[ilko_t]

Ok, good there is no misunderstanding.

Assuming G amd H are primary partition syntax is right, you did it properly.
Mind you, Windows XP most likely will place boot files (BOOT.INI, NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM) on C:, where Vista is. The issue is that it will also rewrite the bootsector of C: with XP one, invoking NTLDR.

From there you have number of options:

1. Run from Vista

bootsect.exe /nt60 C:

This will place Vista bootsector on C:. Next you have to use tool such as EasyBCD to add XP to VIsta boot menu.
2. Run EasyBCD from XP and let it repair Vista bootsector.
3. Use Vista DVD for the purpose, Startup repair may fail, try bootsect instead.
4. Use grub4dos to start Vista:
http://diddy.boot-la...os/Grub4dos.htm

[thegr8anand]

Cool.

I was thinking of this: I will install XP on H and when install is complete and XP is working, i can restart and use Vista DVD to repair startup and then from Vista add an entry for XP using EasyBCD. Will this be allright?

EDIT: Forgot to ask: The XPSource has unattended settings in it, will it affect with the boot.ini settings i made and the winnt.sif settings. do i need to make changes to that to be safe?

This post has been edited by thegr8anand: 10 October 2008 - 11:01 PM

[ilko_t]

Should be fine, although you can do that from XP as well by EasyBCD.
Vista DVD has an option Startup repair, I've seen cases when it fails to rewrite the bootsector. If this happens use any of the other ways above, or as stated here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933179

Just do not use Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe –NT60 All, replace All with the drive letter in question. MS really don't care if people are using other OS, the command with all switch will replace bootsectors on ALL partitions:
http://technet.micro...y/cc749177.aspx

Do all these procedures with USB disk removed.

edit: boot.ini and winnt.sif are not related. What unattended settings do you have? Some of the settings in [unattended] section will not be applied, depends. Anything else is fine. If you have something in [unattended] please post that part only.
Do not replace winnt.sif in ~BT folder, it has some critical entries added by the program. Edit it instead, but keep the changes the program made.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 10 October 2008 - 11:15 PM

[thegr8anand]

What i mean to ask is, whether it will have an effect on installing XP on partition H and not C. I have never used unattended so thats why i am asking.

This is Winnt.sif from ~BT folder:

 
[Data]
AutoPartition=0
UnattendedInstall="Yes"
MsDosInitiated="1"
floppyless="1"
winntupgrade="no"
win9xupgrade="no"
EulaComplete="1"


[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
TimeZone=85
OEMSkipRegional=1
OemSkipWelcome=1

[Display]
BitsPerPel=32
Xresolution=1024
Yresolution=768

.....


[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=1

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1
SystemLocale=00000409
UserLocale=00000409
InputLocale=0409:00000409

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

[GuiRunOnce]
"binifix4.cmd c:"
[SetupParams]
UserExecute="ren_fold.cmd"


This is Winnt.sif from ~LS folder:

[Data]
AutoPartition=0
UnattendedInstall="Yes"
MsDosInitiated=No

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=FullUnattended
OemSkipEula=Yes
UnattendSwitch="yes"
WaitForReboot="No"
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemPreinstall=Yes

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=*
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
TimeZone=85
OEMSkipRegional=1
OemSkipWelcome=1

[Display]
BitsPerPel=32
Xresolution=1024
Yresolution=768
 

.....

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 11 October 2008 - 07:36 AM

[ilko_t]

Nope, where you setup Windows you set during Text mode. We need to know that in advance, because of the USB disk drives are "shifted" and resulting BOOT.INI from Windows setup is not proper. That's why we need to know in advance and create proper boot.ini in order to start GUI part of the setup and Windows for first time.

Remember to start from USB 3 times- Text mode, GUI mode and first start, when desktop is fully loaded you can unplug the stick.

edit: unless you have custom files/folders in $OEM$ to be copied you are fine. If you do have- then easiest way is to integrate BTS mass storage drivers pack to your source and redo the USB disk.
Here is why:
http://www.msfn.org/...rs-t123023.html

0.2 is almost ready, all this has been taken care of, beta testers are always welcome btw, just let me know if you can help

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 10 October 2008 - 11:35 PM

[thegr8anand]

Thanks a lot ilko.. I will try it now and report back.

[thegr8anand]

Hmmm. When i select USB boot, it says there is some configuration problem and it cannot continue. EDIT: The file system i used for my USB was NTFS, is this why it gave me thi error?

And yes i do have extra files(setups) in the OEM folder. Can i try your 0.2 version. If it fixes all this then it can be good for testing.

Also here is my presetup.cmd if it matters. My actual USB drive letter right now in Vista is "I". So i dont know if it makes any difference when i run from USB.

