WDS "There are no images available"

Question

_{Friday, January 23, 2009 3:02 PM}

I'm attempting to get WDS installed on our network for XP deployments.  WDS is hosted on a Win2k3 machine.  There is one image uploaded to it, and up to the point of selecting the operating system, it seems to work fine, but at that point, I'm getting the 'There are no images available' error.  

I've followed the step by step guide outlined on this page to the letter, and I've seen those steps confirmed in several locations.  

 I've used boot.wim files from a vista HP disk, a server 2008 standard disk, and one from the Windows7 beta, and the only delta is the fancy background colors, all else is equal.

I've checked for the 'delete the PID.txt' but it does not exist. I've even added it with the correct win key for the xp image I'm attempting to deploy (it was a thought...).

The server was a fresh install for this project, DHCP & DNS are running on a separate machine, it is joined to the domain. I took the image from the computer I'm attempting to put it back on, its the exact same machine, so there should be no HAL layer problems.  In the shares level of computer manangement, I can see the connections being made from the client PC, and the log files show no errors that I can say are pointing to this at all.

I'm really beating my head on a wall here.  I've done a good deal of research, and cannot seem to find anything that will get this working.  Any thoughts would be appreciated...

All replies (9)

_{Thursday, January 29, 2009 8:44 PM ✅Answered}

WDS does not support capturing\deploying multipartition images.

You can however have a custom script do it using imagex.exe.

Please consult the WAIK documentation for how to do this. Let me know if you need a pointer to the site.

_{Monday, January 26, 2009 6:57 AM}

Hi,

The most common causes of this problem are:

1)   The boot image may not contain the correct network driver for the client computer. To resolve this, on the client computer, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt and run IPConfig. If an IP address and subnet mask are not reported in the output, this indicates that networking has not been started and it is likely that a network driver is not present. To fix this, add the driver from the hardware manufacturer to the image by using the tools in the Windows AIK.

2)   The account whose credentials were entered on the credential screen of Windows Deployment Services client does not have permissions to read the install .wim file. These images are located at \<WDSServer>\RemoteInstall\Images\Image Group>. For more information, please refer to the following article:

Required Permissions

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754005.aspx

3)   The boot image you use does not support this install image. A client booting into an x86-based boot image will only be able to view x86-based install images on the image selection page. Are you booting into an x86-based boot image to deploy x64-based install images?

Hope it helps.

Tim Quan - MSFT

_{Monday, January 26, 2009 5:04 PM}

If the computer is PXE booting and seeing the server, and successfully loading the boot image, does that not indicate correct networking?  The boot image and the desired deployment image are on the same machine.  I can't currently check, but I'll run an ipconfig as soon as I can and post the results.

The shares are totally opened up, everyone has full access.  I was trying to eliminate that as a possiblility.  The account I'm entering to access that file in the WDS client is a domain administrator.

Everything in this particular install is a x86 base.  All of the .wim files are x86, and the capture was made of a x86 image on an x86 machine.

On the server, it has created a x86x64 folder where it is storing some logs.  What is this, and is this indicitive of a platform mismatch of some form?  I'm not familiar with that file.

_{Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:00 PM | 1 vote}

 PXE booting and downloading the boot image use the BIOS\PXE Rom. Once you boot into the Boot image you are in WinPE and now we rely on having network drivers in the boot image to be able to talk to the WDS Server.

You will not even be asked for credentials if you dont have network connectivity it will fail before that.

There was an instance where the HAL type was not correctly filtered onto by the WDSClient and hence capturing an image and then redeploying it to the same machine did not show up. Please see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/935772 if that is the problem you are hitting. 

When responding to your PXE request, if the server determines that your machine is x64 capable, then the server sends you a list of boot images which show both the available x86 boot images and the x64 boot images. the x86x64 folder is the server side consolidation directory. With WS03, you need to turn on Arch. Discovery to get this to work. With WS08, this is turned on by default.

Hope this helps!

Sudha Thirumoolan[MSFT]

_{Tuesday, January 27, 2009 7:41 PM}

The machine is getting to the 'Select the operating system you want to install' screen.  Running an ipconfig at that screen does show valid domain and IP settings.  Credentials are going through.

I tried that KB.  Went through the instructions, I applied it to the WS08 boot.wim.  Pasted that file in the sources folder, committed changes, and readded it to the WDS server.

No change to the imaging process.  It is getting to the same point and giving the same error.

I'm going to try a different box, I'll post results.  If you have any other thoughts, please let me know...

_{Wednesday, January 28, 2009 3:24 PM}

when you get the error screen, can you go to the command prompt and verify the following?

1) run "net use" and verify that there is a valid connection to your server's \ipaddress\reminst

2) dir \ipaddress\reminst and make sure that you can see the images folder, etc all the way down to the image file.

3) Can you check x:\windows\panther\setupact.log and send the contents ?

Thanks

-Sudha Thirumoolan[MSFT] 

_{Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:24 PM}

The results of the net use and the dir are as they should be, show a valid connection and the folder.  I tried to check that log, and get back 'Access Denied'

However, I put another box on the system that is identical to the one from which I pulled the image, and it is working.  So that is a good thing, but I still cannot image the origional box.  Worst case, there will be one box on the system that if it breaks, I can't reimage from the server.  Annoying, but minor.

Thank you for your help!

_{Thursday, January 29, 2009 6:14 PM}

I have a separate question.  On our disks, the drive is broken into two partitions, C: and D:  When I make this image, it images back as C: taking up the entire disk.

I need to have a way to make both partitions on the disk with an image, or at the very least, have C: take up only the amount of space that the original had.  GHOST will do this, is there a way to make WDS do this?

Thanks,

_{Wednesday, July 29, 2009 7:30 AM}

Hi Nytelyte
I have the same issue. Bumbled my way through adding NIC drivers and "bewdy" got an auth screen. Thought I was home and hosed but ended up with no images to install from.

Did you find out what the difference was between the machines? Or any other hints?

T

Addendum:

Surely this issue cannot be so simply resolved HOWEVER.

Having given up using WDS on the customers server, I exported the images I'd used there, took them home and imported them to WDS on my own server. I had been using username@domain on the original server to authenticate when PXE booting. On my own server it complained, probably because I didn't a use a FQDN for the domain.

So I switched to domain\username. Blow me down it displayed all images available. So I went back to the original server and tried the same, where it also worked fine!

Could it be so simple!?

PS the accepted answer was for an additional question, not the original issue. Not really helpful. Don't be be in such great rush to close these things until they are actually resolved.  (I'm a forum contributing newbie, but I've seen a bit of this)