[kof94]

Since looking at this thread: Install 2000/XP/2003 from RAM loaded small ISO I started to wonder if it would be possible to combine the two projects (sort of).

Would it be possible to boot a mini iso with the boot files (as flyakites guide - saves on boot time!) in RAM (0XFF) and direct boot the full iso (safes RAM) from the UFD (0XFE) then install from the full iso. Just a thought but I wondered if it would work.

Edit: Nearly forgot... tested install on my desktop with and without card reader. Everything went fine except on the attempt where I created a new partition on the drive (disk was empty) and ended up with a random reboot just at the point presetup.cmd should have run. I booted to hdd a second time and everything went fine except I ended up with a 'All Users.WINDOWS' dir in Documents and settings.

I think this reboot was caused by the for loop in presetup.cmd because on subsequent installs (and on the second attempt above) I had "No Disk" errors at this point when the card reader was connected.

A part from disconnecting it prior to install the only solution I can think of is to reverse the search order in the loop, that way the UFD (where my OEM dir is) should, hopefully, be found before the card reader.

SET TAGFILE=\OEM
FOR %%i IN (Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C) DO IF EXIST "%%i:%TAGFILE%" SET CDDRIVE=%%i:& GOTO DPsFound

If I was doing this in a bash script I'd search for the volume label instead and save a possible 23 mounts but I have know idea how to do that in Windows.

This post has been edited by kof94: 23 November 2009 - 05:28 PM

[doveman]

jaclaz, on Nov 22 2009, 09:49 AM, said:

I am always looking around for volunteers, do you happen to have a "lab rat attitude"?

I do normally but unfortunately I've got too many other things to fix to take on any more at the moment

If I could just get PLOP working with my hardware, to speed up loading the RAM image from USB, I'd be happy.

[jaclaz]

kof94, on Nov 23 2009, 10:50 PM, said:

If I was doing this in a bash script I'd search for the volume label instead and save a possible 23 mounts but I have know idea how to do that in Windows.

In Windows there is the "LABEL" command:
http://ss64.com/nt/label.html

and the "VOL" one (advised ):
http://ss64.com/nt/vol.html
it also returns the volume serial.

But you have anyway to loop.

The vlm.exe inside DSFOK:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/fr...ware/index.html
will scan all volumes, but it won't return the drive letter.

The MOUNTVOL command will scan all volums, but won't return the label.

A possible "cure" is worst than the actual illness :

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
Set Label=%1
FOR /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:, " %%A IN ('vlm.exe') DO (
IF NOT Label==%%A SET VOLUME=%%A
IF /I %%B==%Label% GOTO :do_mountvol
)
GOTO :EOF

:do_mountvol
SET Volume=%Volume:.=?%
SET COUNTER=0
For /F %%? in ('mountvol.exe ^| FIND "\"') DO CALL :do_pairs %%?
FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%? IN ('SET Drive ^| FIND "%Volume%"') DO SET %LABEL%=%%?
SET %LABEL%
GOTO :EOF

:do_pairs
SET ThisItem=%1
IF "%ThisItem:~0,4%"=="\\?\" SET /A Counter=!Counter!+1
Set Drive%Counter%=%ThisItem%=!Drive%Counter%!
GOTO :EOF

jaclaz

[cdob]

kof94, on Nov 23 2009, 04:50 PM, said:

tested install on my desktop with and without card reader.

Disconnect external card readers if possible. This reduce the risk.

Quote

ended up with a random reboot

What's a ramdom reboot? How often did the machine reboot?
Can you attach the presetup.log file?

There is a fix drive letter enabled by default. This may add one reboot.

"Post#1" said:

Setup may assign letter c: to another device.
C: is not available for new installed windows.
Setup.cmd deletes MountedDevices.
At reboot windows assign letters again: c:\windows

Did you used fixDrive.USB option? This may add a reboot too.

Quote

I think this reboot was caused by the for loop in presetup.cmd

I doubt this.
This principal loop is used since several years.

Quote

because on subsequent installs (and on the second attempt above)

Most likely there exist a c: drive then.

Quote

I had "No Disk" errors

Thanks for the hint. Add a "DIR %%i: &&"

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 (
  FOR %%j in (%ISO_file_search%) DO (
	echo search ISO file "%%i:%%j">>presetup.log
	DIR %%i: && IF EXIST "%%i:%%j" (
	  SET ISOfile=%%i:%%j
	  goto :ISO_file_found)
  )
)

[kof94]

@cdob

Quote

Disconnect external card readers if possible. This reduce the risk.