 
REM +==========================================================================+
REM |																		  |
REM |   This presetup.cmd file was dynamically generated by the DriverPacks	|
REM |   BASE, to work with the DriverPacks without any further editing.		|
REM |   However, if you would like to add some custom functionality, you can   |
REM |   edit this file without any problems. Just take into record that this   |
REM |   file will be erased if you run the DriverPacks BASE on these Windows   |
REM |   installation files again!											  |
REM |																		  |
REM |   With special thanks to:												|
REM |   -Pyron, a06lp and iLE for their help with this method;				 |
REM |   -schalti for the optional 'Keep the Drivers' system and Pyron (again)  |
REM |	for turning it into an executable.									|
REM |   -SuperTibaldoKart for creating un7zip.exe							  |
REM |																		  |
REM +==========================================================================+


REM +==========================================================================+
REM |   Finding CD/DVD driveletter.											|
REM |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
SET TAGFILE=\OEM
FOR %%i IN (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y) DO IF EXIST "%%i:%TAGFILE%" SET CDDRIVE=%%i:


REM +==========================================================================+
REM |   Decompressing the DriverPacks to the harddisk - using un7zip.exe.	  |
REM |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
%CDDRIVE%\OEM\bin\un7zip.exe %CDDRIVE%\OEM\DRIVER.7z %SystemDrive%\


REM +==========================================================================+
REM |   Copying/decompressing the files to finish the installation.			|
REM |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
%CDDRIVE%\OEM\bin\un7zip.exe %CDDRIVE%\OEM\bin\*.7z %SystemDrive%\
COPY /Y %CDDRIVE%\OEM\bin\DPsFnshr.ini %SystemDrive%\
IF EXIST %CDDRIVE%\OEM\*.ins COPY /Y %CDDRIVE%\OEM\*.ins %SystemDrive%\


REM +==========================================================================+
REM |   Scanning for driverdirectories.										|
REM |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
%CDDRIVE%\OEM\bin\DevPath.exe %SystemDrive%\D


REM +==========================================================================+
REM |   Disable Driver Signing Policy and keep it disabled.					|
REM |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
START %SystemDrive%\DSPdsblr.exe




REM ===========Added by WinSetupFromUSB============
IF EXIST %systemroot%\system32\setupold.exe DEL /F %systemroot%\system32\setupold.exe
IF EXIST %CDDRIVE%\$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\$1\nul xcopy %CDDRIVE%\$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\$1\*.* %systemdrive%\ /i /k /e /r /y /h
IF EXIST %CDDRIVE%\$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\$$\nul xcopy %CDDRIVE%\$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\$$\*.* %systemroot%\ /i /k /e /r /y /h
type %systemroot%\system32\tempunat.inf >> %systemroot%\system32\$winnt$.inf
REM ====================END=======================
EXIT 

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 11 October 2008 - 07:36 AM

[Macster]

thegr8anand, on Oct 10 2008, 09:53 PM, said:

Cool.

I was thinking of this: I will install XP on H and when install is complete and XP is working, i can restart and use Vista DVD to repair startup and then from Vista add an entry for XP using EasyBCD. Will this be allright?

EDIT: Forgot to ask: The XPSource has unattended settings in it, will it affect with the boot.ini settings i made and the winnt.sif settings. do i need to make changes to that to be safe?

I don't mean to overstep ilko_t (he truly is the authority on this subject), but there is another tool (program) out that works well with XP installs over Vista and it works from either on Vista or XP; 32 or 64 bit platforms.. It is called Vista Boot Pro and its free (only asks for donations). It has a BCD editor in it that works really well in most cases. I use it myself, cause I have a laptop that has Vista Ultimate as its native OS and I like running XP for some apps. So I install XP as a second OS and then run Vista Boot Pro (on XP) to repair the boot strap for Vista and add an entry in the BCD (with Vista Boot Pro) so that you have a choice of starting XP or Vista when your machine starts, thereby creating a dual boot configuration. It really makes things a lot easier.

Question: However I have a question regarding unattended installs, can the tool that is provided here allow unattended installs to run off the USB thumb drive? <EDIT> I see there is already an answer to my question before I had it typed. How soon would beta 0.2 be available to test? If it would be possible, I would like to be one of those testers.

I must admit I have only glanced through the past two years of messages on this forum and I have to say that I have been really impressed with the amount of time of devotion and achievement that has been made for this project. I was beginning to think there wasn't anything out that allowed XP to install from a USB device. Truly remarkable! My hat goes off to all those who have contributed to such a cause.

