Deployment Solution

I have a few Optiplex 740's that have a WD1600AAJS HDD in them.  Whenever these computers boot to PE to be imaged (x86 or x64, Altiris 7.1 or 6.9) they blue screen right after PE's loading screen.  Swap to any other hard drive adnd they image like normal.

Has anyone seen this or have advice on how to fix it?

Thanks!

Hello,

Please add drivers for WD1600AAJS HDD in new winPE and use that PE to check if it resolves the issue. 

Thanks,
Sachin

WD doesn't have drivers specific to their drive, which is why I'm struggling.  It just uses standard Microsoft HDD drivers in Windows 7.  I made sure the firmware is the latest/greatest, but I'm striking out.

This is just a thought here, but could it be that this is an Advanced Format disk, which then would require the appropriate controller drivers be included and installed on your WinPE environment?

-BBC

That's almost certainly the issue.

I've been reading up on AF drives and finally found this article:

http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/deploying-dell-systems-with-advanced-format-hard-drives.aspx

Since these are business class machines purchased 2008 or 2009, they are not AF drives.  But the article is good for anyone with AF drives.

What I can't figure out is that these computers have been imaged many times with Altiris 6.9.  Now they're failing on 6.9 and 7.1, x86 or x64 PE. 

Have you tested the drive for physical damages or errors from i.e. BIOS level? since the drives are a few years old, maybe this is the cause?

-BBC

I didn't because these machines were in production when I tried to image them and functioning without issue.  Also because the only two that failed did so in the exact same manner with the exact same hard drive.  I mean... I can, but I'm confident they're good.

Until I figure out the issue, I've just been putting different hard drives in.  Less than ideal, but it works.