[theruan]

Hi,
First of all I HAVE TO SAY, wonderfull tool, lol!!!
Many thanks for it.

I was kidding a little bit and i have realized that if i had selected some windows install pointing the folder of the install and if after that i changed my mind and didn't wanted to put that anymore, i unmarked the [v] box and even though windows install was put on my usb hdd.
This is not a big bug, but most likely a gui mistake.

Another thing is about windows installs:
How do i place more than one install in this building mode?
Do they have to be in direfent partitions? Or can they stay all in the same?
Could you add something to remove previous cd or installations on the usb that were add with this great tool?
is there a way to include image ".ima(1,44mbdrives)" boot on the usb trough this tool?
Other insteresting thing would be to place a link for updates in the program or a readme including the link and if possible some kind of explain about the function, mainly about boot mode button.

Sorry my bad enligh.
Many thanks again!
TheRuan

This post has been edited by theruan: 05 January 2010 - 01:52 PM

[ilko_t]

theruan said:

if i had selected some windows install pointing the folder of the install and if after that i changed my mind and didn't wanted to put that anymore, i unmarked the [v] box and even though windows install was put on my usb hdd.

It's fixed in 1.0 beta4 I think, what version did you use?

theruan said:

How do i place more than one install in this building mode?

From Jan 2 2010, 06:53 PM:

Multiple 2000/XP/2003 is fine, when program completes just select the next source and GO, everything is done automatically, no need to relaunch the program.

Multiple PE type (BartPE, UBCD4Win, WinFLPC, WinBuilder) in the same partition- no.
Multiple Vista/7/Server 2008 in the same partition- no.

theruan said:

Could you add something to remove previous cd or installations on the usb that were add with this great tool?

I am afraid not for now, that's tricky, a lot of things are generated on-the-fly according to the source and it would be tricky to keep track of what was added in order to remove it.

theruan said:

is there a way to include image ".ima(1,44mbdrives)" boot on the usb trough this tool?

Nope, just copy this image somewhere and edit menu.lst in the root, it has commented examples which you'd need to uncomment and change per your needs.

theruan said:

Other insteresting thing would be to place a link for updates in the program or a readme including the link and if possible some kind of explain about the function, mainly about boot mode button.

Updates from the program would require dedicated hosting. As for links in readme- yes, in the final versions I update it accordingly.

[wimb]

I did some experiments with the new version 1.0 beta 4

The approach with RAM loaded small ISO and booting only once from USB-stick is interesting,
but for my computer configuration I had some problems with Install of XP from USB.

I tried to do Install of XP on the second Primary partition of my second harddisk.
The second harddisk has in BIOS the highest boot priority and second partition was Set Active.
This means my computer is set correctly as to boot from second partition of second harddisk.

Windows 7 is installed on the first partition of first harddisk and boots with BOOTMGR menu.

Now, when I Install XP on second partition of second harddisk by booting once from USB-stick,
then TXT-mode setup is running well, but on reboot for GUI-mode I get boot error NTLDR is missing.

It turned out that the XP bootfiles were made on first partition of first harddisk.
Moreover, the bootsector of the Windows 7 partition was changed into NTLDR-type.
so that the computer was also not bootable anymore with Windows 7 from first harddisk using F8 BIOS bootmenu.
Instead I got: Windows cannot start due to config error.
The boot.ini that was made wrongly on the first partition of first harddisk, did not have the right arcpath.
It tried wrongly to boot Windows from my USB-stick as rdisk(2) instead of referring to rdisk(1) for my second harddisk.

After booting with LiveXP I could repair the boot problems and after reboot continue with GUI-mode of XP Setup.
Everything else in GUI-mode of XP Setup, including using 5 DriverPacks, making UserAccount at T-13 and Install of Sound and Graphics drivers with DriverForge at T-9 and GUIRunOnce, was working as expected.

A drawback is however, that the booting XP partition gets then Drive Letter D: instead of the common drive letter C:

Conclusion:
The new method is very interesting and promising,
but it requires that the XP bootfiles are made on the real boot partition,
instead of making them on the assumed boot partition.

EDIT:
Changing BIOS Setting such that for Install of XP booting occurs three times from USB-stick
enables to proceed with GUI-mode and to boot for login with Desktop. So, this seems OK, but .....
However, the XP bootfiles are still made at the wrong place and the BOOTMGR-type BootSector of the Windows 7 partition
is changed wrongly into NTLDR-type
Removing the USB-stick followed by Reboot gives then the same boot errors as described above.

