Boot Windows 7 PE from Local Harddisk

This post will brief about how can we add a menu to existing windows 7 boot loader and boot windows 7 PE without usb/cd/dvd directly from local harddisk.

Windows 7 PE-

1] Prepare Windows 7 pe iso.

• Detailed Instruction- http://karn-bttools.blogspot.in/2012/02/make-all-in-one-usb-boot-disk-3.html

2] Extract the wim file from the iso, copy it to the C drive of harddisk.
3] Rename the wim file as win7pe.wim

4] Download EasyBCD 2 or higher and installed it to your windows 7 machine.
5] Run EasyBCD -> Add New Entry -> WinPE

• Type - Ramdsik
•  Name- Windows 7 PE
• Path- path to the windows 7 pe wim file
• Add Entry

6] Now the Windows 7 pe is added to existing windows 7 boot loader and it can be boot from the local hard disk.

Windows 7 Recovery Disc-

1] Search for winre.wim in the c drive of windows 7 machine.
Since winre is a os file, uncheck the Hide protected os files from view option
2] copy winre.wim to the c drive of harddisk.
3] Run EasyBCD -> Add New Entry -> WinPE

• Type - Ramdsik
•  Name- Windows 7 Recovery Env
• Path- path to the winre wim file
• Add Entry

4] Now the Windows 7 Recovery Disc is added to existing windows 7 boot loader and it can be boot from the local hard disk.

Using VHD instead of WIM -

There is a limitation when we boot from windows 7 pe wim file, we cant install any program on pe environment or we can't save data of pe environment.
By using VHD, we can do install the program/exe to pe environment and save the data.

Steps-
1] creating a vhd file
2] mounting vhd file
3] deploying the wim file to that mounted drive
4] umounting the vhd file

For these process, we must have diskpart, WAIK and wim file

1] open diskpart
2] TYPE create vdisk file=E:\win7pe.vhd maximum=10000 type=expandable
    It will create 10 gb expandable win7pe.vhd file
3] TYPE select vdisk file=E:\win7pe.vhd
    It will select the win7pe.vhd file
4] TYPE attach vdisk
    It will mount the win7pe.vhd as local partition
5] TYPE create partition primary
6] TYPE assign V:\
7] TYPE format quick fs=ntfs label=win7pevhd
8] TYPE exit

9] Go to Start menu -> Microsoft Windows AIK -> Deployment Tools Command Prompt -> Run as Administrator
10] TYPE imagex /apply <path to wim> index <path of mounted vhd>
ex- imagex /apply C:\winpe.wim 1 V:\
11] Now we have the vhd file which is capable to boot directly windows 7 pe
12] Umounting the vhd file-
Diskpart -> select vdisk file=e:\win7pe.vhd -> detach vdisk

13] Add the boot option which can boot directly the vhd file with the help of EasyBCD-
      Run EasyBCD -> Add New Entry -> WinPE

• Virtual Disk
•  Name- Windows7PE (vhd)
• Path- path to the win7pe.vhd
• Add Entry

14] Reboot the compute to boot this vhd file.