Windows PE: can not access hard drive

[Talaketu2]

I have recently brought Acer Aspire M5640 and I have created a windows PE boot disk that boots ok but the problem is that when I try to access the hard drive using command prompt or using Ghost I was unable to see the hard disk. I am use this hard drive with pentium IV and use use saem windows PE disk then it works fine. I install Vispa Sp1 WAIK as I am using hard drive for imaging purpose. It is having Quad core Q6600 with sata drivers. Does any one else is having this type of issue, if you have any suggestions let me know.Your suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Hardwareman]

The reasons to this may be that the Boot image do not have the proper driver for computers hard drive. When Image capture wizard first press shift+F10 to open a command prompt to troubleshot this. Then run list disk and select each drive and type lis vol to list every volume. If volume which contains offline sysprep image is not viewable then you need to add driver for mass storage to windows PE. This will allow it to detect local disk which contain offline sysprep image. In order to this changes you can use the following procedure:
Inject driver in boot image to capture image:
1. Add a boot image to server.
2. Do the following thing:
For Windows Server 2008: Disable the offline and use tool to include in the Windows AIK to insert the important drivers to the image.
For Windows Server 2008 R2: In Windows Deployment Services snap-in and right-click on boot image, and click Add Driver Packages to Image.
3. Create a capture image updated boot image.
To load the driver yourself in Windows PE:
1. Boot the system into capture image.
2. Press SHIFT+F10 to open cmd(command prompt).
3. Use Drvload.exe to load driver.
4. Press ALT+TAB to return capture wizard and continue the process

[Maxforu]

You have just created a windows PE image on a machine so it does not mean that it has machine driver in built. If you are using windows 7 on your computer then you can use WAIK for windows 7 on vista machines. So I will suggest you to download win & waik and use it on your vista or windows 7 machine to create a windows PE image before giving up.

[Killen]

I think the volume may not contain an image that was created using Sysrep. Follow the below instruction to determine whether the offline image was prepared using Sysrep:
Run regdit to load the offline system
i)Create a new key called test in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System
ii)From C:\windows\system32\config\system import offline system hive
ii)Make sure that the two registry keys are imported in system hive are checked via wizard:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup\CloneTag
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup\SystemSetupInProgress is set to 1
If registry key is not set correctly, then to resolve these boot into image and run Sysrep again and perform the capture process again.

[T.J.]

If you really want to get stick with windows AIK for vista service pack 1. Use peimg to know which IMO was the best to come out of the vista. Such as:
peimg /inf=c:\mydevice.inf c:\winpe_x86\mount\windows. When you are planning to change the WAIK version it is highly recommended to uninstall if there is any existing version using control panel. If you need any additional details about this let me know.

[Talaketu2]

Thank you very much to all of you to provide such valuable information for WAIK as I was a new user of WAIK and do not have enough knowledge about it. And I have follow the procedure mentioned above to create a custom Windows PE and now it is working fine and I can access my hard drive.