So the system partition not set.. huh? Read on…

In SCCM 2012 SP1 Cu3 you have the ability to deploy Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, right…? Well yes, but it’s a bit of work.

If you’re like some of our customers and have multiple System Center products, there may be an issue with upgrading to SCCM 2012 R2 because of the order in which the upgrades need to occur; but still want to deploy 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1. So you upgrade to CU3 on SCCM 2012 SP1 and quickly realize you need to implement a custom WinPE 5 image. This boot image cannot be managed through SCCM, but will work. So you download all the appropriate drivers, use DISM.exe to inject the necessary drivers into the boot WIM, and add all the necessary supporting components (more info here). You then move it over and import it into SCCM, adding the option for the F8 through WMI to the boot image, and start your deployment.

Upon testing you have mixed results… Some task sequences work properly while other don’t. The error from your SMSTS.Log looks similar to this:

So the system partition not set… well…after a bit of research this little article from Johan helped to add some clarity.

In our testing we changed the PXE mode to legacy support and we were off and running… We’re still doing some testing on the issue but hopefully this post sheds some light on what you’re trying to accomplish with SCCM 2012 SP1 CU3 and deployment of Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2.