Windows Specific Multi-Booting, USB

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

The PLoP bootmanager is a small tool to boot different operating systems. Its possible to boot an operating system from harddisk, floppy disk or cdrom. No extra partition is needed.

Linux: the bootmanager DOES NOT replace lilo or grub, you still need them to load the kernel. My favorite is lilo.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18045&view=findpost&p=119644

it seems like that next version of PLOP: http://www.plop.at/bootmanager_en.html

planned for next quarter will have support for booting from USB without using BIOS!

documented on: Aug 20 2006, by jaclaz

I played with PLoP. It's not as versatile as Grub for several reasons.

First, it has to be installed and from floppy. Once it's installed it's harder to remove than Grub if you get your menus messed up. It's not that logical to me how to add an item to menu. I lost my Windows XP boot option and I couldn't get it back on. It kept booting my 3rd partition which is bartpe.

Adding to your own menu is a bit more difficult and # of characters is limited. I like Grub's menu.lst method.

documented on: Aug 26 2006, by spacesurfer

Whoa! A bigger problem using PLoP. If anyone has any experience with this, here what I did to screw up my system:

I used the floppy image of PLoP and loaded it with Grub. I installed it to test it out. As I mentioned in the post earlier, it didn't meet my expectations. So, I tried to uninstall it. But I don't know where it saved the back up since I loaded it from floppy image.

Well, now all I have is a C:\ drive with no data when I start BartPE from CD. I can't see the 3 partitions that I had on the HDD.

How can I restore my partitions? I haven't touched the HDD—all the data should be there. I just need to restore my partitions.

documented on: Aug 26 2006, by spacesurfer

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro

Is there a way to boot from a disk version of an iso? ie to cut-out the step where you burn a CD. This would be most handy..

No, I was not able to find a way to boot directly from an iso image. But it was also not the intended goal. Since grub works independently of the kernel and disk image, I can copy the compressed-cloop file (usually KNOPPIX or such), along with the kernel and minirt file, save it to my flash drive, and it would work great. Some distributions, like DamnSmallLinux rarely ever change kernels (DSL 2.3 still uses 2.4.26), I don't even need to copy over those files.

Although not much, copying the entire iso would take up a little more space. Not only are there extra files on the iso image, but there's the properties of the iso image files (Joliet and RockRidge extension information) that would all need to be saved on my flash drive. This is probably not much, but I'm working with a 256 MB drive.

So the short answer is no. But let me know if you come across a way to do it!

documented on: Tue, 2006-04-25, Jeremy Turner

The short answer is yes :). I just spent the past two days to find out how.

use grub for dos (http://grub.blogeden.com/ - it's in chinese though)

If you just want to do something like in linux live cd, i.e., the iso file is used to host the systems files, it's easy and straightforward to use iso.

If you want to boot from a iso file on a harddisk, do something in menu.lst like

The iso file must be in one chunk - contig from sysinternal http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Contig.html may come handy. It's a good idea to use fat32 to host the iso file.

Also check out http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15617&st=20&p=101928&#entry101928 and http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18045

documented on: 2006-10-04, Anonymous

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/contig.mspx

Contig is a single-file defragmenter that attempts to make files contiguous on disk. Its perfect for quickly optimizing files that are continuously becoming fragmented, or that you want to ensure are in as few fragments as possible.

documented on: 2007-10-22

Multi-boot Vista / XP / Other OS's

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18045

Finally, Success!! Success!! Success!! I wanted to share my success with you all so you can also created this awesome menu.

I finally created a Grub menu from which I can boot any one of the following items directly from the Grub menu:

Read the guide in this post to get started on Grub from HDD. This will give you a basis on this guide. Otherwise you may feel a little lost.

Let me emphasize that booting directly from CD-ROM is supported by the latest grldr (dated 8/8/2006) directly from the menu. Ed_P and jaclaz, I believe, were playing around with it and Ed_P was successful booting CD from grub floppy. However, this method requires no floppy or floppy image to be loaded first.

Requirements:

Method:

Let me add that my floppy images were created by WinImage. I saved them uncompressed (meaning, they are not *.imz) as *.ima. I renamed them as *.img.

My floppy images are stored on a FAT32 partition - the same partition where my BartPE resides. The advantage of using a FAT32 partition (as opposed to NTFS) is if you boot to DOS, you have access to that partition. I store other DOS commands and utilities (such as edit.com, choice.com) on that partition. It is available for me when I need it.

