Can not install .Wim onto a Dell using Windows PE

Question

I have created a .WIM file of a HP Laptop with all drivers, software etc installed using WAIK, I have created a new VM using Oracle VM Box and deployed the image onto this Virtual Machine, this all appears to be working fine.

My problem occurs when I try and install the image to an Old Dell laptop I have knocking around, the Dell did have XP on it but I installed Windows 7 on it, then I restart, boot into windows PE and install the .WIM file onto the laptop.

All seems well, it finishes the install and I reboot, I then get the following error:

File:\Windows\System32\winload.exe Status:0xc00000e Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt

I can't see anything too detailed about why this error is generated but I can't get it too boot, I have tried using the recovery console and it won't recover, I tried the steps suggested in this link to recover the MBR as I thought that may have been the problem but still no luck

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

If I do a full install of the OS again from the recovery disk itself it works.

Has it got anything to do with the fact it's a HP image going onto a DELL machine? I'm at a bit of a lost, any help would be great.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I was getting that same error when installing an image on a computer as well. What I found was that entries in my BCD store weren't configured correctly for the new system. If you run bcdedit /enum {current}.

You can find information on and the Windows boot loader. This is what my output looks like:

C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools>bcdedit /enum {current}

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {e661ba4a-b9e2-11de-8c96-b0390c6dd9b4}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {e661ba46-b9e2-11de-8c96-b0390c6dd9b4}
nx                      OptOut
bootlog                 No

C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools>

If "device" and/or "osdevice" are set to the wrong partition or not set at all, then you will get your error. For more information run bcdedit /? and check out this awesome, comprehensive tutorial on the modern Windows bootup process.