Applied wim file does not correctly boot

Question

Hi,
I have to setup a HP DL380 G6 with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise X64. Normally we would do it using PXE boot, but I need to do offline for certain reasons.
So I booted the server using WinPE, and successfully created a 51200MB disk using diskpart. The wim files are located on an external USB HDD.
"select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=51200
assign letter=c:
format fs=ntfs label="os" quick
active exit"
Applying the image using the following commands was successfull:
"imagex \apply y:\myimage.wim 1 c:
bootsect /nt60 c: or bootsect /nt52 c:"
The image always seems to get successfully applied, but when I reboot the machine and it loads the Server OS it just shows the loading bar for a couple of seconds and then the machine reboots.
I tested this installation on different hardware configuration of HP DL380 G6 machines and also tried it in a HyperV guest.
On the physical machines I got always the same results, while it worked just fine on a virtual machine.
This error applies to any OS wim file that I´m using, no matter if it is WinServer 2008 or Win2003, or just a client OS like Win7. And most of the time, not at every boot, they are requesting me to boot from OS DVD and run the repair function.
Any tips are very much appreciated.
Regards,
Eddy

Answer 1

Hi Eddy,
In order to narrow down the issue, please provide the information as below.
1.      
Is there a hidden or recovery partition on the source or destination computer?
2.      
Did you format the drive of the destination computer completely?
3.      
How did you capture the image?
Please run
bcdedit command in WinPE on the imaged machine. Does it see the C: drive as the boot partition? If not, please run the following command to configure it.
x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:
You may also try to use an Installation Media to run a startup repair of the computer to fix the problem.
When you apply the image, please disconnect any external hardwares including network adapter, sound card, usb devices, etc to avoid such
problems.
Additionally, you don’t have to run the command “bootsect /nt60 c: or bootsect /nt52 c:” to restore the MBR after
you apply the image.
Regards,
Karen Ji
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