jaclaz

There is a patch for Windows 3.1 here: http://wiki.fdos.org/Main/Windows http://www.fdos.org/kernel/test/ Since the install routine is actually a reduced windows 3.1 (mini.cab) it could work, maybe with a bit of tweaking. Some info is here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16754 http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...16754&st=43 Or are you meaning install (and run) Win9x on Freedos? jaclaz

Just for the record, there is a newish editor (still not with all the features I would like, but working really nicely) here: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3960 which is very handy for .inf/.ini and .sif files. jaclaz

Start from here: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18846 jaclaz

FYI, some details on how NTLDR+BOOT.INI work are given here: http://www.msfn.org/board/Discovery-of-an-...0.html&st=2 Syntax of BOOT.INI: http://www.msfn.org/board/BOOTINI-and-diff...ive-t25365.html jaclaz

Just for the record, the reference thread is XP SP3 RC1 specific. nlite uses a different method, that was first "discovered" by Damian Bakowsky, was introduced to Fdv filesets, perfectioned for win2k, then made it's way into HFSLIP and nlite for XP: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...181&st=1111 Basically with this method you create an empty list of files to be checked, which equates to having nothing checked while having the WFP running "normally", some details are here: http://www.vorck.com/windows/2ksp5.html And here: http://www.msfn.org/board/re-enable-file-p...ion-t71256.html Cannot say whether WFPswitch.exe uses the same approach, here is it's homepage: http://www.techconnect.info/ http://www.tcmagazine.com/modules.php?modi...show&id=424 jaclaz

Don't take it the wrong way , but it seems to me that you simply ran the app without first trying to understand how it works and probably making a "wrong" choice somewhere during the building. Rather obviously the error from grub4dos is due to an incorrect format of the drive and/or to a wrong drive. I would suggest you to read attentively the help files then try again a new build, taking note of the choices you made exactly, and report them if the new build should not work as well. To insert a quote: Copy and paste in your post the text you want to quote. Select it. Press the small Icon with the small balloon, 9th button from left, on the line where b i u are. OR: Write: [quote] [/quote] and write your text in between, this: [quote]This is some quoted text[/quote] will result in: jaclaz

It is perfectly clear, thanks, when you quote, you should quote integrally: It's all a matter of definitions, I will call this (or whatever other project) Open Source only when and if it will be INTEGRALLY composed of Open Source components (and NO, Public Domain, Freeware, Freeware for personal use, freely available is NOT Open Source). This project, by your own definition, is aimed to "assemble" a number of alternative software to sustitute, replace or integrate original components, and needs to be run on a fullly licensed OS. Until even one single file will be under the MS license, this will not be Open Source, even if only 0,01% is from MS you need to have a valid (commercial) license to use it. All the point about Open Source is having the right to see what is inside the program you are going to compile and execute, and, if needed, modify it to suit your particular needs. The fact that most Open Source software is available for free is incidental, as well as the fact that generally, but not always, Open Source software is "better" than Commercial or more generally Closed Source one. So, I appreciate your effort, and as said partly agree with it's reasons and aims, but I like to call things with their names. jaclaz

Agreed. Actually it is MUCH different, as the scope is completely different. The idea here: http://www.jankie.net/soedesh/20.htm is very similar to PatchWorks one, i.e. re-creating an OS, though what this thread essentially represents is simply an attempt to updating/bettering of Win9x, not unlike much of the other projects here on MSFN with a similar scope and with a less deceiving title. The idea behind minibox is just that of creating a MINIMAL system to boot to and copy/move/rescue some files in a friendlier environment than pure DOS command line, using files included in any win9x install CD and freeware/public domain/open source alternatives for the original files from Win3.x, you could see it more as a very basic "Win 3.x/9.x BartPE" rescue bootdisc. There is NO ambition whatsoever to recreate a "real" operating system : http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=623&st=6 Minibox needs NO additional files if a DOS box is not needed, and only 1 (one) file is missing: WIN386.EXE, if a DOS box is needed, a file, mind you, that it is composed by several "bricks" of which we already have a few. In other words currently to run a dos app you need to exit the GUI, run the command line utility from pure DOS, then re-start the GUI, a method that, though easily scriptable is FAR from being handy. :whistling: The fact that in two years: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16754 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=623 noone with the "right" knowledge came out with a solution should mean that the project, while being fun and useful to learn quite a lot of "old" tricks, has no future and a very limited "geekish" audience. jaclaz

Something that you may also want to try is to use memdisk instead of direct grub4dos mapping: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3963 but if the program uses direct access of some kind, it won't work as well. jaclaz P.S.: by the way, what has this got to do with "Install XP from USB"?

