[Nakatomi2010]

Jazkal, on Oct 13 2005, 10:23 AM, said:

we are trying to get Win2k3 SP1 (any flavor) working in a multi-boot (x86 and x64) DVD enviroment.

I'm trying to get x64 edition working using the method listed above...

[Nakatomi2010]

Using the technique you described on the previouis page using your instructions did nothing but a blinking cursor...

It's my belief that we technically need 2 BT directories, one to represent i386 and another to represent AMD64...

[Alanoll]

Nakatomi2010, on Oct 13 2005, 01:16 PM, said:

Using the technique you described on the previouis page using your instructions did nothing but a blinking cursor...

It's my belief that we technically need 2 BT directories, one to represent i386 and another to represent AMD64...

Umm...

All the files I posted last night a couple posts back, are for ONE OS, for teh 64bit version. So...umm...yeah...If you look, there are two seperate folders

[Nakatomi2010]

Figured as much.....

Is there any way to tell which files are ABSOLUTLY necesary for it to work? Because otherwise there needs to be a full I386 and AMD64 directory...

Is the BT we'd get this case the AMD64 directory, and we could just use the i386 directory as a place holder?

*Bare in mind in the creation of my AIO I use 3 BT's, one for complete unattended, with drivers and software, another for attended with software and drivers, and a fully vanilla attended version.. I'd try to do the same with X64*

That being said, say we created XP64 and threw in all of the i386 files into there, we could tell all the boot sectors to look at the same folder, but different AMD64 folders, which are the BT's in this case...

Or am I just totally confusing an otherwise simple to grasp subject...

[Alanoll]

I do believe I posted a DIRECTORY LISTING of the files found in the required boot folders... then edit TXTSETUP.SIF to look for the ROOT like in a normal AIO disc like before.

[Nakatomi2010]

Having the directory structure as...

AIO-DVD\MW64 (Wherein all i386 files ae copied)
AIO-DVD\PRO64 (Wherein all AMD64 files are copied) and using a

setupldr.bin from a Windows Server 2003 STD on my end I got into the setup and as far as formatting, but at that point it said it either couldn't see the drive, or some files were corupted...

This post has been edited by Nakatomi2010: 13 October 2005 - 02:32 PM

[Alanoll]

@Nakatomi2010
why are you copying all the files?

[amd64lover]

he probably copied all of them because he either didnt have access to the BT/LS folders, or didnt read the directory structure list... but that shouldnt be the reason why it isnt working. maybe it has do with the replacing of 27 'AMD64' in the setupldr.bin file. i dont remember replacing that many and i got as far as getting all the files copied and the cpu restarting before it stopped working...

[geitonaki]

@amd64lover
Please create two virtual pcs with vmware, at the one install windows from the original cd and at the other install from the cd you are playing with. Shutdown both the pcs after the first reboot (after the files have been copied). Then mount the virtual hard disk drives with vmware mount utility (available free from their site) and compare with beyond compare the files that have been copied.

Also try to change vmware bios->advanced->large disk access mode or create the partition you are installing with fdisk from a win98 bootable floppy and not with windows setup. These are the most common solutions to the problem 'Error loading operating system' you are having from what i had found.

@Alanoll
Have you tried installing any version of the cd you have?

[Alanoll]

I only have a 32bit processor, so i could only test those, and Windows Enterprise 2003 SP1 installed just fine

[Nakatomi2010]

Well that hampers my testing skills...


Someone just came in and bought the 64-bit computer I've been using to test my s*** on... Now I've got a build a new one, and it wont be an Athlon 64, it'll be a Sempron 64... ****... At least it'll still be 64-bit....

[amd64lover]

@geitonaki
well i tried using the fdisk from the Windows 98SE cd to create the partitions. I tried it two times, once letting XP x64 quick format it as NTFS and i got the same 'Error loading operating system message'. The other time i let XP x64 quick format it as FAT32 and i got a 'missing operating system' message.

I made two virtual pc's (one for the AIO-DVD ISO, and one for the regular XP x64 ISO) and tried to install xp x64. I powered off each machine after the reboot and tried loading them with the DiskMount utility. The virtual disk used in the x64 setup did not mount, i got an error saying 'An unexpected error has occurred. Details have been saved in the Application event log'. After reading the application log, i noticed something that said 'The following information is part of the event: Vmount2.Vmount2Disk: last partition extends past end of disk (1044:1043).'.... so i went back and restarted the XP x64 setup on a new virtual pc and created a partition that was 1 gig smaller than the available size and let it format it (ntfs quick) and copy the files. it restarted and gave me the same 'error loading operating system' message, but this time i was able to load it with the DiskMount utlitity.

I compared the two drives using Beyond Compare 2. I did two different comparisons. One based on File Size & CRC and the other was a Binary Comparison. The 'G:' Drive was the XP x64 ISO installation and the 'H:' Drive was the AIO-DVD ISO installation. As you will see in the attached pictures, most of the mismatched files were located in the \windows\system32\config folder.

I tried attaching the pictures to this post, but i received an error saying "The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments.", so i uploaded them to rapidshare.de. they can be downloaded at http://rapidshare.de...risons.zip.html

While you geniuses are looking at that and thinking about possible solutions, i am going to try replacing the files that didnt match in the AIO-DVD installation with the 'good ones' from the XP x64 ISO installation and see if that helps any.

This post has been edited by amd64lover: 14 October 2005 - 06:16 PM

[amd64lover]

I tried copying some of the files from the XP x64 ISO installation to the AIO-DVD installation to see if it would solve the 'Error loading operating system message'. I only copied the files that didnt match.... It didnt help, i still got the same error message....

