winpe 3.0 stuck in "Starting windows" screen on HP ProLiant DL360 G6 box

[anikulkarni]

I'm trying to boot winpe3.0 (which is compatible for windows 7/2008 R2) on my DL360 G6 server. But winpe gets stuck in "Starting Windows" screen. If i disable smart array controller 410i from BIOS, winpe loads fine. But in that case I don't have disk access inside winpe and that's of no use. I tried adding following HP drivers for array controller to winpe using dism /add-driver command,
- CP013513
- CP013514

but none worked so far. I also don't see any KB on HP site which states issue with winpe3.x boot on this server. Also one confusing thing is, I have windows 2008 R2 installed on this server and there, in normal boot to win 2008 R2, I don't need any special HP drivers and default drivers provided by Microsoft just work fine. I do see same drivers are even part of winpe3.x, but runtime, neither Microsoft default ones nor HP ones are picked up while booting winpe 3.x
Idea behind booting into winpe3.x on ths server is to capture disk image of this server from winpe, which later will be used to boot over iSCSI.
I will appreciate any help or pointers here.
Thanks,
Aniket

[anikulkarni]

BTW this WinPE image is custom winPE 3.x image file which i built using Win AIK for windows 7.

[PZel]

I first create an MSFN Portable Win3 PE Disk as in:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143529-make-pe3-program-to-create-portable-windows-7-pe/
Options:Get Windows 7 Source Files and AIK to Make an PE3.iso + Reduce of ISO

Then I download the latest Smart Start Scripting ToolKit:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/core-management-100.html

I integrate that Toolkit into the MSFN winpe.wim with the normal commands for PE3.0:
1) MOUNT MSFN winpe.wim
(imagex /mountrw winpe.wim 1 mount)
2) INTEGRATE (see readme SmartStartTooKit)
3) DISMOUNT AND SAVE
(imagex /unmount /commit c:\winpe_x86\mount)

Cost some time, but works for me.

[anikulkarni]

I tried this method. But wim file built with Make_PE3 also gets stuck in "Starting windows" screen. My hope was more of on those drivers included with smart start toolkit utilities, but no luck. I didn't see much difference though in the way winpe is built, using Make_PE3 and that of standard AIK procedure. Of course Make_PE3 uses AIK procedure internally.
Not sure whats getting stuck. But something related to array controller as if i disable it from BIOS, winpe just starts fine (but without disk access which is of no use for me).

[PZel]

Strange ?
Have you tried it with another combination, for instance DL380G7(P410i) (or G5-P400).
My stick works on both models without problem
(builded with Windows7/UK/32 bit version).
I don't have an DL360G6 here.

[PZel]

Just to be sure i tested the stick on a W2K8 r2 DL380G7 machine. No problem.

Just to mention: My SSTK was Version 8.60.

[anikulkarni]

Unfortunately I do not have any other Proliant boxes to try out. This is the only one of this type.
I just now even tried with boot.wim which comes as part of setup DVD of windows 7 and that also gets stuck at same place.