Yeah, I had no issues when I disconnected the card reader!

Quote

What's a ramdom reboot? How often did the machine reboot?

By 'random' I just meant that I didn't expect it because it didn't happen without the card reader attached.

Quote

Can you attach the presetup.log file?

No can't because I've wiped the drive now.

Quote

There is a fix drive letter enabled by default. This may add one reboot.

I did notice that when the hdd was already partitioned, when I repartitioned it and returned to hit enter to install it was assigned to C: and the drive letter for my ufd was removed (just a hyphen when it was previously C:). But on this occasion the the hdd was blank so after partitioning it was assigned to I: when I started the install.

fixDrive.USB is uncommented in textsetup.oem so I assume thats what caused reboot because %systemdrive% was I: prior to that.

Quote

Thanks for the hint. Add a "DIR %%i: &&"

Forgive my ignorance but wont this still cause the "No Disk" errors because there's still going to be an attempt to "mount" a non-existent filesystem and list it's contents?

@jaclaz

Quote

A possible "cure" is worst than the actual illness newwink.gif:

No jokes. Thanks for the advice though.

[jaclaz]

kof94, on Nov 24 2009, 11:19 PM, said:

No jokes. Thanks for the advice though.

You are welcome, and now the nice part :
I too have a couple of "problematic" machines that have one of those "stoopid" card readers to which Windows assigns a letter even if there is no media.
On these, the "IF EXIST" will throw an error.
This:

@ECHO OFF
SET TAGFILE=\OEM

FOR /F "tokens=1 delims=\ " %%? IN ('MOUNTVOL.EXE ^|FIND ":\"') DO (
DIR %%?|FIND "%TAGFILE:\=%">nul&&SET CDDRIVE=%%?& GOTO DPsFound
)

GOTO :EOF
:DPsFound
SET CDDRIVE

is a workaround, that loops only through existing drives and does not throw error for "device not ready" or "no disk".

jaclaz

[cdob]

kof94, on Nov 24 2009, 05:19 PM, said:

Forgive my ignorance but wont this still cause the "No Disk" errors because there's still going to be an attempt to "mount" a non-existent filesystem and list it's contents?

At XP 32 bit a dir does behave different. Open a command prompt and run "dir I:".
There is a command line message displayed only, but no "No Disk" window.

In addition there is errorlevel set internally: therefore the following && find is not executed.
Finally: "No Disk" window is not displayed.

Try too: remove find

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 (
  FOR %%j in (%ISO_file_search%) DO (
	echo search ISO file "%%i:%%j">>presetup.log
	DIR "%%i:%%j" && (
	  SET ISOfile=%%i:%%j
	  goto :ISO_file_found)
  )
)

[kof94]

Well I've certainly learnt something today, thanks to both of you .


Edit: I liked both solutions so much I thought I'd combine them:

set tagfile=\OEM
for /f "tokens=1 delims=: " %%? in ('mountvol.exe ^|find ":\"') do (
  dir %%?:%tagfile% >nul 2>&1 && set CDDRIVE=%%?:
)
if not defined CDDRIVE (
  goto EOF
)

This post has been edited by kof94: 26 November 2009 - 02:26 PM

[bluenix]

Good day to all...

I'm a newbie here at the forums and I'm searching for a convenient way to make a multiboot USB drive containing XP as one of the setup. I stumbled across this method and I was interested to try it out for myself. I followed all of the said directions in making one. I used the program, WinImage, to extract, edit, and inject the files [setupORG.exe & ISOimage.ini] back again to the .ima file. My XP_INST.IMA and my XPSP3.ISO are all on the root folder. I have 2 NTFS partitions on my Western Digital 250GB USB-HDD which has 48GB [Active] & the rest.

When I try to boot up the USB-HDD, this message shows up and it stays the same for a long time with a blinking cursor at the end of the message:

Booting Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup

XPSP3.iso FAT12 BPB found with 0xEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.

probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880

floppies_orig=0, harddrives_orig=3, floppies_curr=1, harddrives_curr=3


My menu.lst

title Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup 
ls /XPSP3.ISO || find --set-root /XPSP3.ISO
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0)
#(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS
#map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1)
map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xff)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

So my question is: Why does it takes so long to make something happen? Is it already loading the ISO file in to the memory? I have a XP SP3 iso image with a size of 450MB which is also an nLite'd version.


