junksmi

Well, I wanted to install my OEM version of XP on my laptop using WinSetupFromUSB, and it turns out it couldn't handle SP2.cab during "copying files" phase of setup (although those files were visible), and in the second phase, it couldn't find find Normaliz.dll, and when I put it there, the whole thing crashed.. possibly has something to do with my attempt to make that CD unattetended.. Anyways, I sort of got around it using a network install, so I just wanted to document my steps: Used a Grub4DOS USB key, to boot a dos98 network boot floppy http://www.lockstockmods.net/download/11/ (referred by Install Windows over network with PXE) The commands are as follows (partly from Grub4dos tutorial - Grub4Dos Wiki): title Boot dos network image map --mem (hd0,0)/w98se-netboot.IMA (fd0) map --hook map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook chainloader (fd0)+1 rootnoverify (fd0) Notice here that as we are booting from USB, originally it is the USB that represents drive hd0 (that is C:) - unless it is mapped to hd1 (which is actually the real hard drive) and vice versa, then after the network install via winnt.exe is started, XP setup thinks the USB drive is C, and it will copy files there (and potentially screw up your usb key !!!) Notice also, that for me the above commands did not work in a menu.lst (the process freezes) - however, they do work when executed one by one from the grub command line. On the PC serving the installation files, we will have two shares: Mount the XP iso, and then share the root of the virtual CD say as share1 (note: VCdControlTool virtual drives cannot be shared, and FileDisk virtual disk driver for Windows NT/2K/X - MSFN Forums didn't work, possibly because Sherpya filedisk-1.1.cab is now at 1.2; I used MagicDisc ) Share another folder as share2, and then in it, place SMARTDRV.EXE) Now boot, on the PC to be installed, into the w98 network does disk - and make sure the serving PC and the two shares are visible using net view, and then execute > net use G: \\servepc\share2 > G:\SMARTDRV.EXE > F: > cd I386 > winnt> net use F: \\servepc\share1 Note that this procedure will pretty much copy the installation files to the hard drive, and then proceed the installation from harddrive (provided the correct mapping is done in grub4DOS) so it is not strictly a USB install (nor a network one I guess ) - however there are some changes from my regular CD experience; my OEM CD originally didn't ask for password - now it does; it originally registered all the partitions on the harddrive, and asked to partition either of them either as FAT or NTFS - now it only asks to repartition the first one as NTFS... So, eventually it'd be great to get this working fully unattended with WinSetupFromUSB - so if anyone has any ideas on how to fix the above problems, please report back; else I hope someone finds the method above useful Cheers..

Hi Ilko, all, Well, just to report that I did finally post there: Grub4DOS problems with P4P800 (Error 17), as I'd like to now boot an ISO from the USB key, which (only?) Grub4DOS seems to be able to do - however, mapping to (hd32) doesn't result with anything on the old Grub4DOS that I'm trying to use.. Other than that, so far I haven't experienced other problems with the older Grub4DOS (or WinSetupFromUSB in general)... Thanks again for the great work !!

Thanks for letting me know - re-searched that USB_multiboot grldr looking for "grub4dos", and it turns out it is GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 2008-05-07 - and edited previous post #140 Otherwise, I re-checked with grldr from http://nufans.net/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.3-2008-05-14.zip, and can confirm it works. Thanks again, and keep up the great work Cheers ... PS: Here: Install XP from USB - Boot Land (USB_MultiBoot_10.zip) http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=4900&st=0 PSS: Thanks - it seems it works for me too, I got it from http://nufans.net/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-08-08.zip though..

Ilko, Thanks for the response to #133: First, here is BIOS and motherboard info: AMIBIOS(C) 2003 ASUS P4P800 ACPI BIOS Revision 1019 AMIBIOS Version 08.00.09, Build Date 10/14/04, ID P4P81104 Results (versions found by opening grldr files in text editor and looking for "0."): grldr in http://nufans.net/grub4dos/grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-10-22.zip (GRUB4DOS 0.4.4 2008-10-22, 189 KB (193,549 bytes)) - does not work grldr from http://nufans.net/grub4dos/grldr (GRUB4DOS 0.4.4 2008-10-22, 203 KB (208,365 bytes)) does not work either grldr from Multi_Boot_10 (GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 2008-05-07 - GNU GRUB 0.97, 183 KB (188,049 bytes)) - works Agreed, seems to be GRUB4DOS issue - I shall post there now and refer to this post (Edit: tried to, and am getting: "Sorry, you do not have permission to start a topic in this forum".. Duh ! ) Thanks again, Cheers !

Hi all, First of all - thanks for all the great work ! I already succesfully used USB_MultiBoot_10, however had to use a hacked ntdetect.com, since I have an older desktop PC and was getting STOP 7B BSOD while setup was starting Windows (had no problems with laptop)... Now I want to try this method (WinSetupFromUSB), since I want to use separate WinXP sources for desktop and laptop respectively. The problem I had with WinSetupFromUSB was that after install and boot from USB key, I'd get a menu with entries "find /menu.lst" and the like; if I tried to go to grub command prompt, running "root (hd" and TAB - lists hd0, hd1; however executing "root (hd0,0)" results with - "Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition". So, apparently a problem with something even before ntdetect.com runs. By speculation, what I did was just to replace the grldr generated by WinSetupFromUSB 0.1.1, with the one included with USB_MultiBoot_10; and it worked for me - additionally replacing ntdetect.com with the hacked one allowed setup to finish starting Windows (haven't tried running a complete setup yet). I am however, not sure whether this is the right thing to do - so any comments would be welcome.. Thanks... and Cheers !