[jaclaz]

Having just recently increased the length (for the record from 5' to 7 1/2' ) of the stick with which I won't touch Vista , I have no idea how a VISTA-made NTFS bootsector invokes bootmgr.

If anyone is kind enough to post or however send me a complete NTFS bootsector (8.192 bytes) made natively under VISTA, I will gladly try and find the differences as compared to a normal 2K/XP-made one and hopefully find a way to avoid the renaming of bootmgr.

jaclaz

[wimb]

Hi jaclaz,

Here is the NTFS BootSector invoking BOOTMGR made by Vista Format.

Hope you can find something interesting .....

Cheers,

wimb

Attached File(s)

•  NTFS_BS_BOOTMGR.zip (2.93K)
  Number of downloads: 156

This post has been edited by wimb: 27 January 2008 - 04:43 PM

[jaclaz]

wimb, on Jan 26 2008, 07:51 PM, said:

Hi jaclaz,

Here is the NTFS BootSector invoking BOOTMGR made by Vista Format.

Hope you can find something interesting .....

Cheers,

wimb

At first sight, it seems NOT like a "good" done-from-scratch VISTA format, as the string "GRLDR" is present at offset 604.

On the other hand, it seems like the string "BOOTMGR" is at offset 514 (where in the "old" bootsector NTLDR was).

So, it seems that the previous:

000000512   05 00 4E 00 54 00 4C 00  44 00 52 00 04 00 24 00   ..N.T.L.D.R...$.
000000528   49 00 33 00 30 00 00 E0  00 00 00 30 00 00 00 00   I.3.0..à...0....

has become:

Offset	  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7   8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15

00000512   07 00 42 00 4F 00 4F 00  54 00 4D 00 47 00 52 00   ..B.O.O.T.M.G.R.
00000528   04 00 24 00 49 00 33 00  30 00 00 E0 00 00 00 30   ..$.I.3.0..à...0

i.e. it seems like the bootloader name is "terminated" by a
04 00 24 00 49 00 33 00 30 00 00 E0 00 00 00 30
sequence.

If this is confirmed, this would open the possibility of overcoming the current "5 letter length" limit for the name of the loader in the MakeBS batch.

The leading "05" in my example above comes from a NTFS sector done under Windows 2000, the new "07" is Vista, would it be possible that a XP NTFS bootsector has "06"?

Iìll need to do some tests...

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 27 January 2008 - 02:02 PM

[wimb]

Has Uploaded a better Vista NTFS Bootsector.

In my XP NTFS Bootsector I have also a leading "05" as in your example for Windows 2000.
Also the "terminated" sequence is the same in XP NTFS Bootsector.

It seems you are right in that the current "5 letter length" limit for the name of the loader
in the MakeBS batch can be overcome.

However, Comparing the Bootcode itself of XP NTFS and Vista NTFS BootSectors,
reveals that the code is completely different, so that simply replacing NTLDR by BOOTMGR will not work.

wimb

This post has been edited by wimb: 28 January 2008 - 04:45 AM

[HJW]

I would be interested in both XP and Vista running from one USBflashdrive.
Since I am going to buy a fast 8GB flashdrive soon I was hoping to put my DVDrw in trash and look forward to fast installations

[andy_le2k]

HJW, on Feb 1 2008, 06:57 PM, said:

I would be interested in both XP and Vista running from one USBflashdrive.
Since I am going to buy a fast 8GB flashdrive soon I was hoping to put my DVDrw in trash and look forward to fast installations

If you want to only have 1 source of Vista on your USB the easiest way is to use the usb_multiboot.cmd program then copy over the [BOOT] [SOURCES] folders and BOOTMGR to the root of the USB.

Then edit the grub4dos menu.lst with:

title Setup Windows Vista
find --set-root /grldr
chainloader /BOOTMGR

this will work if you only need one version of Vista to be on the usb but more than one will not work.

So what if you needed more than one version, say x86 and x64 (well there's a guide out there to combine them into one install.wim) or what if you had one integrated with SP1 and one original?

Honestly I have tried many methods - adding new entry to BCD, hex editing, renaming install.wim (works but messy), renaming folders (works but also messy).

The best way that I have found so far is to create a Windows PE 2, boot into that with your usb and launch the setup program directly. This actually works very well because when Vista installs it requires to load Windows PE 2 anyways so you already crossed that bridge. What's best is the ability to have the source files in any folder you want just as long as you have install.wim in the same folder as setup.exe. Also WinPE2 can run both x86 and x64 files so u can launch both setups from one PE.

I hope this helps.

This post has been edited by andy_le2k: 04 April 2008 - 06:13 AM

[wimb]

Your solutions for Install of Vista from USB were already described here

http://www.msfn.org/...14092.html&st=6
http://www.msfn.org/...14092.html&st=7
http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-Vista-US...6.html&st=2

and GRUB4DOS menu.lst of USB_MultiBoot_8.zip provides already entries for Install of Vista from USB
using chainload of BOOTMGR

This post has been edited by wimb: 07 April 2008 - 02:39 AM

[wimb]

jaclaz, on Jan 27 2008, 10:01 PM, said:

i.e. it seems like the bootloader name is "terminated" by a
04 00 24 00 49 00 33 00 30 00 00 E0 00 00 00 30
sequence.

I tried to use SETUPLDRBIN and SETUPLDR.BIN instead of NTLDR in NTFS BootSector File using the same
byte sequence for terminating the bootloader name, but booting did not occur.

So it seems to me that we have to live with the 5-letter limit of bootloader name in NTFS BootSector File.
Actually renaming SETUPLDR.BIN as XPSTP is OK and is used now for all FileSystems by USB_MultiBoot_8.cmd
in order to avoid confusion.

wimb