help with VistaPE (dial-up)

Once again Mustang is right on top of it. I used WinZip Pro 11.1 and it worked well. Another option might be to use 7-Zip although I have no experience with. There is no cost associated with it. A link to it is here:
http://www.7-zip.org/

Bruce

 

Mustang wrote

Thanks Mustang, I was doing a lot of searching on google and when i came to the "extract now" it said it worked with Vista all the others seemed to work or not work ( kind of iffy) I am glad you are still following this post. I downloaded "starter version of VistaPE 010" and I should have done this right from the start. I should know enough to listen to you by now, but I did know that I could fall back to that if need be.
I have the Vista boot disk working now but for some reason I can not get the serial number to work. I go into registry and open the Acronis True Image "standard" and click on "standard" and copy the "value name" and paste it onto the The true Image script but I am either copying the wrong serial number or it is not taking for some reason. Any guidance here would be appreciated.

thanks for that Bruce the program I mentioned Ie: extract now, has really impressed me. It works like a charm.
Please keep the suggestions coming. I certainly appreciate the help.

 

The value name is standard. You need to copy the value data. That's the long number. Is that what you meant?

 

Yes that is what I meant, it is very long ,I click on the word "standard" and in the edit window that opens ( value name) I copy the resulting highlighted numbers and paste it in winbuilder. Am I doing something wrong?

 

WinBuilder is not saving the serial number to the script. It may have to do with the sequence you are using. You can force WinBuilder to save the number to the script by hitting the small green play button on the script page. Right after you paste the number, hit the small green arrow just above where my web site is displayed. This will execute the script and save the number.

 

I tried the above ( running as administrator) and it seemed like winbuilder was indeed doing something. I Then hit the big "play" button and just let it do it's thing. It still came back with the message ( Acronis True image home cannot find the proper serial number, you should reinstall the product) so I then opened the winbuilder folder and "deleted" the iso folder. I right clicked on "Winbuilder " and selected "run as administrator" and clicked on True Image in the scripts, copied and pasted the serial number, hit the little green "play" button and once more it did something, I then tried the "paths" tab and selected VistaPE and let it rebuild the ISO file from scratch with the same results.
Is it me? Should the serial number still be in there after I close winbuilder and open it again? ( It isn't). Any more help on this problem?

 

Yes, if you open the App folder then with a check mark in the xTrueImageH11 folder opening this will show a sub-folder Acronis True Image Home 11.0 that will also be checked. Highlighting this sub-folder should display the serial number.

 

I don't know what is going on with this issue. There are too many versions of WinBuilder, and I think they all act a little different.

You should be able to solve the problem by copying the serial number to the script manually. Open TrueImageH11.script with Notepad. Look at the end of the file in the Interface section.

If the two " marks are missing at the end of the line, add them. Now place the curser between the " marks and paste the serial number. Be careful not to add any spaces. Save the changes. That should work.

 

Okay that did it Mustang thanks for your help and patience. I did a backup and a "validate" all worked fine I do like that "starter version" of VistaPe and would highly recommend it. It has all I needed to make a VistaPe boot disk.

Thanks Bruce that's what I figured and that is not what was happening. Mustang has come through again! (what's new).

Happy New Year to all the people on this forum.

 

I'm having some difficulty building a VistaPE ISO.

I've downloaded Winbuilder(latest) into C:\Windbuilder, WAIK, and Mustang's VistaPE script and started the build process. During each build attempt, I get a popup that states:

The path you specified as your source is not valid!
Please select a valid source dir in the script configuration window.

I click "OK", and the build continues, but ends with 28 errors and no ISO file. A couple of the errors:

FileCopy - Failed to copy [%BaseDir%\Temp\VistaPE\InstallWimSrc\Windows\System32\browser.dll] to: [%BaseDir%\Target\VistaPE\Windows\System32]

FileCopy - Failed to copy [%BaseDir%\Temp\VistaPE\InstallWimSrc\Windows\System32\lanman.drv] to: [%BaseDir%\Target\VistaPE\Windows\System32]

I have specified the correct source "source" box.

I've tried builds with the source in C:\Program Files\Windows AIK, C:\waik, as well as pointing to a Vista installation DVD on e: drive.


Any clues?

Thanks for all the valuable information in this forum.