This post has been edited by Macster: 11 October 2008 - 01:15 AM

[ilko_t]

@thegr8anand- since you have BTS driver packs integrated you are fine about the unattended part. Lets fix the boot.
Can you give some more details about the error message?
My guess is that you started from USB and you got that message, which means grub4dos was not installed properly on the USB bootsector.

Can you go in \WinSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\ and launch grubinst_gui.exe giving it admin rights.
Select radio button DISK and select your USB disk. Be careful which one you select. Use disk sizes as a clue, just in case.
Then click refresh button next to PART LIST and select from the drop-down menu the partition on the USB disk.
Select Verbose output and click INSTALL.

If you see that it successfully installed, try to boot again from the USB disk. If not- please make a screenshot or post what it says.


@Macster- thanks : )
I should be ready with next version in a few days, most of the new stuff is about unattended install. Started using the same approach as BTS team is using (fake Setup.exe) and presetup.cmd to carry out whatever could be done for the unattended section.

However, there is quick and dirty workaround- the problem with unattended section is that if it's present, even if empty, Text part of setup doesn't ask where to install windows to and puts it on the USB drive, where ~BT and ~LS folders are.
Well, it won't if you create a few big dummy files, making the disk space less than the one stated in txtsetup.sif ~1.1GB on unmodified XP.
Now you can safely put back unattended section in winnt.sif and start setup- it will try to install there, say that it can't and go back to the disk list

fsutil file createnew U:\dummy1.temp 1000000000

This makes setup 1:1 as from a CD, regarding contents.

I was thinking to use this approach, it eliminates all the mess with unattended section, but if one is with a USB hard disk or 16GB stick it's not practical to occupy all the free space.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 11 October 2008 - 01:36 AM

[thegr8anand]

Ok. It is working right now. Actually the problem was NTFS file system. I guess my comp had a problem with it. I changed it to FAT32 and ran your program again and now it is working. I am on my other PC and it is installing right now. Seems slow though from USB. At first setup it gave me 2 options: First part of Windows XP Setup or Second part Of XP setup. I didnt know what to choose so i went with the first one. I dont know if it should have asked that.

Also i am not sure if it will install all the extra apps and drivers that were on the CD and the tweaks and removals that were put using nlite.

[ilko_t]

Without the exact error message before I can only guess what the problem was.
On second though- similar message would come if you started second part of setup first, did you?
First part (Step 1)- Text mode, the one without mouse, where you format disks etc.
Second part (Step 2)- GUI mode, the one with mouse and better graphic.

Fat32/16 can be painfully slow on some systems, USB stick matters too, it seems. NTFS really makes huge difference in those cases.

Reminder again- start from USB 3 times- Text, GUI mode and first start of windows. This is important.

[thegr8anand]

I think I am right track then. At first it started GrubDos and I had to select 1st part of Setup or Second part, i selected first. Then i had to choose where to install XP i selected the target drive H which was detected. I quick formatted it and now it is copying files. SO i guess after this i will move to the GUI part.

Also ilko i didnot try your suggestion of grubdos_gui.exe as that time i was running your program after formatting the usb to FAT32. Then i tried to boot from USB and it ran. So i am pretty sure it was because of NTFS file system.

EDIT: Have a problem now. When i first selected 'First part of Windows XP Pro Setup from partition 0' in Grub4Dos, i selected the partition and it copied some files. Now after it restarted and i boot from USB again and select 'Second part of Xp Pro Setup + Start 1st time from partition 0', I am getting an error. It says: "Windows couldnot start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Couldnot read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware."

So am stuck with this error and dont know how to proceed. Just a guess but shouldn't it be Start 1st time from partition 2 or something?

This post has been edited by thegr8anand: 11 October 2008 - 02:30 AM

[wimb]

ilko_t, on Oct 11 2008, 09:30 AM, said:

However, there is quick and dirty workaround- the problem with unattended section is that if it's present, even if empty, Text part of setup doesn't ask where to install windows to and puts it on the USB drive, where ~BT and ~LS folders are.

Hi ilko,

Might it be that this problem is solved with

[Data]
AutoPartition=0

This works for me in USB_XP_Setup, where [Unattended] Section can be used as normal.

[ilko_t]

thegr8anand, on Oct 11 2008, 01:10 AM, said:

So am stuck with this error and dont know how to proceed. Just a guess but shouldn't it be Start 1st time from partition 2 or something?

BOOT.INI has improper entry, pointing to non existing location.
Can you post here winsetup.lst from USB stick root?
Was this hard disk partitioned from Vista disk management?

