nLite on USB

[Beorn]

You see, if you boot from the stick, the stick itself will get letter C: and the first partition of the hard disk will get letter D:, but when you boot again without the stick, the same partition will get letter C:.

Well, I don't mind if the drive letter for Windows is changed .

I have 5 partitions on two harddrives. Windows on the C: partition of one HD, and the partition I want to install to is H: (which is on the other drive). I want it to be adual-boot system, because I don't want to mess up my system trying something new.

I'll tell you what I've done so far:

I've got an USB with dos boot files and the folder I386 on it. Autoexec.bat tells to xcopy I386 to drive D:.

If I now start the installation (typing D:\I386\winnt.exe) it will start copying files. It puts the folder $WIN_NT$.~LS on the D: drive, while the rest of the files (ntldr, boot.ini and so on) and the folder $WIN_NT$.~BT is placed on the stick.

When the computer reboots (with the stick still in) the installation contunues loading files until a STOP 0X0000007B comes up. I guess this is because the USB drivers is reset or something?

WHY? woot.gif

Well, I like experimenting a bit .

[jaclaz]

I guess this is because the USB drivers is reset or something?

Until a few months ago I would have answered yes, but since the findings by Dietmar, it appears that there is NO reset on the USB bus, simply the Windows XP 32-bit HAL driver does not start/it is not properly configured.

Well, I don't mind if the drive letter for Windows is changed

Yep, I understand that , the problem is that Windows might mind about this, and it will probably NOT log you in when booted.

This has to do with paths in the Registry, some are "dynamic", i.e. generated at boot-time, some are "static", i.e. something like C:\Windows\System\[directory]\[file].

This can happen also if you install Windows (like it should IMHO) in a logical volume inside extended partition, as all letters are shifted by one.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249321/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/en-us

(this actually happened to me, when Win2k came out, that's why I'm so sensitive on the matter)

However, if you insist in not taking the stick out when told to , you can do the following:

1) Use bootpart (or any other method) to make sure that your C: drive (the "real" hard disk drive) has a NT/2K/XP/2003 bootsector that invokes NTLDR/BOOT.INI

2) From the stick, manually or through autoexec.bat, run this .bat:

Attrib -h -s -r D:\BOOT.INI
Echo C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup">>D:\BOOT.INI
Attrib +h +s +r D:\BOOT.INI

(double check the attrib syntax, I am recalling from memory, that is not anymore that good )

3) xcopy the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ (on the stick) folder to D:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\ (the hard disk)

4) TAKE THE STICK OUT AND REBOOT!

5) Choose the "Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup" entry in boot.ini

6) It won't work, I joked , even if it may.

7) Before step 4) you must find a way to "correct" BOOTSECT.DAT that in that moment has the geometry info of the USB stick to reflect the geometry of the hard disk, this can be done from DOS with the DEBUG utility or some other scriptable hex/diskeditor, right now I have no links handy, if you cannot find a method, ask for it and I'll search and give you some.

Well, I like experimenting a bit

Yep, I thought as much, as Mr de la Palice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_de_la_Palice

A quarter hour before his death,

he was still quite alive.

death must found one alive!

jaclaz

Edited September 26, 2006 by jaclaz

[coucou]

Hi

Is it possible to put an nLited windows install on an usb flash disk? It would be handy not having to burn a bunch of cd's (and because I don't have a cd-burner ).

What I meant was I want to install windows from the flash drive and onto my hard drive.

-Beorn

Hi Beorn, that exactly i'm looking for since while.

Did you get success building that bootable usb flash disk??? If so, tnx for sahring yr knowledge.

In fact, i'm trying since while... without success.

Regards

coucou

[snowden]

I use a 1GB USB stick for windows installation all the time. I am currently trying to find a stable nlited version of windows server 2003 datacenter sp2 (and I have, with just a few autoplay problems which are being worked on by the nlite team afaik), so i find it invaluable to use a usb installation over burning cdroms all day.

all i do is

1)format the usb key as dos-bootable using the HP Drive Key Utility

2)copy on some extra tools such as xcopy, smartdrv, etc

3)copy on the i386 folder

4)use BootIt NG to make a small fat-16 partition no larger than 2048MB (you will install windows to this and resize and convert it during the process), and MAKE IT ACTIVE. If you don't make it active you might end up with your system drive named as D:\ or G:\ or something. Setting it active makes sure this doesn't happen, and also makes sure the installer doesn't interfere with any other OSes you have installed.

5)boot to dos from the usb key

6)run "winnt /u:winnt.sif /s:c:\i386 /t:<driveletter you made with Bootit NG>:" from within the i386 folder. btw your usb drive's dos prompt is usually c:\ - it is for me anyway. this does not mean that windows won't turn out on a C:\ drive when installed, so don't worry! (the winnt.sif file is the one edited by nlite here.)

7)the installer will copy bootfiles to your usb stick and the main installation files to your drive you specified

8)boot from the usb stick again, and now it runs the setup part that normally happens first when you boot from cd-rom, and remember to select your drive to be converted to ntfs

9)boot up bootitng and edit the partition's boot.ini file and change rdisk(1) to rdisk(0) in (there are 2 of these to change)

10)now let the pc boot from the dos partition, and windows converts it to ntfs

11)now boot up bootitng again, and resize the 2048MB partition (which now appears as NTFS formatted) to whatever size you want

12)finally, allow the partition to boot normally and windows installs.

hope this helps! :)

[jaclaz]

@snowden,

FYI, another method that needs not WINNT.EXE support (and thus more "compatible" with nlited installs) can be found here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=61384&hl=

Final (for the moment) howto here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...1384&st=128

Please note that this method, like the one linked to on the 911CD forum:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713

which is substantially the same as yours, does not require ANY Commercial app, everything is done through built-on tools and/or Freeware / Open Source software.

If I may, you could "shave off" a couple of passages in your way of installing, the convert.exe program can convert BOTH FAT16 and FAT32 filesystems to NTFS:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881/en-us

So, if you are using DOS 7.x/8.0, which supports FAT32, you don't need to make a small partition and later resize it, you can directly make an adequately sized FAT32 one and convert it.

With the resizing of the partition made not needed, there is also no need for a Commercial app, you can do the first part with Freedos FDISK.

Though the convert.exe does not appear to have ever caused problems, I find, at least theoretically, safer the newish "direct" method as the volume is natively formatted as NTFS by Windows setup, as in a "normal" install.

jaclaz

[snowden]

jaclaz, thanx for these methods, i'm gonna look into them now!

as for BootIt NG, it is not commercial if you use it only as a partition editor (ie you don't install it to your harddisk, you just boot into maintenance mode from a cdrom).

also thanx for the FAT32 tip, i totally overlooked it because i'm so vexed with nlite not working the way i expect it to.

Though the convert.exe does not appear to have ever caused problems, I find, at least theoretically, safer the newish "direct" method as the volume is natively formatted as NTFS by Windows setup, as in a "normal" install.

Well i let windows setup do this anyway, just the resize part i overlooked! For some reason i thought FAT32 wasn't readable from DOS, but as you say, it is with recent dos versions.

Edited May 7, 2007 by snowden

[jaclaz]

Well, it is a pleasure, and by the way that's the base of a tech forum like MSFN is, to exchange ideas and (hopefully) find solutions.

Just as an example, at the time of the 911CD post I was convinced that to have NTFS one would need to complete install as FAT/FAT32 and later run convert.exe, now, if I get it right, you just pointed out and confirmed that Windows Setup can convert the filesystem to NTFS even if the source files are on it?

jaclaz