Frank

 

I'm assuming you're using WinBuilder 0.74 and VistaPE 11 (final/non-beta) that was just released.

There are still some bugs in these releases that may cause problems. Updates are released frequently, though, so hopefully it'll get more stable quickly.

Have you tried using WinBuilder 0.72 and VistaPE 10? If it works, then the problem is with 0.74/11.

I had the problem with 0.73 that it wouldn't find my Vista source no matter what I tried. 0.72 and 0.74 both find it okay.

 

Thanks, MudCrab.
Yes, I was using WinBuilder 074 VistaPE 11.

I just tried 072/11. No source location popup msg, but it had 21 Errors. Also 3 warnings about not finding source files. It looks like the same problem to me, just handled differently in the two versions.

I'm attempting to locate VistaPE 10, but it's either been removed from the server or the server is down.

 

Dr. Scanlon:

Here are a few tips that I've learned (some the hard way) while experimenting with WinBuilder and VistaPE over the past few weeks.

In WinBuilder, go to the "preconfig" script page and try setting the "boot.wim" container drop-down box to "1" before building. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what this box does but I think that it picks one of possibly several windows image files on your source. On a Vista DVD the first image is for booting and the second is for installing. You want the one for booting. On WAIK I think that there is only one image, so it should be set to "1" when building from WAIK. For some reason this setting was defaulting to "2" when first starting WinBuilder and was producing many errors for me until I tried "1".

Another thing to try is to make sure that the WinBuilder directory is placed at the root of a drive (C:\WinBuilder or D:\WinBuilder). If nested in subdirectories (for example, if you place it on your desktop) the resulting build will not have system permissions and will boot to a black screen because the NTFS permissions will be only for a user.

Also, the WinBuilder application needs to be on an NTFS partition. If you are using FAT32 you will run into NTFS permissions problems in the build.

I'm not sure if any of these tips explain the problems that you are having but they may be worth a try.

 

sorry but i am on dialup as well, is there anyway to download all the needed applications at one sit down [ library ] then come home a build a sucessfull bootable disk from a desktop, OR can it be built on my laptop then be moved to a desktop for storage, or is it not moveable once its built, as this seems like an application that can be added to if need be.

 

VistaPe is not computer compatible so yes,you can make it on any computer you will need your True Image serial number. Copy the resulting ISO file and burn it to disk. If you only want a Boot disk with windows drivers on it, the "starter winbuilder" is fairly small and has all I needed on it.
The True Image "rescue" boot disk version 11 works very well on my computer. If you count the time that the VistaPE takes to boot I think I could have my "image" backed up faster then using the VistaPe. ( I have been lucky on two computers with the rescue disk) I just don't like to keep all my eggs in the same basket, so to speak. Plus I may purchase a hard drive sometime in the future that the Linux based rescue disk won't see and the VistaPe disk will. Good luck, you will find you can get lots of help on this forum.

 

Mac25:

You should be able to do any of the things you described. Just copy the entire WinBuilder folder from one machine to another, either before or after building. The computer that you build on will need to have TrueImage installed in order for the build script to be able to copy the needed files, however. So just be sure that you do the building on the machine that has TI installed.

You may need internet access while building if any of the scripts require a file that you have not previously downloaded, so try to download everything you need while at the library.

 

i downloaded WAIK from MS [992 mb] used imgburn to burm the dvd and installed it to my desktop pc then used winbuilder 072 [per mustang's guide] to began the build, got on dialup and realized i had to a min of 182mb to download [max was 600mb], just waaaaaay to much to get on dialup and be noncorrupt, i really donot want to do a file at a time as this needs to move ahead quickly before i gray out.

thats why i asked about what and where to get all the files downloaded at one sitting, bring them home and make the bootable DVD utility [and not have to go back and download more again] from my desktop which has ati ehco ws & universal restore.

seems that ALL the needed files could be in one place for downloading, OR a utility built into winbuilder that will let you use what utilities you may already have stored on HD.

 

That's exactly how WinBuilder works. The user interface has a tab for downloading and another for building. You can do all of the downloading at the library and bring the files home. Then you can do all of the building at home.

 

quick stupid question: if all those downloads are needed then whats the need for the WAIK, and for it to be installed onto a computer when winbuilder doesnt gather those files? or does it.

