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@JFX The vhd will not boot (07B) from either machine via USB3 unless I add the intended storage driver for that machine along with the generic usb3 drivers. Booting the same VHD from USB2 or the HDD works. I don't understand why the storage driver needs to installed when I boot from USB3. For all other non-USB3 cases, booting works fine without the storage driver being installed and Win7 ends up using its own storage driver. This is frustrating. I have one laptop that has both USB2 and USB3. USB2 is fine without the storage driver and USB3 only works if I add the storage driver. Drivers.txt

@Asifmute Not sure what you are trying to say. Booting with the generic USB3 drivers work, but not on all machines and I'm trying to find out why. Using VHD. Machine 1: Intel(R) 6th Generation Core Processor Family Platform I/O SATA AHCI Controller Machine 2: Intel(R) 7 Series Chipset Family SATA ACHI Controller

The reason why I thought it was the iastor.sys was because I removed the storage driver from the vhd that was booting fine and it also ended up with the same BSOD 7b after showing the colored flag for a while.

You were right. I redid adding the drivers and boot was okay, but on the other laptop, the system started and showed the colored flag for a while and then BSOD 7b. I think it has to do with the ACHI controller driver (iaStor.sys). Each system uses a different one. Looks like I need a generic driver for that too.

Ohhh no Let me check.

Okay, I applied the generic drivers to the working flash, The Boot failed with File: \ucx01000.sys 0xc000035a critical system driver is missing or corrupt. The add Driver Folder had all the files mentioned in the readme. WorkingDrivers.txt WinNTSetup.log AddedDrivers.txt

I already have those drivers. I will try again and see what happens. uaspstor.cat 19578 2020-06-16 uaspstor.inf 15046 2012-07-26 uaspstor.sys 101832 2012-07-26 ucx01000.sys 216520 2018-05-02 usbd8 .sys 26568 2013-06-29 usbhub3 .sys 452040 2014-07-24 USBXHCI .cat 10374 2021-01-08 USBXHCI .inf 103144 2018-05-01 usbxhci .sys 342472 2017-02-13

Never used it. Too much being done under the covers. I like to understand how things are done.

@JFX I was getting abend 07b on those, installing with the add drivers checkbox. I mentioned this in a previous post. Should installing via add drivers work too.?

Wow this is a bit hard ti understand. I fixed my original problem about windows 7 not completing the install on a usb flash by using a powered 7 port usb3 hub. If I insert the flash drive there and do the exact same install, I don't get an error like I do using the local usb port. Go figure. They are both USB3 ports and I would be interested to know what the differentiating factor is using one or the other. I can still only use the flash on the laptop where it was built though, because the usb drivers on the other laptop are different (07B abend booting). Why is it that the usb driver from Win10 can handle both laptops where the HW is slightly different (New vs. Old) and is there any way to implement the W10 on-board usb drivers into a Win7 build to handle USB3?

Thanks for your time. I was trying to create a Win7 Win2Go that would boot on different hardware. I have 2 Thinkpads that have different hw and the usb drivers are specific to each one. If I install on one and try to boot from the other, I get an abend 07B . I tried the generic drivers you mention in your readme, but that abends with a 07B (usbhub3 .sys) on both. Using a flash usb doesn't work that well with Win7. Win10 on a usb flash drive using the on-board drivers is much more flexible and handles booting much better so I'm probably wasting my time trying to get the same results using Win7.

Not sure where to find this to check or update.

>Or place vhd on locale disk, finish setup and than copy VHD to USB. When I do this, I get an Abend 07b.

From the USB flash partition - Is this what you mean? c:\>fsutil fsinfo sectorInfo f: LogicalBytesPerSector : 512 PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512 PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 512 FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512 Device Alignment : Aligned (0x000) Partition alignment on device : Aligned (0x000) Performs Normal Seeks Trim Not Supported Not DAX capable

I'm having a problem booting Win7 from a vhd on a USB Flash Drive. The OS boots, but it stops after doing some initial processing with the msg: Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed. I used WiNTSetup to format the flash and to create the vhd. I don't understand what the problem is. See attached ini and log for more info. If I install Win7 on a vhd using a HDD test partition with WinNtsetup, booting and install work fine. Thanks for any tips or suggestions. Edit: I restored a Windows7.vhd that I had which boots from the same flash (only replaced the problem vhd) and that works without problems, so it looks like something in the wim integration. There are differences in the old and new WinNTSetup logs W7_WinNTSetup.ini WinNTSetup.log WinNTSetup.oldlog

I keep forgetting what some ini values do such as BCD= MERGE IDE=, DriversMode=, DriversWinRE= etc.. Is there one place where the less obvious entries are explained? I see there is a Help for the [Options] section. A lot of the items in the other sections are self-explanatory, but not all and I tend to forget those. [WinNT6] [WinNT6\TWEAKS] [WinNT6\READY] [VHD] Thanks ...

Does NoPageFile=0 have any effect when installing to a VHD? In such a case, I've been setting NoPageFile=1 and wondering if it even matters. I read somewhere that if you use a vhd file for booting, you have no possibilities to reserve space for the pagefile inside the vhd (Windows does not support it). You need to place the file outside of the virtual drive. I'm not sure if that's correct though.

Both working now. I'm curious what caused this since it worked okay on the other 64-bit systems.

Same problem with WinNTSetup_x64.exe. I get a different error with the OE version. I could not find the indicated error file.

I'm getting a crash dump on Win7 x64 when selecting Local Windows Installations. Works okay on 64-bit Win8, Win10 and 32-bit Win7 (v4.2.5.0). I can provide a dump if needed.

RemoveBootMountsOnExit What does this refer to and mean? Is it just an unmount of a VHD when WinNT is finished applying an image?

I currently have a 32Gig bootable Flash with W10-32bit + Tools, etc. for recovery purposes. It is basically a stripped down system that I use for normal work. No drivers are installed so that the W10 drivers are used on whatever hardware is being booted. The one problem I have is the build time needed for a newly updated Flash. It takes about an hour for WinNT to apply the image if the VHD (16GB) is on the flash drive and only 2-3 minutes if the VHD resides on an SSD. If I then copy the VHD to the flash, it takes even longer than one hour to copy it over. The flash is a Sandisk Ultra USB3, but it gets terribly slow from 30MB/s in the beginning to 2-3 MB/s during the copy. In the end everything works fine. Could VHD_WIMBOOT be of any help in reducing the build time or make better use of the VHD and what options would you suggest?

I'm not sure if what I am asking is possible, but I would like to create a recovery flash drive that will boot on PCs that have either UEFI or legacy set in the BIOS. I currently have a recovery flash that I created with WinNTSetup that has W10 installed in a VHD. The system boots and runs well if the hardware BIOS is set for legacy. The other day I tried to boot from a laptop that was set up for UEFI and the flash gets ignored and there is no way to boot it unless I go into the BIOS and set it to legacy. Not all BIOS implementations allow a legacy mode, so is there a way to avoid having to create 2 flash recovery drives to accommodate both modes?

You might want to start here.

@JFX I keep forgetting what some of the WinNTSetup ini values do or mean. I assume they are related to the command line switches. Are these explained anywhere or could you briefly explain the different values below? [WinNT6\READY] OEM=\sources\$OEM$ BCD= (0, 1, 2, ?, ?) BootSect=(0, 1, 2, ?, ?) Win7USBBoot=(0. 1, ?, ?) AddOtherOS=(0 ,1, ?, ?) Also where is the wimlib.ini supposed to be put if you enable using wimlib as stated in the ReadME. for wimlib - in \Tools with the other ini files? [Options] UseWimLIB=1