Can't pass an image out.

[steve_nfi]

Hi all

I'm trying to re-image some PC's but for some reason some of the PC's won't network boot.

It just keeps giving me a message 'Check cable connection!' and then just carries on and boots from the hard drive.

Some of the PC's have been re-imaged fine. They are all identical machines.

I've checked the BIOS settings for the working ones and the failing ones and they are both identical.

If you log on to one of the failing ones locally you can connect to all the network drives, so there doesn't seem to be a physical cable problem.

Has anyone had a problem like this before? and hopefully a solution.

[6Foot2]

You don't say what you are using to image the stations:

 

Ghost, WDS, RM Connect [whatever they use these days],...

[steve_nfi]

Sorry, I've only just got back to this. It's using WDS. I've had to create ghost images in the mean time.

Having never used WDS before I've since found out that all the drivers have to be installed on the WDS server as well, so its not like ghost and you just create an image to pass out again. The upshot is it still doesn't seem to want to create an image or pass one out on certain machines despite, seemingly, to have all the correct drivers.

[6Foot2]

What specific error message are you getting? I have had success with WDS this Summer with a few machines giving problems.

 

A while ago I had a problem with one machine in a room of 15 identical stations. These stations all had additional network cards in [as well as the ones on the motherboards] At the station that was giving the problem I removed the add-in network card and the build then proceeded without issue.

 

I can't remember the specific error message as it was a while ago but it said something about DHCP and making sure that there was a valid server on this sub-net.

 

In short: What is the error you are seeing?

[pete]

Sorry, I've only just got back to this. It's using WDS. I've had to create ghost images in the mean time.

Having never used WDS before I've since found out that all the drivers have to be installed on the WDS server as well, so its not like ghost and you just create an image to pass out again. The upshot is it still doesn't seem to want to create an image or pass one out on certain machines despite, seemingly, to have all the correct drivers.

 

Your initial boot image needs to have sufficient drivers to see network and storage devices, but that's all. You can push drivers (separately from the image) for other hardware, but you don't need to.

 

We use a W7 boot .wim and add any missing network and storage drivers to that - it's about a ten minute job.

 

edit: I'm assuming you're running WDS on 2008 in non-legacy mode.

[Achandler]

Also even if the WDS boot image doesnt contain the right drivers, the machine should still network boot initially. It then fails when you choose to deploy or capture.

 

I have only ever once added drivers to the boot image, and that was for an ASUS Eebox Pc thingy, it needed Jmicron drivers.

[SYNACK]

Sounds like the PXE stack is a bit rubbish on those machines or one or more of the switches are getting in the way. Had this with a bunch of rubbish Lenovo's. With MDT you can make an ISO of the boot .wim then use that CD as a boot disk getting around shoddy PXE.

 

You can do the same thing with the WAIK and the boot.wim from WDS but you have to do it manually.

Windows PC Guy » Creating a Windows PE Boot disk