This post has been edited by wimb: 06 January 2010 - 09:25 AM

[Valeron]

Hi, ilko_t. I've successfully made an usb disk with 3 xp installation, ubcd4win and ubcd411. It's a great tool. Thank you again.

But I still got questions. Since the file copying process are very time consuming(small file copying are slow), can I make an ISO alike image backup? The next time I can burn the ISO into the disk and greatly save time. Though I've no idea what tool I can use to make that "ISO".

This post has been edited by Valeron: 06 January 2010 - 08:30 AM

[ilko_t]

@Wimb

I guess when you use shortcut key (F8, F12, whatever) your boot order in BIOS gets ignored/reset, so your first hard disk becomes first again and the second is second. The rest of your report is understandable and expected, if the above is true.
Just check in grub4dos cli when using boot menu shortcut, is hd1 the disk with 7, or it is the second hard disk.

I'd be grateful if you try changing boot order in BIOS- USB first, second your second hard disk, third your first hard disk and try again, this time NOT using F8/F12 in order to start from USB. In this case everything should go smoothly.

@Valeron- try this little nice application:
http://www.roadkil.n...hp?ProgramID=12

Use PhysicalDiskN, not the drive letters in order to image the whole disk. And test the image once created.

[wimb]

ilko_t, on Jan 6 2010, 07:40 PM, said:

I'd be grateful if you try changing boot order in BIOS- USB first, second your second hard disk, third your first hard disk and try again, this time NOT using F8/F12 in order to start from USB. In this case everything should go smoothly.

That is exactly what I tried and reported the result in the EDIT: section.
In that case Install of XP from USB works,
but removing AFTER install the USB-stick results in a computer being not bootable from any of the two harddisks,
with the errors as described in my post.

Otherwise just booting from stick via F8 BIOS boot menu gives in grub4dos cli that Win7 first harddisk is seen as hd1 and my second harddisk is seen as hd2 and the USB-stick is hd0

This post has been edited by wimb: 06 January 2010 - 01:10 PM

[ilko_t]

I couldn't quite understand this part:

Quote

Changing BIOS Setting such that for Install of XP booting occurs three times from USB-stick

Did you set the second internal disk as second in BIOS boot order, and first internal as third in boot order?

Boot files are expected to go on hd1 as seen in grub4dos CLI, since it's mapped/switched to hd0. When you tried again which disk was hd1?

[wimb]

ilko_t, on Jan 6 2010, 10:15 PM, said:

Did you set the second internal disk as second in BIOS boot order, and first internal as third in boot order?

Yes, that is exactly what I did and reported about as my second test.

ilko_t, on Jan 6 2010, 10:15 PM, said:

Boot files are expected to go on hd1 as seen in grub4dos CLI, since it's mapped/switched to hd0. When you tried again which disk was hd1?

In grub4dos CLI I see my first harddisk with Windows 7 as hd1.
Indeed the XP bootfiles are going to hd1 and the BOOTMGR-type bootsector is then changed to NTLDR-type.
But that is what causes the problem, because when you remove the USB-stick and Reboot,
then second harddisk gives error NTLDR is missing.
Trying to reboot from first harddisk gives then Windows boot config error,
since boot.ini wants to boot from rdisk(2) instead of rdisk(1)
So the computer is not bootable from any of the two internal harddisks.

The problem is that after booting from USB-stick then TXT-mode of XP Setup will place the XP bootfiles wrongly on the first internal disk instead of on the second internal disk where XP is installed.

I think it will be difficult (or impossible) for this way of Install of XP from USB to let TXT-mode of XP Setup behave differently ....

This post has been edited by wimb: 07 January 2010 - 03:11 AM

[ilko_t]

wimb, on Jan 7 2010, 01:10 AM, said:

Yes, that is exactly what I did and reported about as my second test.

ilko_t, on Jan 6 2010, 10:15 PM, said:

Boot files are expected to go on hd1 as seen in grub4dos CLI, since it's mapped/switched to hd0. When you tried again which disk was hd1?

In grub4dos CLI I see my first harddisk with Windows 7 as hd1.
Indeed the XP bootfiles are going to hd1 and the BOOTMGR-type bootsector is then changed to NTLDR-type.
But that is what causes the problem, because when you remove the USB-stick and Reboot,
then second harddisk gives error NTLDR is missing.
Trying to reboot from first harddisk gives then Windows boot config error,
since boot.ini wants to boot from rdisk(2) instead of rdisk(1)
So the computer is not bootable from any of the two internal harddisks.

The problem is that after booting from USB-stick then TXT-mode of XP Setup will place the XP bootfiles wrongly on the first internal disk instead of on the second internal disk where XP is installed.