Edit 2:

You BartPE does not have to be on a FAT/FAT32 partition. It can be NTFS. Even floppy images can reside on NTFS partitions.

Edit 3: Added loading Vista with grub4dos.

documented on: Jun 2 2007, by spacesurfer

Some small corrections/hints:

1) We are talking here about GRUB4DOS: http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome which is a port of GRUB to Dos/Windows, and has ADDITIONAL features than GRUB

2) GRUB4DOS does support zipped or gzipped images DIRECTLY, so you CAN use compressed images, see my post here for basic examples: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&…st&p=116708

3) as already posted here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&…st&p=118820 the docs EXPLICITLY say that:

By default, these ports are used for searching cdroms(so they needn't be added): 0x03F601F0, 0x03760170, 0x03860180, 0x6F006B00, 0x77007300. so the part:

is NOT needed.

4) Please also note that the majority of motherboards will allow direct BIOS support to CD drive, in this case, you will ALREADY have your CD mapped as "(cd)", not "(cd0)", again read docs:

5) Always remember that GRUB has a command line interface, so that you can experiment with commands at boot time, or on-the-fly change some settings in a boot entry, this is VERY advantageous if you have the GRLDR on a portable disk or boot CD

6) Also remember that if you put a copy of GRUB.EXE inside the DOS/WIN98 image and or on an accessible from DOS drive (i.e. FAT formatted) you can boot from the image, do whatever you need to do, then invoke GRUB.EXE and boot another OS WITHOUT RE-BOOTING ! (some limitations apply if you loaded into DOS some TSR or Device Driver that altered memory mapping of the kernel)

7) QUOTE

Not really, like ANY other USB booting method, USB IS supported IF the PC boots from the USB Mass Storage Device.

They are not supported if you want to "pass" control from another booted from media to the USB device.

This CANNOT be resolved until something like the very recent development about CD support is added to the code; by the way this latest development was more or less the "native" built-in version of the ATAPI CD ROM driver of the Smart Boot Manager code for booting CD's on motherboards that did not support it: http://btmgr.webframe.org/

Chaining from GRUB/GRUB4DOS the SMBT is a known technique, see this for example: http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~bernhard/grub-chain-cd.html

Now if someone comes out with an Open Source/Freeware app that can "boot" from USB even if there is no BIOS support for it, one could use a similar method to chainload it from GRUB/GRUB4DOS.

documented on: Aug 8 2006, by jaclaz

grub4dos is BOTH a hard drive and CD bootloader, but it is much more, it can also boot from a floppy (or USB stick - sorry frodo, I know I am touching a sensible area wink.gif) and pass control to another media, like CD, or HD, or FD.

It can also boot an OS from floppy disk or hard disk IMAGES, directly or through memdisk, the images can be Zip or gzip compressed.

And it can boot an OS from a .ISO image, (not all OS images are suitable), and in some cases the .ISO images can even be compressed, I just got this bot of info from Tinybit, the Grub4dos developer:

First, do a map like this:

This requires a physically contiguous cdrom_image.iso on the disk. But if we have enough memory and use the —mem option, the image can be non-contiguous (and even can be gzipped):

The second option, mapping the .iso to RAM should be easier, but of course it will need either a lot of memory or a smallish .iso.

Then use (hd1) to access files inside the cdrom image.

i.e. something like:

or:

or:

The very good thing about it is that the same syntax can be applied to all these devices with slight changes.

jaclaz

documented on: Aug 8 2006, by jaclaz

since 2005-04-06 version 0.4.0pre6: GRLDR can be used with no-emulation-mode bootable CD-ROM.

The New `cdrom' Command Syntax:

After running `cdrom —init' and `map —hook', the cdroms can be accessed through devices (cd0), (cd1), …

documented on: Jan 27 2007, by L_V

I've loaded SBM this way:

This is just using the sbm.bin file that's gzipped. It's ~15K in size.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17923

For XP/PE based, yes, it should be possible, by using the direct loading capability of GRUB4DOS to load PELDR or whatever the SETUPLDR.BIN is named to and using the Windows 2003 Server files to boot through ramdisk.

Some details are here:

Please note that GRUB4DOS and Linux GRUB are not the SAME program, though they have common roots and code.

