[jaclaz]

Really strange, the MBR is allright, it appears like one created with RMPREPUSB.

The stoopid BIOS must be checking for the "Removable" status of the stick, though it's the first time I see something like that.

Which motherboard is it?

You have probably two ways out:

• find out the manufacturer of the stick, find the Production Tool for it and "flip" the "removable" bit to have the stick seen as fixed (best)
  
• try using fbinst:
  http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=9460

Try running Chipgenius on the stick:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=4661
if your key is one for which a suitable software can be found, it is the easiest (and permanent) solution.

jaclaz

[Axxoul]

Trying using fbinst right now...

However saw this in boot-land :

"However, ZIP disk would be (fd0) at boot time, and the data partition is (fd0,0), some application can't handle this properly. To solve this, you can use grub4dos's map command to map (fd0) to (hd0)."

Have you heard of this? if yes any idea how to map fd0 to hd0?

The only info i can get on the motherboard at the moment is this :

This post has been edited by Axxoul: 14 November 2009 - 06:38 AM

[jaclaz]

Axxoul, on Nov 14 2009, 01:37 PM, said:

Have you heard of this? if yes any idea how to map fd0 to hd0?

You joking right?

I usually shout this, NOT "hear" it.

Point is that it greatly depends on how the BIOS handles the thing.

Your stick is actually a partitioned device, i.e. it has a MBR and 63 hidden sector (MBR+62).

What a BIOS may do is to simply "ignore" the first 63 sectors and access the partition bootsector as if it was first sector instead of the 64th, thus "removing" all info about the partition (and "vanifying" the NT boot process using Disk Signature).

There are quite a few reports of these "strange" BIOS behaviour, but, mainly due to posters "abandoning" the game, there is NO real, solid, documented solution, AFAIK.

fbinst can use a workaround to this behaviour, that may (or may completely fail to) work in your specific case.

Maybe reading this seemingly unrelated threads will clear the matter (or completely confuse you ):
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=7507
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=5766&st=77

jaclaz

[martinss]

works with flash usb 16 GB?

[jaclaz]

martinss, on Nov 16 2009, 04:07 PM, said:

works with flash usb 16 GB?

Of course NO.

Size of the stick in bytes NEEDS to be a prime number, but not a Mersenne one:
http://en.wikipedia..../Mersenne_prime

Additionally and of course, the formatting has to be carried on with FULL moon, otherwise it won't ever work.

Just TRY it!

jaclaz

[class101]

Hi guys, small contribution:

-I have verified that this is possible to install Win x64 from an USB HDD + 1 Extended Partition & 1 Logical Drive + it works around XP setup "stealing" C:

Tips:

1)
-with diskpart, set the logical partition active
-create a temp primary partition very small and set it active

after that done, WinSetupFromUSB_0-2-3 will detect the logical drive so you can deploy your installation on it

-don't forget to delete the temp primary partition (this one is just needed for WinSetupFromUSB and this could be a problem after because this partition will still your the C: drive letter)

2)
-make sure you just have your USB HDD plugged in your comp and no existing primary partition, start WIndows Setup and when to the partionning page you should see the destination drive first unpartitionned, and second place for your USB drive with a D: assigned to your logical partition

-create your destination partition, C: will be applied to it
-create a partition in an unpartitioned area of your usb hdd so win write boot files inside

Then some small boot fix and that is done, better to have 2 comp on that method but without thats not possible to assign C because setup files are on a primary partition so thats technically not possible to use C: because Windows assigns C to the USB HDD

It seems Windows installs fine from a logical drive and auto assign D: to it, refusing to assign C: to a logical part to our benefit

Verified with a nlited XP x64

Sorry for my crap english guys Im french

This post has been edited by class101: 17 November 2009 - 01:44 PM

[jaclaz]

class101, on Nov 17 2009, 08:34 PM, said:

Hi guys, small contribution:

Thanks.

But this is not clear (at least to me):

class101, on Nov 17 2009, 08:34 PM, said:

1)
-with diskpart, set the logical partition active
-create a temp primary partition very small and set it active

after that done, WinSetupFromUSB_0-2-3 will detect the logical drive so you can deploy your installation on it

-don't forget to delete the temp primary partition (this one is just needed for WinSetupFromUSB and this could be a problem after because this partition will still your the C: drive letter)

I mean, from reading it it seems like you have two partitions active in the same moment.
Also it is not clear if the thing "made active" is the Extended Partition (i.e. the container inside which one or more Logical Volumes or partitions can be created) or an actual Logical volume or partition.

