To complete this walkthrough, you need the following:

• A technician computer that provides all of the tools and the source files. For more information, see Building a Technician Computer.
  
  

Select one of topics listed below and follow the instructions for building bootable Windows PE RAM media. Ensure that you include the ImageX tool with your image. After you create your bootable media, continue to the next step.

• Walkthrough: Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on CD-ROM
  
  
• Walkthrough: Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on a USB Flash Disk
  
  

In this step, you boot the new computer with your Windows PE media and format the hard drive.

1. On the new computer, insert your Windows PE media and restart the computer.
   
   Windows PE starts and launches a Command Prompt window.
   
   

   	Note:
   	If the hard drive contains an EFI system partition (ESP), you must override the boot order to boot from the CD/DVD drive. During initial boot, select the appropriate function key to override the boot order. If this is a new computer, the hard drive will be unformatted, so you can skip this step.

2. At a command prompt, format the hard drive by using the DiskPart tool. Windows PE requires an active partition with a size equal to or greater than the size of your Windows PE image. The following example shows these commands:
   
   

   select disk 0
   clean
   convert GPT
   rem Create the EFI system partition
   create partition EFI size=200
   format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI
   assign letter=s
   rem Create the Microsoft reserved partition
   create partition MSR size=128
   rem Create the Windows PE partition
   rem (The partition size is set to 400 MB, though a smaller partition size may be used.)
   create partition primary size=400
   format quick fs=ntfs label=WinPE
   assign letter=c
   rem Create a Windows or data partition
   rem (This partition fills the rest of the disk.)
   create partition primary
   format quick fs=ntfs label=Windows
   assign letter=w
   list vol 
   exit
   

In this step, you copy Windows PE resource files to the hard drive from your bootable media. This example assumes the hard drive is blank.

1. At a command prompt, copy the \EFI folder from your bootable media to the EFI folder of the EFI system partition on your hard drive, as in the following example:
   
   

   xcopy d:\EFI\* s:\EFI\* /cherkyfs
   

   where d is the letter of your bootable Windows PE media that contains a Windows PE image.
   
   
2. Copy the \Sources folder from your bootable media to the sources folder of the Windows PE partition on your hard drive, as in the following example:
   
   

   xcopy d:\sources\* c:\sources\* /cherkyfs
   

3. Copy the \Boot\boot.sdi file from your bootable media to the \Sources folder of the Windows PE partition on your hard drive, as in the following example:
   
   

   copy d:\boot\boot.sdi c:\sources\
   

4. Copy all of the files with an .efi extension from the \windows\boot\EFI folder of the Windows PE RAM disk to the \EFI\Microsoft\Boot folder of the EFI system partition on your hard drive, as in the folllowing example:
   
   

   copy x:\windows\boot\EFI\*.efi s:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\*
   

5. Delete the boot configuration data (BCD) file that you copied from your bootable media. Note that you will create a new one in the next step, as in the following example,
   
   

   del s:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /f
   

In this step, you will create and configure a new system store by using the BCDEdit tool. The system store is a file named BCD that holds information required to load Windows or other boot applications. BCD replaces Boot.ini.

BCDEdit is a command-line tool that is designed to manage system stores. BCDEdit is available in Windows PE and Windows® 7.

1. Create a new system store, as in the following example:
   
   

   bcdedit -createstore S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
   

2. Create new entries in the system store for bootmgr, globalsettings, dbgsettings, ramdiskoptions, and Windows PE.
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -create {bootmgr} /d "Boot Manager"
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -create {globalsettings} /d "globalsettings"
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -create {dbgsettings} /d "debugsettings"
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -create {ramdiskoptions} /d "ramdiskoptions"
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -create /d "Windows PE" -application osloader
   

   	Note:
   	The last command returns a GUID value for Windows PE store.

3. Set the default entry that the boot manager selects when the timeout expires. Substitute <GUID> with the GUID value for the Windows PE store in the following example:
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /default <GUID from Windows PE store>
   

4. Run the following commands to configure bootmgr:
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {bootmgr} device partition=s:
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {bootmgr} path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {bootmgr} locale en-us
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {bootmgr} timeout 10
   

5. Run the following commands to configure the boot loader:
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} device ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} path \windows\system32\winload.efi
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions} 
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} systemroot \windows
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} winpe yes
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} nx optin
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {Default} detecthal yes
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -displayorder {Default} -addfirst
   

6. Run the following commands to configure dbgsettings:
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {dbgsettings} debugtype Serial
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {dbgsettings} debugport 1
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {dbgsettings} baudrate 115200
   

7. Run the following commands to configure ramdiskoptions:
   
   

   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdidevice partition=C: 
   bcdedit -store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdipath \sources\boot.sdi
   

Your computer is now ready to boot Windows PE directly from the hard disk.

• Walkthrough: Boot Windows PE from a BIOS-based Hard Disk