Also read these: http://z3.invisionfree.com/Boot_Land/index…p;showtopic=155 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=14

jaclaz

documented on: Jul 26 2006

No, bootsect.bin is a copy of a bootsector, i.e. a 512 byte file.

SETUPLDR.BIN is the loader of the setup, and consequently of PE based systems, you can find a copy of it in the /I386 directory of your original source XP cd.

The particular version of SETUPLDR.BIN that ships with Server 2003 SP1 has additional capabilities, between which the capability to access an .iso file, copying it to a ramdisk, then booting from it, you will also need another feile from Win2003 SP1, called RAMDISK.SYS, check this

bootsect.bin being a copy of a bootsector has hardcoded inside it the geometry of the partition from which it was copied, so it is not a "portable" solution (unless you copy it to an IDENTICAL partition), and you have to recreate it each time, the advantage of GRUB4DOS/GRLDR is that it can load directly SETUPLDR.BIN, without using bootsect.bin, however the procedure to build a correct peboot.bin is described in cdob post right here http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14164&st=20

if you use the above method, SETUPLDR.BIN must be in the root directory of the drive and be renamed to PELDR.

Of course using the ramdisk to boot has some limitations, given by the SIZE of the .iso file and AMOUNT of memory on the PC.

jaclaz

documented on: Jul 26 2006

Basically, you need to find a way (it depends from tools you may or you may not have at your disposal) to modify the .iso adding in folder \i386\system32\ (if the structure of the ERD .iso is that) the ramdisk.sys file from Server 2003 SP1.

The procedure to extract the file is described in this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

Then supposing that you have (and already bootable, working, etc. on your hard disk root folder the "normal" NT bootfiles:

You have to add to it:

Please remember that GRUB4DOS use CaSe SeNsItIvE names!

It is recommended that you check the names of the involved files by issuing a DIR command in a command prompt window.

As said limitations are given by size of image and amount of RAM installed on the PC, you need RAM > (amount of RAM used by the .iso file when booted directly from CD + size of .iso file).

If I recall correctly the ERD .iso I used was less than 200 Mb, so, a machine with 512 Mb would be more than sufficient, probably a 256 Mb one would be a little "tight", a 128 Mb one is a "NO WAY".

jaclaz

P.S. The board "wraps around" some lines of the posted code the lines above that begin with: (in WINNT.SIF): OsLoadOptions = (in menu.lst): By not pressing We try to replicate of Microsoft Install unattended installs # of course if the "any" are really one line with the following one

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17425

I know bart PE has an option to create a bootable USB thumb drive. But this is what i need.

I have a menu that starts when i boot from my CD and i would like to have that same boot menu or something like it on the thumb drive.

I am glad Bart was able to get Barts PE to boot on a Thumb drive, but is there a way to make BartPE load from the thumb drive and not from an ISO that loads into ram from the thumbdrive?

I have found lots of ways to make Dos boot on the thumb drive. But i don't know how to make Dos load an IMG file or BIN/ISO file for Windows server 2003 and bart.

SportinSS

As said there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Let's start one thing at the time.

Please confirm that your USB stick with just BartPE on it works the way you intend it to.

With the above info I can give you instructions on how to boot with GRUB4DOS the same environment, later we will try and add a DOS based OS, say DOS 7.1 from Windows 98 2nd edition, later still will try and add an OS install, say Server 2003 (not a bootable system, just the files needed for install.

jaclaz, Jun 15 2006

BartPE is kind of working the way i want it to. It will just take a little time to get the batch file to start so i can make the variable %usb% in BartPE so the start menu programs know where to start from.

The files on the usb drive are

I also would like a folder called

For Windows Server 2003 Standard Install Files. I need to be able to boot into the Windows Server 2003 Setup so i can do a repair on Windows or use the recovery consol just in case the server has a problem.

AND, if there is room.

I have a few IMG files (Acronis programs, Disk Director and True Image Enterprise) i will like to be able to boot to also, just in case.

SportinSS

So, you are using setpldr.bin from Server 2003 renamed as ntldr to boot off a .iso file copied to RAM via ramdisk.sys?

Try doing the following:

Try booting from the stick and report what happens.

Please remember that GRUB filenames are CaSe SeNsItIvE.

jaclaz

documented on: Jun 15 2006

Thank you SO much for your help! OK.

I get

and a few things at the bottom about the arrows.

It will let me boot into BartPE just fine!