If you want, PM me in French an explanation of the entire process, and I will try translating it in English (your English seems allright to me , but some terms need to be disambiguated)

jaclaz

[class101]

ha yeah sorry this is the logical volume I mean to set active

1 Extended Partition + 1 Logical volume
&
1 really small primary partition like 100Mb and active

Forget about the Logical volume made active, I just tested again with a small primary partition made active and this was enough to have winsetupfromusb detecting the USB hdd

To resume how I do it:

1) my usb stick has no partition
2) doing 1Gb extended partition
3) inside a 1Gb logical volume
4) a small 100Mb primary partition inside the unpartitioned space
5) set active the primary partition
6) installing grub though grubinst
7) Copying XP setup on logical volume through your SetupwinfromUSB program
8) moving some boot files from the primary part to logical drive
9) deleting primary partition
At this point the install hdd is ok
10) copying HBCD from Hiren's BootCD 10.0 iso to logical drive
11) adding the code below to menu.lst
At this point the install hdd is ok + hiren boot cd to install the loaders to our futur C:

then I reboot
12) TXT setup
13) to the partitioning options you should see only ONE partition, our USB HDD (logical volume) is shown down with a letter D:
14) create the C: partition to your disk (should be shown first)
15) create a small partition inside the unpartitioned space of your usbhdd (windows will tell you it anyway because it refuses to write boot files to a logical volume)

Then to the reboot, poweroff, reinstall grubinst to the USB HDD, reboot with it and the second step starts
Setup may then warn you it fails at finding HarddiskVolume2, just set instead Harddisk1/Partition2 and its works perfectly

finally copy boot file from the small primary partition you created during setup and install an MBR to the C: with Hiren bootcd.

Hope it helps I made that quickly I need to eat

so yesterday I had done to get the logical volume detected in setupwinfromusb tool without having to create a fake primary part and moving boot files but can't remember yet how I did, will post if I remember

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 18 November 2009 - 08:55 AM

[ilko_t]

class101, on Nov 17 2009, 01:13 PM, said:

...

There is a new approach, much easier and without most of the limitations until now:
http://www.msfn.org/board/install-2000-xp-...so-t139737.html

There is a test version of WinSetupFromUSB attached, don't pay attention to BOOT.INI, FIXED/REMOVABLE and STARTUP FILES ONLY fields, they do nothing and will be removed in next release. Should work just fine with USB stick and x64 sources. Second boot, for GUI mode, can be either the USB stick or the internal hard disk.

[class101]

thank you ilko will look at this method.

I dunno if its coming from winsetupfromusb but on 3x install of WinXP x64 I fall always on the same problems, it seems windows does not install 100% fine

-No windows update I had to rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemroot%\inf\au.inf toinstall it
-No Keyboard languages, I had to rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemroot%\inf\qmgr.inf
-No start menu advanced settings, I had to rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %systemroot%\inf\shell.inf
-sound is not working even with the right drivers installed
even more .inf not regged but they are all present on the partition

My XP is nlite (without rips, just SP2 sleapstreamed) but I have already installed from nlited CDs without getting such problem in the past so I think it comes from the winsetupfromusb conversion.

I have carefully checked the TXTSETUP.sif from the original iso with the one from you tool, there is just 3 differences,

Quote

binifix5.cmd=1,,,,,,,82,0,0
presetup.cmd=1,,,,,,,82,0,0
setupORG.exe=1,,,,,,,82,0,0

setupORG.exe doesnt seems to do the same job than the original one

This post has been edited by class101: 18 November 2009 - 11:38 AM

[Krille]

Hi!

First of all, nice program

I already used it once to install win7 to my netbook.
But now i want to reinstall it and need to set up my usb again.

But now i get an Warning, i didnt get before.
It says "Could not install Grub4Dos bootsector..."

After this message WinSetupFromUSB freezed.
I tried to reinstall WinSetupFromUSB, but it didnet worked.