So Setup ignores boot order and honors on what channel they are connected on. Similar behavior should be when installing from a CD too.
Boot.ini gets wrong value because USB stick is mapped to hd1, hence the second internal disk gets wrongly rdisk(2). This should be easily fixable
You must have missed that:

ilko_t, on Nov 16 2009, 07:37 PM, said:

...
To do list:
Find out what's going on with USB hard disks and x64 versions.
Test USB stick/disk mapped to say hd21.
Find workaround for USB sticks, seen as floppy by BIOS. Lacking hardware for this part...

or this one:

kDn, on Oct 6 2009, 01:59 PM, said:

Maybe this can be usefull:

Quote

timeout 30
default /default

# After execute this commands -> usb-drive always (hd0)
# Nested calls like configfile /menu.lst is ignored
errorcheck off
# Try to supress unneeded messages
debug off
serial --unit=0 --speed=115200
terminal --silent serial
# Clearing mappings...
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map --unmap=0:0xff
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map --floppies=2
# Shifts (hd) devices (4 hdd by default)
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map (hd3) (hd4)
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map (hd2) (hd3)
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map (hd1) (hd2)
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map (hd0) (hd1)
# Maybe USB-ZIP like (fd1) or (fd0) ?
checkrange 0x01 read 0x8280 && map (fd1) (hd0)
checkrange 0x00 read 0x8280 && map (fd0) (hd0)
checkrange 0x00 read 0x8280 && map (fd0) (fd1)
checkrange 0x00 read 0x8280 && map (fd1) (fd0)
# Mapping changes
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && map --hook
checkrange 0x00,0x01 read 0x8280 && rootnoverify (hd0,0)
# Try to hide unnecessary floppies
ls (fd1)/menu.lst && map --floppies=1
geometry (fd0) || map --floppies=0
# Enable messages output
terminal console
terminal graphics
debug normal
errorcheck on

gfxmenu /boot/_splash/message.gz
configfile /boot/_lst/2menu_en.lst

title
...

...

wimb, on Jan 7 2010, 01:10 AM, said:

I think it will be difficult (or impossible) for this way of Install of XP from USB to let TXT-mode of XP Setup behave differently ....

You are joking, right?
"Impossible" made this subforum exist and all the work done in here, "impossible" brought up this method, all the previous, and so many other projects, come on, heads up

Thanks for tests, useful as always.

Added:
Are both internal disks SATA?
Are they in AHCI or IDE mode?

[wimb]

ilko_t, on Jan 7 2010, 11:09 AM, said:

Boot.ini gets wrong value because USB stick is mapped to hd1, hence the second internal disk gets wrongly rdisk(2). This should be easily fixable

Yes, this part of the problem will be easily fixable.
But TXT-mode copying XP bootfiles to wrong disk and changing BOOTMGR-type bootsector into NTLDR-type bootsector will be more difficult to prevent from occurring.

ilko_t, on Jan 7 2010, 11:09 AM, said:

Are both internal disks SATA?
Are they in AHCI or IDE mode?

Both internal disks are SATA and BIOS setting is IDE-mode.

Hope you will find a solution. I will try and think about it.

Cheers

[wimb]

ilko_t, on Jan 7 2010, 11:09 AM, said:

So Setup ignores boot order and honors on what channel they are connected on. Similar behavior should be when installing from a CD too.

Using XP Setup Boot CD for Install of XP on second harddisk gives in fact the same problem.
XP bootfiles are made on first harddisk and Bootsector is changed into NTLDR-type.
Only the arcpath in boot.ini made on first harddisk is now correct referring to booting Windows from rdisk(1).

Using USB_XP_Setup.exe to make $WIN_NT$.~BT folder and XP bootfiles on second partition of second harddisk (HD 1),
ensures that TXT-mode is NOT making bootfiles on first harddisk (HD 0) and that BOOTMGR-type BootSector of Windows 7 is kept unchanged. The XP Setup Source is in folder XP3_911 on USB-stick being HD 2
Interesting in this case is the $winnt$.inf file in which floppylessbootpath has defined setting as:

[Data]
floppylessbootpath=\Device\HardDisk1\partition2
sourcepath=\device\harddisk2\partition1\XP3_911\
unattendedinstall=yes
floppyless=0
AutoPartition=0
InstallDir=\WINDOWS
MsDosInitiated=0
dospath=U:\XP3_911\

In that case the second partition of second harddisk has also the correct drive letter C: in the drive listing,
whereas for Install from CD and the small ISO USB-boot were giving drive letter C: to the first partition of first harddisk,
allthough in all cases the BIOS Boot priority was such that second harddisk was set as first HDD boot device.

