Mass storage device cannot be recognized in WinPE2.0

Source: Microsoft Support

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You cannot see the mass storage drive when you boot a client from a standard WinPE2.0 image. This typically happens when there are SCSI or SATA drives in the system.

Generally, mass storage drivers are not included in a standard WinPE2.0 image. You need to manually load the driver or inject them into a WinPE image.

To resolve this issue, inject mass storage driver into a WinPE image. To add support for mass-storage controllers using Windows PE:

1. Copy your driver package to a directory under winpe_image\System32, where winpe_image is the location of your custom Windows PE image. For example: c:\Winpe\System32\Driver1

2. Edit the winpe_image\System32\Winpeoem.sif to remove the semicolons from the [OemDriverParams] section and add the name of the directory into which you copied your driver package to the OemDriverDirs entry. For example:

3. [OemDriverParams]

4. OemDriverRoot = ""
OemDriverDirs = Driver1

5. Optional: If the mass-storage device requires any supporting .dll files, copy these to the appropriate directory. You can determine if these files are required by examining the Txtsetup.oem file.

With these changes made, your Windows PE image will now attempt to start the driver specified in the [Defaults] section of Txtsetup.oem located in the driver package of the \Driver1 subdirectory. When the system is loaded, the Winpeoem.sif file will open, and any mass-storage drivers listed will be loaded before any of the drivers provided by Windows are loaded.

However, in some cases the Txtsetup.oem file provided by the manufacturer may need to be edited. Many driver packages today support a variety of mass-storage devices, and only those listed in the [Defaults] section will be loaded. Read the [SCSI] section in the Txtsetup.oem file to determine which driver entry corresponds to the one you want to load. In the following example, only Driver1 will be loaded. To load Driver2, change the SCSI entry in the [Defaults] section to SCSI = Driver2.

[Disks]
Driver1 = "generic driver for device 1", \generic.sys, Driver2 = "generic driver for device 2", \generic2.sys,
[Defaults]
SCSI = Driver1

[SCSI]
Driver1 = "generic driver for device 1", generic.sys
Driver2 = "generic driver for device 2", generic2.sys

Notes
The syntax of the [Defaults] section of a generic Txtsetup.oem permits two types of entries: SCSI and HAL. However, HAL entries are not recognized by Windows PE. If you load more than one mass-storage driver, you must do the following for each Txtsetup.oem file if the Winpeoem.sif supports multiple adapters. If multiple mass-storage drivers are required, append additional directory names to the OemDriverDirs entry in Winpeoem.sif.

For example:

� [OemDriverParams]
� OemDriverRoot = ""

OemDriverDirs = Driver1, Driver2, Driver3

For more information, please refer to the WinPE.chm document.