Thank you for the time and effort on reading my questions. Hoping to hear from the support group.

[ilko_t]

It might take long, on motherboards which boot USB on 1.1 or lower speed. In other words you may need to wait like 10-15 minutes.

You may try first booting Plop and then warm booting USB again, in order to get 2.0 speed:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=8605

Mind you, it's picky

[bluenix]

Good day to you ilko_t...

Thank you for taking the time and effort on replying to my queries.

ilko_t said:

It might take long, on motherboards which boot USB on 1.1 or lower speed. In other words you may need to wait like 10-15 minutes.

That came to me as a suprise. I really thought that even if your motherboard supports USB 2.0 connection speeds doesn't mean it automatically activates on that manner. Hmmm... Something to ponder on... Thanks for the heads up...

ilko_t said:

You may try first booting Plop and then warm booting USB again, in order to get 2.0 speed:
http://www.boot-land...?showtopic=8605

Mind you, it's picky

Thanks for pointing me on that direction. I have heard and seen PLoP on different forums lately, but I really don't know how does it work and what it is used for. I have lately read all of the 6 posts on that thread, and I must say that it is something noteworthy of to test, experiment, and add it as one my toolkit on my USB-HDD arsenals.


So going back to my previous post, is it safe to assume that based on your answer, the above DOS message that appears on my screen after I have initialized the RAM loading method of cdob, is that I have correctly followed all of the directions down to the last details and it REALLY WORKS, but the end result is just it takes time to load the whole ISO file in to the RAM.

Am I correct? If I try to use PLoP, then the loading time would be gradually improved right?

Another thing, is it ok if I have the XP_INST.IMA file on an active NTFS partition like I have mentioned earlier? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that floppy images would be booted and running correctly on a FAT32 partition rather on a NTFS one? Does having the IMA file on a NTFS file have an effect on the overall process of the procedure or is it also okay if it would be left there as if it is the same either on a FAT32 one? I am contemplating on this one 'coz I don't know if my approach would be having a USB-HDD with 2 partitions, a FAT32 & NTFS, or just having a 2 partitions with the same format type, say a NTFS one? What do you think?


Thank you for your time and effort for reading and replying on my previous post. Hoping to hear from you or from the rest of the support group.


P.S.: Can I suggest a name for cdob's project? How about FiraXP? How does it sounds?

[jaclaz]

bluenix, on Dec 6 2009, 05:48 PM, said:

Another thing, is it ok if I have the XP_INST.IMA file on an active NTFS partition like I have mentioned earlier? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that floppy images would be booted and running correctly on a FAT32 partition rather on a NTFS one? Does having the IMA file on a NTFS file have an effect on the overall process of the procedure or is it also okay if it would be left there as if it is the same either on a FAT32 one? I am contemplating on this one 'coz I don't know if my approach would be having a USB-HDD with 2 partitions, a FAT32 & NTFS, or just having a 2 partitions with the same format type, say a NTFS one? What do you think?

We (and grub4dos ) are NOT racists against FAT32 or NTFS.

It's binary:

• If grub4dos can access a filasystem=1
  
• If grub4dos cannot=0

Right now grub4dos supports:

• FAT12
  
• FAT16
  
• FAT32
  
• NTFS
  
• EXT2FS/EXT3FS

+ of course CDFS

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 06 December 2009 - 11:00 AM

[bluenix]

Good day to you jaclaz...

Thank you for having the time on commenting to my post...

jaclaz, on Dec 7 2009, 12:59 AM, said:

We (and grub4dos ) are NOT racists against FAT32 or NTFS.

I'm sorry if you have misunderstood me but please bear with me as it is really somewhat hard to digest all of this multiboot thingy here. I'm just really trying first to teach myself here some of the crash course basics of it and doing all of this one step at a time as I don't want to overload myself with so much information at hand. I hope you get the idea.

jaclaz, on Dec 7 2009, 12:59 AM, said:

It's binary:

• If grub4dos can access a filasystem=1
  
• If grub4dos cannot=0

Right now grub4dos supports:

• FAT12
  
• FAT16
  
• FAT32
  
• NTFS
  
• EXT2FS/EXT3FS

+ of course CDFS

Thanks for the added information.

