Help Recreating Perfect Emergency ISO

[Bespoken]

About a week ago when HSB V5.8.2.0 was first installed I created an Emergency Disk and exported the ISO. The ISO was subsequently copied to my Ventoy boot USB. That ISO version is a big 1,097,600 KB. When Ventoy is booted and hbswinpe is launched I have keyboard, mouse, and wifi access. The problem is I an unable to recreate that ISO version, and I cannot remember what I did.

All the versions that I currently rebuild are about 550,000-625,000 KB and do not have keyboard, mouse, or wifi access. Some version have been built with the Hasleo Offline WinPE, and some with netwtw6e.inf and netwifimp.inf drivers included. Makes no difference.

One hint might be when the PE Network Manager is started from the Tools menu it gives the error "An error occurred while starting the TCP/IP Registry Compatibility service (2)!". This does not happen with that original build.

Any ideas or suggestions, and is there any useful information obtained from mounting the ISO and examining its contents?

[Froggie]

You need to start out by reinstalling your current version... this will eliminate all the legacy stuff you've already generated.  Once that's done, when you build your new Emergency Disk, make sure the "Download from Microsoft" option is not checked.  This will use your System's resident WinRE.wim for the build... I believe that's where all your good stuff is.

[admin]

As Froggie said, please make sure not to check the 'Download WinPE components' option when creating WinPE.

[Bespoken]

Thanks @Froggie & @admin. This is a trick situation. I did an uninstall and fresh install of HSB. When selecting Emergency Disk there are 3 possible check boxes:
1. Download WinPE components (it is unchecked
2. Automatic driver injection (it is checked
3. Enable support for UEFI (it is unchecked, but cannot be checked unless Download WinPE is checked.

Select Next, then get an alternative of Microsoft.com or Offline WinPE package. It is one or the other, and it will not proceed with Offline if a path is not selected. So how do I get to use the System's resident WinRE.wim? Is there some remnant from the previous install that is forcing this situation?

Note 1: The ISO from using the OPE is 580,096 KB and does not include the required support and causes the TCP/IP failure.
Note 2: A subsequent rebuild starts immediately after Next on the 1st screen. There must be an alternative to reinstalling to get the option on the second screen.

[admin]

Thanks @Froggie & @admin. This is a trick situation. I did an uninstall and fresh install of HSB. When selecting Emergency Disk there are 3 possible check boxes:
1. Download WinPE components (it is unchecked
2. Automatic driver injection (it is checked
3. Enable support for UEFI (it is unchecked, but cannot be checked unless Download WinPE is checked.

Select Next, then get an alternative of Microsoft.com or Offline WinPE package. It is one or the other, and it will not proceed with Offline if a path is not selected. So how do I get to use the System's resident WinRE.wim? Is there some remnant from the previous install that is forcing this situation?

Note 1: The ISO from using the OPE is 580,096 KB and does not include the required support and causes the TCP/IP failure.
Note 2: A subsequent rebuild starts immediately after Next on the 1st screen. There must be an alternative to reinstalling to get the option on the second screen.

If HBS insists that you download from the network or use an offline WinPE package, it means HBS could not find a valid WinRE.wim file on your computer. Please confirm whether a healthy Windows recovery partition exists on your computer.

[Froggie]

Note 2: A subsequent rebuild starts immediately after Next on the 1st screen. There must be an alternative to reinstalling to get the option on the second screen.

With v5.8, their is a LINK on the bottom of the final build page (USB or ISO)... Re-create WinPE image ISO, which will remove all the legacy build objects and let you restart from scratch (I forgot Hasleo added that   ).

[Dude Guyman]

If HBS insists that you download from the network or use an offline WinPE package, it means HBS could not find a valid WinRE.wim file on your computer. Please confirm whether a healthy Windows recovery partition exists on your computer.

More about WinRE recovery stuff. How to enable, disable, and check status/location. Depending how Windows was installed, it can be on it's own hidden partition, or in a "WinRE" folder on the root C:\ drive. I tend to disable mine and only enable it when making a "rescue.iso" just because I'm a space saver nut.

In command prompt:

Check if it exists and get location, etc.:
reagentc /info

Disable if you don't want it to exist:
reagentc /disable

Re-enable if disabled so Hasleo can use it:
reagentc /enable

Example from mine:

Code:

C:\Windows\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:        Disabled
    Windows RE location:
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

[n8chavez]

If you do not have a .wim from which to build the HBS rescue iso, verify that your RE system partition is intact.  I have used this guide a few times to do just that, and have always been successful.

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[Bespoken]

If HBS insists that you download from the network or use an offline WinPE package, it means HBS could not find a valid WinRE.wim file on your computer. Please confirm whether a healthy Windows recovery partition exists on your computer.

That was it, the Recovery partition was missing.
Recreated the Recovery partition and now HSB appears to use WinRE to build the Emergency Disk. The ISO created is 899,840 KB, but there are still issues when booted from Ventoy
1. the mousepad does not work
2. the PE Network Manager gives the error "An error occurred while starting the TCP/IP Registry Compatibility service (2)!". An SSID can be selected but Network functions do not work. A driver is probably missing.

So it is closer.

[admin]

If HBS insists that you download from the network or use an offline WinPE package, it means HBS could not find a valid WinRE.wim file on your computer. Please confirm whether a healthy Windows recovery partition exists on your computer.

That was it, the Recovery partition was missing.
Recreated the Recovery partition and now HSB appears to use WinRE to build the Emergency Disk. The ISO created is 899,840 KB, but there are still issues when booted from Ventoy
1. the mousepad does not work
2. the PE Network Manager gives the error "An error occurred while starting the TCP/IP Registry Compatibility service (2)!". An SSID can be selected but Network functions do not work. A driver is probably missing.

So it is closer.

This means that the WinRE.wim in the recreated recovery partition does not contain the relevant drivers. So why did the mousepad and WiFi work in the WinPE created from the previous WinRE.wim? I think it's likely because the manufacturer injected the corresponding drivers into the WinRE.wim at the factory.