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Optiplex 3040 - External Drives Not Detected in WinPE
I'm trying to run ImageX to capture an image of a few different models of Dell PCs we have. I created a WinPE bootable USB and I've used it to successfully capture an image of an Optiplex 3020.
However, the 3040s will not see attached external drives once I'm in the PE environment. So, I can boot into WinPE with a USB, but once there only the internal HDD is detected when I run Diskpart - List Disk to get a list of drives.
What's weird, however, is that the 3040 will see external drives if I use a bootable Ghost USB drive for PE.
So the Ghost PE environment seems to work on 3040s but the WinPE USB drive created with the Windows ADK will not. I need the latter one to work because we're trying to get away from Ghost and start creating and managing WIMs.
Thank you for any help!
IllTemperedSeaB
3 Posts
2
September 20th, 2016 08:00
This isn’t a solution, merely a band-aid.
1. Remove hard drive from 3040 and place in 3020. Reimage as usual
2. Put all 3040 drivers on a CD – especially the Realtek NIC driver and the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver (Chipset_Driver_THW37_WN32_4.0.4.51_A02_01.EXE)
3. Put hard drive back into 3040. Boot, do your windows setup as usual. Now you’re going to have a problem because the computer will not be able to use a flash drive until you install the driver to do so. Additionally, if you install any drivers (including the USB 3.0 controller), your mouse and keyboard are going to stop functioning and the driver installation will fail. Here’s the work around:
4. Install the NIC. You will not be able to finish installation because the mouse and keyboard will disconnect, but installation will get done anyhow. You can power off manually and power back on again and get an IP address and your mouse and keyboard will be working again.
5. Activate Windows Remote Desktop. Make note of your IP address.
6. Remote into the computer and finish installing your drivers from the CD, starting with the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver. Once that’s installed successfully, you can probably start loading the rest of the drivers from the flash drive. I’ve just got them all on a CD and load them from there without any problems.
IllTemperedSeaB
3 Posts
1
August 29th, 2016 11:00
I'm having the same problem. I tried installing the A12 BIOS from the Optiplex 3020 but it wouldn't let me. This is a new Dell BIOS. As far as I can tell, it's specific to the Dell Optiplex 3040. I can't figure out why they would redesign the BIOS. The version I am using is 1.4.6 (the latest version as of this posting, but it actually shipped with 1.2.3 which didn't work either). I called Dell tech support and they said that since I created the image, it wasn't supported. They seemed to think it was a Windows problem. I'm going to try calling them again today. I've been working on this problem in the background for almost a month now. If I can't get it to work, I'll have to return the computers and may never use Dell again.
fremyare
1 Message
0
August 31st, 2016 03:00
hi, i having the same problem.
did you find the solution to your problem ? Thank you for your help
IllTemperedSeaB
3 Posts
0
September 6th, 2016 10:00
I did not.
Dell sent me the following link:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/HOW11804
In short, it's a problem with the Chipset not supporting USB2.0. I've tried this, however, and I keep getting the Error 50 error. Also, the settings they are asking for: Boot List Option: UEFI basically black-screens the computer because it can't boot UEFI (at least not for me). I've played around with all these boot settings. I'm still waiting for an answer from Dell, but I think they need to redesign their BIOS to support USB 2.0. I don't know why they changed it: the one for the 3020 worked just fine.
Anonymous User
1 Message
0
November 29th, 2016 23:00
I had close to that problem.
I installed Win7 Pro64 without SP1, then all USB ports stopped accept USB storage drives; in same time keyboard and mouse had interruptions.
I copied all divers to second SATA drive, and connected it to that Optiplex 3040. In that way it was possible to install network driver and required Windows updates.