INSTALL Windows POSReady ONTO A RADIANT P1550 or P1220 USING A SMALL BOOTABLE PARTITION
You will need one of these files (hereafter referred to as POSReady.wim):
For P1550:
For P1220:
This process will require you to have physical access to a Windows 7 machine, in order to install Windows POSReady onto a Radiant P1550 hard disk. The bootable partition that we create to install the OS will be sacrificed to this process; i.e., you will loose 2.5GB of space to this process – it beats the shit out of screwing around with bootable USB's and confounding BIOS settings!!!
You will first need to REMOVE THE HARD DISK from the Radiant machine.
Plug the Radiant disk into your windows 7 machine with an IDE or SATA cable. You may be able to use an external drive reader as well – USB drive readers do not tend to work for this process. I used an external SATA port and a drive reader that was connected via a SATA cable. I've also used an IDE cable plugged right into my mobo (this option is the least complicated but requires disassembly of the Win 7 machine.
1. Create WinPE bootable (I've added a POSReady.wim file to mine)
This wim file is an XP image that has it's own boot.ini. If you don not have a boot.ini, you will need to copy one from somewhere but if you imaged the wim file correctly, the boot.ini should be there when you apply the image.
On your Windows 7 machine, make a folder C:\winpe_x86 - Then enter these lines into a command prompt.
> copype.cmd x86 c:\winpe_x86
> copy c:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim c:\winpe_x86\iso\sources\boot.wim
> copy c:\your path\to\POSReady.wim c:\winpe_x86\iso\POSReady.wim
> Dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\winpe_x86\mount
> Dism /image:C:\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_FPs\winpe-wmi.cab"
> Dism /image:C:\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_FPs\winpe-hta.cab"
> Dism /image:C:\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_FPs\winpe-scripting.cab"
> copy "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe" C:\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\System32\imagex.exe
> Dism /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\winpe_x86\mount /Commit
2. Create your partitions on the RADIANT DRIVE as follows using diskpart:
BEOFRE YOU DO THIS, figure out your drive letter and which disk is the RADIANT drive with “list disk”.
> cd F: (This assumes your radiant drive is F
> diskpart
> list disk
> select disk 0 (replace 0 with your radiant disk #)
> clean
> create partition primary size=2500 id=27 (big enough to hold my .wim)
> format quick fs=ntfs label=System
> active
> create partiton primary
> format quick fs=ntfs label=Windows
> assign letter=G (This assumes that your radiant drive was given letter F
> exit
3. Copy the bootable WinPE environment to the drive:
> xcopy C:\winpe_x86\iso\*.* /e F:
4. Now, you can plug the Radiant Drive back into the Radiant machine. Boot to WinPE and use diskpart to confirm drive letters:
> diskpart
> select disk 0
> detail disk (you should see C: and D: - C: is the bootable you made and D: will hold the new OS)
> exit
5. Create a Boot Record and MBR
> bootsect /nt52 D: /force /mbr
6. Apply the POSReady wim image
> imagex /apply C:\POSReady.wim 1 /check /verify D:
NOTE: I am installing an XP wim, so the typical "bcdboot C:\windows /s C:" is NOT APPLICABLE
7. Make the boot.ini modifiable.
> attrib -H -S -A -R d:\boot.ini
8. Before booting to the Radiant machine, YOU MUST SET THE RIGHT DISK AS ACTIVE.
> diskpart
> list disk
> select disk 0 (replace 0 with the disk # that contains the new OS – it will be the larger disk)
> active
> exit
9. You SHOULD be able to reboot and boot right into the newly installed OS.