Here is the full WinSetupFromUSB

2009/12/04 13:36:40- WinSetupFromUSB 0.2.3 started
2009/12/04 13:36:40- OS: WIN_VISTA  Architecture type: X64 ServicePack:  OS Language: 0407
2009/12/04 13:36:40- Getting USB drives information
2009/12/04 13:36:41- Found USB Physical Disk: USB Mass Storage Device USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
2009/12/04 13:36:41- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #2, Partition #0
2009/12/04 13:36:42- Found USB Logical Disk: J:  File system: FAT32 Bootable: -1
2009/12/04 13:36:42- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #2, Partition #1
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Target drive selected- J:
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Drive letter of the active partition in selected disk- J:
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Total target size avialable- 3773 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Checking sizes...
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Total source size- 0 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:44- Target space available- 3773 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:54- Checking sizes...
2009/12/04 13:36:54- Total source size- 0 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:54- Target space available- 3773 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:58- Checking sizes...
2009/12/04 13:36:58- Total source size- 2142.6 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:58- Target space available- 3773 MB
2009/12/04 13:36:58- Vista source selected- L:
2009/12/04 13:36:59- Removing TEMP folder
2009/12/04 13:36:59- Checking if grub4dos is installed properly
2009/12/04 13:36:59- grub4dos BS/MBR and files are NOT installed properly
2009/12/04 13:36:59- Installing grub4dos BS/MBR and files
2009/12/04 13:36:59- Backing up MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:36:59- E:\WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\grubinst.exe -s=mbrdisk2-20091204-133640.dat -t (hd2)
2009/12/04 13:37:01- Backed up MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:37:01- Backing up BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:03- Backed up BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:03- Checking for grldr string in BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:05- Saved BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:06- Grub4dos bootsector not found
2009/12/04 13:37:06- Checking for grldr string in MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:37:09- Saved MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:37:10- Grub4dos MBR not found
2009/12/04 13:37:10- Installing grub4dos bootsector to (hd2,0)
2009/12/04 13:37:10- E:\WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\grubinst.exe (hd2,0)
2009/12/04 13:37:14- Checking for grldr string in BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:16- Saved BootSector of disk #2 partition #0
2009/12/04 13:37:17- Grub4dos bootsector not found
2009/12/04 13:37:17- Could not install grub4dos bootsector
2009/12/04 13:37:22- Installing grub4dos MBR to (hd2)
2009/12/04 13:37:22- E:\WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\grubinst.exe (hd2)
2009/12/04 13:37:27- Checking for grldr string in MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:37:29- Saved MBR of disk #2
2009/12/04 13:37:30- Grub4dos MBR found
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying grldr
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying menu.lst
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying default
2009/12/04 13:37:31- grub4dos installed
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Preparing Vista source
2009/12/04 13:37:32- Copy started
2009/12/04 13:37:32- L:\bootmgr---> J:\bootmgr
2009/12/04 13:37:32- L:\boot\bcd---> J:\boot\bcd
2009/12/04 13:37:32- L:\setup.exe---> J:\setup.exe
2009/12/04 13:37:33- L:\autorun.inf---> J:\autorun.inf
2009/12/04 13:37:33- L:\boot\boot.sdi---> J:\boot\boot.sdi
2009/12/04 13:37:34- L:\sources\ei.cfg---> J:\sources\ei.cfg
2009/12/04 13:37:34- L:\sources\du.dll---> J:\sources\du.dll
2009/12/04 13:37:34- L:\sources\wcp.dll---> J:\sources\wcp.dll
2009/12/04 13:37:35- L:\sources\dpx.dll---> J:\sources\dpx.dll
2009/12/04 13:37:35- L:\Crack\crack.exe---> J:\Crack\crack.exe
2009/12/04 13:37:35- L:\boot\bootfix.bin---> J:\boot\bootfix.bin
2009/12/04 13:37:35- L:\sources\boot.wim---> J:\sources\boot.wim
2009/12/04 13:38:04- L:\sources\apss.dll---> J:\sources\apss.dll
2009/12/04 13:38:04- L:\sources\dism.exe---> J:\sources\dism.exe
2009/12/04 13:38:04- L:\sources\apds.dll---> J:\sources\apds.dll
2009/12/04 13:38:04- L:\sources\mofd.dll---> J:\sources\mofd.dll
2009/12/04 13:38:04- L:\sources\sfcn.dat---> J:\sources\sfcn.dat
2009/12/04 13:38

I just cant explain why it dont work anymore...

