You receive a "Windows could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK" error message when the PXE process tries to start the ADS deployment agent in Windows Server 2003 (899495)

SYMPTOMS

The Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) process tries to start the Microsoft Windows Automated Deployment Services (ADS) deployment agent on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. In this scenario, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

Windows could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK. Windows failed to build a bootable RAMDISK IMAGE.

Additionally, an error message that is similar to one of the following is logged in the Application event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ADSBUILDER
Event Category: None
Event ID: 774
Date: <date>
Time: <time>
User: N/A
Computer: <servername>
Description:
An error occurred during the building of an image for the product {e597073d-bca9-4935-8257-25530a5677d0} and client hash {0264f4ee-f2a4-98be-34fe-ad5d17282fe8}.
Error Code: 81070303Event Type: Error
Event Source:ADSBUILDER 
Event ID: 772
Date:<date>
Time:<time>
User:N/A
Computer: <servername>
Description: \windows\system32\hal.dll could not be located during installation of the device ACPIAPIC_MP. Please ensure that the repository is pointing at the binary directories that contain the missing binary file.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you use Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) media to run the ADS 1.0 Setup program. The Builder service cannot build a bootable image for the deployment agent.

Note This issue may be caused by many different things. This article discusses only one possible cause.

You receive a "Windows could not start due to an error while booting from a RAMDISK" error message when the PXE process tries to start the ADS deployment agent in Windows Server 2003 (899495)

SYMPTOMS

CAUSE

WORKAROUND

STATUS