Going back to my previous post, can anybody clarify if my above statement is true? I already have the idea how to work on the partitioning and the format type of my USB-HDD.

Thank you for the time and effort on answering my queries. Looking forward to all of your generous replies.

[jaclaz]

Yep , but sometimes you simply need to do some experiments yourself.

You simply cannot beat the experience you get in trying things (and failing, and correcting the error and finally succeeding):

Ray Bradbury said:

Life is "trying things to see if they work"

Since there are no problems with multiple partitions on USB devices seen as fixed (please read as USB HDD), you can do whatever you prefer.

I still advice everyone to have a small FAT16 (or FAT32, it's the same nowadays) first Active Primary (boot) partition and put all the rest in Logical Volumes inside extended, but this is my (and Gilles Vollant's ) proven working way for the most failsafe settings, not necessarily the "right" one.

jaclaz

[bluenix]

Good day to all...

jaclaz, on Dec 7 2009, 08:08 PM, said:

Since there are no problems with multiple partitions on USB devices seen as fixed (please read as USB HDD), you can do whatever you prefer.

I still advice everyone to have a small FAT16 (or FAT32, it's the same nowadays) first Active Primary (boot) partition and put all the rest in Logical Volumes inside extended, but this is my (and Gilles Vollant's ) proven working way for the most failsafe settings, not necessarily the "right" one.

Thanks jaclaz for your tips and insights.

I can now really confirm that the method of cdob's "Loading XP ISO to RAM" is 90% working, especially with the help of the PLoP Boot Manager [Thanks to ilko_t ], which made it more efficient.

The other 10%, I must say, has yet to be resolved on my part. During the end of the Text-Mode Setup and the PC starts to reboot, I get this windows prompt box which states:

Quote

The file 'asms' on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 is needed

Type the path where the file is located, and then click OK

Copy files from:
GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386

I don't know if this error occurs because of the ISO file, or is it because all the necessary files have not been copied during the Text-Mode Setup process.

A quick search on Google pointed me to a Microsoft Support site and it states there that "the Setup program cannot communicate with the CD-ROM drive."

How can I resolve this? Is it suppose to be the ISO file is loaded on the RAM and all of the necessary files are copied during the Text-Mode Setup?

Thank you for the time and effort on reading my queries. Hoping to hear from the support group. Have a nice day.

This post has been edited by bluenix: 07 December 2009 - 10:34 PM

[bluenix]

I also forgot to mention my current menu.lst settings:

title Windows XP Pro SP3 Setup 
root (hd0,0)
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0)
#(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1)
map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xff)
map () (hd0)
map (hd0) ()
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

As you will notice, the mapping procedure deviates from the original settings given by cdob 'coz it returns an error number stating that, "The file cannot be found."

I think this is where the problem stem from but I'm not that pretty sure. Just correct me if I have done something wrong or I missed a couple of points here.

Thanks.

[jaclaz]

bluenix, on Dec 8 2009, 06:09 AM, said:

As you will notice, the mapping procedure deviates from the original settings given by cdob 'coz it returns an error number stating that, "The file cannot be found."

I think this is where the problem stem from but I'm not that pretty sure. Just correct me if I have done something wrong or I missed a couple of points here.

You missed point #1 .

When experimenting with grub4dos DO NOT use pre-made menu.lst entries (until you are sure the one you are working on gives no errors).

Go to Command Mode (press "c") and enter lines MANUALLY.
http://diddy.boot-la...s/files/cli.htm
http://diddy.boot-la...s/files/cli.htm

This way you will know WHAT (WHICH) command returns the Error, and will take a lot of guessing out of the process.

jaclaz

[bluenix]

Good day to you jaclaz...

I guess I really don't have a problem, as far as I know, with my current menu.lst.

title Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 Setup 
root (hd0,0)
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0)
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1)
map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xFF)
map (hd0) ()
map () (hd0)
map --hook
chainloader (0xFF)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN

The mapping seems to be fine with my current settings as oppose to the one given by cdob which is:

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

If I use this one, it gives an error that the disk cannot be found.