 

The WAIK contains the core files that are part of a bootable Vista operating system. Not all of them are used but that's the way the package is available from Microsoft. Or instead you have to have a Vista DVD.

When WinBuilder runs it extracts some core Vista files from either the WAIK or from a Vista DVD, and puts the pieces together into a bootable version of Vista (VistaPE). Additionally, some WinBuilder scripts add programs. Mustang's script adds TrueImage to the build. There are other scripts to add, for example, Firefox. These scripts and files are what are downloaded when running WinBuilder.

 

Hi Mac25 that is why I ended up with Mustang's suggestion read post #4, it does make a bootable cd and works well, plus a lot smaller it is packed in a "rar" file and is even smaller to download then what it says on the site. ( Very little if anything is added to it on line...can't remember).Once you are into the page Mustang directs us to then look for the file that is 14.35Mgs I booted up with it and made an Image with no problem. (after the fix for applying the serial number that Mustang gave me). In post #33.

 

I finally got a VistaPE ISO built. I was successful using WinBuilder 072a and 074 and in both cases used VistaPE 11. In each case, the log showed errors. Here are some observations on the experience:

System:
Vista Premium. Q6600;
2 drives (SATA II): hdd1 - 320GB hdd2 - 500GB.
Ram: 3Gb.

Running: c:\winbuilder
Source: c:\program files\Windows AIK
Included Scripts: Mustang's "Acronis True Image Home 11".
ISO: Burned to +RW DVD

The ISO Build Process
---------------------
1. The reason the ISO wasn't being built is that I didn't check the "Create ISO" box under "Finalize".

2. Even with several "file copy" errors, the ISO is still built.

3. WB 074 still pops the "Can't find Source" msg, but plows ahead and makes an ISO. This doesn't happen with WB 072a. This is most likely an error in the 074 script.

4. There appears to be some sort of problem with the input box for the TI serial number. I believe I hit <CR> to get it to keep the value. I haven't tried hitting "play" to run the script as Mustang suggested, but this sounds like the way to go. This seems to be more of problem in WB 074.

5. WB 074 - 28 errors. WB 072a - 21 errors. "File Copy" problems. I'm not sure all these files really exist; "browser.dll" -- I couldn't find it in the WAIK image. No errors in the Acronis script.

6. (Mark) Under "Build" "Preconfig", I tried both "1" and "2" for "boot.wim", but I couldn't detect any difference in the resulting builds.

Running the VistaPE boot CD
---------------------------
1. During the driver loading, the loader also loads drivers off a 2nd internal HDD f: partition even though f: is not "active". I formatted the old f: partition to fix this. I have no idea why a loader would hit an unrelated partition for data.

2. If the mouse is moved during the loading process, the interrupt is apparently unfielded and will cause loss of mouse and keyboard interface. You end up with a screen with icons, but no access.

3. Backup of c: partition ( 37 GB used on 80 GB partition) takes about 8 minutes. Verification is about 6 minutes. Archive is about 23 GB. I haven't tested the Restore yet.

Thanks to all for the help. Sorry to bog down the thread here, but I couldn't find a thread dedicated to VistaPE.

Frank

 

Hi Frank,

Thanks for your observations.

The build errors you are getting are due to using the WAIK as the source. A number of the scripts (such as PeNetCfg) require a Vista DVD as the source. This only causes those scripts not to work. The rest of the build is fine, and you can use it. The can't find source error message is probably also related to a script that requires a Vista DVD as the source.

A number of people have reported the problem with the serial number not "sticking" since WinBuilder 074 can out. I don't know what's wrong since I don't get the problem in my testing. Thanks for your tip about hitting the return key. Yesterday, I rewrote the VistaPE Guide to take into account the changes with using WinBuilder 074 and VistaPE 011. I'll revise it today to include a note about how to deal with the serial number.

I also noted the need to check the create ISO box. That used to be checked by default in VistaPE 010.

The issue with a number associated with boot.wim and install.wim has to due with Microsoft. There can be multiple images contained in a wim file. The number specifies which one to use. An example is a Vista DVD that can install different versions of Vista. During an install, the serial number is analyzed to determine which version to install.

 

at what date and time will the guide be updated to reflect the changes you are going to make?

 

The VistaPE Guide has already been updated.