The menu.lst must have a wrong entry. (fd0) means first floppy disk Try editing the menu.lst file and add this entry: title Start Windows Vista Installation setroot find --set-root /BOOTMGR chainloader /BOOTMGR Better yet, try this pre-made solution: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-Vista-fr...SB-t111506.html jaclaz

Is your post intended for visually impaired members? If not, you are (virtually) yelling! Why? jaclaz

Actually there is some mixing of terms/notions, BartPE is NOT XP, it is a Pre-install Environment BASED on XP (or Server 2003). Having a FULL (not PE) Windows 2K/XP/2003 from USB stick or USB HD is perfectly possible, once again after Microsoft denied that it could be : http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=14181 http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8/ http://www.usboot.org/tiki-index.php Vista based PE's, including MS's own WinPE 2.0 and the current "amateur" VistaPE project: http://www.vistape.net/ http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=51 have no problems in working from USB device. grub4dos, which is being actively developed ALREADY can do anything you may think of, and maybe something more, BOTH on CD and USB device: http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=71 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showforum=66 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=14&st=1 And yes, you are wrong , multibooting from a USB stick is perfectly possible: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=18846&hl= http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=20089 jaclaz

Happy to know it works. jaclaz

Another candidate: SVISTA (NO it is not a typo) Image tool: http://www.os2site.com/sw/apps/virtual/ http://www.os2site.com/sw/apps/virtual/it-svista.txt http://www.os2site.com/sw/apps/virtual/it-win-bin-1.1.zip jaclaz

I would try the 7403 at 1EE9 - 1EEA. Mind you, completely and utterly UNTESTED. jaclaz

@Angelico_Payne You joking right? The whitepaper, which is here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/usb-boot.mspx is dated In the last three and a half years, not a single advice has been given from the industry. Luckily enough a number of manufacturers had already, well before the "whitepaper" implemented in their BIOS and hardware devices the possibility, and thank to a number of "amateurs", lots of operating systems and PE's and LiveCd's were "ported" to USB booting. Booting a .iso image from WHATEVER HD or FD like Mass Storage device is an alltogether different matter, basically with current knowledge: 1) DOS based OS can be booted from .iso images 2) NT based OS can be booted from .iso images ONLY through RAMDISK loading 3) Most Linux based OS can be booted from .iso images, though some distro's may need modifications to be able to do so. jaclaz

By default when on HD the source files should be on /minint INSTEAD of /I386. You can edit SETUPLDR.BIN to keep /I386 on HD, see this: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=21312&st=7 However, do check the Install fromm XP Multiboot_8.cmd, all problems have been solved in there, you can "borrow" any idea from it. jaclaz

Sure, it's not that easy. Using grub4dos grldr (possibly invoked through NTLDR/BOOT.INI) is fairly simple to start a setup by chainloading SETUPLDR.BIN, but making a "recovery" partition is definitely a different and more difficult chore. See this anyway: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=18045 that provides a way to boot a PE from a non-first partition, as a start. jaclaz

You can always set CMD.EXE as shell. FYI: XPSP1 with full commandline and NTFS below 10 MB www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3717 http://www.boot-land.net/forums/?showtopic=3717&st=47 Sure, are unspecified little furry creatures eligible as well? ) jaclaz

I agree, doable, but definitely tricky. Just in case: http://www.msfn.org/board/Change-Boot-Driv...ion-t90495.html jaclaz