SportinSS

It does NOT show Windows (default) at all now. Just goes str8 to the menu. GREAT!! =) Now i just need WIndows Server 2003 Setup.

Here is my Menu.list

Here is my boot.ini

And here is my winnt.sif

SportinSS

documented on: Jun 21 2006

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16980

You can choose to:

Also check these: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=10806 http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=69211

here is some detailed info.

I am assuming that you already can boot both DOS (the one from Windows 98 aka 7.1) and PE from USB without problem.

Format the key as usual, including SYSTEM files IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM Verify that it boots. Add to the key the /I386 directory Add to the key GRUB.EXE and the following MENU.LST:

If you have your SETUPLDR.BIN renamed as NTLDR in the root directory, it should work.

Alternatively, try adding the following to menu.lst:

Format the key as usual, including SYSTEM files IO.SYS MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM Verify that it boots.

Copy to the stick bootpart and use it to make a bootsector with DOS Win9x code, say C:\bootsect.dat Use bootpart to rewrite the NT/2K/XP bootsector. Copy to the stick NTLDR and this BOOT.INI:

Add to the stick GRLDR and menu.lst

Format as usual, as above.

Copy to the stick GRLDR, menu.lst and bootlace.com, use it to install GRLDR as the main bootmanager in the MBR.

use the options:

This way if the SPACEBAR is not pressed within 5 seconds, GRLDR will boot, otherwise the normal DOS will.

The above are just examples, another way is using simply a Floppy image for the DOS booting, in this case you need an entry in menu.lst along these lines:

Instead of the floppy image one can use a partition image, there are so many possibilities that it's impossible to list them all.

If on the stick there is also GRUB.EXE it is possible to re-start GRUB from the DOS command line without rebooting.

Please NOTE that GRUB paths/filenames are CaSe SeNsItIvE!

jaclaz

documented on: May 8 2006

Raceit, you are missing a logical step:

The way to have a BartPE selection in boot.ini is to have an alternate BOOTSECTOR, peboot.bin, that loads PELDR (i.e. a renamed SETUPLDR.BIN) INSTEAD of NTLDR.

So the booting goes like this:

You cannot load anything else but an ARCPATH or a BOOTSECTOR from NTLDR/BOOT.INI!

See these threads here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=2316 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=11213 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=11226 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=13930 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14684

and this post from cdob: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14164&st=20

Using GRLDR or GRUB.EXE makes it possible to load DIRECTLY (i.e. chainload) NTLDR or SETUPLDR.BIN without need for renaming the latter to NTLDR or PELDR.

jaclaz

documented on: May 8 2006

http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10806

I've been playing around with the new setup loader that comes with server 2003 sp1 (release candidate) and this opens the door to load BartPE on USB sticks through a ramdisk loader (not to be confused as the ramdrive "b:" you have in BartPE). So I've created a simple script that helps you to install it.

Please check instructions below (piece from pe2usb.txt)

Installation of PE2USB: You should copy the files pe2usb.cmd and pe2usb.bin to your <pebuilder> directory.

For successful installing BartPE to a USB flash disk you need:

For successful booting BartPE from a USB flash disk you need:

Bart Lagerweij

documented on: Feb 9 2005

It is a good idea to test the stick+motherboard combo with a "normal" dos boot utility, I found several of them:

Just make a google search for sp27xxx where x is the number and you will find the hp page for download.

Dell has a utility to make their keys bootable. R69131.EXE ftp://ftp.dell.com/rmsd/R69131.exe

There is another one from hp called cp004916 that includes syslinux.

And yet another one apparently from Smart Modular, known to be Lexar compatible, called usb_memory_boot_setup.exe

(just google for the filename)

jaclaz

documented on: Feb 11 2005

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=17303

mkbt -x -c c: c:\peboot.bin nt2ldr c:\peboot.bin

Boot.ini:

timeout=3 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn C:\peboot.bin="MyoteXPE ram Loader"

Winnt.sif:

BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)" BootPath = "\i386\SYSTEM32\" OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdpath=MyoteXPE.sdi /rdimageoffset=36352"

Myote

documented on: Jun 5 2006

A NT boot sector load filename ntldr.

1) use a bootsector file.

sdi image according to winnt.sif.

Extract primary partition bootsector and hexedit file. Compare Bart's peinst plugin.

