Windows PE cannot start because the actual SYSTEM ROOT directory

[crossan007]

I Set up SCCM 2012 RTM, and have been fighting with deploy and capture for a few days.

 

I successfully imported an Operating System Installer

I successfully created a task sequence

I

I was able to get the machine to PXE boot, and it almost loaded windows PE; however, I kept getting the following error message:

Windows PE cannot start because the actual SYSTEM ROOT directory (x:\windows) is differrent from the configured one (x:\$windows.~bt\windows). This can be configured from dism.exe with the /set-target path command. please refer the documentation for more details

 

 

I was able to trace this problem back to using a boot.wim file other than the one included with SCCM / WDS. I had deleted the original boot.wim files, and used one from a windows 7 install cd.

 

To resolve the problem, i used dsim.exe to modify the boot image:

 

 

C:\sources\os >mkdir wim

C:\sources\os>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:boot86.AAA0001c.WIM /index:1 /mountdir:wim

C:\sources\os>dism /image:wim /set-targetpath:X:\

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.1.7600.16385

 

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

 

Target Path : X:\

 

The operation completed successfully.

 

C:\sources\os>dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:wim /commit

 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.1.7600.16385

 

Image File : C:\sources\os\boot64.AAA0001b.WIM

Image Index : 1

Saving image

[==========================100.0%==========================]

Unmounting image

[==========================100.0%==========================]

The operation completed successfully.

 

C:\sources\os>copy boot86.AAA0001C.WIM c:\RemoteInstall\SMSImages\AAA0001C\

Overwrite c:\RemoteInstall\SMSImages\AAA0001C\boot86.AAA0001C.WIM? (Yes/No/All):

y

1 file(s) copied.

 

After these commands, I was able to boot into launching the Task Sequence to Build and Capture my windows 7 image (Don't mind the x86/x64 difference from the screenshot and the commands above, I had to do the procedure twice...once for each boot image)

 

However, after the Build and Capture, I was again presented with the same error

 

I rebooted into the PXE WinPE (F12 network boot), and launched command prompt (F8 if you have enabled it within the SCCM image):

 

I repeated the same procedure as I did on the PXE boot image for the local image, but first i had to find out where the local image was:

 

 

X:\sms\bin\i386 >bcdedit

 

Windows Boot Manager

--------------------

identifier {bootmgr}

description Windows Boot Manager

locale en-US

inherit {globalsettings}

default {default}

displayorder {default}

timeout 30

 

Windows Setup

-------------

identifier {default}

device ramdisk=[C:]\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources\boot.wim,{ra

mdiskoptions}

path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe

description Windows Setup

locale en-US

inherit {bootloadersettings}

osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources\boot.wim,{ra

mdiskoptions}

systemroot \windows

nx OptOut

detecthal Yes

winpe Yes

 

My local (hard-disk) image is in =[C:]\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources\boot.wim, So I ran the same commands against that file:

 

 

C:\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE >mkdir wim

C:\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources>dism /mount-wim /wimfile:boot.wim /index:1 /mountdir:wim

 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.1.7601.17514

 

Mounting image

[==========================100.0%==========================]

The operation completed successfully.

 

 

C:\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources>dism /image:wim /set-targetpath:X:\

 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.1.7601.17514

 

Image Version: 6.1.7601.17514

 

Target Path : X:\

 

The operation completed successfully.

 

C:\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources>dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:wim /commit

 

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 6.1.7601.17514

 

Image File : C:\_SMSTaskSequence\WinPE\sources\boot.wim

Image Index : 1

Saving image

[==========================100.0%==========================]

Unmounting image

[==========================100.0%==========================]

The operation completed successfully.

 

Then I rebooted and everything continued along happily

[crossan007]

I'm not sure if this was the most elegant fix, so if anyone has some input on why I had to do all this, please comment!

 

Thank you

[anyweb]

well i think your issues are related to this

 

I was able to trace this problem back to using a boot.wim file other than the one included with SCCM / WDS. I had deleted the original boot.wim files, and used one from a windows 7 install cd.

 

question is, why did you do this and not use the boot wim's that are installed as part of configmgr setup ?

[crossan007]

I was having a different problem (which i unfortunately did not document as well) in which a few errors would prevent the deployment from succeeding. The task sequence failed when it began downloading the OS. I attempted to remove / re install WDS (and associated files - namely the boot.wim) from the server, and in this process I wound up with new boot.wim files from a Windows 7 Enterprise ISO.

 

While this was probably not the best move, I figured I'd share what I found in case anyone else was encountering something similar. In hindsight, a re-install of SCCM (or simply restoring a backup of the original WIM files had I actually made them -- snapshots are our friends) would probably have been a more efficient option...

[asapHO]

Hi,

 

I ran into the same problem and reconstructed the WIM Images from %programfiles%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\OSD\boot

That did the trick as well

 

Thanks for your post... best regards