Unable to find BOOTSECT.EXE, unable to put NT 5.2 boot sector back.

[James]

getting this error logged during a build and capture of Server 2003 sp2, its
logged *after* it completes capturing the wim image, at the very end during
the cleanup. The wim image is then imported as a custom OS and deployed
without issue, so far.

why this error? will I have issues with this wim image now? I assume that
the vista boot code is put there so PE can boot to run imagex and do the
capture, and that it is failing when trying to put the 2k3 boot code back
when its done... the machine does boot fine afterwards so I assume the vista
boot code is simply capable of booting 2k3... and since wims are filesystem
based the boot code is not included in the wim... and so should be no
problem deploying right?

[Dave Guenthner [MSFT]]

Bootsect.exe should be included with the toolkit and staged in your
distribution share. I am not sure why you are getting that error but can
weigh in on your questions about boot sector. Last time I looked, the MDT
code checks to see what version of the OS you are depoying. If XP/W2K3
then it installs a 52 boot sector. If Vista/2008 then 60 boot sector. In
general the NT60 boot sector is written for backwards compatibility. You
can use a tool like diskprobe to look at sector 63 (generally where NTFS
boot sector resides on most machines) and will see that the code is looking
for bootmgr with Vista. If it cannot be located, it will search for ntldr
with XP.

Dave Guenthner [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.