As far as I know there are TWO kinds of "expansion" cards, just like the old SCSI ones. 1. that include a (usually in the form of an EPROM or EEPROM or FLASH chip) an extension to BIOS 2. that do not include such an extension First type allows for booting from the connected device, second does not. I have experienced in the past (with SCSI cards) also conflicts between PC BIOS and extension on card, I remember a HP that didn't "like" an Advansys card but that booted just fine with an Adaptec one. Whether later in the boot process the Operating System that is loading has the right drivers or not is another matter. Typically the missing or wrong driver causes either "limited 16-bit" access in Win9x/ME or a reboot and a 0x0000007b BSOD on NT/2K/XP/2003. Theoretically it is possible to write a BIOS extension to support enhanced features, using a network card with a BOOTROM socket, here is an example: http://www.fitzenreiter.de/ata/ata_eng.htm (people don't do this at home, risky business!) jaclaz

Yes, I guess it is possible to boot to the XP SETUP from BOOT.INI on internal hard disk, though I don't think there is a complete guide/tutorial for it, but question is if your CD does not work from where will you copy the setup files to the HD? Is your current install working? If yes you could make a temporary install on another partition, delete current operating system, boot from the temporary install, use WINNT32.EXE to re-install the OS, then boot from the latter and remove the temporary install. You may be interested in this: http://www.msfn.org/board/Install-XP-from-USB-f157.html all you need is a (at least 1 Gb - or if you reduce the source a 512 Mb) USB stick, and the procedure is fully automated by Wim_b's batch script. Otherwise I guess you can find in the "historical" thread there the needed info, but you'll have to do some experiments. Or you could use the "old" WINNT way (that has some limitations): www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16713 Or do something similar to the above using some sort of PE to start the WINNT32.EXE. jaclaz

I would make a copy of them on some other place and leave them where they are. Well, FAT is dinamically changed everytime a file is written to (or deleted from) hard disk, nothing related to booting or re-booting. Hence the idea of not writing anything on the partition, any write operation on the drive lessens the probability of recovering what was there before. I am afraid that the various attempts may have taken by now the FAT's "beyond" any possible "fixing", but you never know. jaclaz

Though I do agree that using a OEM version on another PC is a violation of the OEM EULA, I cannot see a direct cause/effect relationship with the cost of the OS. I may of course be completely wrong, but I cannot see an actual economical damage to Microsoft. If I get it right RavenDizzle actually bought: a. a laptop with a XP OEM bundled (that he did not use/install) b. a desktop (self-built) with no (MS) OS bundled What if he had bought: a. a laptop with no (MS) OS bundled b. a desktop (self-built) acquiring as well a "generic" OEM license I don't think that the amount of money actually entering Microsoft account would have changed sensibly, more probably if the second "way" had been chosen, Microsoft would have got some more bucks, as they surely sell the OS to the laptop manufacturer at a lower price, but how much is the difference? And has it not MS by the "forced" bundling some other indirect return? Problem is that while it is very easy to get, when you buy the components for your self-built desktop, to have bundled with it a MS OEM OS (and license), it is very difficult, not to say impossible, to buy a laptop WITHOUT a MS OEM OS license, if you want to. Recently in Italy there was a judge sentence condemning HP to refund an estimated cost of the Windows XP (and Works) that came bundled with a laptop: http://www.aduc.it/comunicato/aduc+versus+...stema_12651.php http://www.aduc.it/generale/files/allegati/sentenza_hp.pdf (ITALIAN) and a similar one in France: http://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualit...ound-24059.html http://www.vnunet.fr/fr/vnunet/news/2007/0...e-nbsp-nouvelle (FRENCH) The amount of the refund for Windows XP established by the Italian judge was 90 Euros, while the amount established by the French one was 135 Euro. jaclaz

Just an idea, mind you, but is it possible that there is some checksum error in the CMOS or a bad battery, that causes to default to booting from floppy (or other media) bypassing HD? Or is the HD (or it's MBR) actually blank? About updating the BIOS though CD, you should have no problems, just create a "normal" BIOS update floppy image and use that as boot image for an El-Torito floppy emulation CD. jaclaz