WDS client may hang up after loading the boot.wim file if you import the Windows 8 x86 boot image only the WDS server

Consider the following scenario. You have a Windows Server 2008 R2�WDS (Windows Deployment Service)�server and you plan to use it to deploy Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 operating systems. If you import a Windows 8 x86 boot image only on this WDS server and then if you try to boot up a WDS client from this WDS server, you may find that the system hangs up after loading the \Boot\x86\Images\boot.wim file.

The problem occurs because you imported the x86 boot image only. Windows Server 2008 R2 WDS Server supports deploying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 systems, but if you import the Windows 8 x86 boot image only, the x64 boot files and boot image on the WDS server are not updated, and only the x86 boot files and boot image are updated. On such scenario, there will be a chance to allow a Windows 7 build of bootmgr.exe to load a Windows 8 build of winload.exe file, and anything unexpected might happen after that. This is an unsupported scenario.

To resolve the issue, please import the Windows 8 x64 boot image to the WDS server.

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