2 and 3)

sdi image according to winnt.sif.

cdob

documented on: Jun 5 2006

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14164&st=20

There is ntldr. This boot windows, dosn't support /minint mode and can't boot PE. If you try that, you get a missing hal.dll.

But ntldr chain load bootcode files. Recory console boot that way. BartPE use the same solution.

c:\ntldr read boot.ini. You select bootcode file. Bootcode file is loaded in RAM and processed. This runs peldr (renamed setupldr.bin) Setupldr.bin support /minint mode.

Go back to partition c: first. If you managed that, take next step.

Run 'mkbt -x -c c: c:\peboot.bin' manually. Do you get a file c:\peboot.bin?

This boot loader file loads file ntldr. File name ntldr is used already, but we have to load setupldr.bin. Bart's solution: hexedit c:\peboot.bin, change ntldr to peldr. Run 'nt2peldr.exe c:\peboot.bin'

Edit c:\boot.ini, point to c:\peboot.bin. Copy files to c:\minint. Copy setupldr.bin to c:\, rename to peldr. Reboot.

Next step: primary partition d: at first hard disk. Run 'mkbt -x -c d: c:\peboot-d.bin' manually. Don't hexedit, therefore copy setupldr.bin to d:\, rename to ntldr.

cdob

documented on: Oct 23 2005

For others who may pass this way.

I have given up on PEinst, again. Neither version 3.1.3 nor 3.1.4 worked when run from the CD or the hd. In all cases the BartPE on my backup drive failed in booting after the Windows XP screen displayed. The screen went dark and stayed that way.

However, my backup drive does boot BartPE once again using a different approach. It is much simpler than PEinst and works consistently.

I copy the PEBuilder output files to the hard drive, rename i386 to minint and copy several files to the root. My crude but functional script does the steps.

As I said crude, but effective. I still use GRUB to boot the backup system and BartPE comes up everytime.

Ed_P

documented on: Nov 6 2005

http://www.msfn.org/board/Multiple_Partition_USB_Stick_Multi_Boo_t69211.html

I wanted several operating systems on a USB stick and after many hours messing with syslinux, memdisk, grub4dos, xosl, freedos, avlgomgr, acronis os selector, ranish partition manager. I have succumbed. I first started out wanting to boot an iso off USB and ran into trouble loading large img with memdisk which I found out is due to a bug in msdos so I used freedos but things didn't work out as planned and it's a similar woe story's with the rest. Acronis os selector lets you boot multiple os from one partition from different folders but don't work great when it comes to dos.

I have 5 partitions on my USB stick and using the boot loader BootIt NG http://www.bootitng.com/bootitng.html This is a 30 day trial.

Now I wasn't happy just putting one os on my USB stick. I wanted linux and diagnostic tools etc.

We want your first partition dos bootable so run HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. I'm using version 2.1.8. Select your drive letter of your USB device and select "Create a DOS startup disk" and browse to your 98 boot disk folder. Click Start. Your USB will be formatted and 3 files will be copied from your dos startup files. You need to manually copy the rest of the 98 boot files to your USB drive.

You can now resize the drive (mines 512MB) and create multiple partitions. All partition software now sees it as a fixed disk. I used acronis disk director and resized the partition keeping the first dos bootable partition intact and made another 4 fat partitions so I had 5 in total.

Make sure your format all partitions as Primary not Logical.

Copy dos,ghost whatever files to your dos partititon and copy your bartpe files to the bartpe partititon.

Check you have the 2 files mkbt.exe & pe2usb.bin in your pebuilder folder. Download Pe2usb if not. Open up a cmd box in your pebuilder dir and run the command:

mkbt.exe -x pe2usb.bin N:

N being the letter of your bartpe partition.

Reboot and keep your USB stick in and boot off the dos cd or floppy.

Type the command sys drive: drive being the letter of your dos partititon.

Run spfdisk.exe in dos. Create the menu to boot both partitions in spfdisk. Save the changes.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181

after nearly 100 hours of searching in the dark I succeed to build a STABLE XP Embedded image which runs direct from USB drive (HD, Stick) as BOOTDEVICE und looks very like XPPro (Directx9c…ALL XP Games are running) but only 200- 500MB large. There is a page from Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/usb-boot.mspx

I know from udoc, that they have a USB solution with a SCSI miniportdriver, working only on their USB flash drives. My solution costs nothing and works anywhere.

Dietmar

documented on: Oct 21 2005