This article covers some of the issues with drivers failing to load when booting WinPE.
Use drivers of the same architecture
Drivers, like any other form of software, have an architecture, either 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64). When trying to load drivers in WinPE, it is essential to have drivers which match the architecture of your WinPE environment. For example, using 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit WinPE could cause load failures.
Drivers not located on accessible disk
Normally, when booting from a RAID controller, be it array or single drive configuration, drivers will need to be loaded in order to access that device. However, as the device will not be visible to WinPE you cannot put drivers on any disk (fixed or optical) which is connected to that controller.
Solution 1 : Make drivers available on accessible media such as a usb device
In order to get round this chicken and egg problem, you will need to place drivers for the device onto a disk which is visible in WinPE, a good choice would be a USB2 pen drive for this.
The exceptions to this are nVidia RAID and Intel Matrix RAID, as WinPE has built in driver support for these devices.
The drivers folder can be copied to another disk using the following method whilst in Windows:
If you have a local non-RAID disk 'e:' then from a command prompt type:
xcopy /e c:\boot\macrium\drivers\* e:\boot\macrium\drivers
if 'e:' is a removable (flash) drive, then use the following command:
xcopy /e c:\boot\macrium\drivers\* e:\drivers
Note: The '/e' switch means recursive copy and is not to be confused with the drive letter 'e:'.
If 'e:' is present during the boot menu load then the drivers will be loaded.
Solution 2 : Add drivers to PE Image
This solution only works if you are have the Microsoft WAIK installed. It will be installed automatically if you create a v5 custom PE rescue CD. This solution is somewhat involved, but it will enable
First mount your wim, this will take a couple of minutes.
dism /mount-wim /wimfile:C:\boot\macrium\WAIKFiles\ISO\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\boot\macrium\WAIKFiles\mount
Then inject your driver. Modify the driver path to your inf file.
dism /image:C:\boot\macrium\WAIKFiles\mount /Add-Driver /driver:C:\boot\macrium\Drivers\Disk\VEN_1095_DEV_0242\adp3132.inf
Then unmount your your wim, this will take a couple of minutes.
dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\boot\macrium\WAIKFiles\mount /Commit
Driver location load order
Macrium Reflect will load drivers based on the existence of the file macrium.oem, the following locations will be checked in sequence and if the file macrium.oem is found then driver loading will commence from that point. Subsequent locations will not be checked for drivers.
-
Removeable media (such as USB pen drives). The file (macrium.oem) must reside in the Drivers folder on the root of the media.
- CD=ROM/DVD-ROM drives. The file (macrium.oem) must reside on the Drivers folder on the root of the media.
- Local fixed hard disks. The file must reside on the Boot\Macrium\Drivers folder on the root of the local hard disk.
Please note that in Windows, the drivers folder that's loaded when WinPE boots can be located in c:\Boot\Nacrium\Drivers. Once USB/CD-ROM/DVD-ROM rescue is created this folder will be \Drivers on the root of the respective rescue media.
Missing support files
On 64 bit WinPE systems, most drivers will require a supporting security catalog and in some instances, DLL files. If running a 64 bit Windows Vista system or later, Macrium Reflect will take care of this for you when building the rescue media. However, if on an XP or 2003 Server operating system you will need to make sure you provide a driver package that contains a security catalog and any supporting DLL files when using the Update Driver feature in the Create Rescue Media wizard.
Search Terms
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