ilko_t

When you see PLoP menu try to press shift+u, this should force USB1.1 mode. Does this motherboard support USB 2.0, what's the exact model? By the way, use ps/2 keyboard, not USB one if possible, as the latter will be disabled after loading PLoP.

What version of the program are you using? Try 1.0 beta8, get an empty USB stick, select the auto-format option and add your XP source. When booting press quickly F2 to launch PLoP boot manager then proceed to First part of Setup. If everything goes fine, there would be no need of PLoP for the second part. Most likely BIOS presents the USB stick as a superfloppy, rather than a hard disk.

I'd try that first.

Brotosaurus, welcome to MSFN forums. Please do read this and follow some basic rules and etiquette: In particular: 1) Always be as detailed as possible. In your case you have very unusual and customized setup and you haven't given any details. System shows you an "error message", what is it, what does it say? 2) Do not double post. Be patient and allow plenty of time to get responses.

When preparing the USB stick did you use the advanced option "Prepare Windows 2000/XP/2003 to be installed on USB" ? What's the partition layout on the USB hard disk? How many partitions, which one is active, what's the type of the second one- primary, logical? What file system is the active one, NTFS, FAT32...? In your setup, you may want to prepare the USB hard disk with 2003 setup files, again using the mentioned option, and install on the same disk.

Excellent work Steve, thanks. Making it sticky.

Never seen similar issue... What's your source, have tried unmodified MSDN one? What version of the program have you used? Added: When you get to the grub4dos menu First part and Second part of setup, on bluish background, does pressing "c" gets you to grub4dos command prompt? "Esc" will bring back the menus.

Are you saying that at this point when you press ENTER key on the keyboard nothing happens, but F3 quits the setup? Does "R" key gets you to Recovery console? Is it this point?

Idea, not tested: Can we use fake setup.exe? Copy setup.exe "%temp%" create a file "%temp%\setup.cmd" (push to USB disk and wait) pushd "%temp%" start setup.exe popd This worked perfectly, thanks again ... if not exist %SystemRoot%\temp md %SystemRoot%\temp >> %SystemRoot%\WinPreSetup.log copy setup.exe %SystemRoot%\temp >> %SystemRoot%\WinPreSetup.log echo %CDDRIVE% > %SystemRoot%\temp\setup.cmd echo pushd %CDDRIVE% >> %SystemRoot%\temp\setup.cmd echo pause >> %SystemRoot%\temp\setup.cmd pushd %SystemRoot%\temp echo Launching setup.exe in temp >> %SystemRoot%\WinPreSetup.log start %SystemRoot%\temp\setup.exe popd ...

Idea, not tested: Can we use fake setup.exe? Copy setup.exe "%temp%" create a file "%temp%\setup.cmd" (push to USB disk and wait) pushd "%temp%" start setup.exe popd Brilliant idea, thanks, no need of extra external files. Will test it soon and report.

Jaclaz, what are you referring to? Do the same like what, the pushd cmd window? AutoIt script would not work that early, this is before the real GUI mode part starts. I was thinking of a simple program in other language which opens and keeps a handle to the USB disk volume(s), but haven't moved any further yet in this direction.

Because one can have fully unattended setup once the partitioning screen was passed. If computer is set to boot from USB, the second part will start and continue automatically. You can safely remove all the menus for the second part of Setup, or simply do not use them As already mentioned- this is required for some BIOS/USB stick combinations, NOT always. If it works on your combination without that line then fine, but keep it in mind if you come across such combination.As for me personally, I'd rather keep that line and cause tiny little user inconvenience and annoyance by that bad, nasty little minimized black window, but have as close as possible to 100% success rate of properly completed and successful Setup

Yes. I have not used it. Looking at switches I would not use /w, since we want the script to continue.hidec.exe has 2/45 detection ratio by AntiVir and Ikarus on Virustotal.com . You may want to write to these companies to exclude it from their signatures or use it as is if that doesn't bother you. I'd also try RunWait.exe which has a switch to disable SysWow64 redirection (you were installing XP x64, right?) from ImDisk package or cWnd. On a second thought- you do not have to include the file in txtsetup.sif, just put it somewhere on the USB disk, say in WINSETUP folder and use the %CDDRIVE% variable to launch it. At that time it refers to the USB disk root, i.e. %CDDRIVE%\WINSETUP\the_file_you_chose.exe parameters For example, NOT TESTED: %CDDRIVE%\WINSETUP\cwnd.exe /hstart "cmd /c pushd %CDDRIVE%" Or %CDDRIVE%\WINSETUP\runwait.exe /64 /hide cmd /c start pushd %CDDRIVE%

