HP DC7800 will not boot from USB Boot Pen

First model I came across in the roll out was a HP DC7800.  My first task was to deploy our Windows 7 image and then check which drivers were missing.

I came to boot from USB by pressing F9 to get to the boot menu and choosing "USB"

My pen fired up and flickered away whiles loading the initial boot file.  The progress bar galloped across the screen like a trusty steed on Derby Day until it reached the end and froze.

3 pens and 2 machines later I discovered there is a BIOS setting under security that required disabling:  Data Execution Prevention.

As soon as this was disabled, subsequent boots worked like a charm.

The Dells... THE DELLS !!!

So phase 2 of our Windows 7 deployment begins next week.  We have approx 1000 machines we are visiting with a raft of memory to upgrade to 4GB and give a new lease of life in the form of my Windows 7 Image.

Up until last week the entire non-Lenovo estate was to replaced.  Today I've been told all:

Dell 755
Dell 760
Dell 780
Dell 790

HP DC7800
HP DC7900
HP 6000
HP 8000
HP 8200

is to be upgraded.  And rebuilt.  With Windows 7.  For which we have no driver packs!!!  All to be done by Monday - gee thanks!

So my next few posts will more than likely be technical gotchas, quirks and foibles that us deployment engineers encounter...

SCCM OSD Log File Locations

I may be late with this but it's for my reference more than anything.  SCCM OSD can be a hair tearing process at the bet of times.  Should you ever need to troubleshoot it MS don't exactly make it easy finding the files either.

He is where you will find the log files at various points throughout the whole OSD process as they do move dependant on which stage you are up to...

WindowsPE, before HDD format:              x:\windows\temp\smstslog\smsts.log
WindowsPE, after HDD format:                 x:\smstslog\smsts.log
Windows, SCCM agent not installed:       c:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\Smstslog\smsts.log
Windows, SCCM agent installed:               c:\windows\system32\ccm\logs\Smstslog\smsts.log
Windows x64, SCCM agent installed:       c:\windows\sysWOW64\ccm\logs\Smstslog\smsts.log
Task Sequence completed:                           c:\windows\system32\ccm\logs\smsts.log
Task Sequence completed x64:                   c:\windows\sysWOW64\ccm\logs\smsts.log

Don't forget - use Trace32 to view these log files - it makes it miles easier....

Windows Blue officially named "Windows 8.1" - and it's free!

 

So after much deliberation and hearsay Microsoft have announced that Windows "Blue" will be officially released as Windows 8.1 - and IT WILL be free!

Release dates so far have been speculated as "later this year" but there are indications that it could be ready for the holidays.