galapo,

The word 'critical' caught my eye. I don't know much about driver installation apart from peimg, and not sure if this is relevent. I see here that there are new tools in WAIK 1.1 including

Driver Package Installer (DPInst). Add non-boot critical drivers during Windows Setup using the Driver Package Installer (DPInst)

Boot critical driver projection tool (PostReflect.exe).

I can't download the new WAIK until I find a friend with fast and copious bandwidth.

Wondering if DPInst is used exclusively with Vista setup.exe or can be used independently, and what is 'boot critical driver projection'? peimg has a new switch for 'scratchspace'. Apparently 'windows pe 2.0' (i.e. the supplied winpe.wim) has only very minor updates.

Interesting that it may be possible to tweak peimg as an offline driver installer for XP.

Regards

Thanks for the link.

I assume 'boot critical' refers to drivers needed for successful boot, eg mass storage drivers. 'Non-boot critical' drivers would be other drivers. 'PostReflect.exe' sounds interesting and I wonder how it differs from peimg? Peimg seems to cover both 'boot critical' as well as 'non-boot critical' drivers.

Regards,
Galapo.

even Ghost 14 SRD and and Active Boot Disk 3.0, that are based on WinPe2.0 include a tool to add drivers, on the fly, spo you can boot, and if the disk controller you are using is not recognized you can point to specific*.inf and you will see the specific HD you are looking for. I hope to be af any help for s.o.

Hi risolutore,

Could you inform me as to when Ghost 14 SRD and Active Boot Disk 3.0 perform their "on the fly" driver installation: during early boot; late boot; or after complete boot into the PE environment?

Thanks,
Galapo.

I would be intrested in this.

You need to be able to load the Hard Disks to be able to do the repair / restore. On Servers and workstations with SATA and/or RAID (possibly SCSI disks) you will more than likley need drivers that are not included. We need to collect as many of these to include in the disk. I would like to create a rescue disk to repair and restore Servers such as Dell and HP.

What does anybody think to this.

This is exactly what I am talking about. I will be doing a lot of work on server systems and being able to build a repository as well as increasing the capabilities of my "Ultimate Repair Disk" will save me time. A post earlier a guy said they had the LAN pack working on LiveXP and I couldn't figure it out. The mass storage worked fine with the script but I didn't see a LAN drivers one. Not to mention wireless. Coffee shop tech support would be easier.

I'm liking where this thread is going.

Claw

A post earlier a guy said they had the LAN pack working on LiveXP and I couldn't figure it out.

There's a option on the penetwork script to point to additional lan drivers, eg folder with extacted DriverPacks lan drivers. See here where I was explaining this to someone else: http://www.boot-land...?...ost&p=28946

Regards,
Galapo.

It may be a useful solution to do it like this:
1. Boot from PE CD (from memory image)
2. Replace PE CD with MS installation CD (or hardware manufacturer CD) and run "something" (that behaves as "Install New Hardware") that would install missing drivers. Of course, it's kinda additional work, but it's "total" solution to problems with missing drivers

Alexei

even Ghost 14 SRD and and Active Boot Disk 3.0, that are based on WinPe2.0 include a tool to add drivers, on the fly, spo you can boot, and if the disk controller you are using is not recognized you can point to specific*.inf and you will see the specific HD you are looking for. I hope to be af any help for s.o.

Again: Could you inform me as to when Ghost 14 SRD and Active Boot Disk 3.0 perform their "on the fly" driver installation: during early boot; late boot; or after complete boot into the PE environment?

It may be a useful solution to do it like this:
1. Boot from PE CD (from memory image)
2. Replace PE CD with MS installation CD (or hardware manufacturer CD) and run "something" (that behaves as "Install New Hardware") that would install missing drivers. Of course, it's kinda additional work, but it's "total" solution to problems with missing drivers

But wouldn't that then be limited to drivers only contained on the CD?

Regards,
Galapo.

But wouldn't that then be limited to drivers only contained on the CD?

