[Kaida]

ilko you are the best! im redoing my source from cd on 0.1 now

in future if i need to do go deeper for unattended session, i will just need to have a winnt.sif & unattend.txt inside the i.386 right? or i could also use the beta and just have the txt file probably heh

[ilko_t]

Kaida, on Oct 17 2008, 06:12 PM, said:

in future if i need to do go deeper for unattended session, i will just need to have a winnt.sif & unattend.txt inside the i.386 right? or i could also use the beta and just have the txt file probably heh

You need to have WINNT.SIF inside XpSource\I386 folder, that would be only file used as answer file.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 17 October 2008 - 07:30 PM

[Kaida]

0.1 tested working

1 thing i like to ask though, when windows boot up, it goes into a F8 bootmenu that ask if you want to boot to windows or the usb recovery tools. is there a way to disable that and boot right into windows?

[ilko_t]

Good, knowing who wrote it I am surprised that it worked

As for the repair entry:

\DOCS\HOW-TOs.txt:

Quote

12. Program adds additional entry in BOOT.INI on the internal disk for USB repair, which is displayed during boot. Without it you cannot perform Windows repair installation from USB disk.
If this entry bothers you, right click on My Computer, select Properties-->Advanced-->Startup and Recovery group Settings and
either decrease "Time to display list of operating system" to 5-10 seconds, or press Edit, remove the line for USB repair and save the file.

[Macster]

Well I tried it with XP SP 1 install files that were saved to the HD from the Install CD; they worked flawlessly. Great Work!!!

I seem to have stumbled upon something after I had slipstreamed SPs 2 and 3 to the install files.
So here is what I have in my notes:

Well things did not go so well. I got an error saying that:

"Booting 'First part of Windows XP Professional setup'

Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0x0E
chainloader (hd0,0)/$WIN_NT$.~BT/SETUPLDR.BIN

Error 15: File not found.

Press any key to continue..." (BTW: where is the <any> key anyway? )

Upon investigation, I found that indeed setupldr.bin was not in the $WIN_NT$.~BT directory and that it was in the $WIN_NT$.~LS/I386 directory. So hmm, I guess no cookie tonite. Awe, bummer! I have to report this and look for a response in the morning. (Edited for grammatical errors.)

So anyways not sure where to go from here, but I thought you should know. Great work though! REALLY!!!

---------------------------

Okay, I found out why this didn't work. Leave it to me to find this one (of all the things!). WinSetupFromUSB 0.1 doesn't like commas any where in the path name. Cause when I took the commas out of the path name and recreated the install on the USB with the WinSetupFromUSB 0.1 program, everything was there in the $WIN_NT$.~BT. So the moral of this story - no commas is a good commas... LOL! (At least when it comes to folder names AND WinSetupFromUSB 0.1.)

Boy ilko_t, aren't you glad I found this one? We would be going around at this for days... LOL!

This post has been edited by Macster: 19 October 2008 - 03:46 AM

[jaclaz]

Macster, on Oct 19 2008, 11:39 AM, said:

Okay, I found out why this didn't work. Leave it to me to find this one (of all the things!). WinSetupFromUSB 0.1 doesn't like commas any where in the path name. Cause when I took the commas out of the path name and recreated the install on the USB with the WinSetupFromUSB 0.1 program, everything was there in the $WIN_NT$.~BT. So the moral of this story - no commas is a good commas... LOL! (At least when it comes to folder names AND WinSetupFromUSB 0.1.)

Good to know.

However, the good ol' rule of thumb says to ALWAYS use 8.3 DOS compatible names (and Paths):
http://www.ss64.com/...-filenames.html
and comma is one of the NO-NO's.

Quote

8.3 format filenames
These can have between 1 and 8 characters in the file name. Short file names have the 8.3 format and are compatible with MS-DOS and other legacy operating systems.
The name must start with a letter or a number and can contain any characters except the following:

/ \ : * ? " [ ] | = , . ; (space)

jaclaz

[Macster]

@jaclaz

Sorry, I thought I was dealing with a Windows program that deals with MS Windows naming conventions especially when it is reading from the source side of things - not DOS.

Thanks,

Craig
mac4020@msn.com

[ilko_t]

Fixed, just tested it using "H:\NLite, $ # . new юя" as source directory. Will be in 0.2, for now please don't use source paths with comma in the name. Actually only the commas were the problem, spaces and other characters should be fine, it was failing in the parse DOSNET.INF procedure, where commas are used as delimiters.

