Hi im deploying systems to unknown computers through SCCM it works fine if i set the adertisement as mandatory. but the problem i have here is this means it will install that operating system regardless and i want the option to be able to install both 32 bit systems and 64bit systems when i advertise the task as not mandatory it wont boot into the winpe environemnt am i approaching this right. i believe i should be able to load non mandatory advertisements and choose which ones i like or is there a better way of doing this? thanks

That is exactly what should happen but you must give us more detail besides it doesn't work. Are you seeing error messages? When and where? What behavior are you experiencing? Are you using PXE or media? What are the relevant configuration details for your environment? What have you done to troubleshoot the issue yourself?Jason | http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jsandys | Twitter @JasonSandys

its ok i've worked out what i was missing is it possible to make it boot with out pushing f12 once the it has found the PXE server?

now that i have it loading up the winPE initially im selecting the image i wish to install which is x86 then i get the error an error occurred while starting the task sequence (0x80070032). for more information etc... and when i look up the smsts.log im getting error The active system partition on a MBR system must be NTFS TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) ValidateSystemPartition(), HRESULT=80070032 (e:\nts_sms_fre\sms\framework\tscore\bootimage.cpp,897) TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) Failed to prepare the system partition for staging. The request is not supported. (Error: 80070032; Source: Windows) TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) BootImage::PrepareForStaging(sLocalDataPath), HRESULT=80070032 (e:\nts_sms_fre\sms\framework\tscore\bootimage.cpp,674) TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) TS::Boot::BootImage::StageBootImage( pAssociatedWinPE->GetPackageID(), TsBootProgress, pv, hCancelEvent), HRESULT=80070032 (e:\nts_sms_fre\sms\client\tasksequence\tsmbootstrap\tsmediawizardcontrol.cpp,1850) TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) Failed to stage WinPE. Code(0x80070032) TSPxe 5/27/2011 12:52:06 PM 1800 (0x0708) i have found 2 problems that maybe cause these problems 1. the drive is not formatted so it isn't ntfs and/or 2. when it first boots it loads a 64bit winpe to choose what image i wish to install, then it creates a incompatibility which is my problem or is a combination of the 2 and any ideas on how to fix it? and i dont want to manually format the drives first, that defeats the purpose of OSD, and this also works if i do it as a mandatory advertisement, but again i want to have the option of both thanks

Hi, You can install Windows 7 x64 even if you boot in x86 WinPE, try changing the boot-images for all task sequences to be x86, then it should always boot on x86 and you will have no problems like this anymore. Regards, Jörgen-- My System center blog ccmexec.com --