Boot Vista System From A Wim File

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With Windows AIK ypu can easy create a custom Windows PE based image. This image is provided as WIM file and can be easily converted to ISO files to be burned on CD or DVD.

WIM files can be used to boot from the network using Windows Deployment Services. The Microsoft site also provides procedures to boot a WIM file from USB drive or a clean local hard drive. I haven't found a complete description how to place a WIM boot image on the local hard disk and provide it as alternative boot option in the Vista boot Menu but after "playing" around I managed to extract the procedure to add an option to the boot menu and boot a computer from the WIM file C:\Sources\boot.wim on the local hard drive.

Here is the way I had done:

1. Copy boot\boot.sdi from the Windows Vista installation DVD to C:\boot (By default this folder is hidden in Windows Explorer)

2. Use the following set of commands to create a ramdiskoptions object in the BCD store. The string "{ramdiskoptions}" is the well-known name for the object's GUID.

bcdedit /create {ramdiskoptions} /d "Ramdisk options"

bcdedit /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdidevice partition=c:

bcdedit /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi

Create a new boot entry.

bcdedit -create /d "Windows PE boot" /application OSLOADER

Step 3 returns the GUID that is associated with the newly created boot entry. It is referred to as NewGUID in the remaining examples. Run the following set of commands to configure the boot entry.

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} device ramdisk=[c:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} osdevice ramdisk=[c:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} systemroot \windows

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} winpe yes

bcdedit /set {NewGUID} detecthal yes

bcdedit /displayorder {NewGUID} /addlast

Now when you boot the system, an extra boot option "Windows PE boot" is presented and can be used to boot from c:\sources\boot.wim