[FloppyFiles.3]
d1,disk1,disk104
d1,ntdll.dll,system32\ntdll.dll

Macster, you get the cookie

What Jaclaz probably meant was if you want to stay on the safe side, you'd better stick with 8.3 DOS compatible names (especially with AutoIt scripts, written in someone's spare time as a hobby and for free ).

Thanks for reporting.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 19 October 2008 - 03:00 PM

[Macster]

@ilko_t and Jaclaz

Oh, Okay... I meant no disrespect. I just thought that we was so over the 8.3 format that it never occured to me that it was still being inforced. Granted a lot of these scripts are linux baised, but I would have thought that what you was developing (which was an MS Windows Application) would take into account for the MS Windows naming convention that is all. Mainly an assumption on my part, so it became a learning thing for me. I am still fairly new with all this install stuff. If it weren't for the fact that MS is discontinuing support with XP, I wouldn't be doing this at all. And I choose to use my laptop as the environment to perform all of this on, because it would provide the best environment for me to learn the complexities of putting an unattended install together. I have 7 install stages setup for myself and each one creates a new install with more stuff than it had before. (And right now I just completed the stage 2 of the 7 stages that are to be completed.) Which is where the commas in question came into play. I kind of figured that it had to do with some kind of parse thing, considering commas are used generally as separators (from my software developement days). Which is why I made a note of it in my notes of what not to do. However, thanks for the cookie and I hope there is no hard feelings. I am looking forward to the 0.2 when it is ready to be realised. And again GREAT work with this current version!

Thanks again,

Craig
mac4020@msn.com

[ilko_t]

Macster, there can't be any hard feeling in the cookie trade

It was an issue, not showed up in my tests as I never use special characters in folder/file names since there are still number of programs which may give you headaches if you use them. Or just a habit from the old days.

Here is 0.1 with this issue fixed, just replace the exe file you have.
http://www.datafileh...d-4a80688c.html

[jaclaz]

Macster, on Oct 19 2008, 09:15 PM, said:

@jaclaz

Sorry, I thought I was dealing with a Windows program that deals with MS Windows naming conventions especially when it is reading from the source side of things - not DOS.

No prob.

ilko_t, on Oct 19 2008, 11:00 PM, said:

What Jaclaz probably meant was if you want to stay on the safe side, you'd better stick with 8.3 DOS compatible names (especially with AutoIt scripts, written in someone's spare time as a hobby and for free ).

Yep , "good ol' rule of thumb" is intended just as "common sense advice", I do agree that newish, modern apps should be able to deal with anything, but the point is that current modern BATCH language (which is not DOS), which I love and use, still has problems dealing with "names-with-spaces" and with some special characters.
No problem whatsoever with long filenames, though.
So what I am "asking" or "suggesting" is just to avoid 14 special characters out of around 223 (255-32) among which you can choose, thus I am attempting to "limit your freedom" but only in a small percentage, after all, 6.28%, which leaves people "free" for 93.72%.

But apart from this particular problem, that ilko promptly fixed, using those special characters is something that will likely "break" a lot of software, and definitely any script, so it is in my view not "wise" to use them, and particularly when running a "new" software for the first time.

Cheers,

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

Vers. 0.1.1 uploaded, please refer to first post for list of changes and download links.

[junksmi]

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 !

This post has been edited by junksmi: 24 October 2008 - 10:41 PM

[ilko_t]

Thanks for the feedback

It's grub4dos issue, please get the latest possible from here and replace only grldr in USB disk root as you did before.
Let me know if it worked and what version you tried.

http://nufans.net/grub4dos/

If the latest doesn't work, I guess grub4dos developers will be interested in details about your motherboard/BIOS:
http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=66

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 24 October 2008 - 11:06 PM

[QED]

Hi. Firstly, thank you for finally making a GUI! I think a lot of people have been waiting a long time for this. I can’t understand why M$ haven’t done this yet. It just seems so obvious it is something we need. No money in it for M$ I suppose.

I’ve done a few installs recently and been experimenting with this program (v 0.1.1) as an alternative to Multiboot (credit to the authors for their ground breaking work, but still a little too “heavy” for my lazy self).

I have a few things to feedback but I must first mention the most serious one:

I found this one out the hard way. The affected software is 32 bit XP-PRO SP3.

Quote from WinSetupFromUSB README.TXT
“!!!If your source is NOT Windows XP2 SP2, some of the compressed files in ~LS folder will be deleted during the first part(Text mode). To make another install from this disk you have to copy the missing files, use the program for this purpose and follow the prompts when it finds existing setup folders.!!!”