[jaclaz]

Krille, on Dec 4 2009, 01:47 PM, said:

Here is the full WinSetupFromUSB

2009/12/04 13:37:30- Grub4dos MBR found
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying grldr
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying menu.lst
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Copying default
2009/12/04 13:37:31- grub4dos installed
2009/12/04 13:37:31- Preparing Vista source
2009/12/04 13:37:32- Copy started

The stick should boot to grub4dos allright.

In other words, the log you posted contains NO errors related to "Could not install Grub4Dos bootsector...", or anyway, nothing that prevented the program to work.

jaclaz

[ilko_t]

It may seem as frozen if it was copying a large file, and this is what appears from your log file- it did start copying.
Did you give it a chance to continue? How long did you wait for it?

[tomolewis]

Hi all, sorry if this has been posted already but i couldnt find it.

I have used the app to install XP in on my netbook but it hangs on shutdown or reboot unless there is a USB drive installed......... any usb drive will do.

Can i fix this?

thanks

[ilko_t]

This is very interesting.

Did you install from USB hard disk?
Do you start Windows with USB disk inserted?
Does it hang if you start without USB disk inserted?

Open command prompt, what's the result of

sc query rdummy

If you see it installed, issue "sc delete rdummy" and reboot. Does that fix your problem? This is the only one I can think of, although there have not been any similar reports yet.

[tomolewis]

ilko_t, on Dec 8 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

This is very interesting.

Did you install from USB hard disk?
Do you start Windows with USB disk inserted?
Does it hang if you start without USB disk inserted?

Open command prompt, what's the result of

sc query rdummy

If you see it installed, issue "sc delete rdummy" and reboot. Does that fix your problem? This is the only one I can think of, although there have not been any similar reports yet.

It says there is no such service installed

[jaclaz]

I would check also the StartType and LoadOrderGroup of USB Mass Storage related services.

• usbstor
  
• usbehci
  
• usbohci
  
• usbuhci
  
• usbhub

with command sc qc <driver>
LOAD_ORDER_GROUP should be "empty" (not the word "empty", actually empty value) or "Base"
START_TYPE should be 3 DEMAND_START

jaclaz

[Arvi]

I want to install Windows XP pro to USB stick with WinSetupFromUSB_0-2-3.exe. I formatted 4GB Kingston USB stick with NTFS. All WinSetupFromUSB_0-2-3.exe options for make USB stick was default. Installation files copied to USB from win xp installation CD for this computer. Next I started first boot from USB. After I had selected correct partition to install XP and I pressed enter, then I got error message: "Setup cannot create the folder \windows". Computer is Dell Latitude D610.
What is wrong?

2009/12/17 17:00:28- WinSetupFromUSB 0.2.3 started
2009/12/17 17:00:28- OS: WIN_XP Architecture type: X86 ServicePack: Service Pack 3 OS Language: 0409
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Getting USB drives information
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Found USB Physical Disk: Kingston DataTraveler G2 USB Device -- \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #1, Partition #0
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Found USB Logical Disk: F: File system: NTFS Bootable: -1
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Found USB Disk Partition: Disk #1, Partition #1
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Target drive selected- F:
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Drive letter of the active partition in selected disk- F:
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Total target size avialable- 3252 MB
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Checking sizes...
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Total source size- 0 MB
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Target space available- 3252 MB
2009/12/17 19:28:56- ---------------------------------Program quited-----------------------------------------------

[jaclaz]

Arvi, on Dec 18 2009, 01:57 PM, said:

Installation files copied to USB from win xp installation CD for this computer.

Can you elaborate on this?
How were these files copied?

The LOG is saying that you have 0 Mb source:

Arvi, on Dec 18 2009, 01:57 PM, said:

2009/12/17 17:00:28- Drive letter of the active partition in selected disk- F:
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Total target size avialable- 3252 MB
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Checking sizes...
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Total source size- 0 MB
2009/12/17 17:00:28- Target space available- 3252 MB
2009/12/17 19:28:56- ---------------------------------Program quited-----------------------------------------------

jaclaz

[Arvi]

Thanks! Now I attached true log file. Other description is true. Installation is ending with error message: "Setup cannot create the folder \windows" and "Setup cannot continue until the folder is created".

Attached File(s)

•  WinSetupFromUSB.zip (64.55K)
  Number of downloads: 9