But the question remains:
How to trigger that TXT-mode is behaving for Install from CD and the small ISO USB-boot correct as to make the XP bootfiles on the Install Drive on second harddisk, when this is set in BIOS as having the highest boot priority.

This post has been edited by wimb: 07 January 2010 - 09:03 AM

[ilko_t]

What seems strange in $winnt$.inf? I find it perfectly normal.
The active partition on the boot disk (rdisk(0)) gets first drive letter C:, and hard disk numbering is according to disk drivers and bus enumeration, not ARC path, ignoring BIOS boot order or which was the boot device. \device\harddiskX\partitionY numbering differs from the ARC path, we would have been so lucky if it doesn't

If you map hd0 to hd2, hd2 to hd1 and hd1 to hd2 all should be fine. But this is workaround, not a proper solution. We cannon know in advance what user intentions are in order to do similar mapping. It could be covered in readme, or message box.

I am more interested in putting USB disk as last HD, or even hd21, shifting all internal one position up, and go with the default behavior. Will play with this once I figure out why on some machines USB disks do not get drive letters at start of GUI, this is priority and I haven't stopped working on this.

And yes, doing all this from some kind of PE has some advantages, but we talked about the limitations many times, not going in that subject again.

[brz-.-]

Well i downloaded the last version and tried to install my winxp sp3 English version, everything fine until the first reboot after copying windows files , it gave me this error HAL.DLL missing , and i can't even enter the first menu where we choose wich step to take
It boots the pen and goes straight to the error : HAL.DLL missing

Any ideas why ?

[ilko_t]

Was that 0.2.3 version or 1.0 beta?

If 0.2.3- Did you move the FIXED/REMOVABLE radio button? WinSetupFromUSB.log file in program directory would be helpful. Zip it and attach it with your reply.

If 1.0 beta- how many internal disks do you have?

[brz-.-]

It was 1.0 beta4 i have 2 internal disks 1 intel SSd 80 Gb X25-M G2 and 1 SataII 320 2.5 5200rpm

Log file here:

Attached File(s)

•  WinSetupFromUSB.rar (60.53K)
  Number of downloads: 6

[ilko_t]

Change this in winsetup.lst on USB stick root:

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)

on both places

to

map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd2) (hd1)

Change also

chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

to

cat --locate=rdisk(1) --replace=rdisk(2) /I386/TXTSETUP.SIF
chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

Replace grldr in root with grldr from this archive:
http://www.nufans.net/grub4dos/chenall/gru...-2009-12-23.rar

Try installing again.

On which disk are you installing Windows?
On the partitioning screen which one of the internal disks is numbered first and which one is second?

Added: When you do the above changes start the program again and select only syslinux option, press GO and ignore the warning about NTFS. This is to put back grub4dos MBR.
Do you have a USB card reader as well on that machine?

[ilko_t]

@satire_rutilant

Are still around? I think I've found a solution to the problem you had. Let me know if you want to test it.

[Ja9]

Hi.
I'm trying to build a multiboot 16GB usb flash disk..
But always get som errors..
First I tried just to boot grub4dos from it, and make that loading a Windows 7 iso.
That worked fine, until where I select what type of windows 7 I want to install..
It asks for a cd-rom device driver.

Then I tried to boot a winpe image, and then start 7 setup from that, and then it worked for 32 bit, but not 64-bit.

And after a little more searching i found this topic here
And instead of trying this on my flash disk, I iused a 160GB usb disk.
I partitioned it to 4 partitions, and installed norwegian xp pro sp3 and windows 7 32-bit (english, norwegian and litauian) on first partition, and 64 bit win 7 on second partition.

It started just fine with grub, but I still get the "missing cd-rom device driver" when I try to install windows 7.

I used "WinSetup-1-0-beta4" to partition, format, install grub, and install windows on my usb drive.

[ilko_t]

Ja9, I think it has something to do with your source. Is it original?
I've had the same issue until used the original Windows 7 which came with the laptop, no more "missing device driver" errors.

[Ja9]

ilko_t, on Jan 8 2010, 06:13 PM, said:

Ja9, I think it has something to do with your source. Is it original?
I've had the same issue until used the original Windows 7 which came with the laptop, no more "missing device driver" errors.

My images is from the MSDN site, I only have deleted the ei.cfg (so I have all versions instead of just Pro) file from the iso's, and added norwegian and litauian lang-packs.
They are both working from dvd disc, and I have also used one of them from usb once (that time I used microsoft's program, or something else to make the flash drive bootable).