That's the only source in case of NIC and HDD controller:)

That's the only source in case of NIC and HDD controller:)

In my opinion there are other potential sources: DriverPacks; and user-provided from downloads from manufacturers website for newer hardware not having made it into drivers provided by the OS itself.

Regards,
Galapo.

Galapo.
I guess Alexei meant that once you boot from a CD and you have NOT the proper driver for the (SATA) HDD and for the NIC, the only sources available at that moment are the contents of the CD itself....



jaclaz

Well, not exactly either: with Peter's hostNIC we have the host as source, too, for network drivers. If we can get some of the WAIK tools functioning in XP-based projects, then we have the option of supplying, say, a directory with drivers to be recursively scanned and installed.

Regards,
Galapo.

There's a option on the penetwork script to point to additional lan drivers, eg folder with extacted DriverPacks lan drivers. See here where I was explaining this to someone else: http://www.boot-land...?...ost&p=28946

Regards,
Galapo.

Awesome it works for my wired card. I downloaded and added the wireless api file at least I think I did and the wireless is detected and not working because the penetwork program says I'm missing the api. Do I need a specific file or the whole update?

Sorry, I have no idea as I haven't played with wireless under PE myself.

Regards,
Galapo.

Awesome it works for my wired card. I downloaded and added the wireless api file at least I think I did and the wireless is detected and not working because the penetwork program says I'm missing the api. Do I need a specific file or the whole update?

Just download the API patch from M$. Do not install or unpack it. Tell PENEtwork script where the file is. That'S all.

Galapo.
I guess Alexei meant that once you boot from a CD and you have NOT the proper driver for the (SATA) HDD and for the NIC, the only sources available at that moment are the contents of the CD itself....



jaclaz

I meant scenario like that:
- You boot some PC from PE CD
- Then you realize your PE CD doesn't have NIC, HDD or whatever else driver for the hardware on this PC
- However, you have this driver on Hardware OEM CD or MS installation CD or CD or even installed on this PC
Of course, you don't want to add this driver into your PE, burn new PE CD, and boot again
It would be pretty nice if you could start "Install New Hardware" in your PE, replace CD, and have device recognized and driver installed right away without rebooting.

Alexei

It would be pretty nice if you could start "Install New Hardware" in your PE, replace CD, and have device recognized and driver installed right away without rebooting.

I definitely agree! If we could achieve this, that would be fantastic. This

- However, you have this driver on Hardware OEM CD or MS installation CD or CD or even installed on this PC

probably covers all the bases. "CD" could be replaced by "usb" or whatever, depending on the scenario.

Regards,
Galapo.

Driver Package Installer (DPInst). Add non-boot critical drivers during Windows Setup using the Driver Package Installer (DPInst)

Boot critical driver projection tool (PostReflect.exe).

Wondering if DPInst is used exclusively with Vista setup.exe or can be used independently, and what is 'boot critical driver projection'? peimg has a new switch for 'scratchspace'. Apparently 'windows pe 2.0' (i.e. the supplied winpe.wim) has only very minor updates.

I wonder too if 'drvload.exe' can be used outside of Vista: http://technet2.micr...3.mspx?mfr=true

I need to find time to do some testing on all of this...

Regards,
Galapo.

peimg does not work injecting mass storage drivers into an XP PE. Drivers are injected correctly, but are not utilised on boot. txtsetup.sif seems the only option here and the method of adding entries to 'CriticalDeviceDatabase' by peimg does not work.

Also, drvload.exe does not work with XP PE. Error message is:

DrvLoad: Unable to load newdev.dll (Error 0x01007698).

Regards,
Galapo.

Just download the API patch from M$. Do not install or unpack it. Tell PENEtwork script where the file is. That'S all.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply but I have been very busy at my 2 jobs. But I want to reply to this because thats exactly what I did and it said it couldn't find the api when I tried to use the wireless. Drivers were found so I know this isn't the case. I have been testing it on the Intel wireless.

Since i know for a fact that it works.
I can only suggest two things:
- Maybe the download was corrupted. Redownload the file.
- Scripts having problems with paths which include spaces is quite common. So make sure there are no spaces in the path.