You may edit \I386\setup.cmd, which is cab compressed to setup.cm_ and remove the line: start /min "Keeping USB disk mounted workarround, do NOT close!" pushd %CDDRIVE% Why is it bothering you? It's been put there on purpose. In some cases during PnP detection the USB disk may disappear, then Setup, naturally, complains about missing source files. That window keeps open handle to the USB disk during GUI mode, so it does not disappear. All this to work as expected, in the next version of the program another line is added just above this one: %CDDRIVE% If you want to keep that window, but hide it, start pushd by hidec.exe or any other alternative. Add the relevant lines in txtsetup.sif in the corresponding small ISO file and the file itself in I386 or AMD64.

Can you start setup and when you get to the screen with the available disks and partitions take a photo of it and post it? Are you installing from USB stick/flash drive or it's a disk? Which partition are you installing to? Which one is active? And no, there is no such bug known.

Which version of the program did you use? Is there active partition, which one? Topic title is topic title, surely its length is limited, what's weird about that?!

I agree, the versioning is a little mess. The reason not to clear it up already is that I had long to-do list with enhancements and futures for "stable" 1.x version, but due to the lack of time to code and thoroughly test them I just add another beta. Regular users seem to not mind much, I guess first time users are put off the word beta. To be fixed soon though.

Correct. The second menu is added only for user convenience, for easy unattended setups if after first reboot BIOS boots again from USB, it simply boots the MBR on the first internal disk, just as BIOS would do if the internal disk was first in boot priority order. I still don't get your idea, maybe an example would help, but nothing stops you to edit menu.lst for example, or any other file, as long as you know what you are doing. I want those experimental as well as the old ones versions hidden from the default view.:http://code.google.com/p/winsetupfromusb/downloads/list Marking them as Deprecated seems to be the way to keep them hidden and still accessible. As far as I see I can add new labels, Experimental for example, but cannot hide such files.

It may happen with some USB devices and certain Vista/7 versions, they are yet ready when Setup searches for the source files. Try the latest unfinished yet hence not published, but fully functional beta9 from here, it takes care of these cases: http://code.google.com/p/winsetupfromusb/downloads/detail?name=WinSetupFromUSB_1-0-beta9_rc4.7z&can=1&q= You should use the Vista/7 option and point it to the ISO file, no need to extract or mount it in this version, and do not confuse it with the next option- PartedMagic/Ubuntu... Another idea- are you using USB3 port and USB3 device? Try plugging the disk in USB2 port. Yes to the first question.What files, you'll have to be more detailed what you want to accomplish. @Jaclaz It's added not as an ISO, just dump of the contents of the DVD to the USB disk and bootmgr chainloaded, nothing unusual.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=120444&view=findpost&p=984440

There will be, if you:

Please try to post more information if you want to get proper help. What option, where?! What's that, Windows Setup, WinSetupFromUSB program, or anything else? Do you get that error on both machines, or on one of them everything worked fine? Where and when do you see that error? After starting Setup, or it doesn't start at all?My wild guess is that error comes from grub4dos and the machine in question presents the USB stick as a superfloppy instead of hard disk. Try launching PLoP first- use the auto-format option in WinSetupFromUSB, prepare the USB stick again. When you boot from it, you will have a seconds or two to press F2 to launch PLoP. Then test Setup again.

As far as I remember there was an option whether to use grub4dos or syslinux. That's personal choice. Try and use whichever you like better and fits your needs.

It's not designed to, and most of these ISOs cannot be used directly with plain grub4dos CD emulation without some modifications for each of them. Try Sardu: http://www.sarducd.it/ http://reboot.pro/forum/100-sardu-multi-boot-builder-usbdvd/

There was a bug in some grub4dos versions: http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/issues/detail?id=100&can=1 Get latest grub4dos package, stick to 0.4.5c versions: http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/list Extract grldr and grub.exe in \WInSetupFromUSB\files\grub4dos\ folder and recreate the USB disk. If you don't want to recreate the USB disk, replace those 2 files in root of the USB disk. If you have used the auto-format option, then you'd need to use FBInstTool to replace them in the hidden FB area of the disk, just run the tool and drag&drop the 2 files. Or edit menu.lst and remove the NUL redirection around the lines starting with kernel and initrd as per the above topic. As for UBCD- I don't know if it would work added it this way, have a look at their forum for clues: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/ You may also use the syslinux option and add the contents of UBCD to the disk, it should be FAT32/16 formatted.