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Having issues with creating multiboot/install disk/USB with Windows 95


jm764

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I seem to be unable to create a "fully" working multiboot/install DVD using the "Create Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2003 all in one installation DVD"

I replaced Windows 2003 with Windows 95 (Version C) as I planned to put 2003 on a different DVD with newer versions of windows on it.

When I try booting any of the disk I put on there they show an error about not being able to find the setup/installation files.

For some reason Win 95 - ME will still work if I type "setup" (D:\WinME\setup for Windows ME installer) and continue normally.

Windows NT 4.0 doesn't boot at all and when I attempt editing the iso and add the I386 for WinNT to the root folder it will boot but BSDO when setup starts.

Windows 2000 and XP both boot but fail to start at all giving me a "insert Win 2000/XP disk into drive A:" error and I can't find a way to fix that at all.

I use UltraEdit (Version 22.0.0.66) and Oracle VirtualBox (Version 4.3.30 r 10610 64-Bit) on Windows 10 Tech Preview 64-Bit (Build 10270) to build/test the ISO.

Message me for images/files if you need them.


If anyone has any ideas please help or suggest another method of combining these disk to a DVD Iso or USB drive.

 


Guide I used: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-create-multi-os-cd.htm

Link to images of the errors/iso: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9uFvN9K3tPWfnpmTVJ1VnkzdThQQTNjZ1NuUE53WFdZdk1jQWFTVUtocGZYY3E5Z0lTMms&authuser=0

 

P.S.: If I posted this to the wrong forum section, just feel free to tell me where it should be or move it there if possible.

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My guess is that it is more or less perfectly "normal" :).

 

A line needs to be drawn between all versions "DOS based" (i.e. 9x/Me) and all NT versions.

The former work essentially "trusting and using" the BIOS services, whilst the latter use them only for a short initial phase of booting than a HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) "kicks in", re-mapping all the hardware (including the boot device) through protected mode drivers.

 

More or less this (for all NT versions up to Vista)  is done by NTDETECT.COM, which lists the hardware and attempts to load the appropriate drivers (that additionally usually need - besides obviously to be present in the source - some specific entry in the Registry or in the correspondent ..inf file).

 

Now it has to be seen how exactly the VirtualBox "virtual hardware" maps the (virtual) DVD drive, it is very possible that for some reasons the virtual hardware is not detected or not detected properly.

 

Even your 9x/Me versions (from the screenshots) seem to have issues in accessing the setup and - strangely - you seem to have the same device mapped twice, maybe it is just a conflict of some kind.

 

You should first thing try your DVD on another VM or even better on real hardware.

 

Though cannot say if it will work properly under Windows 10, I would suggest you to try using Qemu to try your DVD "as is" first, you can use the command line version or easier if it works in your environment, Qemu Manager, which you can get through the Wayback Machine:

http://reboot.pro/topic/18163-memdisk-limit-creating-bootable-dos-image/?p=167861

 

Converting that DVD to a USB install media is doable, but it adds a layer of complexity.

Surely there are working solutions for most of the OS you listed, but I wonder if there is "previous art" for NT 4.00 (from USB) since NT 4.00 in itself has no USB support.

 

If you want to go for the USB path, the best thing would be to create a bootable PE (in your case a PE 1.x based, i.e. using the source files or your Windows XP) and use it to prepare the "target" disk and copy to it the setup files.

 

BTW the procedure of copying the setup files to the target and then run the setup (or winnt.exe or WINNT32.exe) is what has been traditionally done to install these Operating Systems for years, as it offers two advantages:

  1. the source "remains" on the target (and this simplifies the install or reinstall of some components, besides providing a source for WFP/SFC repairs
  2. it is (on real hardware where the CD/DVD is very slow) a much faster install

So, to sum up, provided that you followed the given tutorial to the letter, there is no reason (if not something in your VM or it in its settings) why it should not work,  try it with other Virtual or Real hardware before anything else, once this is confirmed to be working (hopefully) we will talk of possible alternative ways.

As well if it definitely fails, you can try using alternatives tutorials to create the source and/or approach the install differently.

 

jaclaz

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