This post has been edited by amd64lover: 14 October 2005 - 06:55 PM

[amd64lover]

Ok, i have FINALLY figured it out... the culprit was the setupldr.bin file, but instead of trying to change it (or substitue the windows 2003 non sp1 version), the key was to leave it as is. Here is what to do to get Windows XP x64 added to a multiboot DVD (i am assuming that you have read Flyakite´s Guide before following these instructinos)....

- create an XP64 folder in the setup directory and copy the contents of the entire XP x64 cd to it
- copy the $WIN_NT$.~BT folder to the root of the DVD and rename it to 'I386'
- delete the bootsect.dat, migrate.inf, and winnt.sif files
- edit txtstup.sif to show the 'setupsourcepath' as "\SETUP\XP64\"
- use MagicISO (or any other similar program) to save the boot image as 'XP64.DAT'. place it in the root of the dvd (there is no need to edit this file since we renamed the boot folder to I386)
- edit the cdshell.ini file to show the XP x64 option and chain it to XP64.DAT

Thats it... it worked like a charm and all the other operating systems were unaffected and worked fine. This SHOULD work for Windows Server 2003 SP1 since the same problem was encountered with its setupldr.bin file. I will double check to make sure. Thanks to flyakite, Alanoll, geitonaki, Nakatomi2010, Godzilla, & everyone else who contributed. This just shows that when we work together, we can do anything.

p.s. - i have uploaded my $WIN_NT$.~BT folder (the Windows XP x64 version) to rapidshare. The files inside have already been edited per the instructions above. You will still need to rename it to 'I386' and place it in the root of your DVD. It can be downloaded here.... http://rapidshare.de/files/6332118/x64_-__...T_._BT.zip.html

[Alanoll]

@amd64lover
that would negate the purpose of a Multiboot atleast in it's truest definition.

You would only be able to have ONE x64 OS on the CD (or 2003 SP1 for that matter) since you could have only ONE I386 folder.

[amd64lover]

well, there arent that many other 64-Bit OSes available right now. by the time they do get here, i am sure an even better way will be devised as far as multibooting goes. I thought i read somewhere that I386 can be changed to I368 (and other like combinations) without causing a checksum problem in the setupldr.bin file.

It was a step in the right direction and thats all many people were looking for. Why dont you post a better solution?

This post has been edited by amd64lover: 15 October 2005 - 06:48 PM

[geitonaki]

@amd64lover
The different files you posted are the pagefile and the system registry, so setupldr.bin from windows 2003 32bit non SP1 works just fine for copying the files to disk. Where seems to be the problem is the partition, the boot record, or the master boot record. I wonder if "fdisk /mbr" from win98 boot disk or "fixmbr", "fixboot" from recovery console could fix the error.

@anyone having 64bit processor
Please try to download the iso file I have uploaded (it's 6.5 MB) and test if we can use setupldr.bin from windows 2003 32bit non SP1. I made it so that anyone can easily try if it works.


http://rapidshare.de/files/6338464/Windows...t_.iso.rar.html

readme.txt:

Using UltraISO or any other similar program:

insert your entire cd of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition to SETUP\XP_PRO_X64

or/and

insert your entire cd of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition to SETUP\2003_ENT_X64

save it and test if either of them can install successfully under vmware 5.5 or real pc.


Please let us know if it worked.

[Alanoll]

Quote

It was a step in the right direction and thats all many people were looking for. Why dont you post a better solution?

Seems someone is getting alittle testy there...
I had known about your "way" for awhile, and I believe someone has even posted on it, and I responded the same way, it's not a true multiboot.

Let's see, I can think of atleast two different version of a x64 OS i'd like on a CD. 2003 and XP. Add to that three seperate loaders for each with different WINNT.SIF files, and I come about at 6 possibilities. Then I go and try to add 2003 32bit SP1 to the disc, again with MAYBE 3 variations (Enterprise, Web, and Server) and then tack onto that another 3 WINNT.SIF variations and we're at 15 OS's in total. Now you're saying, there's no way that will fit on a disc, but wait....that's only MAYBE 1.5-2 gigs of unique files, leaving plenty of room for more.

Now do you see why I said it's not a true multiboot?
I have Win2003 SP1 working just fine reconstructed on my own using the files I posted earlier (though their 32bit counterparts since I posted the 64 bit). I would assume the same methodoloy would work for the those as well. Simply replace the EN6R with your folder name, and EN64R with it's equivalent, and edit the path entry. Now you're saying...but how do I know what files need to be in the directories and where? Oh I don't know, maybe because I posted the directory listings as WELL as an example directories for both with the required files.

Have you tried going that route? I don't believe you have, unless I've missed something, since everytime I tried to point you back to my post, you seemed to have disregarded my response and thus arrived at your current conclusion.

And no, this is not flaming, but just illustrating my point. If you have tried the above using what I posted prior, my apologies for believing otherwise.

[amd64lover]

@geitonaki
i tried fixing the master boot record, and it did work once. i tried it again to see if i could reproduce the same outcome, but i could not. i am not sure what happened, but it only worked once. i tried letting win98 create the partition, then installing windows and then fixing the mbr... in short, i tried several combinations and none of them worked after that first time. i also tried adjusting the large disk access mode in the bios, but i couldnt get it to work again.

i will try downloading and playing with the file you provided to see if i can get it to work, thanks

[amd64lover]

@Alanoll
sorry, if i seemed testy, but you were, and still kind of are, coming off as a prick.... i also think that you are confusing me with Nakatomi2010... i have tried that method and i am working on Windows XP x64, but it hasnt worked right for it....

@geitonaki
i tried installing XP x64 using the multiboot ISO you provided and got the same 'error loading operating system' message. i thought it might be the VMware that was acting up, but i tried using the multiboot dvd that i made to install XP x64 on a real computer and it gave me the same message....