Ultimately, I'm trying to create a Server 2012 R2 answer file using Windows SIM on Windows 7 x64. When I point Windows SIM at the install.wim from the Server 2012 R2 media, it warns me that a catalog file cannot be found and asks if I'd like create one. When I click yes, it proceeds to "Mounting Windows image: C:\PathToWIM.wim". After about 5-10 minutes, it eventually fails with the error message:
"Catalog creation failed to complete. This 64-bit version of Windows SIM can only create catalogs for 64-bit Windows images. For a list of supported architecture types, see link below."
What makes this perplexing is that I'm using 64-bit everywhere. Windows SIM is running on an x64 Windows 7 installation and the install.wim is from Server 2012 R2 media (which is only 64-bit). Shouldn't I be able to do this even on Windows 7?
For what it's worth, I was able to try installing SIM on a Server 2012 R2 server and it loaded up the WIM and created the catalog file just fine. Ideally though, I'd like to be able to run SIM on my workstation, and based on the stated system requirements, I don't see why this shouldn't be possible.
Any thoughts?