Guys this is irresponsible. We are talking about a point and click program here. As a “power user” I can look after myself but what about the average user who will use this program? Those people will go ahead and complete their first successful install. Not realising their files were “spent” they may attempt to install again using the same USB. They happily format their drive knowing it “worked perfectly” last time, then they get the message “Can’t find install files on USB”!!! There is no apparent explanation for this error and the user has no idea what is going on unless they find the Readme (which was probably on the formatted drive).

Although it is a “free program and there are no warranties, use at own risk” etc etc. You really should reconsider releasing the program with such a serious limitation. As it is, the costs far exceed the benefits – re-preparing the USB (for 20 min) before each install is simply not practical. Some user is going to get badly hurt. Your reputations are on the line here. There has been a lot of good work done, it would be a shame to undo that. At the very least you should provide a large warning that the prepared USB will be GOOD FOR ONE INSTALL ONLY.

I used the re-sync option. It recopied 6880 files out of original 7017. It takes 19 minutes to copy 450MB (NTFS) to my USB stick. So the re-sync option saved a few seconds. Not complaining about that but it introduced several errors later on in the install. Again the cost benefit is not there – the few seconds saved does not justify the risk of a corrupted install – much safer to do a completely new USB preparation. More on that later, first the rest of my bug report starting back at the beginning…

INSTALLATION
WinSetupfromUSB default location is c:\ C’mon guys!!! Not cool! Actually I think I know why this was necessary. I chose to install to C:\Program Files\WinSetupFromUSB\ Every time I prepare the USB (hitting GO), the program writes a small file called “Program” in C:\. In this file is some setup info and contains...

[Strings]
;Handy macro substitutions non-localizable
REG_SZ = 0x00000000
etc.

When windows starts a dialogue box pops up saying there is a file called “C:\Program” which could cause certain applications to not function correctly. It suggests renaming the file to Program1.

USING THE PROGRAM
It would be good if the program remembered the last directory where you keep your source files.

INSTALL USING USB
During boot, the first menu screen only has one option listed “Windows XP/2000/2003 Setup – First and Second Parts. Do we really need an option screen that gives us only one option? I realise there might be some advanced features (press “e” or “b” etc) at this point but isn’t it aimed at the point and click user?

After re-sync, on the second menu, option 2 was repeated “Second part of XP + Start windows for first time.”

Also after re-sync $OEM$\cmdlines.txt was not run.

Lastly, this feature always perplexed me with Multiboot as well. Why is there a need to add an extra line to boot.ini? The user has to manually edit this out every time. Is there some limitation with the technology so the install won’t work otherwise? Is the point and click user really meant to edit boot.ini?

Please don’t take these as criticisms. I greatly appreciate all the time and effort that people give so generously. I know that USB install is extremely complicated and that some of the “bugs” I mentioned are due to limitations in the technology (and no fault of the authors).

There are many of us out there who look after every computer in our house plus all our friends and relative’s computers. I’ve been waiting a long time for the price of 1+ GB USB sticks to come down in price. That time is now. USB installs are going to be mainstream. I hope you guys will be ready.

-QED

[ilko_t]

Hi, thanks for your comment, that's always needed

Quote

Quote from WinSetupFromUSB README.TXT
“!!!If your source is NOT Windows XP2 SP2, some of the compressed files in ~LS folder will be deleted during the first part(Text mode). To make another install from this disk you have to copy the missing files, use the program for this purpose and follow the prompts when it finds existing setup folders.!!!”

Guys this is irresponsible. We are talking about a point and click program here. As a “power user” I can look after myself but what about the average user who will use this program? Those people will go ahead and complete their first successful install. Not realising their files were “spent” they may attempt to install again using the same USB. They happily format their drive knowing it “worked perfectly” last time, then they get the message “Can’t find install files on USB”!!! There is no apparent explanation for this error and the user has no idea what is going on unless they find the Readme (which was probably on the formatted drive).

Program detects if source is different from XP SP2 or SP3 and displays a message box
Is that enough?


Need to correct in ReadMe.txt and include SP3, thanks.

Quote

I used the re-sync option. It recopied 6880 files out of original 7017.

It doesn't copy all of them, however it's checks if each file is present. The operation is similar to normal copy from explorer, with NO overwriting and should be faster than a full copy. Since you are the first one reporting an issue I assumed everything was normal at this front.