On second read- back to your external disk, I guess you have eSata port, right? Are you sure Windows will start from it? Have you had any operating system on it? Are we sure you can boot from it?
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=3366&hl=

wimb, on Oct 11 2008, 03:27 AM, said:

ilko_t, on Oct 11 2008, 09:30 AM, said:

However, there is quick and dirty workaround- the problem with unattended section is that if it's present, even if empty, Text part of setup doesn't ask where to install windows to and puts it on the USB drive, where ~BT and ~LS folders are.

Hi ilko,

Might it be that this problem is solved with

[Data]
AutoPartition=0

This works for me in USB_XP_Setup, where [Unattended] Section can be used as normal.

Works because msdosinitiated=0
msdosinitiated=1 combined even with an empty section [unattended] results in that behavior. I'd love to be proved wrong, it would save sooo much trouble.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 11 October 2008 - 10:48 AM

[ilko_t]

@thegr8anand

Another test- when you start from USB and see any of the menus, press C on your keyboard, it will go into command prompt.
There you type exactly:

root ( <---and press tab key

It should return something like "Possible disks are hd0 hd1..."
Post the result here.

Next type:

find /windows/system32/$winnt$.inf <----press enter

Should return something like "(hd1,1)"
Post the result here.

[thegr8anand]

Ok i tired your suggestions.

Root ( TAB gives me: hd0, hd1, rd

find /windows/system32/$winnt$.inf says: file not found.

find /ntldr gives me: (hd0,0), (hd1,1),(hd1,2)

I guess it's not seeing the external HD now, even though the first part of setup completed successfully where i chose my external HD partition 2. Also, yes this drive was partitioned in Vista. But it worked in first part and not in second part...

When i try chainloader /ntldr in the grub command window it says: Will boot NTLDR from drive=0x80, partition=0x0(hidden sectors=0x3f)

This is what Boot.ini says:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=15
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Second part of XP Professional setup + Start Windows from hd 1 part 2" /FASTDETECT

This post has been edited by thegr8anand: 11 October 2008 - 03:54 PM

[ilko_t]

hd0 is your USB disk, hd1 is the internal disk with Vista.
Why NTLDR is found on both hd1,1 and hd1,2? Do you have there another XP or recovery partition?

Seems your laptop doesn't provide BIOS extension for the esata disk, hence it's not seen by grub4dos and ntldr-->that's why the error "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem..." and why grub4dos is not displaying it.

First part goes fine, because the sata driver helps installer see the disk, but more important is if BIOS provides arcpath for it, it seems not.

There is a slight possibility this to happen because of the new Vista partition rules, this is a random shot of mine:
http://www.multiboot...partitions.html

If you can, backup whatever you have on the external disk, and use other tool to delete all partitions on it and create new ones, even by using Text mode of XP setup for the purpose.

What is the exact model of this laptop? Have you googled if other people managed to have AND boot XP from esata disk, connected to it?
Do you have any setting in BIOS, regarding esata ports?

[thegr8anand]

My laptop is Dell XPS M1710. IT doesnt have an esata port but i am using an ExpressCard which provides me sata connections. I think my internal hard drive is 160GB SATA 150.

Well I have USB 2 connection with my HD as well so i can use that somehow if this doesnt work???

EDIT: Hey ilko, I found these posts from the link you gave me where they have got it working. can you please help me understand that.

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ost&p=40707
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ost&p=46779

This post has been edited by thegr8anand: 11 October 2008 - 04:48 PM

[ilko_t]

Quote

IT doesnt have an esata port but i am using an ExpressCard which provides me sata connections

Ahh, you should have started with this

It should be possible to make the Windows work from the esata, but needs some experience and time:
http://www.911cd.net...showtopic=21242

cdob has even made a batch file, which automates the process, haven't read details or tested, should be in that thread somewhere.

As for the USB port- we are back to square 1- look a few posts above the links I gave you, they are for XP installed on USB drive.

edit:

Quote

EDIT: Hey ilko, I found these posts from the link you gave me where they have got it working. can you please help me understand that.

In simple words- integrated in the motherboard esata, actually just another external sata connector- good chances you can boot from it since BIOS provides extension.

esata port via external card or PCMCIA card- no. Unless manufacturers implement this functionality. It's like using SCSI card, which doesn't have it's own BIOS, extending your motherboard BIOS.
This is not something I can comment thoroughly, little experience with it.

This post has been edited by ilko_t: 11 October 2008 - 05:05 PM

[thegr8anand]

Hmmm. Stuck. Dont know what to do...

Just one thing, The second part of XP setup in Grub, where is the file NTLDR loaded from? Doesnt it have to be loaded from USB drive which has it? So why does it matter if Grub can't see my sata drive as like first part setupldr.bin from USB did the rest...