My situation is the same given by kDn in this post:

kDn, on Oct 28 2009, 05:28 AM, said:

cdob, on Oct 28 2009, 01:13 AM, said:

I'm glad to keep the fixBoot.USB section, actually I might have deleted this part.
Now this is usefull at some conditions.
Do you have some examples? Which systems dosn't initialize USB properly.

When people testing yours method they feedback error in some cases when installing XP from USB-HDD or USB-Flash as HDD... First stage (txt-mode-setup) running absolutly correct, but after reboot they give error like: Needed file 'asms' on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 CD and after Shift+F10 and looking presetup.log we can see that USB device where placed XP_RAM.ISO not found...
Error feedback:
http://forum.ru-board.com/topic.cgi?forum=...p;start=1560#20
http://greenflash.su...7-16-1256148181

In which cdob replies saying:

cdob, on Oct 31 2009, 04:59 AM, said:

@kDn
It's fun to read http://forum.ru-board.com/ with google translation.
I don't understand some translation parts.
I understand: a Asus A6Q00VM, Pentimum M call, I915 chipset does require fixBoot.USB.
I expect a USB boot nightmare (Dell Dimension 5150) would require this too.
fixBoot.USB. does require a addional reboot and is disabled by default therefore.

I may change fixBoot.USB settings at setup.cmd: detect missing USB drive
Understood finally, I'll add too: if exist c:%ISO_file_search% set reassign=true
Need some time. This includes mkISO_RAMload_sort.cmd, read below.

Maybe I'll just have to wait then for cdob to go back to work after his December vacation. In the meantime, I'll let this project 'hang-in' for a while until I can get a clear cut through to the solution.

Thanks for all of your wonderful support and a good job on this project. Happy holidays to everyone.

[jaclaz]

Well, from my understanding, cdob menu.lst is logical and working, whilst your is "queer".
This should mean that cdob has "normal" hardware and setup and that you have a "queer" one.
Let's see:
title Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 Setup
root (hd0,0) <- this is not needed, if you booted from (hd0,0) root will already be on (hd0,0)
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0) <- OK
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1) <- OK
map --mem /XPSP3.ISO (0xFF) <- OK
map (hd0) () <- I simply cannot understand this which should mean map (hd0) to (hd0,0) as () is "current root"
map () (hd0) <- I simply cannot understand this which shold mean map (hd0,0) to (hd0) as () is "current root"
map --hook
chainloader (0xFF)/I386/SETUPLDR.BIN <- OK though I personally would have also set root to (0xff)

About the error you were having, you reported once as "file is missing" and another time as "disk is missing", you must make up your mind, and as advised, issue the commands on command line and report WHICH command ouputs the error and the EXACT error, also maybe I missed it, but re-posting a description of your setup (hard disks involved, etc, etc.) may be useful to understand the problem.

In other words, the:

Quote

map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook

exchanges first and second drive

Quote

map (hd0) ()
map () (hd0)
map --hook

should be is equivalent to:

Quote

map (hd0) (hd0,0) map (hd0) (hd0)
map (hd0,0) (hd0) map (hd0) (hd0)
map --hook

which seems to me, at the most, completely unneeded.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 12 December 2009 - 07:48 AM

[kDn]

bluenix
Try:

Quote

title Windows XP Pro SP3 x86 Setup from root
ls /XPSP3.ISO || find --set-root /XPSP3.ISO
map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd0)
#(fd1) optional, required at some BIOS
#map --mem /XP_INST.IMA (fd1)
map /XPSP3.ISO (0xFE)
# if start from HDD-device, than remaping hd0<->hd1
checkrange 0x80 read 0x8280 && map (hd0) (hd1)
checkrange 0x80 read 0x8280 && map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
write --offset=0 (fd0)/setup/ISOimage.ini \\XPSP3.ISO\n;\n;\n;
map --unmap=0xFE
# uncomment line;setup, fixBoot.USB
write --offset=1782 (fd0)/TXTSETUP.OEM dll = setup, fixBoot.USB\r\n;
configfile (0xFE)/I386/RAMBOOT.LST

@jaclaz

Quote

map (hd0) ()
map () (hd0)
map --hook

is means:

Quote

map (hd0) (current_boot_device)
map (current_boot_device) (hd0)
map --hook

not root partition

correct exchange:

Quote

map (hd1) ()
map () (hd1)
map --hook

where () may be (fd0) or (hd0)

This post has been edited by kDn: 11 December 2009 - 02:56 PM