Quote

WinSetupfromUSB default location is c:\

Program contains number of tools and files, which should be easily accessible (log files, backups etc.) and I prefer not to bury it in C:\Program Files\WinSetupFromUSB or whatever. In other hand this type of install still requires some knowledge. I wish we could make it easy as for grandmothers, but for now this is what MS gave us as options.

Quote

Every time I prepare the USB (hitting GO), the program writes a small file called “Program” in C:\. In this file is some setup info and contains...

I haven't seen this since I am not using Program Files at all. I guess MkMigratInf.cmd doesn't like spaces in the path, will have a look.

Quote

It would be good if the program remembered the last directory where you keep your source files.

If there are other requests for that I can implement it. For now I'd rather concentrate on more important features.

Quote

INSTALL USING USB
During boot, the first menu screen only has one option listed “Windows XP/2000/2003 Setup – First and Second Parts. Do we really need an option screen that gives us only one option? I realise there might be some advanced features (press “e” or “b” etc) at this point but isn’t it aimed at the point and click user?

The reason behind this is described at the bottom of first page of this topic- it's to be able to perform unattended installations, where second part is auto selected if the first part was launched. Another reason is that main menu gets overloaded with entries if one adds number of Windows sources + GParted + Vista + something else.

Quote

After re-sync, on the second menu, option 2 was repeated “Second part of XP + Start windows for first time.”

Also after re-sync $OEM$\cmdlines.txt was not run.

I noticed that as well, it's already fixed in 0.2, which I am testing. For now everything is ready, but x64 installs are giving headaches. The major difference is that user has to boot from USB twice only. This eliminates all the cases when impatient or those not reading instructions and dialog boxes unplug their stick as soon as they see GUI mode is completed. Believe me, to test 0.2 alone I have made already more than umm... 50 or 70, I don't know how many installs. Jaclaz is also helping with the new binifix.cmd, which has an option NOT to add USB repair entry in boot.ini. Hope that answers your next question too.
The reason behind USB repair entry at first place, was to get as close as possible to normal setup- if you don't have this entry Repair install is NOT possible, and I'd rather have it there, instead of inability when Windows is screwed not to be able to repair it. However, this is what we concluded during the first programs (USB_prepare). Since feedback is VERY limited, but downloads in total could be well above 100 000, I wonder why people are not complaining.

Thanks again for your feedback

[jaclaz]

QED, on Oct 26 2008, 04:43 PM, said:

USB installs are going to be mainstream. I hope you guys will be ready.

We were born ready.

BUT, is "mainstream" ready?

"Mainstream" should follow EXACTLY and ONLY mainstream MS original info such as:

• IE cannot be removed from Win98/Me as it is part of the OS
  
• IE cannot be removed from 2K/XP as it is part of the OS
  
• no NT based system can boot from USB
  
• you cannot partition a USB stick as it is a Removable drive (unless you have VISTA)
  
• etc.
  
• etc.

Alternatively:

• use something experimental, like versions 0.1, 0.2, etc. NOW, actually paying a minimum of attention to what they do and RTFM
  
• wait for release 1.0 Final, or better yet, wait another couple of years for the enhanced 3.0, that will also, following the "mainstream" suggestions, "automagically" detect all files you aren't likely to use and remove them while showing an animated wizard and playing a nice tune....

I appreciate your report and suggestions, as long as they are useful to better this thingy , but completely refuse the idea that they are somewhat needed because "lazy mainstream" want to avoid their homework and safely get away with a couple clicks. :whistling:

Experimental things are, well, experimental.

Why, in my day....:
http://www.tinyapps....7/02/index.html


jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 26 October 2008 - 12:13 PM

[David McMahon]

Hello

I have used the Win Setup From USB Program and have used it to copy XP PRO SP2 OEM files (Gold), however when I boot the USB Drive All I get is Grub and I don't know what to do next???

Thanks

David McMahon

[ilko_t]

You mean you don't get the menu entries?
Look at post #133 and 134, replace grldr. What hardware are you booting it on?

[junksmi]

Ilko,

Thanks for the response to #133:

Quote

It's grub4dos issue, please get the latest possible from here and replace only grldr in USB disk root as you did before. Let me know if it worked and what version you tried. http://nufans.net/grub4dos/

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/gr...-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

Quote

If the latest doesn't work, I guess grub4dos developers will be interested in details about your motherboard/BIOS: http://www.boot-land...hp?showforum=66

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 !

This post has been edited by junksmi: 26 October 2008 - 02:37 PM