WDS of Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update

No matter the way you get the Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update, by fresh installing from the CD supplied by MSDN Subscription or simply upgrading by Windows Update, the WDS of this system sucks.

 

If you planned to upgrade, please remember to backup the Boot folder of WDS while using Windows Server 2012 R2 without that update. After upgrading process, you need to stop WDS service, replace the Boot folder with your backup and restart WDS.

 

The Boot folder provided with Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 8.1 with Update, is not compatible with capture image creation. If you use the original Boot folder from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update, or get the Boot folder upgraded by adding a boot.wim from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 81. with Update, it can boot but cannot support capture image any more. No matter which boot file your capture image is created based on, even you get your capture image from another server, it just cannot boot your PC for capturing. After loading finished, you will get an error in winload.exe with the status code 0xc000000f.

 

To avoid this, do NOT use the boot.wim from Windows Server 2012 R2 with Update or Windows 8.1 with Update ISO files which are provided by MSDN Subscription. And do NOT use the Boot folder provided with the WDS of Windows Server 2012 R2.

To fix this, you just need to restore the WDS Boot folder from your backup before upgrading this update. If you don’t have a backup, copy this folder from another server which is hosted by Windows Server 2012 R2 (without that Update).

 

Still don’t know the reason but it’s not suprised me that WDS is not tested well. In many versions of Windows Server, WDS cannot work well.

 

Related:

Do NOT add a boot file for WDS from Windows 6.3 with Update