[wds] UEFI image problems

[LeMarchand]

Does it really stand for Unfathomably Evil F* Idea?

 

Got some new SSD laptops that will take an image deployed via WDS using legacy with no problem. Unfortunately it seems like I can't use Bitlocker with them unless they're UEFI.

 

So I've reset the BIOS, used the UEFI Deploy boot image I created so long ago that I can't remember why it's different, found out I'm missing some partitioning lines from my unattend.xml which I've corrected (I think), and I still get this error message when it tries to install the image:

 

Windows could not set a partition active on disk 0. The target disk, partition or Volume does not support the specified operation. The error occurred while applying the unattend answer file's setting. Error code: 0x80500024.

 

Googling finds suggestions to remove other disks (there aren't any). Anyone got any ideas? I may just use Veracrypt...

[Arthur]

I'm missing some partitioning lines from my unattend.xml which I've corrected (I think), and I still get this error message when it tries to install the image

UEFI + GPT?

[LeMarchand]

UEFI + GPT?

 

Possibly... where do I check? This is the latest version of the disk config section:

 

               
	0 
	true 
                   
                       
                           1
                           400
                           EFI
                       
                       
                           2
                           128
                           MSR
                       
                       
                           3
                           true
                           Primary
                       
                   
               
           
           
               
                   
                       0
                       3
                   
                   OnError
               
           

[LeMarchand]

Remembered why there was a different UEFI boot - checking that xml!

[Arthur]

This is the latest version of the disk config section

Your XML file doesn't look quite right. IIRC, there should be a fourth partition for BitLocker to work.

 

The Windows RE tools should be in a separate partition than the Windows partition to support automatic failover and to support booting Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption-encrypted partitions. (Source)

 

Try the XML file below if yours still doesn't work (taken from: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh824839.aspx)

 

 
   0
   true
   

     
     
       1
       Primary
       300
     

     
     
       2
       EFI
       100
       
     

     
     
       3
       MSR
       128
     

     
     
       4
       Primary
       true
     
   

   
     
     
       1
       1
       WINRE
       NTFS
       de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
     

     
     
       2
       2
       System
       FAT32
     

     
       3
       3

     
     
       4
       4
       Windows
       C
       NTFS
     
   
 
 OnError



 
   
     0
     4
   
 

 

Edited May 6, 2016 by Arthur

[LeMarchand]

Changing the Boot Image xml solved that particular problem, but now I'm getting:

 

Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI system partition (ESP).

 

However, I'm knocking off so mainly posting it to remind me on Monday what to start searching for!

[LeMarchand]

Thanks @Arthur - you must have been typing when I was. I was going to try changing the working-slightly-better one to incorporate the "extra" partition, but realised that I'd probably need more time than I'm prepared to spend now. Will try on Monday!

[Arthur]

It definitely sounds like a job for Monday. Have a nice weekend.

[LeMarchand]

Yay! Thanks @Arthur !

 

The 3 partitions were taken from an MS document I found. Must have been out of date! Had to use WSIM to work out where else I was going wrong as it was still failing; I don't know if I have an older source, the xml is aimed at Win10, or it's because of the way I've got things set up but I had to alter the last few lines to:

 

   
     0
     4
   

[Arthur]

Just in case anyone finds this thread via a search, here's a UEFI that actually works...

 

   
       
[color="#4B0082"]            
               
                   
                       0
                       4
                   
               
           
           
               
                   
                       
                           1
                           1024
                           Primary
                       
                       
                           2
                           100
                           EFI
                       
                       
                           3
                           128
                           MSR
                       
                       
                           4
                           true
                           Primary
                       
                   
                   0
                   [color="#FF0000"]true[/color]
                   
                       
                           1
                           1
                           NTFS
                           WinRE
                           DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
                       
                       
                           2
                           2
                           System
                           FAT32
                       
                       
                           3
                           3
                       
                       
                           4
                           4
                           C
                           Windows
                           NTFS
                       
                   
               
           [/color]
       
   

 

In the example XML file posted on Microsoft's website (and therefore also in post #5) partition 3 is missing its tags. This is why it doesn't work.

[Gilles]

Hello,

 

Thank you guys for solving and explaining this. You made my day.